Fly-by-night breeders, Adjusting my definition.

Also, some of those people might not really be delibritely selling normals as hets, or such. They might just have lost interest and not kept the records straight, then they think they are entitled to get that money back when they sell, so they "guess" which one was the het. After all, it will be two years before someone figures it out...
Some folks really do think they will have the perfect fix, get the high dollar morphs cheap, breed the first year, have mondo eggs, all of which will hatch out morphs and designers, and then they will roll in money. When it doesn't happen, they get mad and blame the community, and end up passing off the disappointment by scamming people as they get out of reptiles.
I go with my life long statement.
People suck.
Snakes rock.
At least when my snake bites me, I know #1 it's nothing personal. And #2 he hasn't been plotting it while being nice for the last few months.
Wolfy

Perhaps this generation has LESS work ethic, but I think most of the problem towards kids might be due to the television programs and magazines that push the stereotypical image of the bratty teenager. Shows like on MTV which bank on the bratty teen stereotype: IE "My Sweet 16, and every.other.show.on.there." When I see kids crying they got a Lexus instead of a Mercedes, or a 500 person party instead of a 1000 person party, I think "Wow, I want to bash my face in with a brick now." But, I suppose, it is different with other people my age. I guess they see it as popular or the cool thing to do, so you have guys and girls who are like that, and so on. As always, people will flock to a certain group to feel better. I mean, hippies were such. Gangstas are such. Heavy metal hairdos were such! It's a never ending cycle. And I guarantee you, each generation before them was going "Wow..Kids these days. No work ethic. No morals. Horrible!" It seems as if every generation had it tougher then the latter. When I am 60, I wonder if I will be telling my kids "Yeah, it was tough times, using a microwave." Maybe it is every generation having less work ethic, or every generation before them precieving it as such? I mean, everyone will get a slap in the face and wake up eventually. I truly believe most kids in my generation will eventually realise that spending 3X as much for Abercrombie, or wishing you were Paris Hilton is not the way to go, in the real world. Just like every generation before them, in a different sense. That being said, I pay for a lot of what I own. I payed for my computer, my pets, their food, my TV, and within a year I'll add my cell phone, my car, my car insurance, and my car's gas (Though putting 75% of my check in the bank every week is a little demoralizing ) . I'm not given everything I get. In fact, I am always surprised when my parents say Yes to something. I too, Jim O, mow lawns. Unfortunately, most old people around here already have connections. Damn, foiled again!

Now we are left to wonder if this generation is truly more lazy, or if it is just perceived as such, and they will grow up. Are teenagers just as susceptible to fads as the adults are to pointing out how lazy they are?

That being said, I agree in terms that the reptile trade does look a lot like a $$$-amazing hobby, when in fact it isn't for a good bit of that. But then again, I can't say I regret this. It helps figure out who actually is in the hobby for the hobby and who isn't. It does give us the occasional problem of people back tracking and causing more trouble when they realise they can't do it. Then again, we do have the BOI

Curtis...you give me a tiny bit of hope that the current younger generation is not simply a waste of oxygen. Good on ya.

The sad part is that the people I was referring to in my initial post are adults.

Your one of the good ones Curtis. I've seen myself how few are like you tho.
When I was a Janitorial Manager , part of my job was hiring. I had a young guy tell me , not ask but tell me ...." Yo Muther F*****r , gimmie a job." I have no idea who taught him how to act on job interviews but they need to be slapped. At another company I had 3 guys pull up wearing their britches below their ass , t -shirts with a pull over slung over a shoulder ( in case they needed it ). I stopped them at the door and told them to not waste their time. When they asked why I told them they were to dress Prefessionally Casual. They said what they were wearing was casual. I don't think the younger generation is lazy..... just mostly stupid , low class and lack respect for others and themselves. I get tired of hearing " You're holding a brthua down " or " You gots sumtin agains me cuz I'm from the sous side".
I typed that the way it sounds when they say it. I've never seen a generation or group of folks so hell bent on making themselves look and sound stupid.

Anyway. I know a few guys that jumped into the hobby looking for the magic rainbow. 1 I already posted about on the BOI. Another , well he dumped his savings , 401k and got investors. Had big ol dreams of hitting it hard. Uhhh , didn't happen. Not that he's a bad guy cuz he's not , he just didn't take into account all the variables.

Seems since the first fall from the BOI cert program of Bill Leverton more and more get added to that list. I'm seeing guys that had rave reviews last year getting bad guy threads this year. I'm seeing more people looking to snatch up adults to produce that season so they can get in on the money. Morphs being bred to anything with a pulse and no longer resembling the original morph. Numbers produced being the goal instead of quality produced. Quarentine procedures thrown out the window to get a project going NOW.

Not saying its everybody but I hear less and less of selective breeding , quarentine procedures , raising a baby to a healthy adult to breed , true love of the hobby. Hell all I wanna do is make pretty babies that are healthy and eat good. If I can make a living at it great , if not I'll get a job and still love making pretty babies.

For me , I'd love to do this full time. Working on being able to in the next few years. Tired of busting my hump for someone else. I'd like to think I'll still be doing this 10 years from now. If not , it won't be from a lack of giving it a damn good shot.

People suck.
Snakes rock.
At least when my snake bites me, I know #1 it's nothing personal. And #2 he hasn't been plotting it while being nice for the last few months.

Couldn't have said it better myself. Its rare for a day to go by that our species doesn't disappoint me.

Curtis,

It aint just your generation. I am creeping up on 40 years old and it was that way during my generation. You had the kids that were given everything and thought they were entitled to everything. Then you had the kids like me that had parents who wanted to give us something much more valuable than a material object.

They were not just teaching us a work ethic, but giving us a sense of accomplishment. Showing us that there are rewards for our labors and to appreciate what we have worked for. It makes you feel good inside knowing you have earned something.

I agree with you Sammy, it isn't just this current generation.

But I don't think the lack of a work ethic is the real problem, I think its more fundamental.

As a leasing agent, I deal with a lot of people on public housing, welfare, etc. The one thing almost all of them have in common is a complete inability to make a decision.

You have to decide to have a work ethic before you can have one, you have to decide to be a productive member of the community before you can be one, you have to decide to be self supporting before you can achieve that goal.

My experience has been that if you tell these people what to do, they'll do it, gladly. Once I found these people houses and said to them, "now, you need to do this, this, and this" they'd jump on it and have the paperwork or whatever done in a heartbeat. But they can't make the decisions themselves, they need to be told. They've never been taught how to make decisions, or shown that decision making is a necessary part of life because in many cases, they've never been held accountable for their actions.

I ran into many such people as a supervisor in the contruction trade as well. If you told them step by step what to do and how to do it, they'd bust their asses getting it done. But if you didn't, they'd spend half the day trying to figure out where to start.

The sad part is that the people I was referring to in my initial post are adults.

I was referring to adults in my posts as well.

Good observations. I've noticed the same trends, and while it doesn't really surprise me, it still confuses the heck out of me. There are far more profitable ways of making an income from home or through online commerce. If you like making money, then make money. If you like reptiles, then keep reptiles. If both apply to you, don't think that there's going to be any correlation between the two.

I don't even want to think about how much money I've spent on my reptiles; mostly because it doesn't really matter to me and doesn't change how I feel about them. I really enjoy raising reptiles and will continue to do so regardless if I never make a profit at doing it.

I have a full time job. I spend a lot of money on my pets, since I love them. If (IF) I get to sell a few babies to get some money back at any point, then I'll be estactic. I breed usually to further my goals in breeding. I love the snakes anyway though.
If you don't love the reptiles, you'll never make it in the community.
I base all my observations on interacting with people, and not on the media. I see people who REFUSE to take personal responsibility. NO matter what, it's not really their fault. And sorry to say, I see more young people behaving that way than older ones. I can count on one hand the number of teenagers that have seemed responsible to me in the last six months. There is no counting the ones that ticced me off, acted like spoiled brats, etc etc.
When I see the rare young person that has it together, is really pushing themselves to succeed, THEN I'll go all out for them. I'll praise them, help them, whatever it takes. I'll point them out as a good example.
I just wish I had to pick and choose between the ones I've seen. Unfortunately, I only have a small handful of those.
Wolfy