Is There Any Hope For The Great American Work Ethic?
We should cultivate in ourselves an ethic that sees work as part of a bigger picture rather than an end itself, and values work more highly because of it.
By Elle Reynolds
September 9, 2021
On Labor Day, a local ABC News affiliate in Alabama published the dejected headline “Jobless Americans have few options as benefits expire” with what we could only wish was a tongue-in-cheek photo of a giant, all-caps “NOW HIRING” sign. The post garnered deserved mockery on Twitter, pointing out that businesses desperate to hire workers offer a straightforward option to many jobless Americans.
https://twitter.com/JusticeTristan/status/1435302999157624836Meanwhile, even corporate news outlets admitted that August’s jobs report, published Friday, was measly. Unemployment fell by only 0.2 percentage points, and the U.S. economy added a mere 235,000 jobs over the course of the month: small beans in an economy where you can’t drive down Main Street without seeing marquee boards peppered with “apply now” signs. Since June 2020, the labor force participation rate has sat between 61 and 62 percent, meaning a sizeable number of Americans aren’t even looking for work.
In the face of such a discouraging outlook, days after the country celebrated work by taking another day off, it’s worth giving a moment’s thought to the famed old American work ethic. Is it dead, or — as a Wall Street Journal op-ed asked in the wake of COVID-19 lockdowns and inflationary handouts — “Is the American work ethic dying?” How should we as a country, or at least as caring individuals, cultivate it moving forward?
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https://thefederalist.com/2021/09/09/is-there-any-hope-for-the-great-american-work-ethic/
