This released energy and initiative nurtured seeds of enterprise which became capitalism. It nurtured the spiritual understandings which became Protestantism. The union between the two is not easily unraveled. In our present crisis, some things are clear. Work does not make us happy.
People are painfully aware of the disjuncture between work and happiness.
We continue to live by a belief we no longer trust. That which we thought would save us clearly has not. Yet our economic culture, our social life, and even our families are constructed around the belief in this connection between work and happiness. In the death of the work ethic, we face a spiritual crisis and a material crisis at one time. Every day, we embark on tasks that are supposed to be good and to bring us happiness.