In a dismal economy, Generation Y is entering the workforce with sky-high expectations. They want it all: cushy jobs, high pay, great benefits—without all the icky hard work.

A new study puts hard numbers to a trend that is frustrating many employers: 20-somethings without work ethic or self-discipline who feel entitled to the good life.

It’s a sign of the “affluenza” that afflicts our culture. In biblical terms, we’re rich and increased with goods, yet spiritually miserable, poor, blind and naked.

The biggest change the workforce is encountering is young people’s increased appetite for leisure time. “The combination of not wanting to work hard but still wanting more money and status verifies the sense of entitlement many have identified among Generation Y,” said the study, published in the Journal of Management, which surveyed attitudes toward work in over 16,500 Americans of various ages.

The trend is jarringly at odds with the values upon which the country was founded. The first three centuries of life in America were distinguished by the “Protestant ethic,” as Tocqueville called it: a mindset that emphasized hard work, individual responsibility, thrift and deferred gratification. Even the immigrants who flocked to the nation’s shores over the years came to claim a uniquely American promise: that they would be free to work themselves into wealth.

Over the last three generations, however, beginning with the baby boomers (born 1946-64), norms regarding work, compensation and leisure have shifted dramatically. Upheavals included 1960s radicalism, 1980s materialism, the expansion of the welfare state and the growth of the self-esteem movement. These have created a “get it while you can” self-absorption that is dangerously free from the moorings of industriousness, self-discipline, honesty and other foundational ideals.

Among boomer and Gen-X workers, this transformation gave birth to problems like the unprecedented corporate corruption that torpedoed the economy.

In Generation Y, we see something of a new breed. They have generally enjoyed greater privilege and prosperity, with fewer demands, lighter discipline, less responsibility and more praise than their forebears. That’s a potent cocktail. Symptoms of inebriation include a spotty work ethic; greater interest in salary and status than in taking pride in their work; lousy communication skills and a lack of common courtesy; ignorance of the moral value in diligence and industry; and tendencies to prioritize leisure over labor and to view their job just as a way of paying bills.

Not exactly the sort of employees that America’s hard-hit, downsizing companies are yearning for.

Britain is seeing the same trend. Employers there describe British graduates as “divas at work who expect everything to fall into their laps,” according to research by the Association of Graduate Recruiters (agr). Though they consider themselves invaluable, incoming workers are in reality “unrealistic,” “self-centered,” “fickle” and “greedy,” bosses say.

One of them is Lucy Neville-Rolfe, one of Britain’s most successful businesswomen, who directs corporate and legal affairs for retailing giant Tesco, Britain’s version of WalMart. In a speech last week, she addressed the problem squarely: “More [graduates] seem to have a problem with things like turning up on time and coming to an interview properly dressed. … Some seem to think that the world owes them a living” (emphasis mine throughout).

Many companies searching for solid workers are actively recruiting foreigners, the agr report says.

In Australia, too, jaded companies are telling recruiting agencies to simply stop sending them anyone in their 20s. A 2007 survey revealed employers’ frustration over their poor spelling and grammar and their inappropriate corporate behavior. “But, it seems, Gen-Ys either don’t know or don’t care about their employers’ distinct lack of enthusiasm for what they have to offer,” reported news.com.au. “Almost 90 percent of employers surveyed agree Gen-Ys are more demanding than other workers when it comes to advancing their careers, and 79 percent say Gen-Ys are more likely to ask for a pay rise.”

Is any of this a shock to anyone? This is what happens when we fill our kids’ minds with self-affirming garbage like, “I am even more amazing than I thought,” and don’t let them keep score in sports so no one feels like a loser.

“If children aren’t learning the importance of discipline at school—or, dare I say it, in the family—how can we expect them magically to have learned it by the time they turn up looking for work?” Mrs. Neville-Rolfe asked. Academic standards are declining, yet grades continue to rise. Thus, “As an employer it’s much harder to differentiate between tons of candidates all with the same impressive array of As and A+s,” she complained. Fair enough.

Last week, one British school administrator pinpointed reality television and ubiquitous celebrity as contributors to the problem, as students are force-fed the lie that achievement in life should be splashy, instantaneous and effortless. “It is difficult for teachers to compete,” he told a conference of education leaders. “Success in learning just doesn’t come fast enough.”

The government has magnified this problem by erecting the byzantine welfare state, which for many has become a perfect path to the instantaneous, effortless success they seek. Shame in dependency upon government money is simply gone; more and more people feel public provision is a natural-born right. In Britain—perhaps the worst example—the state supplies handouts for the sick and incapable to 2.6 million people. About one in five of those—over half a million individuals—are thought to be able to work, but unwilling.

Who are these people? Last fall, a study in Britain found that with each successive generation, people are growing more willing to cheat to get government benefits, with the worst offenders being, again, the 20-somethings. “It has long been recognized that generous unemployment benefits create moral hazard,” the report said: “Workers are partly protected against the consequences of being unemployed, so they are less likely to search for jobs with the same intensity.” The report’s author, Jean-Baptiste Michau of the Center for Economic Performance, explained, “When workers from the baby boom generation entered the labor market in the 1970s, they had a weaker work ethic than their parents and the moral hazard problem of unemployment benefits became much more severe.”

That is what happens when you throw aside the wisdom of the Bible. The scriptural command is that if someone doesn’t work, he doesn’t eat. Giving someone unmerited welfare may look righteous, but it inevitably turns into more of a curse than a blessing.

“[T]he truth is that a certain humility and an ability to work hard are important for success in our business,” Mrs. Neville-Rolfe said.

Absolutely right: That is the truth of it. All these problems trace back to our abandoning of biblical morals and supplanting them with artificial virtues of our own design. Rejecting that sound wisdom—including its instruction on conduct becoming employees, as well as parental discipline, behavior in children and so on—pooh-poohing the importance of those “Protestant ethic” values—in reality, God-given values—is devastating our society. The results are getting uglier with time.

Today’s gloomy economy is already beclouding many young workers’ sky-high expectations. The trend is prophesied to get far worse. “Rich and increased with goods” is already ending. That spiritual condition—miserable, poor, blind, naked—is about to become visible physical reality.