Wed 24 Oct 2007
One of the most disconcerting things about American society today is a lack of accountability among our populace. Nobody wants to take personal 
responsibility for anything, and our work ethic seems to have degraded to “I’ll just do the minimum I can do to get by without getting fired.”
What happened to pride in a job well done?
No matter what segment of the working population you look at, you will be faced with lacluster performance and an “I-don’t-give-a-damn” attitude. It permiates just about everything in the service industry — from people who serve you at restaurants to the guy who does your lawn.
Why did this happen?
I believe it’s directly related to the Me Generation that grew up in the 60s. (That’s my generation, by the way.) Prior to that time, those who had come before had lived through the depression, and WWI and WWII. Those people 
knew what it meant to work hard, to save, and to work with a purpose. The flower children, though, were all about freedom — freedom to do what you wanted, smoke or take what you wanted, eat what you wanted and have sex with whoever or whatever you wanted.
And it’s those people who’ve raised the young people working in the service industries today. These kids were raised by parents who excused bad behavior, didn’t require chores in exchange for allowance and who allowed their children to speak their minds openly — even in defiance of authority. As a result, many of the children (now adults) believe that everything is owed to them, whether they’ve earned it or not. They have no respect for authority, no respect for those they serve and, ultimately, no respect for themselves.
The good news is that this kind of pendulum swing from responsible to irresponsible and back has been going on forever. Plato and Socrates both bemoaned the plight of the world when left to the hands of the young, and they both lived thousands of years ago. If things go true to form, the next generation of young people will be so disgusted with the previous generation’s behavior that they’ll be ultra responsible and accountable.
We can only hope.
In the meantime, those of you who still believe in a job well done, strap yourselves in and start doing things for yourself. Otherwise, you’ll be faced with a life of frustration at the hands of the Me Children.
And now, I am officially old…I’ve just dissed the generation that came after mine, thus becoming crochety.
Someone find my heart pills and my reading glasses. It’s all downhill from here. 
Stumble It!