You can't blame kids for seeing that work should be avoided at all costs, because most of the work today is little more than fluffing pillows or doing something that really has no need in being performed.
I grew up in the 70's and 80's. I watched men go to work six days a week to manufacture what we need. I also witnessed the Free Trade Agreements and Vulture Capitalists take all those jobs first to Mexico and then China. That economy doesn't exist anymore. Those same hard working men that had really good work ethics were sitting on the couch drinking beer by the late 90's with nothing to do but accept a depressing humiliating job where they were forced to perform for a boss that loves demeaning them.
When I was growing up we had Made in the USA labels on everything, even my shoes had it and they were great quality. Good luck finding that today.
So what do the kids have. 30% will graduate from College with lots of debt, many of them will find a trade to make a living, they will work in service jobs. They'll have a good run for about 25 years, then their skills will become obsolete, they will lose their jobs, they will have a tough time finding other jobs and it will be for less money.
There really is no hope for this. I've seen this cycle happen over and over and over.
The kids today also probably don't work as hard because they're sitting around looking at all the bullshit people buy to get themselves into massive debt and they don't want that for themselves. So they sit back, live with less and enjoy the free time.
I wasn't born to be a worker bee, my existence isn't validated by working 80hrs a week. If that's your identity, if you are caught up in what others think of you, then you really aren't living, you're simply filling a role that is expected of you. And this is coming from someone that busted his ass in school and worked many times 24hr shifts, 18hr days for weeks on projects. I eventually had enough money to say fuck it and walked away from it. I now do what I want to do when I want to do it. People look at me like I'm a bum because I don't go to work, but I have zero debt, I have enough money to last 50 years easy, but society doesn't care, they seem to think that the only thing in life is to be in service of others, but I say fuck that. My motto is mind you own damn business, I don't give a fuck about you and you shouldn't care about me.