I am admitting I watched some lame TV last night...but I did at least get something out of it

Last night I watched part of a show called "Undercover Boss" on CBS. It's one of those feel-good shows that I don't like to admit to watching, yet found myself watching anyway. I watched it once before and both times it's been a fairly boring show. The show consists of a CEO or the President of a company who goes undercover in his own factories, stores, or warehouses to see what the job is like for "the working man," (as if the CEOs aren't working men) and to get to know them a little bit on a personal level. If the people have good attitudes and work ethic, the boss ends of giving them a raise or a promotion, money to put in a college fund for the workers' kids, or some type of other reward.

Anyway, all and all the show is pretty boring. However, both times I've watched there has been one thing that's caught my attention and has got me thinking. The one I watched a couple of months ago was about the CEO of a convenience store chain. One of the workers he hung out with was a Russian man named Igor who came here after the Soviet Union collapsed. He drove a truck around the city during the night and delivered to all the stores. The CEO asked him what his motivation was for getting up and driving all night. Igor explained that it was because in no other country could a man have such a wonderful job and opportunity, and that he if he worked hard enough, maybe he could manage one of the stores. In the episode last night there was a couple from El Salvador working for a moving company who expressed similar sentiments, saying that the company had provided them with extraordinary opportunity.

In both shows the foreigners had the best attitude and were the most grateful. They didn't hate the companies or complain at all. They didn't seem to feel the company owed them, they seemed to feel as if they owed the company. They certainly believed in American Exceptionalism. I really can't picture them being one of the dub-dubs, (Wisconsin-whiners.)

It's too bad that so many people in this country reap the benefits of American Exceptionalism yet only denounce it at every turn.