However I have to disagree on your belief that somehow other languages are necessarily better. My opinions have come up before. For instance I state them at length in RE (tilly) 1: Java vs. Perl from the CB. More (IMO good) points at RE (tilly) 3 (disaster): Java vs. Perl from the CB. There is no silver bullet for maintainability, and indeed it is a sore spot for the whole industry.

That said, the kid you see breaking a Perl project will cause pain on a Java project as well. IMO the only good ways to use incompetent people are move them to someone you don't like, put them on data entry problems where you don't really care what they do, or invest the time and energy to make them competent. I prefer the last option but YMMV. But I don't consider it a good criticism of a language that it gives people who shouldn't be given responsibility the ability to cause damage if they are given that responsibility. To me that is, "Well, duh. Don't give them responsibility." But I would diss a language for making competent people unproductive...

Now, Perl is not right for all problems. I agree that large OO projects are an example of a problem it is bad for. Another is complex GUIs. Another is anything where tight space/time optimizations matter. (Just ask jcwren for more on that.) So learn its strengths and weaknesses, then use it where it fits.