Acquiring the Puritan Work Ethic

Pro’s argument is that America is founded exclusively on the Puritan work ethic. This is a dubious claim First, it assumes on its face that this was universal. But the Puritan work ethic only applied to the northeast during the colonial period. The reason this is true is because once the country was actually founded, most immigrants came through the northeast since it was a more immigrant friendly region where upward mobility was meaningful. And most of the immigrants that came, came from diverse backgrounds, including the Irish who were Catholic and thus could not have be Puritans, therefore could not be said to subscribe to the idea of a Puritan work ethic. Moreover, the southern part of the United States was more Anglican (white population) at the time of the founding, thus were did not subscribe to the Puritan work ethic, since Puritans were Calvinists. Slaves, which came from every section of Africa were not Christian but continued to hold to their traditional religious beliefs.

There is a 1,000 character limit--BOP = 100% Pro's.

The main contention espoused by Pro is the Puritan work ethic was the driving force behind economic growth and innovation. This is false. Even though Pro decided not to provide a shred of evidence for claims made, Con will. It was not the Puritan work ethic that transformed America but the Industrial Revolution. The Industrial Revolution transformed everything and involved innovation, manipulation of natural resources, taking place roughly at the end of the nineteenth century. Because of the character limit I will simply try to make my point using pictures, I apologize to voters but there is not any more space to make other arguments. Finally, I would state that Con should receive points for conduct (Pro’s forfeiture), argument (undermined Pro and provided alternative explanation), and evidence (used to advance my own argument and refute Pro’s even though I could have dismissed it without evidence since Pro made it without evidence).