Like millions of Americans each year, you order a package, food or valuables. Delivery day arrives. You open the door. You discover the product was damaged. Or it was stolen. Or it is missing.

Why are the mishaps growing by leaps and bounds?

Food delivery apps such as DoorDash, Uber Eats and Grubhub, and mail carriers such as the U.S. Postal Service, UPS and FedEx, are populated by too-good-for-honest-work kids seeking quick income at jobs they hate. The quality of service plunges accordingly. Additional havoc has been created by an uptick of migrants who flout vehicle registration and traffic laws while delivering food.

Last April, three Republican senators sent a letter to Uber Eats, DoorDash and Grubhub demanding information about the vetting they have in place to prevent migrants from creating driver accounts. This letter was provoked by a New York Post article describing how the influx of migrants into New York City has given birth to a black market for registration with these apps without a federal tax identification number.

Specialized task forces have emerged in big cities targeting migrant violations of registration laws, speed limits, and related rules of the road in making deliveries. Amazon is similar in employing virtually anyone as a driver to deliver Amazon packages through the app Amazon Flex.

DoorDash, Uber Eats and Grubhub have shielded themselves from liability for deliveries gone awry through terms of service communicated in miniscule type. DoorDash stipulates that it “has no obligation to provide refunds or credits but may grant them gratuitously at DoorDash’s sole discretion in each case.” Grubhub provides that, “Grubhub, in its sole discretion, may offer credits or refunds on a case-by-case basis including, by way of example, in the event of an error with your order or in the amounts you were charged.” Credits as compensation is a poor substitute for correct delivery the first time.

Packages are the same story as food. If there is a photo of a delivery, even if it’s not on your front door, you’ll still have to jump through hoops to get the package covered by the mail carrier’s insurance if it was lost or stolen.

These liability disclaimers would be superfluous if the workforce was properly motivated.

Companies worldwide are confronting a young workforce accustomed to indolence and idleness. According to recent studies on the work ethic of Gen Z, approximately three in four managers believe it is less than suboptimal. An independent survey found that, according to a sample of 1,300 managers, at least one in eight had terminated a Gen Z employee after less than a week on the job. Gen Z employees are rapidly being replaced by mature workers and migrants hungry for work at substandard wage and conditions.

The secret of wealth is human capital. And the secret of human capital is a work ethic that scorns sponging. We are losing the economic race with China because our human capital is diminishing. Escalating tariffs that spike prices for consumers is not the answer.

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