…are the middle and upper-middle income American children with college degrees who refuse to work because they think they are entitled to high-paying jobs with prestigious assignments that allow them to seek employment only when they feel like it. They expect first-rate material items – cars, clothing, the latest technology. They are, after all, entitled…. Our country simply can’t count on many of our politicians, pundits, ideologues and academicians to critique the entitlement mindset – or entitlement programs – because they all seemingly benefit financially and politically from the status quo.

Albeit much maligned, the Protestant work ethic is preferable to the secular entitlement ethic.

If you are curious about the restoration of the Protestant work ethic with the focus on hard work and thrift – and without the theological claim that it is evidence of one’s eternal salvation – keep reading.

If not, skip it. EthicsDaily.com has a variety of other articles that might be of greater interest.

From my perspective, we need to challenge the entitlement mindset, not necessarily all “entitlement programs.”

But the attitude, the expectation, that must be challenged is that one is entitled to special status based on real or perceived grievances, rights of culture, or a heritage of affirmation.

Much of our cultural polarization is rooted in no small degree over those who favor work and those who think they are entitled.

Legendary Georgetown University college basketball coach John Thompson carried in his wallet a quote from Henry Wadsworth Longfellow: “The heights by great men reached and kept were not attained by sudden flight, but they, while their companions slept, were toiling upward in the night.”

Thompson had an abundance of challenges over which he had to overcome – low performance academically as a child, social ostracism due to physical size, prejudice against African-Americans as being qualified as college basketball coaches.

I arrived at Georgetown soon after Thompson had been hired as a head coach and had experienced little success. He even suffered the indignity of a sign hung in the gym that said, “the n—– flop must go.”

However, the Jesuit fathers stuck with him. And he and they achieved great success. He became the first African-American coach to win a national NCAA championship in 1984.

He worked hard. He always quickly credited the Georgetown fathers for his success.

He didn’t succumb to the myth of the American bootstrap that sees raw individualism as the sole determining factor for success. He knew community played a fundamental role in accomplishment.

For years, I carried the Longfellow quote in my wallet and cited it often to my children.

Read More