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Yeah - I liked that part of his essay too, I also just generally liked his writing. There’s something satisfying in this kind of work with clear explicit goals
by fossuser 5y ago
Yeah - I liked that part of his essay too, I also just generally liked his writing.
There’s something satisfying in this kind of work with clear explicit goals and getting through the list everyday.
I think a lot of society issues seem to stem from how he briefly felt, that this kind of thing was a sign of failure or that he was embarrassed to tell friends at the holiday party.
The irony to me is that this kind of work is probably more valuable to society than sports illustrated and day to day almost certainly so.
If there was more cultural respect for these kinds of jobs, people would feel better about themselves while doing them. I think there should be. I was glad he felt good about it at the end.
- pydry 5y agoThere would probably be more respect even if nothing else changed except they paid more.
- nitrogen 5y agoI knew a UPS long-haul driver who was making over $100k in 2003.
- sldksk 5y agoThis can’t be overstated. Dignity means having the financial stability required to comfortably live in a decent neighborhood, get married, and raise a family.
- fossuser 5y agoI doubt it. Both because Amazon pay is decent, but more so because it’s more about class expectations than it is about pay. Lots of jobs make a lot of money, but are still not considered high status.
- pydry 5y agoJobs like what? The only ones I can think of are ones which suddenly started paying a lot due to some market quirk (e.g. miners in Australia in the 2010s). Class expectations just take a while to catch up (or never do if the market quirk doesn't persist).
- fossuser 5y agoPlumbing and electrician are the first two that come to mind. Construction would probably be another. Basically “blue collar” jobs that require a lot of expertise. I’d guess some variation and small business risk, but I think many do well.
- roninhacker 5y agoThe reason those don't command respect is because they don't pay well in the main.
- tracedddd 5y agoOil industry workers don’t seem to carry much clout, kind of a dirty job with a lot of physical labor, but pays quite well and has for a while. Truckers can still make an upper middle class salary, especially if they own their truck or focus on a niche (refrigerated, military deliveries, cross border, etc.)
- conductr 5y ago> There’s something satisfying in this kind of work with clear explicit goals and getting through the list everyday. This sums up my mid career crisis. I miss the jobs of my youth where I was just scheduled, showed up, did tasks, and left when scheduled. Of course, a flaw of memories like this is I mainly remember the good parts. When I really try, I remember things like lack of flexibility (working from home, leaving early to meet the plumber/doctor, etc) and honestly how difficult living on a low wage actually was and that was before all the responsibilities I’ve accumulated (family, homes, etc). Also, I always found these jobs truly fun. The carefreeness of other employees and they types of characters you came across was eclectic and interesting. Corporate America does not allow of much of that and is fairly homogeneous even when diversified.
- lazyeye 5y agoI laughed at your phrase "even when diversified". They promote all forms of diversity except diversity of thought. You'll get a far more interesting range of views from a small team of people delivering pizzas than you will from people working at Google.