The "Bootstraps" Narrative: America's Deep-Seated, Often Flawed, Look At Work Ethic

But this allows us to ignore so many other important discussions.

You are probably familiar with the general idea of the narrative here. In essence, if someone is complaining about their lot in life, the hand they were dealt, work in general, or their economics — someone else might say, “Pull yourself up by your bootstraps.” The idea at core, obviously, is “hard work solves everything.” And that’s a good narrative, wh…