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Comment by chrissnell | Hacker News Reader

This column posits that this crime might not happen if these young perpetrators had jobs. We are living in a time when businesses are cutting back store hours or closing permanently because they can’t find enough employees. The notion that these young people wouldn’t be attacking jewelry stores with hammers if they could just get honest work is just nuts.

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This is a gross oversimplification of the author's detailed (if a bit editorialized) analysis. The author actually acknowledges, and later expounds upon, the apparent incongruity you mentioned:

> I look at communities like Detroit and I understand why the youth there resort to crime, but what the hell is the matter with the Bay Area? Arguably the wealthiest metropolitan area in the United States. A place with too many jobs and not enough people to fill them.

because they can’t find enough people to accept an unlivable wage while big companies make record breaking profits.

Unlivable wage? I can go to a warehouse here in cheap Central PA and have a job tomorrow making $30-35/hr working on the loading dock. You can live on that here. I think you are making excuses for them and it's not helping them.

The article's about the Bay Area, though.

I mean, it's a lame excuse for crime, but your counter-argument doesn't work.

Are you saying that the Bay Area doesn't have these same worker shortages driving up pay to never-before-seen levels? It's certainly happening here in PA, and it was happening back in my Texas hometown when I went back for Thanksgiving. It's happening in Kansas when I visited there last month.

Is it really a lack of jobs driving these young people to crime, like the essay claims?

I'm saying that

>> I can go to a warehouse here in cheap Central PA and have a job tomorrow making $30-35/hr working on the loading dock. You can live on that here

isn't going to get you enough to live in the Bay Area.

> Is it really a lack of jobs driving these young people to crime, like the essay claims?

No, it's their own moral weakness plus perceived opportunity. I thought I made that clear in my previous comment.

That specific place has a worker shortage problem? An actual shortage problem, not one they're pretending to have to jack up prices? Are they hiring people with a high school education at that rate?

Yes, an actual shortage problem. My region is the transshipment hub for the entire Mid-Atlantic region. Part of the reason shipping is such a clusterfuck is because these docks are dreadfully understaffed. They will give you a $5000 bonus in your first paycheck if you go start a job on their loading docks tomorrow. Same story at virtually every biz around here.

Edit: don't take my word for it, though. See for yourself: https://jobs.abf.com/abfjobs/JobDetail/Carlisle-Pennsylvania...

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