Working with your hands

[wingnut]

Don't know if you all saw this. I ran across it on the XJ site and the article nails it very well. A little long but worth the time.

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/05/24/ma...ewanted=1&_r=3

[CatatonicBug]

Well-said. Very true. We, as a culture have been taught to de-value the working class, and that has lead to the demoralization and deconstruction of entire communities that were built up around things like mining, steelworking and the auto industry. We have been taught to look at blue-collar as bad and white-collar as good, and even successful. We sit in frustration when the power goes out during a storm, and the electrical companes take "too long" to give us our power back, without a thougt of thanks to the men and women who are out there in the rain and the cold, working to make it happen. As much as Memorial Day should be recognized, I think maybe we need to express some increased value for the hands that build our nation, and really celebrate Labor Day with increased vigor.

[Toolmaker Tim]

I believe I will be looking for his book. I remember a news program in the late 80's, early 90's, the insisted we needed to become less of a manufactuing based society. They asked why schools even bothered with "outdated" and "obsolete" shop classes. The most profitable economies out there now are manufacturing based. Countries like China, India, Indonesia and their ilk. We are now looking at our economy imploding because it doesn't produce anything desirable.

[crazy steve]

Interesting article. Brings to mind several things; first, when my oldest kid wanted to take auto shop in high school about 15 years ago, I went with him to talk to the teacher and what was being taught in the class. I was dismayed to find that they were merely training 'parts replacers' with almost a complete lack of background theory and nearly the same amount of mechanical knowledge, all admitted to by the teacher. The debasing of the manual arts has reached nearly epidemic proportions, with less and less value attached to them. Even when you have somebody that knows what they're doing, some management moron will likely overrule them and you get crap. So many of the people who would be suited to this work (and be good at it) won't do this or are driven out of the field, to be replaced by ever-cheaper replacements. Sadly, as wages stay stagnant, the employer still has to raise prices to the customer to cover repairing the shoddy work his 'cheap' employees do. As a general rule, if you pay peanuts, you get monkeys.

And the white-collar illusion is starting to show it's cracks. I watched a round-table discussion recently and it was mentioned that for the last ten years, over 40% of ALL reported corporate profits were from the financial sector. A 'industry' that produces nothing but simply adds a 'corporate tax' i.e. profit to every transaction that affects the rest of us. One of the guys said that was a loud signal that something was wrong with our economy, but the big money was able to buy the politicians into turning a blind eye. Until we wake up, it ain't gonna get better....