six days shall ye work

Regarding mankind, no theme is more salient in the Bible than the morality of personal responsibility, for it is through this that man cultivates the inner development leading to his own growth, good citizenship and happiness. The entitlement/welfare state is a paradigm that undermines that noble goal. 

The Bible's proclamation that "Six days shall ye work" is its recognition that on a day-to-day basis work is the engine that brings about man's inner state of personal responsibility. Work develops the qualities of accountability and urgency, including the need for comity with others as a means for the accomplishment of tasks. With work, he becomes imbued with the knowledge that he is to be productive and that his well-being is not an entitlement. And work keeps him away from the idleness that Proverbs warns leads inevitably to actions and attitudes injurious to himself and those around him. 

ARYEH SPERO, "What the Bible Teaches About Capitalism," Wall Street Journal. JANUARY 30, 2012, 11:38 A.M. ET.

the idle generation

The idle generation! Hours each day and nothing to do… We want you parents to create work for your children… "What can we do?" they ask. Do the shopping, work in the hospital, help the neighbors and the church custodian, wash dishes, vacuum the floors, make the beds, get the meals, learn to sew. Read good books, … clean the house, press your clothes, rake the leaves, shovel the snow, peddle paper. Lawmakers in their overeagerness to protect the child have legislated until the pendulum has swung to the other extreme. But no law prohibits most work…


Spencer W. Kimball, Teachings of Spencer W. Kimball, p.360-1. See also D&C 42:42

It would be thought a hard government that should tax its people one-tenth part of their time, to be employed in its service. But idleness taxes many of us much more, if we recon all that is spend in absolute sloth, or doing of nothing, with that which is spend in idle employments or amusements, that amount to nothing.


Benjamin Franklin - (1706-90), U.S. statesman, scientist, inventor and writer. Autobiography and Other Writings by Benjamin Franklin, edited by Russel B. Nye. 1949. p.169