"Being broke is nothing to be ashamed of"

[leaf_collector]

It’s Time for the Poor to Come Out of the Plutocracy’s Closet of Shame
Posted on December 3, 2012By Jeff Nall

Comments

[elialshadowpine]

Goodness yes. And manual labor, too. I absolutely cannot with the contempt that so many people have towards people who work on farms or construction or, hell, even thing like plumbers or electricians or stuff. I don't actually know what plumbers and electricians make, but I hear people talk about them like the jobs they do are worthless and that they are somehow lazy people because they didn't go to college (... never mind that some people do go to vocational schools for education related to those types of jobs) and get a white collar job. Do they not realize that society needs people to do these jobs?

CSB: When I was a kid, there was one of the neighborhood kids off the rez that we sorta befriended, and he had trouble getting/keeping a job. My dad has a back injury, mom worked nights, and I was too young to be doing anything like lawn mowing. I remember noticing they paid him a pretty decent amount of money for what he did and asked why, since he was just a kid. (I was like 11 or so. Clarifying: The reason I noticed was because I ended up handling the money sometimes, and I like most any kid watched TV and read books and heard talk of kids getting paid like $5 for yard work so I was confused.)

My parents, who grew up on a farm and ranch respectively, told me that hard work deserves fair pay and respect, and that was that. It's something that's stuck with me since, and that so few people actually get that is both saddening and infuriating.

(Editing to add that I also worked food service and heartily agree that everyone should have that experience. I think it would result in at least more compassionate treatment for the workers. Fucking hell, did I ever get sick of being treated like the worthless servant. -_-)