Putting it there would require a cultural shift. Blue-collar jobs carry social prestige
elsewhere, for example, in Germany, but not in the United States. “Nobody coming out of
college these days is knowledgeable or excited about... [manufacturing],” said a
Flextronics manager in Fort Worth. A community college student commented, if
manufacturing “was a last resort I’d probably have to go in, but that’s definitely not what
I want to be doing.”^221
These attitudes have consequences. For example, there’s a shortage of plumbers so acute
that it’s threatening the building industry. Plumbers can make good money—the national
median is $60,000 a year for a master plumber, but in a large city a plumber can make six
figures.^222 “My plumber drives a Porsche,” noted a friend. Are lame jokes about
“plumber’s butt” worth the economic price our country pays for looking down on this
kind of work?
It’s time to reverse that attitude. “I haven’t heard either party talking about a ‘real’ jobs
program or a ‘real’ training program. Most of the centers that are supposed to do this kind
of work do very surface level training like how to write a resume, how to do an online job
search, etc.,” wrote Elizabeth Ringler-Jayanthan. That’s a pressing social issue. Let’s
treat it like one.
- Why Don’t Working-Class Men Just Take “Pink-Collar” Jobs?