Are We In a "War against Work"?

For my analysis this week, I have decided to comment on the three media pieces Rizzo offered. The first video is the Mike Rowe discussing of how we belittle necessary jobs, the second is on the inherent injustice of tariffs, and the third is actually a brief audio clip describing how old-time Cigar makers were actually better educated and informed than the general population due to the hiring of "lectors", men or women who were hired to read newspapers or political pieces to the workers. The general theme is how our prideful American attitudes toward work unfairly victimize necessary but unglamorous occupations. Underlying themes are how American arrogance increases unemployment, and how bureaucrats try to control jobs they know nothing about, preaching their "moral superiority" onto the uncivilized masses.

First, the Rowe Ted Talk on his experience working on a pig farm.  I think he is absolutely correct about how our sense of pride and focus on "living the dream" inhibits us from taking jobs that need to be done. Pursuing our passions is a noble endeavor, but it keeps us from taking hard-labor jobs that we see ourselves as above. Worse is when cultural values are portrayed as superior to another, and forced upon the "morally inferior", as in the case of the pig farmers who were told by PETA and the other environmental groups which informed Rowe about the "humanitarian way" to castrate the pigs. This well-intentioned guideline is actually more painful for the pigs. And this is the problem with bureaucratically defined morality.

In a way, this talk is a cut on Higher Education, but I think the issue at hand is more cultural and reflects the increasing urbanization of the United States population. Perhaps it is because Urbanites tend to think of themselves as culturally savvy cosmopolitans and our stereotypes of more rural folk portray them as less classy, less educated, and less intellectual. Think of the archetypal "hick". The city parallel would probably be closer to a "hipster". Now, I could never, ever imagine a "hipster" going anywhere near a farm. And I think this is what Mike Rowe is trying to illustrate about the problems with our attitudes. The plumber stereotype Rowe describes is dead-on accurate. So perhaps Higher Education is over-rated, but I do not think this is the main reason behind "enlightened" attitudes towards manual labor. People with a college degree are much more likely to find work, and that is why so many pursue degrees beyond high school. The other problem is simply geographical. Most of the jobs Rowe describes are rural, and people who are born in the city often like to stay there. But yes, we are in a "war against work".

The second video is much less complex. It reminded me of an article in "The Economist" I read a few months ago discussing over-regulation of the dairy industry (http://www.economist.com/node/18712862). The idea of this video was that tariffs force decisions on customers and sellers and are orthogonal to our pursuit of liberty. Tariffs hurt our nation and restrict our ability to choose, yet the government uses them as political and economical leverage. This is both economically damaging to both parties and inherently unjust. Yet out-moded Mercantilist models of trade continue to influence economic models. The government should not be able to restrict choice in this way and promote certain goods while demonizing others. Free-markets should be free.

NPR's audio clip and quick blurb about the Cigar makers illustrated that we unfairly portray the working class as under-educated and victimize their jobs in the pursuit of "enlightenment". It's true, most parents would shudder if they were told their child would grow up to be a cigar roller. Same idea as the Mike Rowe talk.

Overall, I find one issue at the heart of this mentality, which I think each of these talks overlooked. Manual labor jobs are less exclusive. More people are able to do them. Therefore, the pursuit of higher education and higher-level jobs is the pursuit of distinction, and with it job security. There is nothing wrong with this attitude. The dissonance here is actually more subtle. It is not a problem with the pursuit of one's passion, it is a problem with the inability to adapt to failure and let go of the idealistic self-image. What we need to remove is our reluctance to perform manual labor, rather than our inclination to seek white-collar jobs.