[[File:Niall Ferguson.jpg|thumbnail|200px|right|[[Niall Ferguson]] ]]
'''''The Protestant Ethic and the Spirit of Capitalism''''' is a highly influential 1905 book by sociologist [[Max Weber]]. The ethic consists of hard work, disdain for leisure, competitive spirit and a profit motive to provide an incentive to achieve.
[[Harvard University]] historian [[Niall Ferguson]] declared: "Through a mixture of hard work and thrift the [[Protestantism|Protestant]] societies of the North and West Atlantic achieved the most rapid economic growth in history."<ref>[http://blog.tifwe.org/the-protestant-work-ethic-alive-well-in-china/ The Protestant Work Ethic: Alive & Well…In China] By Hugh Whelchel on September 24, 2012</ref>
Scholars in the Weberian tradition have argued that a Protestant-like work ethic found in traditional Japanese religions provided a motivational force in the early stage of Japanese industrialization during the Meiji era. Such an argument is misleading in several respects. No clear evidence indicates that the work ethic is found in traditional Japanese religions. Moreover, an assumption that religion guided the direction of economic development in Japan is more apparent than real. The Japanese business elite borrowed their work ethic from Europe, just as they borrowed the modern European technology.<ref>Moon H. Jo, "Japanese Traditional Values and Industrialization," ''International Social Science Review'' 1987 62(1): 3-13.</ref><ref>[http://link.springer.com/chapter/10.1007%2F978-94-007-2387-0_28The Impact of Protestant Christians upon Modern Education in Japan Since the 19th Century]</ref>
American business/work/cultural practices also had an influence on Japan and the work of the management consultant [[William Edwards Deming|W. Edwards Deming]] has a significant influence on post World War II Japan.<ref>[http://www.qfdi.org/newsletters/deming_in_japan.html Deming Influence on Post-war Japanese Quality Development]</ref><ref>[http://link.springer.com/chapter/10.1007%2F978-94-007-2387-0_28The Impact of Protestant Christians upon Modern Education in Japan Since the 19th Century]</ref>
==Slavery==
== See also ==
*[[Business ethics]]*[[Protestant cultural legacies]]
*[[Atheism and sloth]]