The War on Work

A foreign consumer of U.S. news might reasonably conclude that the famous American work ethic is in sharp decline. The shutdowns and school closures of 2020–21 taught the nation’s workers that they could stop working for months at no great personal or societal cost. Governmental policies allegedly meant to assist workers affected by the pandemic—forgivable loans to employers, multiple subventions to all, a moratorium on evictions—encouraged many to believe that work was a nonessential, and possibly harmful, part of life.