There has been a decline in the number of people doing trade labors for some time. This decline is do to the view society has upon those that do this type work. Ever since the computer has been introduced into the class rooms of high schools in the mid 80's, people have only been interested in professions that use them. We have been brainwashed in believing that technology jobs are the only good jobs.

The fact is, that this view of computer jobs are better than any other jobs has lead to people not wanting to do other jobs. We have created a society where everybody has to have a job in a clean enviroment. Nobody wants to get dirty anymore. I hired a high school kid to help do some shovel work. I mean dig holes with a shovel on a job. He would not go into any kind of restaurant at noon with me, because he didn't want anybody to see him dirty. I had to bring his lunch to him on the job site. This is not an isolated incident. I have gone into restaurants dirty from work and have gotten meals on the house. Another time I was in line at a fast food place, had this little girl is hiding behind her mother and heard her mother say "It's okay it's just the job he does." Does society really see somebody that gets dirty as being homeless?

Have we become so vain about our looks that we seek jobs where we can look good? Yes, people are more worried about their looks than doing work. Society looks down upon those that do manual labor. As American's we should be ashamed of our actions. Those people that do manual labor are the same ones that built this country years ago. In fact it is those same hard working people that built those things you use all the time. The freeway system, to the simplest of inventions in your home were built by people doing manual labor.

How dare you snub your nose to those that worked at making the things you surround yourself with. How does one look down upon those that makes your life better? There was a man from wall street working in his office one evening. It was after hours and a janitor was emptying trash cans in his office. This man of wall street started picking on this older fellow cleaning up. He harassed him about being just janitor and told him how degrading it was to be who he was. The janitor just kept on working as this guy degraded him. The janitor let the wall street man tell him about all the nice things he had that he could never afford to have. This went on for a little while, then the frail janitor spoke, " Let me tell you something young man, I have more money than you will ever make in your lifetime working here. I own the cleaning company and have 600 employees that work for me. I started out working for a company that did this and created my own business. I had an employee call in sick and I'm filling for him tonight." This is a true story and the point I am trying to make is that people should not look down upon those that work for a living. They might be a lot better off than they look.

At one time people that worked really hard were respected. The blacksmith, cabinet maker, lumber jack, farmer, etc. were looked upon as experts in their fields and treated like so. What happened to respect for those that do hard work? Has laziness become the standard? Is it more important to look good than to do meaningful work? Are we so vain as to degrade those that get dirty? I know one thing and that is society will pay for its lack of respect for the working guy. Who will be left to do these things?

Learn more about this author, Robert Bluck.
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