I happened to be watching one of the network news shows recently. I was halfway paying attention to a park director in Washington state who was desperately pleading for help in finding lifeguards to work at a large resort area. Wait, what? Are you telling me you can’t find people to fill the roles for the most coveted job in the world? What is this country coming to? In my teenage years, I was a lifeguard for two of the best summers I ever had. It’s an eighteen-year-old’s dream come true. You don’t go to work until 9:30, your business attire is a bathing suit and T shirt, the scenery is, well, let’s just say it’s very pleasant. You get to boss little kids around, and you basically sit in a highchair and get a tan. Where else can you find a job like that? And now, apparently, we have reached the point in this country where you can’t find people to do that. Well, calm down, I told myself. It’s not just lifeguards. We also can’t seem to find folks who want to drive trucks, or work in law enforcement or be firemen, or doctors or mechanical technicians or airline pilots or anything else. So, let me pull out the old soap box for just a minute. Do you like the idea of living in a strong, prosperous country? Do you think that’s part of the American dream? Of course, you do. So, part of that picture involves work. Doing something. Not just some folks doing something, but everyone who is able, doing something. It’s good for you, it’s good for society, and it’s basic common sense. Right now, the work ethic is in a little bit of trouble. When the value of work is not respected either by the government or by the individual, the country suffers. When people choose not to work, shelves are empty, supply chains shut down, businesses close, prices go up and inflation eats away at everybody. They tell us that we are still suffering the effects of a pandemic, and I guess that’s true to some degree. But this country operates on free enterprise, not free money and not outrageous free government giveaways. The market left to its own devices, will work things out. But one of the necessary “devices” is employment; a day's work for a day's wages. The system works pretty well, if we just let it.
