I disagree about that being the root cause of the issue. It's true that in some countries there is a sort of permanent work contract that essentially means once you are in, you cannot be fired; that's obviously bad. In my experience, work ethic, or perhaps, bargaining power, is generational, long story short: young people have to work much harder/longer for lower pay than boomers, due to the lack of leverage of their generation and overall market conditions.

Agree with your second paragraph, just disagreeing with the generous work/life conditions part, that's something that was enjoyed by boomers (through country-level debt, even!), but new generations work harder for a salary that in US terms looks like scraps.