Word: ethical
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Dates: during 1970-1979
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...video-cassette recorders--and if you can't afford it, then you simply buy it on credit, borrow money, get a loan, try our EZ Payment plan, Master Charge it, put it on the tab, Leo--anything. It seems the inevitable extension of the consumer age. The old Puritan Ethic might have built this place, but it's the old play-now, pay-whenever attitude that keeps everything running. It's all very pleasant. New cars wall-to-wall, French-blended food, and Mork and Mindy whenever you want them--but there is a seedier side to all of this...
...sense, the peasant ethic of the villagers is an anachronism, a relic of the past which is out of step with the 20th century. Many of the villagers are reasonably well off, but they are so used to working that they can never take the time to enjoy their profits. The Vallets have a large bank account, but they are always too busy working to spend the money. The work ethic is so deeply ingrained within them that they simply can't bear to be idle, to work less than their full capacity...
Still, the 20th century is slowly creeping into Moras En Valloire, transforming the village. The peasants have kept their work ethic as a legacy from their ancestors, but many of them own modern conveniences very much at odds with their traditions. The Vallets, for example, own a TV, and while eating dinner we often watched detective shows (Kojak and Mannix were Vallet favorites). Two tractors stood outside the house, but the Vallets used them only when machinery could do the job better than a person; and that was rare...
...young who are most responsible for the changes in Moras En Valloire. They retain the peasant work ethic, for that is too deeply rooted in their psyches to discard; but generally they tend to be impatient with tradition. Instead, they prefer the future with its glittering promise of a new and better life ahead...
...hiring of young people, especially women and blacks. But when the law finally went into effect on New Year's Day, the worries had substantially diminished. Many employers now think the law will have little effect at all, beyond raising the spirits and incomes of those work-ethic veteran employees who decide to hang around...