Anatomy of a Self-Made Man: Performing the American Work Ethic in the Age of Inequality

Abstract

This dissertation examines how the American work ethic functions as a rhetorical device across economic classes to undermine organized labor and justify the wealth inequality that exploded as a result. I define this ethic as the conviction that no one is entitled to anything they have not earned through their own hard work and ingenuity, and detail how rhetors across the classes of capital, management, and labor perform this ethic through what I theorize as the bootstrapping ethos. This ethos operates through three interrelated components: public demonstrations of exceptionally hard work, the denial or minimization of unearned advantages, and invidious comparisons with lazy, entitled others. The dissertation proceeds in four chapters. Chapter One traces the intellectual history of the American work ethic from its Puritan origins through the industrious and entrepreneurial variants, showing how the bootstrapping ethos has remained remarkably stable even as economic conditions have shifted. Chapter Two analyzes how capitalist rhetors—exemplified by Starbucks founder Howard Schultz—deploy the bootstrapping ethos to defend their wealth against challenges from organizing workers, positioning entrepreneurial labor as the only kind that truly deserves material reward. Chapter Three introduces the concept of the Progressive Workplace Brand, demonstrating through a comparative analysis of Amazon, Starbucks, and REI how management rhetoric frames modest treatment as extraordinary acts of corporate benevolence, communicating to workers that they are already getting more than they deserve. Chapter Four examines how workers themselves internalize and deploy the bootstrapping ethos against one another, using interviews with anti-union Trader Joe's employees to show that resistance to unionization is often rooted in a deeply felt attachment to the industrial work ethic and resentment toward younger coworkers perceived as unwilling to earn their place. These chapters reveal that the American work ethic sets an impossible standard of deservingness for working people, one that can always be redefined by capital to labor's disadvantage. I conclude by arguing that the labor movement must move beyond appeals to hard work as the basis for economic justice and instead embrace a rhetoric of universal rights. By appealing to an alternative work ethic more consciously grounded in the common good, organizers may effectively challenge the ideological grip of the bootstrapping ethos and build the solidarity necessary to grow the movement’s power.