Most of us will commemorate Labor Day by celebrating a day off from work. There is more at play here than ironic disconnect.
A century ago, German sociologist Max Weber observed that the “Protestant Ethic” was a principle driving force in what he called “the Spirit of Capitalism” and, consequently, largely responsible for the rise of the market-driven commercial system that lifted the West above the rest of the world in terms of prosperity and quality of life. For many Protestants of Weber's day, this was, shall we say, preaching to the choir.
Weber noted the influence of Protestant theologians Martin Luther and John Calvin in transforming a feudal system to a more interconnected system in which labor was deemed worthy in itself, not something to be avoided or relegated to slaves. That new perspective on what for eons was considered by most societies to be toil and drudgery reshaped mankind.
In Weber's landmark study, he seemed almost surprised to conclude that it also resulted in prosperity and better lives. But Protestants and others directed by biblical instruction weren't surprised.
“The expenditure of physical and mental energy to produce sustenance and culture, the activity that engages most of humanity's population and time, has a profoundly religious inspiration and direction in both Testaments,” according to Nelson's New Illustrated Bible Dictionary.
“Man as created,” says the Bible Dictionary, “was intended to work.”
Puritans and Pilgrims regarded labor as a “calling” and brought the concept to America. Indeed, the Merriam-Webster Dictionary's first definition of “vocation” is “a summons or strong inclination to a particular state or course of action; especially: a divine call to the religious life.” The dictionary's first example is: “This isn't just a job for me; it's a vocation.”
So, what happened?
When Barack Obama was sworn in as president, 60.6 percent of working-age Americans had a job. Today, 58.7 percent do. The number of full-time workers is practically 6 million fewer than in 2007. Of jobs created during Obama's tenure, seven of eight have been part-time.
We might see these numbers as reflective of politics, gridlock or the inevitability of worldwide economic pressures. If we look at them that way, we miss the forest for the trees.
To hang the entirety of these woeful trends on Obama would be unfair. But certainly, Obama's efforts to “help” the economy contributed to the problem. (An excellent, more complete list can be found at ConservativeActionAlerts.com: http://bit.ly/16ETFJU)
With the help of Congress extending them unemployment benefits as long as 99 weeks, laborers have been encouraged not to seek work. The Labor Department reports that, during the Obama years, unemployment averages 36.6 weeks, compared with 19.8 weeks before he took office. After four years of Obama, the number of Americans “not in the labor force” soared by more than 8 million, says the Bureau of Labor Statistics.
After five decades of government waging a “war on poverty,” poverty is winning; at 16.1 percent it's higher than when the war began, in the 1960s. It seems Washington is intent on expanding the ranks of the impoverished and government-reliant, rather than the ranks of full-time workers and the self-reliant. In Obama's first four years, an average of 11,000 persons a day were added to food stamp rolls, which now, incredibly, include more than 47 million Americans.
That's almost four times more than the number of Americans who hold manufacturing jobs, which, incidentally, has declined from 12.5 million when Obama came to office to 11.9 million today.
What is it about America's contemporary makeup that has reduced the number of start-up jobs per 1,000 from 10.8 to 11.3 for the preceding three presidents to Obama's meager 7.8 jobs per 1,000?
Could the reason be, as the 2012 Heritage Index of Dependence on Government observed, that 63.7 million Americans received either Temporary Assistance for Needy Families, Social Security or support for higher education? That was 8 percent more than in the previous year.
The Wall Street Journal found 49 percent of Americans in 2011 lived in a household where at least one family member received a government benefit. The Obama administration increased how much money the government gives directly to people by 32 percent.
The Protestant work ethic has steadily eroded. The void is filled by government reliance. How many Americans expect to pay their own way for retirement health care? How widespread is celebration of fewer work hours?
Rather than focus on labor's inherent worthiness, these movements increasingly focus on free time, prosperity and security. How ironic that this shift from calling and vocation reveals that we can't have the payoff without putting in the effort, despite cradle-to-grave coddling.
Each day the workforce loses initiative, it reduces opportunity. That ultimately reinforces the demand for more government “help.” Calvin and Luther must be rolling over in their graves, to say nothing of Weber, the sociologist.
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