I'll have to presume that, in context, you mean Americans. If that's the case I'll have to disagree with you because that's not been my experience. Sure, there are those that game the system, and those that cheat, but there are many, many, more that get up and go to work everyday, and work damn hard.

I've seen my neighbors get up in the middle of the night, in the middle of the winter, during the middle of a vicious ice storm, and go to work. I wouldn't ever, not in a thousand years, call them "soft".

I've worked hard too. From the time I was 14 years old I've worked hard. I've sweat, bled, and worked long hours. I've done more than a few shifts that lasted well over 24 hours without a rest. And I wasn't alone either, right there with me were others working just as hard.

I've mostly been, and mostly worked with, the self employed who all work hard, and I've personally known thousands of people that get up while it's still dark every morning and head off to factories or construction sites, and don't get home until it's dark out again. I've seen farmers and laborers out in their fields putting in, and taking out, crops, and they were working damn hard for long hours too.

There are millions of examples of this all around us, all of us, everywhere in the U.S. For most of us, we are surrounded by them everyday, and yet for some of us, we never look at them, or even think about them.

There are a few who've never really worked up a sweat putting bread on the table, and some of those are the very ones that disdain those who do, and call them "soft". The media is full of those types, but it's an absolute falsehood that those I've hung around with have it soft. No one who's ever worked with them would say that.

Being poverty stricken and depending on government and charitable aid is not a soft life. Being unemployed when there is no work isn't either. It never has been. I've seen those affected by it all my life. They are not soft. I've known a lot of successful self employed people that came from their ranks.

Americans are a pretty tough lot. If life is easier for us it's because our ancestors worked hard to make it so. There is no shame in that. There is, however, a responsibility to do the same.