Our America — the greatest country on the Earth — was literally built on the sweat and hard work of the generations who came before us. But Americans today are becoming increasingly disconnected from the basic work ethic that once drove us to excel at building everything from furniture to battleships, from homes to highways.

We as a nation are becoming increasingly dependent on jobs that do not produce lasting goods and products. Put simply, we don’t celebrate the hard work that goes into the creation of our most basic necessities such as food, clean water, electricity or a roof over our heads. We’ve gone from farm chores to cubicle farms, and along the way lost touch with all the rewards that come from a hard day’s work. The C-Suite — the highest-level executive positions — has become the exalted goal, and the path to the halls of upper management doesn’t come through the mailroom anymore. Increasingly, we’re told that the only path to success must include a university degree. Apprenticeships, vocational training, technical schools and the like are shunned as young people are herded toward tens of thousands of dollars of student-loan debt in a quest for four-year liberal-arts degrees, degrees that in too many cases will never pay for themselves.