I don’t think it’s just necessarily about Americans being lazy. I think when it comes to manual labor when it’s not applied to helping other humans, for example, in the nursing home community, people want to be paid for the physical exhaustion of their bodies. People who sit in offices, make a ton more money than folks standing on their feet in a factory. There is no security in working a factory job when you’re not sure if your body is going to be able to sustain you for a long life. So unless the value of the pay and benefits, build a security culture for the lowest paid people within a company, it’s not worth it for them. They’re not gonna extend themselves. However, they have no problem, looking at people that they think are lesser than them, and assuming those folks need to go do that work because it’s beneath them personally. They don’t really care about the security of people they look down upon.
When it comes to the nursing home community and stuff like that, it’s totally different scenario. I worked in nursing homes and my grandmother was in one for several years and I spent multiple days a week in there. When I was both a worker and a family member my observations are that many other cultures have a stronger sense of compassion and care for elders. in this country, a lot of people kind of want to just shove away and a responsibility they have for other human beings in their lives. That’s a complex thing it’s not just about being selfish some of it about self preservation, some of it is about other emotional situations that were never resolved because, who can go to therapy right? physically, taking care of an elder and doing jobs like that where you require taking care of other people, a huge part of our country want no responsibility, don’t wanna have to have empathy or sympathy for people, they just want theirs. The funny thing is is that when they need this kind of service, they’re asking everybody to pay attention to them and crying about how no one loves them and comes to the nursing home to visit them.
in my generation, a huge portion of us grew up in a situation where they had to consider the possibility of manual labor, skilled trades, and things like that. Progressively overtime things have turned into making money off of people‘s images and things that don’t require physical exhaustion of the bodies resources as much. more of a mental situation. by the way, I’m not putting down any generation that’s younger than me at all. This is just how we can progress as a society. For example, if you really wanna make a ton of money, you should become a plumber or an electrician or something that has to do with steel trades. You’re gonna make so much money it’s gonna be ridiculous. You’re gonna make enough money that you can work part time if you wanted to.
Essentially, we build an incentivized society and then stopped incentivizing people to meet the needs of our culture.
Thank you so much for being part of this conversation, L.C. 😊
I absolutely agree with you on the point about pay, benefits, and security. It’s really about what kind of work is being valued in our society—and who gets to benefit from it. Manual labor, especially in physically demanding roles, often comes with very little protection or long-term security. And that’s a tough sell in a country where burnout is already so high.
You’re also so right about care work. I’ve seen it too—how folks from other cultures bring such deep compassion to elder care. It’s a cultural value, not just a job. Meanwhile, in the U.S., the emotional distance and lack of support systems can make that kind of responsibility feel overwhelming or even avoided altogether. Like you said, some of it is about self-preservation, and some of it is about never having the tools to process what we carry.
Back home, there was no such thing as therapy, or ADD, or depression. We kinda just did what we needed to do. Maybe a lack of education was liberating in a way—haha!
When I used the word lazy, I can see how that might’ve sounded like a blanket judgment—and I want to clarify. What I really meant is that we’ve advanced our society in a way that’s almost impossible to walk back from. We’ve moved up the stack—technologically, economically, culturally. And as a result, many of us are no longer conditioned—physically or mentally—to take on jobs that still exist within the middle-class economy. We’re deeply embedded in a capitalist system that depends on global outsourcing, and that structure doesn’t just shift overnight.
Not sure what generation you fall into, but I’m a millennial who grew up in Liberia—back when things were local, linear, and very “each one, reach one.” That traditionalist mindset shaped my early years. But now, as we ride this exponential wave of change brought on by tech, our communities need a new toolkit to survive and thrive—one that blends empathy with innovation.
That’s really what this newsletter is all about. And I’m so glad you’re here to be part of the dialogue. 💚
Being able to have great conversations and exchanges of experience and ideas is important. Thank you for letting me be a part of it. My key guiding light is dignity. Folks don’t think about the effort it takes to do or make anything and we’ve lost connection to the true cost to humans, the world, and by the environment. Everything and everyone is seen as useful or disposable. We’ve got a long road to understand that because it’s the hidden hand.
I feel that. I’ve been thinking about it a lot too—and yeah, we are evolving in the wrong direction if we keep measuring value through profit margins instead of dignity. If we could just pivot our mindset—reimagine what success looks like in a capitalist society—we might finally start building real community. The kind that honors people and place, not just production and performance.
I don’t think it’s just necessarily about Americans being lazy. I think when it comes to manual labor when it’s not applied to helping other humans, for example, in the nursing home community, people want to be paid for the physical exhaustion of their bodies. People who sit in offices, make a ton more money than folks standing on their feet in a factory. There is no security in working a factory job when you’re not sure if your body is going to be able to sustain you for a long life. So unless the value of the pay and benefits, build a security culture for the lowest paid people within a company, it’s not worth it for them. They’re not gonna extend themselves. However, they have no problem, looking at people that they think are lesser than them, and assuming those folks need to go do that work because it’s beneath them personally. They don’t really care about the security of people they look down upon.
When it comes to the nursing home community and stuff like that, it’s totally different scenario. I worked in nursing homes and my grandmother was in one for several years and I spent multiple days a week in there. When I was both a worker and a family member my observations are that many other cultures have a stronger sense of compassion and care for elders. in this country, a lot of people kind of want to just shove away and a responsibility they have for other human beings in their lives. That’s a complex thing it’s not just about being selfish some of it about self preservation, some of it is about other emotional situations that were never resolved because, who can go to therapy right? physically, taking care of an elder and doing jobs like that where you require taking care of other people, a huge part of our country want no responsibility, don’t wanna have to have empathy or sympathy for people, they just want theirs. The funny thing is is that when they need this kind of service, they’re asking everybody to pay attention to them and crying about how no one loves them and comes to the nursing home to visit them.
in my generation, a huge portion of us grew up in a situation where they had to consider the possibility of manual labor, skilled trades, and things like that. Progressively overtime things have turned into making money off of people‘s images and things that don’t require physical exhaustion of the bodies resources as much. more of a mental situation. by the way, I’m not putting down any generation that’s younger than me at all. This is just how we can progress as a society. For example, if you really wanna make a ton of money, you should become a plumber or an electrician or something that has to do with steel trades. You’re gonna make so much money it’s gonna be ridiculous. You’re gonna make enough money that you can work part time if you wanted to.
Essentially, we build an incentivized society and then stopped incentivizing people to meet the needs of our culture.
Thank you so much for being part of this conversation, L.C. 😊
I absolutely agree with you on the point about pay, benefits, and security. It’s really about what kind of work is being valued in our society—and who gets to benefit from it. Manual labor, especially in physically demanding roles, often comes with very little protection or long-term security. And that’s a tough sell in a country where burnout is already so high.
You’re also so right about care work. I’ve seen it too—how folks from other cultures bring such deep compassion to elder care. It’s a cultural value, not just a job. Meanwhile, in the U.S., the emotional distance and lack of support systems can make that kind of responsibility feel overwhelming or even avoided altogether. Like you said, some of it is about self-preservation, and some of it is about never having the tools to process what we carry.
Back home, there was no such thing as therapy, or ADD, or depression. We kinda just did what we needed to do. Maybe a lack of education was liberating in a way—haha!
When I used the word lazy, I can see how that might’ve sounded like a blanket judgment—and I want to clarify. What I really meant is that we’ve advanced our society in a way that’s almost impossible to walk back from. We’ve moved up the stack—technologically, economically, culturally. And as a result, many of us are no longer conditioned—physically or mentally—to take on jobs that still exist within the middle-class economy. We’re deeply embedded in a capitalist system that depends on global outsourcing, and that structure doesn’t just shift overnight.
Not sure what generation you fall into, but I’m a millennial who grew up in Liberia—back when things were local, linear, and very “each one, reach one.” That traditionalist mindset shaped my early years. But now, as we ride this exponential wave of change brought on by tech, our communities need a new toolkit to survive and thrive—one that blends empathy with innovation.
That’s really what this newsletter is all about. And I’m so glad you’re here to be part of the dialogue. 💚
Being able to have great conversations and exchanges of experience and ideas is important. Thank you for letting me be a part of it. My key guiding light is dignity. Folks don’t think about the effort it takes to do or make anything and we’ve lost connection to the true cost to humans, the world, and by the environment. Everything and everyone is seen as useful or disposable. We’ve got a long road to understand that because it’s the hidden hand.
I feel that. I’ve been thinking about it a lot too—and yeah, we are evolving in the wrong direction if we keep measuring value through profit margins instead of dignity. If we could just pivot our mindset—reimagine what success looks like in a capitalist society—we might finally start building real community. The kind that honors people and place, not just production and performance.