Will Work for Rent

[Rick Rowlands]

Jay, your response is the typical liberal response.  Its not your fault, this type of thinking has been pushed on us for years and its rare for someone to think about the problem in different terms.

I saw a man and his daugheter and dog there in December with a sign saying "Will do Roofing for Rent".  Probably the same man.  My questions isn't what social agency should help him but my question is why isn't he at the library learning about what he can do that will make him valuable to an employer? 

I just read the cover story in the Business Journal which states that there is a glut of jobs in the valley that go unfilled because of a lack of qualified people to fill them.  Why isn't this man trying to make himself qualified for one of those jobs?  The information is out there just waiting to be swallowed up by an open mind. 

I would not hire a man who is out on a corner.  Basically he has given up on the job search or has no skills that would make him valuable to an employer.  If he thinks that standing on a street corner is how to find employment then he is too dumb for any job I would have for him.

My comments may seem harsh, but in the long term what I would do is more compassionate than a quick fix from some social agency.

Give a man a fish (or money) and he eats for a day.  Teach a man to fish (or make his own money) and he eats for a lifetime.   

[jay]

This afternoon I observed a man and a woman sitting on the sidewalk near the former McDonalds on East Midlothian Boulevard.  They held a sign indicating that they would work for rent.

Are these people from the neighborhood?
Which social agency could possibly help them?