The decline of the work ethic in the West

Following the decline of the influence of the Bible, it was expected that the work ethic would also decline.

This is now empirically the case: research by a team led by Laura Wray-Lake of Claremont Graduate University finds that the proportion of U.S. high school seniors who say they'd work if they had enough money to live comfortably has declined from 78% to 70% over three decades.

The proportion who say they'd be willing to work overtime has dropped from 90% to about 83%.

The results are from an annual survey of thousands of high school students from 1976 through 2005, the most recent year for which figures are available.

See: http://yas.sagepub.com/content/early/2010/09/21/0044118X10381367 Sphere: Related Content