The Mormon Work Ethic: The Economist Notices Utah

The Mormon Work Ethic: Why Utah’s economy is soaring above its neighbours” is a story in the Oct. 23 edition of The Economist. Interesting thoughts. I think they miss how severe the real estate market has been hit in some sectors, but it’s a nice read anyway. (Hat tip to Richard Miller.)

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Author: Jeff Lindsay

10 thoughts on “The Mormon Work Ethic: The Economist Notices Utah

  1. I read this article and I agree with it in part. Yes, Utah Mormons have a great work ethic, but Utah is also home to heritages of other hard-working people like miners’ descendents, Japanese Americans, railroad workers etc.

  2. jayleenb said:
    Compare and contrast a Conservative State such as Utah and a liberal State such as California.

    Huh? Compare and contrast how?
    What is Utah but a place for companies to move to hire cheap labor. Kinda like China.
    Having lived in both states, I can say that my California city and its citizens have a lot more culture and class than any I visited in Utah.
    I once was in an auto accident coming out of the Crossroads mall. I paid the parking fee, the bar went up, I pulled out and some inbred that was driving his pick up on the side walk plowed into my new Jeep.
    Of course he had no insurance, and blamed me for driving too fast. Ahhh you Utahns!
    Nooo, you can keep your backwoods folk and I will be happy in my over educated Liberal Left Coast California city. 🙂

  3. Anonymous @ 7:23pm,
    The article is about Work Ethic and not about your perceived view of Utah’s lack of culture and class. How many people must have stories of an unfortunate thing that occurred to them while in California? I’m sure there are heaps. I’m dumbfounded as to how a vehicle accident (or any one occurrence with any one individual) reflects poorly on an entire state’s work ethic.

  4. No, I don’t allow that sort of thing. Zapped. Sorry I didn’t catch it immediately – but I do have a life and day job.

  5. Wow. It must be comforting for Anonymous (from 7:23pm Nov 11) to know that California has no car accidents with uninsured drivers. Right?

    But seriously, folks: What strikes me about the article is that it picks up the subject of Sunday work but doesn't do anything with it. Is it occurring to P&G, or any of the other major companies coming to Utah, that there's a Utah way of doing business and that it's a good thing? Maybe instead of trying harder to entice folks to work on Sunday, Procter & Gamble should recognize that not asking them to work on Sunday is a smart adjustment to local conditions that will only make their workers and their business better.

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