Do we call people hard-working simply because they show up for work and behave in a docile way at work?

Is there anything like that in 'hard-working' Mexico?And doesn't hard work go hand in hand with success and prosperity in American minds, at least? Where is the evidence of all that hard work in Latin America? Why is there so much squalor, disorder, disease, dysfunction, and poverty where there is so much 'hard work'? I wish the illegals' apologists would explain that away if they could. I suspect the best they could offer is that 'well, their culture keeps them down.' Really? And where does their culture come from? Or the excuse would be something like 'they have leaders who exploit them and keep them in poverty.' Well, leaders don't arise in a vacuum. The corrupt leaders they have in Latin America are part and parcel of the culture. And where does the culture come from?There is 'hard work' and there is smart work; there is hard work, and there is efficient work. There is hard work and there is quality work. There is hard work and there is skillful work. 'Hard' work isn't necessarily the best work; those who 'work hard' are sometimes struggling at the job they are doing. Generations of our ancestors lived very well without cheap illegal labor. We did for ourselves; we cut our own gr, tended to our own kids, cooked our own meals, did our own home repairs or hired local, competent craftsmen to do it if we couldn't. The idea that we Americans, whose ancestors built this country up from a wilderness are feckless, feeble children who can't manage without third-world peasants to 'do for us' is insulting at the very least.