When one analyzes the problems we grapple with both as individuals and as a society, there seems to be a thread that quietly and almost invisibly binds them all together that few are willing to mention: many people in America today are allergic to hard work. It’s a damaging phenomenon that cuts across barriers of age, race, ethnicity, and faith. Some people, regardless of the effort made to get them up on their feet, simply prefer to recline in the most comfortable possible position and shirk all responsibility for their own success or failure, often preferring to see themselves as victims of circumstance or malign fate in order to justify their lack of attention and effort.

We see this in our schools with students who refuse to learn (and many teachers who refuse to teach). We see this with young adults who sponge off their parents throughout their young adulthood, drifting through sporadic employment while frittering their aimless lives away. We see this with employees who refuse to extend themselves or strive to reach their potential. We see this with civil servants (and too many elected and appointed officials) who find the very idea of working hard to serve our citizens to be unworthy of their full consideration. 

Although there are still plenty of students, teachers, young adults, employees, and government workers who strive to be both diligent and responsible, for which we should be eternally grateful, the substantial minority of those who do not care enough to try create a lifetime of problems and frustrations for their friends, families, communities, and our nation with their lackadaisical attitudes and willfully slothful behavior, which saps the strength—and extracts the wealth—from everyone around them.

The costs of remedial education and deficient workplace skills are the expenses we all incur when students do not learn or are not taught. Thirty year-olds who are still having mommy cook their meals, clean their rooms, and do their laundry are unlikely to be able to provide for themselves as they age, so the costs of public assistance will be a tax on every responsible adult. Employees who do the minimum required (on their best days) are candidates for a downward economic spiral that will drag their innocent children right along for the ride, which creates chaos and dysfunction that will span the generations. Believing they are shielded from swift and certain dismissal by layers of union, tenure, and civil servant regulations, public sector workers who treat their jobs like paid vacations continue to bedevil our country with their entitlement and sheer laziness, which has produced our national catastrophe of obdurate and obstructive government bureaucracies that stymie both our liberties and the smooth functioning of our economy.

Good work habits are much like all our habits; they are formed in our youth and are, hopefully, reinforced throughout adolescence and young adulthood. Parents and guardians, of course, are by far the most important mentors and role models for our children, so the adults in charge must consistently and forcefully act like parents—not friends, siblings, or roommates. Young people will inevitably have a few stumbles as they grow, but these bumps in the road turn into crashes if the response is giving up rather than hunkering down and working harder. 

Again, the pernicious tendency, which is reinforced daily by cultural and political leaders who see money and power within their grasp, to offload blame rather than accept responsibility, allows those “victimized” by the standards, expectations, and deadlines of adulthood to remain petulant toddlers—often for their entire lifetimes. The rough lessons of existence, therefore, become the whining excuses for continued failure, and both that individual and all Americans are forced to suffer because lazy surrender is easier—and often encouraged.

Given the number of Americans who fail to understand that a hard day’s work is necessary to earn the comforts they crave, it is little wonder that the Socialist siren song of free stuff (which will be paid for by those who are doing a hard day’s work) has such a seductive allure in our nation today. Retirement is a reward for a lifetime of labor, not a lifestyle choice that should embraced at the age of twenty-two, and the economic costs of this cock-eyed idea are borne by everyone who gets up in the morning, gulps down a cup of coffee, and heads off to a job. 

When you read polls that show over 60% of 18-29 year-olds in America have a favorable view of Socialism, one can readily understand why so-called “bed rotting”, which Urban Dictionary helpfully defines as “staying in bed for days on end binging on Netflix, Tik Tok and Hinge” is even a thing to be discussed—or perhaps celebrated—by some.