Ask anyone that knows me and they will tell you about the same things. I love to read and have an extensive library of books on history, theology, sociology, and political science. Each week, I scan through 20 to 30 on-line news sources, journals, and blogs as a part of my normal routine. I have always considered the ability to learn – personal enrichment if you will – the second most important gift from God to man (the first being salvation).
Over the decades there have been many authors from a handful of academic disciplines that have studied the time of the Puritans, and in particular, what has come to be known as the “Puritan Work Ethic.” Puritans held the belief that material wealth and attainment were considered as a blessing from God and a reaffirmation of God’s relationship with them. Looking to both the Old Testament and New Testament for guidance, they held the view that hard work was a part of the demonstration of their relationship to God. Although only in my early 40s, I remember my elementary and junior high school teachers telling us about the “virtues” of the Puritan work ethic and how it had actually made the nation economically prosperous.
For generations, this was taught in our nation’s classrooms. Men like Gustavus Swift, J. Ogden Armor, Andrew Carnegie, Henry Ford, and John D. Rockefeller were taught as great Americans and the studying of their personal lives and business practices were seen as ways to encourage and inspire young students to overcome their own personal obstacles, to dare to dream, and to work to achieve those dreams. Failure and its potential were taught alongside the success stories of these great men because, as in the case of Edison, failure was not the end but was considered a detour on the way to the final goal.
Beginning in the last two decades of the nineteenth century and continuing through today, the Progressive movement in the United States has spread its tentacles into almost every part of this nation. I was insulated from it for the most part because my father was stationed in Germany and so I did not attend American public schools during my junior and high school years; however, sometime beginning in the mid to late 1970s, the liberal control of public education began to manifest itself. No longer were the great men of the late nineteenth century heralded as the “self-made man” or people to be emulated and revered. No longer are their contributions to society discussed – the Gospel of Wealth and its teachings are quietly missing from the historical narrative of the public school textbook. In place of these great men, the Progressives and their modern liberalism began to focus on their “victims” – those who worked in the steel mills, meat processing houses, and factories.
Fast forward to 2012 – we are now faced with an economic problem for which there are no easy or painless solutions. Yes, American jobs are continuing to move overseas at an alarming rate. According to the mainstream media, driven by the Progressive/liberal movement, the blame is placed not on the American worker, but on American business. Again, the truth becomes a victim of misplaced blame in order to score cheap and easy political points from the uneducated/mis-educated masses. What once drove America to greatness – the Puritan work ethic – has now been replaced by the “Liberal work ethic.”
The components of the Liberal work ethic are not in the best interests of the nation, the employee, nor the employer. I have several friends that are in management roles or owners of their own companies and many of them have the same critiques of the modern employee – they do just enough to get by, they do not possess critical thinking skills, they cannot solve problems, they have no ambition and are not driven to perform. However, what they demand is also a far cry from reality – high wages, benefits, paid vacations, sick days, flexible schedules, and in some cases, paid day care. Other employees will remain on the job long enough to draw unemployment or will quit when faced with losing federal aid and “entitlements” because of earning above a certain level.
The lack of an educated and self-motivated work force actually is one of the factors affecting the national economy. If the product is in demand, then the factory has to move to where the resources are and where they have access to labor needed to produce the good. Many Americans want the benefits of manufacturing and industry yet are unwilling to provide what is needed to enjoy those benefits. Because of Liberal policies, the United States has become anti-industry. With the current excessive regulations regarding labor, environment, high corporate taxation, etc., the government has hamstrung American industry from reinventing itself. How can American industry compete with China or India, or even Mexico when those nations do not have the same labor laws, environmental standards, or corporate tax rates?
Additionally, this new Liberal work ethic also teaches the employee that their future is truly hopeless and that they cannot do it on their own. The students in college now and the younger ones in high school are being taught in the classroom and by the mainstream media that they cannot achieve anything on their own and that employers and corporations are only out for profit and do not care for them as employees or consumers. We also hear the rhetoric demanding that the wealthy pay their fair share of taxes, yet feel that they have no responsibility to pay any taxes or fees associated with the numerous programs they depend on for their existence – the desire is to have someone else pay for those programs. Since this philosophy has become the educational norm in the mid-1970s, it has created this current economic disaster for our nation.
