Work Ethics and Welfare

What has happened to the work ethic in this country?  We just celebrated Labor Day, and we have a larger and larger percentage of people unemployed.  Many are not even looking for work, and why should they bother?  We have a welfare system that rewards them for being unemployed.  Many people never plan to work again, because of welfare (often shamefully disguised as disability) food stamps, aid to dependant children, and other government programs.

I was raised on a farm.  The summer I turned sixteen my dad told me that he could handle the farm work while I took a job detasseling corn.  For you city folk, tassels at the top of the corn stalk are removed from one hybrid of corn plants in order for those plants to be pollinated by rows of another hybrid in order to create a specific hybrid of seed corn. 

At that time this was done by walking through the field and pulling the tassels by hand, or by pulling the tassels as you rode by on a machine.  I had taken a job riding on a machine. 

About the time my detasseling job was to start, my dad fell in a granary and was bedridden with some badly broken ribs.  I became responsible for the farm chores and fieldwork.  If I got up by 4:00 AM, I could get the morning chores done and be at my detasseling job by the 6:00 AM start time.  We usually worked detasseling until 4:00 or 5:00 in the afternoon.   

Our neighbor, Ed Kemna, wrapped up his work early so he could have his chores done and eaten supper by the time I got home.  When he saw me arrive home, he would come over to help with the fieldwork.  We combined the oats and bailed the straw until Dad was able to work. 

Many nights, we would work until dark.  I then had to do the evening chores, which normally took about two hours.  By the time I finished chores and got cleaned up, it was often midnight. 

In recent years, I thought about why I did not quit the detasseling job when Dad was hurt.  This was never mentioned or considered.  It was accepted that I had committed to the detasseling job.  My parents and myself just assumed I would do that job and the farm work too.  What has happened to this work ethic?

I think it is interesting that none of us back then asked for any assistance or subsidies from the government.  Our neighbor gave his time and labor with little or no compensation.  That was just the way it was in rural Iowa when I was a kid.  What has happened?  How have we lost that work ethic and neighborly spirit?   We have to get it back. 

President Franklin D. Roosevelt was considered a liberal Progressive for his time.  But, he never felt people should be given welfare without doing anything to earn it.  He created government work programs so people could feel they were contributing and earning their government check.  

We need to do the same thing.  People must work for their welfare money.  We may need to provide transportation and childcare, but if at all possible, they have to work at some job according to their capabilities.  They must stay sober, stay off drugs, get out of bed, and go to work if they want the welfare check.