Wow, that's an amazing take; thanks for that. I really feel that is on track with reality. Because didn't they formerly have chain-gangs breaking rocks in the h

Wow, that's an amazing take; thanks for that. I really feel that is on track with reality. Because didn't they formerly have chain-gangs breaking rocks in the hot sun, and making license plates and other manual labor jobs? There are indeed still prison-based industries. I've heard entire call-centers are staffed by prisoners and many on work-release are at normal restaurants and the like. As for construction, yeah. I worked day-labor for 2-3 days total in my entire life, and it was hell. I have always been groomed as an intellectual knowledge-worker in offices. Assigned by a day-labor office, the contractors set me to working machinery I was totally unfamiliar with. Every day laborer was required to own our attire and safety equipment at own-expense. There was no way anyone could move up without specialized training and experience with the machines they put us on. I had to ride the bus around to time-sensitive jobs at random sites. Then blew the paycheck on a hotel with a shower. I was never gonna learn that heavy-equipment stuff if I had a bunch of computer savvy and risking injury. I literally couldn't operate the machine without my glasses falling off! It's interesting how you allude to the Irish and Chinese rail workers, and dockworkers/longshoremen of bygone days. It's sort of amazing to think that my able-bodied ancestors could just throw themselves into some milieu and get paid for sweaty physical work. That doesn't seem possible in today's mechanized economy. President Kennedy warned us all from Butler County. Here we remain.