Word: ethically
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...pantheon of virtues that made the U.S. great, none stands higher than the work ethic. As Richard Nixon defined it in a nationwide radio address: "The work ethic holds that labor is good in itself; that a man or woman at work not only makes a contribution to his fellow man but becomes a better person by virtue of the act of working." Lately the President has so often mentioned the work ethic-and so often suggested that it may be endangered-that its veneration and preservation have become something of a campaign issue. The President warns ominously...
...Nixon's implied demonology, the man who stands for "the welfare ethic" is George McGovern. Candidate McGovern briefly proposed that, as a substitute for some existing federal assistance programs, the Government give a $1,000 grant to every man, woman and child in the land, whether working or not. Yet McGovern, every bit as compulsive a worker as Nixon, is solidly in favor of the work ethic, saying "I have very little patience with people who somehow feel that it is of no consequence if they do not work." He contends that most people share his dedication to toil...
...will they? Or is the work ethic really in trouble...
There are signs aplenty that the ethic is being challenged, and not just by welfare recipients. In offices and factories, many Americans appear to reject the notion that "labor is good in itself." More and more executives retire while still in their 50s, dropping out of jobs in favor of a life of ease. People who work often take every opportunity to escape. In auto plants, for example, absenteeism has doubled since the early 1960s, to 5% of the work force; on Mondays and Fridays it commonly climbs to 15%. In nearly every industry, employees are increasingly refusing overtime work...
...Puritans were Calvinists, and they brought the work ethic to America. They punished idleness as a serious misdemeanor. They filled their children's ears with copybook maxims about the devil finding work for idle hands and God helping those who help themselves. Successive waves of immigrants took those lessons to heart, and they aimed for what they thought was the ultimate success open to them -middle-class status. They almost deified Horatio Alger's fictional heroes, like Ragged Dick, who struggled up to the middle class by dint of hard work...