To What Extent Does Work Influence American Culture and/or Lifestyle - Essay Example

To this heterogeneous mixture exciting new ingredients are being added each day as persons and groups fleeing religious, economic, social and political persecution arrive and are given political asylum. The common ingredient to all these individuals, whether born here or transplanted from some other region, is the desire to find the ‘American dream’ and the willingness to work hard to achieve it. Because of this, ‘work’ becomes the single most important influence on culture and lifestyle in America as people attempt to achieve the glamorous lifestyles they see in the media through hard work and sacrifice.

Those who flee the persecution and oppression of their home country are drawn to this brave new world with its promise of freedom in every form, including the freedom to make a decent living through the willingness to work. The country offers an equality of opportunity in consonance with personal ability and without the shackles of any totalitarian practices that weigh down other nations and societies. For the most important ideals of American culture are a total rejection of controls and checks, equality of opportunity, individualism, free markets, populism, democracy and patriotism.

Anyone willing to work hard is therefore able to find a new life in this country that would never have been available to them elsewhere. While the type of lifestyle they live will be influenced by the type of work they perform, everyone is given equal opportunity to pursue any style of employment they wish if they are willing to get the education or experience necessary. The conception even among these immigrants is that if they work hard and sacrifice other things such as time with family or time for play, they will achieve the quintessential American dream that is depicted in the movies.

This thought is not held by immigrants alone, though. The work culture of America began with the arrival of the Pilgrim Fathers