I think we're missing the point.
Even those of us who DO know what it is to work, and worked hard for a living, and EXPECTED to do so--
We did NOT do it in order to give 30 years of our life to a corporate culture and in the end when we retire get a gold watch as we are ushered out the door for our 25-year-old replacement.
Most of us saw work as a means to an end, and had another goal in mind.
For some of us, it was a goal of achieving financial independence.
For others, it was to get enough of a nest egg to invest in a cherished dream--to start our own business/company, buy a ranch/farm, pursue a research project, create a new invention, support exploration.
For others--to support a family--to marry and raise children in a financially-secure home.
Others saw their 'career'--whatever it might be--as a calling--a way of investing our lives in serving God in daily life, which didn't mean just the usual altruistic paths of being a pastor, doctor, nurse, teacher, care-taker, etc., but in any and every job seeking individually to invest one's life and talents in the service of others FOR God.
ALL of the above outlooks have one thing in common.
Putting something ABOVE one's SELF, and one's immediate personal pleasure.
Immediate personal pleasure was sacrificed--willingly--for the greater goal they had in mind for the future.
...
What we should be asking ourselves is not "why don't kids want to work?" but "Why don't kids today have any VISION for their lives--their future?"
And I have an answer.
They have been TAUGHT this.
God has been utterly removed from their lives--His name was not allowed to be so much as mentioned, His Word was not allowed to be read/taught, and--unless this knowledge came from some outside influence--this generation of young people has grown up with less religious teaching than the most savage cannibal tribe in the jungles.
At least those tribes believe in SOME kind of supreme being, who dictates the purpose of their lives--even if it's a horrible and sadistic one.
These kids have been raised in an utter religious VACUUM--where there is NO soul, NO Higher Being to whom they owe any allegiance or from whom they are to receive any guidance, no life or continuance beyond that of their physical bodies (even though they sense they ARE more than just their physical bodies)---
and without all of the above--therefore they have NO PURPOSE for their lives. No reason for being here. No where to look forward to being. No POINT in working, or enduring, or achieving--because there is no One (above, higher) who is there to REWARD their efforts and sacrifices (and the rewards of mere money and promotions grow stale, over time). No reason to deny themSELVES and live for others. (NOTE-- I am NOT talking here about the FORCED "living for others" that socialism and communism teach--where they are really living for the STATE, not for "others," and merely to enrich or empower a small group of oligarchs. I am talking about VOLUNTARILY laying down one's life for others, because one sees a higher goal or purpose in doing so, which for many that vision and goal is love of and service for God).
These kids are adrift.
And they've been TAUGHT to be adrift.
No law.
No rules.
No soul.
No future.
No eternity.
No God.
No ultimate purpose in the existence of the world, the universe---or themselves.
And without a purpose--
No point in working one's self to death just to earn barely enough money to survive to get up the next morning and do it all over again.
BUT
If there IS a God--
Then we, as His creatures, exist FOR Him
And for purposes HE has determined.
And the real purpose of life is to DISCOVER who this BEING is
And WHY HE has made us
And WHAT He demands of us.
THIS is what OUR generations knew--even those who weren't church-goers or "religious"--but who had enough societal "EXPOSURE" to these concepts to know that there DID EXIST a goal and a purpose BEYOND THEMSELVES--
and found our fulfillment in that.
These kids are empty.
And in despair.