Arthur Brooks: America and the Value of 'Earned Success'

[saveliberty]

Wall Street Journal:

• OPINION
  
• May 8, 2012, 6:31 p.m. ET
  

Arthur Brooks: America and the Value of 'Earned Success'

 

'We found that even when good things occurred that weren't earned, like nickels coming out of slot machines, it did not increase people's well-being.'

 

By ARTHUR C. BROOKS

 

I learned to appreciate the American free enterprise system by quitting a job in Spain.

At age 19, I dropped out of school to pursue a career as a French horn player. After a few twists and turns, I wound up in the Barcelona Symphony, which was a Spanish government job.

 

Even as a foreigner, I had the same lifetime work status as a clerk at the water department. Nobody ever left these jobs, except with lavish disability packages. (One colleague who injured his lips moonlighting at a dance-hall gig ended up spending the next 20 years collecting a full salary to stay home.)