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I think a big part of it is social status and marriageability. There is a social stigma against the trades that relegates its workers to low social status. PhD’
by chongli 5y ago
I think a big part of it is social status and marriageability. There is a social stigma against the trades that relegates its workers to low social status. PhD’s in history might struggle to feed themselves on their meagre lecturer salaries but they can insist that you address them as Dr.
A plumber might make a lot more money but they’ll never be able to shake the association with dirty, unpleasant work, despite the fact that a great deal of plumbers work in new installations for construction rather than household repair.
- andrewmcwatters 5y agoIt's temporary on a generational timeline. When I think of young and old PhDs alike, I don't think of high status individuals. I think of people who spent too long in academia. Most of them don't contribute breakthrough insights to their field in their lifetime, but rather make indentations to broader collective knowledge. That's not high status to me. I think more highly of someone who owns their own plumbing business. An employer has more status to me because they command labor. A PhD graduate will most of the time be contributing deep narrow insight to a larger organization, not using their studies for entrepreneurial pursuits.
- reducesuffering 5y ago"I think a big part of it is social status and marriageability. There is a social stigma against the trades that relegates its workers to low social status." This is fast changing. The days of "ooh they work in an office" vs. your average handyman are mostly gone US metro areas. If anything, electricians, mechanics, carpenters, firefighters, etc. are seen as "manly men" with the surviving traditional masculinity compared to most men in metro areas.