Kids today ... License to Drive

I have been doing mock interviews the last few days with high school juniors and seniors (17-18 year-olds).
About half the kids I've talk with do NOT have a driver's license, which kind of makes it hard to get a job.
The school counselors, say that's about right; 50 percent of the high school kids don't have a drivers license.

Um, what?

I can understand if you live in a urban area with public transportation. This is rural West Virginia. We are talking about counties without stop lights.

How many of you all didn't have a license at that age? I had mine (a learner's) and a job when I was 15.

Most troubling: The school counselors and employers are universal in their complaints about today's workforce, or lack thereof: They can't pass a drug test and/or won't show up for work, as in they don't want to work 40, 45 or 50 hour weeks, work nights or weekends.
That's in addition to the unreliable transportation issues.

 

I grew up in NJ = driving age 17.

I had my permit at 16 1/2 and license at 17.
Which was true of every kid I knew.

 

Yeah it's weird ... seen that for a while now. Probably some helicopter parenty stuff, combined with cost of insurance and maintenance, etc. Out here in California, one thing that's dragging down the desire is that the first year is a restricted license. You can't have any other teenagers in the car with you. So it's not like you get your license and then you and your buddies go cruising, it's really just you getting yourself places for that first year.

Also ...

Do the school counselors also complain about the long-haired freaky people?

And as for the employers, how many of them are also fighting against the big bad government making them pay those ingrates more than $8 an hour? Make it worthwhile for people to come to work, and people will come to work.

 

Wow, West Virginia is pain in the @ss for teen drivers.

http://www.drivinglaws.org/teen/wvteen.php

 

Other ways NJ differs from WV:
We usually owned and wore shoes.
Most of the kids I knew did not have home-done tattoos.
Incest frowned upon and often outright discouraged.

 

Maybe part of it is that parents can't afford to buy the insurance. The sticker shock I've seen as my friends' kids have become driving age ... wow.

 

I've never had one - not much choice, I have no depth perception - and people I know who got one later in life ran into plenty of hurdles with Ontario's graduated licensing program. I can get pretty much anywhere I need to go on public transit, either here in my 'burb or into downtown Toronto. My wife drives which helps....

 

My grandfather taught me to drive when I was 9 and I was driving on gravel roads from pasture to wheat field by the time I was 10. I had a learner's permit and then a farmer's permit at 14. The farmer's permit allowed me to drive, by myself, to and from school and on farm errands. It was a big deal when I turned 16 because it turned into a full license and I could cruise around on Saturday nights.

It's hard to imagine many kids not doing everything they could to have a license and wheel as soon as possible.

 

No dude, should have clarified, I'm not talking about McDonalds and minimum wage jobs. ... We are in the Oil and Gas Fields. Try $20 an hour jobs, they can't fill. These are good jobs. We can't fill them.
In Marshall County last week, near Wheeling, on of the companies had to bring in CDL drivers from Washington (state) to transport its product to Ohio.

 

Fuck. You.
In rebuttal ...



Thanks NJ!


We get a LOT of Jersey folks down here for college. A LOT.
It's so awesome to hear them tell us how great everything is in Jersey and how much better shit is in Jersey. While they are here.

We also have a LOT of hunters from NJ. Honestly, can't blame them. The land is so much cheaper here, and more abundant.

I'm trying to put together a recruiting program to bring a workforce out of the Northeast and rustbelt cities to come here.

And Incest is frowned upon ... well, we look the other way (it's rude to watch).

 

They should pay $25 an hour then.