Americans have historically looked down our noses at sluggards and layabouts who refuse to contribute their fair share. We have also held fast to a belief that anyone with enough drive and determination can succeed with enough effort. Today we still distinguish between the “deserving poor” and the parasites who just want to leech off the government. Much of this can be laid at the feet of what sociologist Max Weber called in 1905 the Protestant work ethic.
In 1905 Max Weber released Die protestantische Ethik und der Geist des Kapitalismus. Translated into English in 1930 as The Protestant Ethic and the Spirit of Capitalism, it is considered one of the most influential sociological texts ever written.
For Weber, one of the driving factors of Capitalism’s rise was Calvinism and its emphasis on predestination. Calvin, who steadfastly renounced Justification by Works, suggested that the Elect would behave in a manner that gave glory to God in accordance with their station. This meant, among other things, that they would work industriously at their trade and refrain from wasting money on luxuries.
Unsurprisingly, those who work hard and live modestly tend to have more savings and greater business success than those who do not. For Calvin and other Protestant Reformers, this was a sign of God’s grace toward his chosen people and a way that one could show that he was of the Elect and not the Damned. Once this idea took root, money was transformed from the root of all evil to a sign of divine favor. As Weber explains:
Wealth is thus bad ethically only in so far as it is a temptation to idleness and sinful enjoyment of life, and its acquisition is bad only when it is with the purpose of later living merrily and without care. But as a performance of duty in a calling it is not only morally permissible, but actually enjoined. The parable of the servant who was rejected because he did not increase the talent which was entrusted to him seemed to say so directly.
To wish to be poor was, it was often argued, the same as wishing to be unhealthy; it is objectionable as a glorification of works and derogatory to the glory of God. Especially begging, on the part of one able to work, is not only the sin of slothfulness, but a violation of the duty of brotherly love according to the Apostle’s own word.
Weber also quotes a 1736 tract from Benjamin Franklin, the son of a Calvinist, as an example of the Capitalist mindset. While Benjamin Franklin is hardly a sterling example of Calvinism, or of religion in general, Weber also noted that most of the Capitalists of his day had internalized these Protestant ideals toward money and commerce while jettisoning spiritual beliefs.
