The "Puritan work ethic" has had an unfortunate side effect. If you push the message that work = financial success too strongly, you reinforce poverty = lazy by implication. It can be quite a chore getting through to people that luck and opportunity (and other advantages) have a lot to do with success as well.
Thats probably the source of the trouble. I know recall one of the later Freakonomics stories was about how in Germany way back during Martin Luther (the original) times, they found stats that indicated the protestants were more productive than the catholics.
So I'm guessing there was some kind of culture of work super hard going on. With the side effect as you noted of what the inverse implies.
This is also probably a factor why some rich millionaires will brag about working hard all their life, 80+ work weeks and tell everyone else they are lazy.