The meaning and value of work has changed over the past half century.
My father was in awe of workers, of the blue collar kind. I was taught to never get in the way of a worker who was carrying bricks or lumber or even a salesperson bringing a box of shoes out of the storage area. The worker and his work were sacrosanct. That view was widely held when I was growing up. It had been a view widely held for the previous 80 years during the rapid expansion of industrial commerce. The photo on the right is of an heroic statue honoring the "mechanic."
I can understand...
I can understand this respect for blue collar work. It is clearly positive for all of us. We can see the people who build our houses, bridges, sewers and skyscrapers and remove our garbage and we can respect their contribution to the contemporary world.
That simple minded and somewhat romantic view of workers and work was
destroyed by one reality and was replaced by a larger more
sophisticated reality.
The reality that destroyed the awe that many of us held for blue collar workers were: unions.
Think union and we immediately think featherbedding, men standing
around with shovels doing nothing and worst of all, a bunch of bigots
who wouldn’t let blacks join their high wage unions. The greatest
injustice Americans my age could see was Jim Crow and Jim Crow was a
blue collar union guy at a cushy high paid job.
Think union, now, and we picture government employees striking for benefits
that are unreasonable (triple overtime)… like air traffic controllers
wanting a raise for their jobs…controllers who already earn three times the
average worker or pilots who earn five times the average worker
demanding job security and bonuses. Think union and we think about
postal workers who can’t do their work any slower or more incompetently.
What has replaced the blue collar hero and his work?
The replacement are the men and women who create the work for the
worker. The replacement is the private sector entrepreneur, the self
employed small business innovator, the creative people who start
businesses and the managers who expand the businesses and make them
succeed.
The private sector business creator and manager is the contemporary version of the blue collar worker. These people are now appreciated for their contribution to our society and prosperity.
What a change, what a wonderful change.
Because commerce thrives on merit, honesty and diversity the heroes of commerce are rightly becoming the heroes of the modern democratic world. The new version of productive work is a positive version.