David Azerrad for the Heritage Foundation:
For all the talk these days of how to revive our supposedly moribund
American Dream, it took a college dropout-turned-actor to state the obvious.
“I believe that opportunity looks a lot like work,” Ashton Kutcher recently
said at the Teen Choice Awards. “I never had a job in my life that I was better than. I was always just lucky to have a job. And every job I had was a stepping stone to my next job, and I never quit my job until I had my next job. And so opportunities look a lot like work.”
Whereas if you're just an ordinary worker like Ashton Kutcher, with nothing to contribute but muscle and obedience, you'd better recognize it. And who knows? Kutcher got invited by the grateful bosses to pretend to be a famous entrepreneur, for an hourly rate of—well, who knows? (He took $700,000 per 30-minute episode of Two and a Half Men). Actually he got to be an entrepreneur too, investing in 33 technology startup firms in the last three years, to say nothing of being the producer of the aptly named Jobs. Shame the movie tanked at the box office. I'm sure the risk-taking Ashton in the entrepreneur hat must have lost tons of money for which the earnings of the humble Ashton in the hard hat could hardly compensate.
And also, workers, give some thought on this Labor Day to thanking Mr. Kutcher for taking the time to remind us how important it is to be humble and thankful to the patron who has the kindness to give us a chance in spite of our obvious inability to perform a task more complicated than talking and preening at the same time. Tug that forelock!
