Penna Dexter

Throughout our history, American society has been characterized by — and rightfully proud of — its work ethic. Most citizens either work to live or live to work, or both.

But, in certain sectors of our population, there’s a growing shift in attitudes about work.

Wall Street Journal opinion writer, Barton Swaim, laments our diminished appreciation for the value of honest labor in a column titled: “America Loses Its Will to Work.” He starts with President Lyndon Johnson’s War on Poverty that began in the mid-1960’s.

Have we won that war?

Not really. As the Journal’s Mr. Swaim points out, “On the one hand, today’s poor live vastly more prosperous lives by any material measure than the poor of the 1960’s.” But government transfer payments have mushroomed to the point where “antipoverty programs have left more or less the same proportion of the citizenry dependent on welfare.”

The conclusion, according to Barton Swaim, is that “The War on Poverty hasn’t only failed; it has weakened virtues its originators took for granted.

The welfare reforms of the 90’s brought work requirements and moved millions of Americans off welfare and into jobs. But, other “safety-net programs” expanded, negating those reforms.

Our robust work ethic has been battered by critiques of the 40-hour work week, accusations that even the term work ethic is racist, the “quiet quitting” phenomenon that arose during the Covid years, and economic changes that have forced companies to reduce hiring in the fields that once provided stable jobs for working class men.

Young white men, discouraged from looking for work by still-entrenched DEI hiring, are often tempted into vices like drug abuse and excessive sports betting.

It’s no shock that there’s growing support, especially among young people, for a Universal Basic Income where every American — working or not, high income or low — receives a government payment.

Too many government policies disincentivize work. We need the courage to oppose them.