I recently heard about the concept for a reality television show called “Undercover Boss.”’ The show’s premise is that CEOs of major corporations do not respect their employees and believe said employees are somehow beneath them. The show has the boss disguised as a regular worker so he can see how hard his employees have it. He will listen to his employees complain about benefits, pay, bills and the like. I’m sure at the end they all have a big cry and the CEO says he has a new understanding for how hard his employees work for him, blah, blah, blah.

Reality television is on my long list of what has gone wrong with this country over the past decade. No longer is the American Dream something one has to work for. No one respects or is willing to work one’s way up the ladder anymore. People are now conditioned to believe that just because they can fog a mirror, they somehow should be the boss. Americans no longer see the hard work that creates a corporation. All they see is that person in the tie pointing and telling everyone what to do. (By the way, these are the people who offered them the job in the first place! Have you ever gotten a job from a poor person?) Not to mention, we have the government talking about “rights” and how it is going to tax the rich (again, the people who supply the jobs) and give the money to people who don’t even pay taxes.

So what do these two entities—reality television and the government—have in common? Something for nothing. People will stand in line for three days for a chance at a 30-second audition on American Idol. How many résumés could they have sent out in those three days? Why bother; they are going to be rich, right? Overnight? Why should anyone put in the hours and work one’s way up the corporate ladder when being constantly told that the government can and will take care of them?

The CEO of Kellogg started out as a truck driver who barely spoke English. It has also been rumored that he was an illegal alien from Mexico. An immigrant bodybuilder from Austria became the governor of California. One can really see the shift in first- and second-generation immigrants to this country. The first generation comes here for the opportunity and to give their children a better life than they had. They get up before the sun and go home in the dark. Their kids, not so much.

What does that say about this country? The overwhelming societal influence is so strong that it can blind these children into ignoring everything their parents worked for. What’s even worse is that we Americans have gotten to the point where we don’t even try anymore. The ladder is a total waste of time. “Someone will give me what I want because… I deserve it!” I call this the Paris Hilton Syndrome. Until we look at success as earned and not deserved, most Americans will never feel a need to climb the ladder.