In defense of a 'normal' work ethic

Almost everyone has an opinion about work-life balance. But for many among the highest achieving social classes, work-life balance is a luxury that cannot be afforded. Each moment of leisure is a moment of lost opportunity, lost productivity, and a lost competitive edge over those who devote their entire lives to their work.

In a recent post on X that has elicited a firestorm due to its overt criticism of American culture and suggestion that foreigners are harder workers than Americans, former presidential candidate and entrepreneur Vivek Ramaswamy suggested that Americans had become too content with aspiring to “normalcy.”