In an attempt to introduce a good old Christian Conservative work ethic to America in its early days, I thought I would give some excerpts from a book that dealt with the secular calling and colonial economics of that era. Being a native New Englander from the "Live Free or Die" state of New Hampshire, and having lived most of my adult life in and around the Boston area--I find the following excerpts of that Conservative Christian work ethic quite interesting when pitted against today's push for more entitlements and a socialist run nanny state government. "The identification of one's God-given vocation did not seem so urgent in the early days of New England settlements. Survival meant that everyone immediately turned their hand to whatever needed to be done rather than meditating on what specific work God intended. But in these early days, the doctrine of secular calling, as well as the hard environment to be conquered in America, did have an immense impact on economic life. Both doctrine and circumstance led New Englanders to take work very seriously. No other virtue was greater than working hard and diligently. No other vice was more despised than idleness. Survival itself was dependent on such an attitude. In the Octobr 1, 1633, meeting of the Massachusetts Bay Colony Court of Assistant, it was declared that.... no person, house holder or other shall spend time idly or unprofitably, under pain of punishment as the Court shall think meet to inflict; and for this end it is ordered, that the constable of every place shall use special care and dilligence to take knowledge of offenders in this kind. The value placed on economic success was also reinforced by the doctrine of secular calling, which led New Englanders to begin to look for signs of success in their work. It was believed that someone who worked sufficiently hard and well at his God-intended calling was bound to accumulate capital and land. Almost unconciously, wealth came to be thought of as the mark of a good, hard-working person, and poverty was thought to be the result of shiftlessness. Moreover, success in one's work was regarded as a mark of God's approval. Partly as a consequence of this attitude, few limitations were placed on money making. Sociologist Max Weber argued that the Puritan doctrine of secular calling prepared the way for the rampant, unregulated capitalism in post--Civil War America". Daily Life in Colonial New England by Claudia Durst Johnson ps: perhaps the most significant portion of this piece was to compare the role of capitalism and the work ethic to acumulate capital and land from that era with its unbridled growth to today's socialist agenda to regulate, over tax, redistribute the wealth, and to punish the wealthy and our businesses as well as our hard working citizens.
