[Bill,
October 1, 2009]
David Brooks nails one
Hits this one out of the park — even complains about the undermining effect of state lotteries. 'Bout time.
It talks about the corruption of financial values. That's our big issue. People want something for nothing — and to make money with money, instead of through hard work, Protestant work ethic, avoiding conspicuous consumption and materialistic attitudes, living within or below your means, distrust of debt and easy credit, planning for a rainy day, suspicious of fast money, unearned money, found, dishonestly earned or won money, and all that.
Hear, hear. Read the whole thing.
It talks about the corruption of financial values. That's our big issue. People want something for nothing — and to make money with money, instead of through hard work, Protestant work ethic, avoiding conspicuous consumption and materialistic attitudes, living within or below your means, distrust of debt and easy credit, planning for a rainy day, suspicious of fast money, unearned money, found, dishonestly earned or won money, and all that.
Hear, hear. Read the whole thing.
What's needed is a catholic work ethic -- doing as much as you can because you love your neighbor.
Also, the basic thesis that native born Americans have ever had some sort of moral horror of wealth is just absurd. Certainly, there has always been envy. But judgmental envy ("compensation packages that would have been considered shameful a few decades before") is hardly a virtue. Unless he's talk about during the war, but then during the war was an enormous exception to just about everything.