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The author reflects on the meaning of Protestant work ethic in relation to the economic performance of the U.S. He notes the belief of Tocqueville that the term is considered the cornerstone of successful capitalism. He states that the ethic was preached by luminaries like Benjamin Franklin and was taught in public schools. He notes the association of the economic difficulty being experienced by the U.S. with the disintegration of the ethic and the disappearance of its key elements in modern society.

FOR many American professionals, the Labor Day holiday yesterday probably wasn't as relaxing as they had hoped. They didn't go into the office, but they were still working. As much as they may truly have wanted to focus on time with their children, their spouses or their friends, they were unable to turn off their BlackBerrys, their laptops and their work-oriented brains. Americans working on holidays is not a new phenomenon: we have long been an industrious folk. A hundred years ago the German sociologist Max Weber described what he called the Protestant ethic. This was a religious imperative to work hard, spend little and find a calling in order to achieve spiritual assurance that one is among the saved. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

The article discusses the relationship of 16th-century Protestant ethics and Europe's emerging capitalist institutions. Economist professors Robert B. Ekelund Jr. and Robert D. Tollison have joined those that argue that capitalism paved the way for Protestantism, not the other way around. They argue that in regions where the primogeniture system of passing down inheritances to the eldest son did not exist, people were more open to entrepreneurship. These areas, they believe, may have been more open to Protestantism. Further details about their research are enumerated.

The article focuses on the views of the author on the working class in the U.S. Americans tend to admire the people in society who have accumulated such wealth as to seem somehow great. But Americans shouldn't forget that it was the everyday working-class man who made this country great. Indeed, in "The Protestant Ethic and the Spirit of Capitalism," sociologist Max Weber chronicles how the Protestant work ethic was the embryo of America's capitalist spirit and was consequently sewn into Americans' national identity.

Examines the edge of the U.S. over Europe in terms of industrial productivity in relation to the Protestant work ethics as of June 2003.

Highlights the significance of the Protestant work ethic. Major factor behind the greatness of the United States; Embryo of America's capitalist spirit; Three developments responsible for improving living conditions in the twentieth century.

The article considers pass-fail grading and its operation in universities populated by students raised on the Protestant work ethic. Pass-fail removes the guilt motivator and encourages students to do less work. Copious pass-fail grades tend to jeopardize graduate school admissions. Credit-by-exam could solve the problem of grading but has been slow to catch on.