The President said, “We’ve been a little bit lazy over the last couple of decades,” President Obama said. “We’ve kind of taken for granted — ‘Well, people would want to come here’ — and we aren’t out there hungry, selling America and trying to attract new businesses into America.”
He was talking to business leaders and urging them to sell America more. He could have said that we have been remiss in our efforts, or that there’s more we could do. Instead he used the value judgment that we are lazy, and he will suffer for it thoughout the campaign (as will we all).
Personally, I think the notion of lazy is bullshit. There is no such thing as laziness. There are merely differing priorities. Do I prefer to make beautiful cars, or sit around chatting up beautiful girls? If I do the latter, you will surely call me lazy, but making girls is much more fun than making cars—at least to some of us.
Should I write the research paper or play the video game? Well, shoot, if I write the paper, I might graduate from college and get a good job and be able to retire at age 50. But that’s 30 years from now and who knows what will happen. If I play the video game, I’ll surely get more value from my time. Never mind that people will think I’m lazy.
In terms of delayed gratification… I dunno how American compare. If you are rich, you can afford to gratify yourself because you aren’t so worried about your future.