I think the younger adults you are speaking of today just don't have responsibility due to ... not having any responsibilities. Odd, I know, I think it has always been that way, and to me the job applications seem as good as they were 8 years ago to me (or just as poor).

I have been a manager since I started my first real job. I don't really know what happened. One day I became responsible, and the day before that I was a drunken wild idiot (as many of you can no doubt attest to from seeing me scream in TSC while howling at the ceiling drunk as hell in my room).

Anyhow somewhere around my 23rd birthday I got a brain, perhaps it was my daughter's impending arrival that got me focused on the whole 'life' thing. I found that screwing up my own life was totally fine, but somehow would be unfair to a defenseless child that would no doubt expect me to buy her barbie dolls.

Me pre 23? Total lazy idiot.

Me post 23? Total busy idiot. (except people tell me I am smart now, perhaps I just fake it well.)

Would you have told me when I was 22 what I would be doing now I would have laughed and laughed at you (one of my major responsibilities is managing a group of people who predict the future, serious, we are pretty good at it too, 99.8% accurate). Then I would have drank another case of beer and tried to beat you up for staring at me, the floor or the wall. I was that kind of idiot.

Many of the young adults we see around don't have the responsibilities yet that drive people to work hard, or care about paying bills. Why would it matter if you work hard if Mom is buying all your groceries and your Dad is paying for your cell phone? Give them a few more years and they will be doing like us : Wondering what the hell is wrong with the current crop of 18-22 year olds. ;-)