I've made very stupid hires - one jerk cost me my largest customer.<p>However, I've hired people who needed a first IT job and didn't have a good resume. One in particular was working in furniture rental store, and after working well for my company for a few years, he went on to bigger and better things and is earning probably 80k.<p>Hiring people that need a leg-up can be a good thing for this world.<p>I would square the two ideas("hire carefully", "hire good people that need help") by immediately firing anybody that displays any sort of ethical lapse. All my 'bad' employees showed signs of ethical problems long before they did their damage.
Ugh, the way this blog post is written reminds me of all those fast-cut YouTube videos made to hold your attention by changing camera angles every 2 seconds.