Thursday, September 24, 2009
"Whatever happened to the work ethic?"
I think this is worthwhile to read.
I don't know whether it's generational or what; however, some portion of American society has lost, or is unaware, of the behaviors that rocketed America from nothing to the greatest country in the world in a mere 200 years.
History lessons might serve many of us very well...
I don't know whether it's generational or what; however, some portion of American society has lost, or is unaware, of the behaviors that rocketed America from nothing to the greatest country in the world in a mere 200 years.
History lessons might serve many of us very well...
These quoted paragraphs from Steven Malanga's article at DallasNews.com are just a teaser. He writes much more:
"Nowhere did the fusing of capitalism and the virtues that made up the work ethic find a fuller expression than in America, where Puritan pioneers founded settlements animated by a Calvinist dedication to work.
One result was a remarkable society in which, as Tocqueville would observe, all 'honest callings are honorable' and in which 'the notion of labor is therefore presented to the mind on every side as the necessary, natural and honest condition of human existence.'
Unlike in Europe, where aristocrats and gentry often scorned labor, in the United States, 'a wealthy man thinks that he owes it to public opinion to devote his leisure to some kind of industrial or commercial pursuit, or to public business. He would think himself in bad repute if he employed his life solely in living.'
This thick and complex work ethic, so essential to the success of the early, struggling American settlements, became part of the country's civic fabric. It found its most succinct expression in the writings of Benjamin Franklin, whose well-known maxims, now considered quaintly old-fashioned, recommended to citizens of the new country a worldview that promoted work and the pursuit of wealth."
