Yes, inherited. I don't know about you, but I certainly didn't "earn" my parents, nor did I "earn" the work ethic I learned from them. I lucked into it. What do we do with people whose parents lacked the work ethic that wasp69's parents had? How are these citizens to blame for their parents' failures?
More importantly, what are we willing to do about it? My point was that we can't force parents, constitutionally, to create a good work ethic in their children. So, now what?

-Laelth
We could start with the school system. The fact that anybody is able to graduate high school without being able to read or write is testament that we as a society are fostering poor work habits from a young age. School should be holding children back a grade in the younger years when they don't learn what they are supposed to learn, or failing them when they are older and don't do what they are expected to do.
There should be a work element to welfare, a certain number of hours of work for society in exchange for your benefits. You don't work, you don't get your benefits, just like a job. There should be some sort of work element when it comes to benefits like section 8 housing, and there should be consequences for trashing a place.
Conservative philosophy isn't about being "mean," it is about the fact that in life actions have consequences. If you work hard you can do very well, if you don't work hard life becomes more challenging. I don't have a problem with temporary unemployment benefits, after all, anybody can fall on hard times. I do have a problem with able bodied adults collecting any sort of government benefits long term.
WIC is an example of a good program. Limits are set, it is for pregnant women and for families with children 5 and under, and there are guidelines on what you can purchase. SNAP is an example of a similar program that is not run as well. No, I don't want people to starve, but why shouldn't they have guidelines on what they can buy with money given to them by the government? Why not require a certain number of hours of volunteer work to exchange for their SNAP benefits?
Expecting something for nothing is a learned behavior, and like any learned behavior it can be changed.