Unless, of course, you’re a Liberal. Just this past Sunday, some guy by the name of “Craig P’ posted this rant on Mike Rowe’s wall:

Your constant harping on “work ethic” is growing tiresome. Just because someone’s poor doesn’t mean they’re lazy. The unemployed want to work! And many of those who can’t find work today, didn’t have the benefit of growing up with parents like yours. How can you expect someone with no role model to qualify for one of your scholarships or sign your silly “Sweat Pledge?” Rather than accusing people of not having a work-ethic, why not drop the right-wing propaganda and help them develop one?

The “Dirty Jobs” and “Someone’s Got To Do It” host had an epic response for “Craig P.” to include:

“The biggest under-reported challenge in finding good help, (aside from the inability to ‘piss clean,’) is an overwhelming lack of ‘soft skills.’ That’s a polite way of saying that many applicants don’t tuck their shirts in, or pull their pants up, or look you in the eye, or say things like ‘please’ and ‘thank you.’ We’re churning out a generation of poorly educated people with no skill, no ambition, no guidance, and no realistic expectations of what it means to go to work.”

You can read the whole response here. Rowe has taken his expertise to advocate for the declining blue collar trades and the crumbling infrastructure surrounding them. He founded mikeroweWORKS.com–a website focused on providing resources to blue collar workers and insight to individuals who may be seeking career opportunities and employment on how to go about obtaining a trade. The website also provides trade school scholarships to those interested in pursuing a trade. In 2011, he launched Profoundly Disconnected, a campaign to create public awareness that a four-year degree is not the only path to success.

…Nor is defaulting on your student loans after getting said four-year degree…but hey, I digress.

Other Liberal outlets keep perpetuating the idea that Rowe’s work ethic views are partisan with a “pull yourself up by the boot straps” Conservative lean (big shocker here.)

So, Craig P.–I’m going to break it down for you. Not sure how the words “work” and “ethic” became “tiresome” or means of “harping on the poor.” My family came to this country in the early 1900s with nothing but the clothes on their backs when they processed in at Ellis Island. My great-grandfather worked hard, long hours to help build what is known today as the Queensboro Bridge in New York City. My great-grandmother ran a fruit and vegetable stand. Were they tired? I’m sure they were. But did they still get up to do it again the next day? Absolutely. They knew they needed to fend for themselves to feed their family. My dad was a construction worker. He was a high school dropout. But, he wanted to work and he learned a trade and, as a result, was able to provide for us. So, I’m not buying that rolling up your sleeves and having a “work ethic”, as Mike Rowe suggests, is “tiresome.” In fact, I think “work ethic” is something that is quite lacking in our age of deflecting responsibility.

Do the unemployed want to work? Sure they do. But what our government and media do not want us to understand is that there are unemployed people who choose not to work. And some of these people are on the government dole simply because they reap more benefits on welfare and their SNAP cards than they do if they were to work. Our society has made it easy for them to yes, BE LAZY! Let’s call it what it is. If you read between the lines, you would perhaps see that Rowe is not trying to undermine the unemployed with his “tiresome” rhetoric but trying as best as he knows how to encourage people to be productive members of society and learn a trade. He is being realistic in that the four-year university plan may not be the best post high school course for some individuals. Honestly, think about some of the junk they offer up as classes at universities these days? What if Harry Potter Were Real? Underwater Basket Weaving? Philosophy and Star Trek? Need I say more?

“We’ve waged war on work. We have collectively agreed, stupidly, that work is the enemy.”–Mike Rowe

One last thing–I see you find the “SWEAT (Skill and Work Ethic Aren’t Taboo) Pledge”, silly and I’m not surprised in the least. After all, deploring debt, living in America (and being thankful about this), being a product of your choices, understanding that the world is not fair and working one’s butt off are not exactly on the Liberal agenda now, are they?