If I ever have kids, I would not spoil them at all. I would at least make it look like the living standards are minimal, or even “bad”, in an effort to propel them towards the achievement of their own self-mobility within society. Here’s the way I see it: you can either raise someone with so much luxury they don’t have much to work for, or motivate them to improve their positions within life by being frugal and giving them the impression that the family isn’t so “well off”.

My parents weren’t exactly tiger parents, pressuring us all the time to get good grades in school. Heck, even my brother dropped out of college and became a janitor (and now still lives at home with his wife in my ex-room). Instead, I valued everything they did for me in terms of the hard work they put into raising the entire family. With a salary of less than 10k a year, they were able to provide the necessary amount of foods in our stomach (not so much clothing though). The struggle they had in providing these said benefits were systematically the result of hard work. And, in being poor, I had the self-motivation within myself to propel myself forward in life –> in terms of striving towards a future career, I am trying to CHANGE the tides that be, and alter my ultimate future. I see so many people whose parents work so hard to provide for them, and they do absolutely nothing to improve upon their conditions. This could be out of laziness or an unwillingness to recognize the values that hard work inevitably will bring.

Questionably, the American Dream is at a crossroads. Where “rags to riches” was once possible, it is now diminished with the shrinking of the American middle class (due to various factors that include the rise of inflation and the policies of the Federal Reserve System). And yet, it isn’t hard to get a job in the United States. If you are STRUGGLING TO SURVIVE, you will do whatever it takes to care for your family. Whether this be at McDonald’s, or some dead-end job you hate, Maslow’s hierarchy of needs states that the first rung of the pyramid must be satisfied before you can advance your way back up.

Walt Whitman perhaps exemplifies the value of hard work (in America) best in his poem I hear America Singing:

I hear America singing, the varied carols I hear,
Those of mechanics, each one singing his as it should be blithe
and strong,
The carpenter singing his as he measures his plank or beam,
The mason singing his as he makes ready for work, or leaves off
work,
The boatman singing what belongs to him in his boat, the deck-
hand singing on the steamboat deck,
The shoemaker singing as he sits on his bench, the hatter singing
as he stands,
The woodcutter’s song, the ploughboy’s on his way in the morn-
ing, or at noon intermission or at sundown,
The delicious singing of the mother, or of the young wife at work,
or of the girl sewing or washing,
Each singing what belongs to him or her and to none else,
The day what belongs to the day—at night the party of young
fellows, robust, friendly,
Singing with open mouths their strong melodious songs.

A positive work ethic will propel you towards the future you want. The amount of effort one wishes to put into pursuing said dreams will parallel the amount of success ultimately down the road.