The Protestant Work Ethics Just Another Urban Legend Summary

In “The Protestant Work Ethic: Just Another ‘Urban Legend?’” Jonathan Klemens, the author, states what work ethic is and how it applies in American society. Klemens explained that the work ethic of workers in a company or some type of organization has helped the nation as a whole. That people work hard to achieve “the company or organization’s missions” (122). Not only that, Klemens also explained that people would work hard to gain particular professions they desire instead of just working with no goals. Moreover, the author explains how the American work ethics have some of the values from Protestant work ethics, such as hard-working and dedication toward work. Klemens used Max Weber’s statement as an example to explain what Protestant work

Klemens has stated that “the power of a free labor force has made capitalism a very powerful force in our society”(123). The American workers have worked hard to make America better than it was. There were also “intense business competition” that have helped each business to try and work harder to be better than other businesses (123). This aspect of capitalism helps the nation as a whole. People are working harder through competition, which creates the better outcome of products. The competition pressures the workers to work harder and create something new to reach a higher status in life. And these hard works of people, no matter if they are working to reach the high status or for better of society, help the nation as a whole. For example, the companies like Apple, Microsoft, Samsung are all having competition to have higher sale of their products. The workers of the company work hard to create better products then the other companies. Their motives are for the profit issues, but their outcomes from those competition help the nation. The great work ethic in capitalistic society has made America have “fast-growing economy and the image of hard-working-Americans” (123). And these aspects of competition increases the work ethic and are essential to growth of American

However, these hard working nature in American institutions have caused some troubles to the lower class. Bruce Weinstein, the author from “The Ethics of Work-Life Balance”, and Courtney E. Martin, the author from “Time Off for the Overworked American”, claimed that the workers can not rest and must work hard to keep their jobs. These two authors explained that the workers are working way too hard to just keep their jobs. However, I believe there hard work will still benefit the whole company, which will help the whole society. There are costs for these kind of hard work ethics, but what is important is that these kinds of work ethics have helped America as a nation to grow as an advanced and better nation and