workin' for a living

[bunnyjadwiga]

Not long ago, I tried to explain to my kid brother that getting a college degree and working at a computer helpdesk, instead of as a roofer and flooring installer, might not be his best career choice for security and satisfaction, either life or job. I'm not sure he bought it. Marylaine Block in her excellent Neat New this week turns up this great site:

Blue Collar and Proud of it - Opportunities
http://www.bluecollarandproudofit.com/opportunities.htm
It's not true that you have to go to college and spend your work days in a
cubicle to make a decent living. America needs contractors, landscapers,
electricians, mechanics, and more. Find out here about the jobs, training,
and apprenticeship programs.

I'm more and more of the opinion that people are making themselves crazy by thinking that a college/cubicle job will make them successful and happy, because they won't have to work with their hands... but what it gets them is a mindless rat race. W. E. DuBois in The Souls of Black Folk suggested that blacks of his generation had been screwed over by a system that taught them to despise manual labor, and I'm beginning to believe that is true for the modern generation. My friends come home miserable and frustrated and exhausted from jobs that have no meaning and no real rewards or satisfaction, knowing that they could be laid off tomorrow and be years looking for a new job. This isn't a good way to live-- and people want their kids to go to college to be like us?

Comments

[lady-guenievre.livejournal.com]

And the sad part is because *everyone* goes to college now, there's so much "degree inflation" that where once, you needed a HS diploma, now you need a 4 year degree, and on up the chain it goes. Which of course sticks everyone who wants to be "sucessful" (whatever that is) in this extended adolescence getting all this (mostly useless) education while waiting to do something useful with their lives... and meanwhile not daring to do things like fall in love, get married, buy houses...it's all so very connected.

::slinks back to her cube job::