Years ago I remember reading about a study that indicated that long term unemployment (1 year or longer) actually had a significant negative impact on a person's work ethic ...
With that said, I don't think the high unemployment has much to do with people being lazy (yet), and has far more to do with the government crowding out private industry, bailing out corrupt and inefficient large companies at the expense of individuals and small businesses, heavy weight and ineffective regulation that crushes innovation, globalization leading to offshoring of jobs, illegal immigration allowing employeers to hire someone locally at a fraction what a citizen would cost, and countless other factors that the government seems completely unwilling to address ...
