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OdetteOxyntes
08/27/09

In reply to Book Inspires Yuppies to Take Jobs They'll Regret
I finished my journalism degree in May and had to do manual labor for two months until I found a writing job at the end of July. I used to read these articles in the NY Times about how great it is that Americans are working with their hands again, and it drove me insane. I wanted to e-mail the authors and say, "Okay, want to trade? I'll take your staff writer job at the best paper in the country and you can work for a moving company all day every day, since increased manual labor is apparently such a great product of our times."

Those articles fail to mention how you're bored all day and exhausted all night when you have a job like that. It's depressing, not glamorous. It was bad enough for me because I went into debt to get a degree, and then I wasn't even using it and I didn't know how long I would be working for the moving company. I can't even imagine not having the degree and spending 30 years with the job.

And for the record, I've been told longshoremen have horrible jobs that are not even remotely on the same page as fixing motorcycles or building race car engines. They just spend all day doing exhausting, mindless manual labor — moving large cargo and inhaling barge fumes.

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Hamilton Nolan
08/27/09

@OdetteOxyntes: True about longshoremen UNTIL they get mobbed up, then it's party time.
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If_I_Had_a_Poodle
08/27/09

In reply to Book Inspires Yuppies to Take Jobs They'll Regret
j-o-b-z pay the b-i-l-l-z
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blahniksforlife
08/27/09

In reply to Book Inspires Yuppies to Take Jobs They'll Regret
Let me say, I know Matt Crawford and he's a wack job. The press's romance with this book just reveals journalists dissatisfaction with their own professions and sense of emasculation. I'd like to see one piece that actually took the time to critically evaluate Crawford's bullshit--not just the whole rough guy blue collar persona that he's gotten the press to swallow hook, line and sinker, but the underlying ideas. No writer has pointed out not just that Crawford got his ph.d. from Chicago but that he's a follower of the ideas of Leo Strauss. Let's not forget that many of the prime Iraqi war idealogues were Straussians. Crawford's romanticized crap wants to do for work what the Straussians did for foreign affairs. But journalists are to lazy and to enamored of the foolish myth that manual labor redeems the sissy-ifacation of modern life to actually y'know pay attention to what Crawford is really saying
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Seeräuber Jenny promoted this comment blahniksforlife was starred blahniksforlife was unstarred

Seeräuber Jenny
08/27/09

@blahniksforlife:

Actually, the New Yorker review recommended by Botswana Meat was skeptical and very funny.

It discusses in passing Michael Let-Them-Eat-Organic Pollan.

[www.newyorker.com]
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valet_of_the_dolls
08/28/09

@Seeräuber Jenny: Second that. It's a very good review, and the way the reviewer extends the book's major themes to their logical conclusions is sly and funny.
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Seeräuber Jenny
08/27/09

In reply to Book Inspires Yuppies to Take Jobs They'll Regret
This was my favorite comment on the NYT website:

Ah, the romance of being downwardly mobile. How convenient in a recession.
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MassimoWoodpecker
08/27/09

In reply to Book Inspires Yuppies to Take Jobs They'll Regret
My father broke his ass mopping puke up in hallways so that I wouldn't have to get a job mopping puke up in hallways. Go ahead ask him if it was good for his soul. . .
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TedSez
08/27/09

In reply to Book Inspires Yuppies to Take Jobs They'll Regret
Samir: Are you sure you don't want us to get you a job?

Peter: That's the one thing I'm definitely sure of.

Michael: All right, G.

Peter: You guys take care!

Samir: Okay.

Michael: Stay in touch, man!

Peter: Okay, will do....

This isn't so bad, huh?
Making bucks, getting exercise, working outside.

Lawrence: Fuckin' A.
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Smitros
08/27/09

@TedSez:
Thanks for bringing that up. Office Space has been lurking in the background of this discussion for a while and needs to be brought to the foreground.
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Hey_mikey
08/27/09

In reply to Book Inspires Yuppies to Take Jobs They'll Regret
Hey rich people, or formerly rich people - leave our blue collar jobs alone.
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shostakobitch
08/27/09

In reply to Book Inspires Yuppies to Take Jobs They'll Regret
does "holding in chimichanga farts at a white collar job" count as blue collar work? i mean, it is kind of painful.
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SultanaEleusis
08/27/09

In reply to Book Inspires Yuppies to Take Jobs They'll Regret
Sounds to me like some of these commentors would really learn a lot from doing blue collar jobs. Just saying...
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princess_peach
08/27/09

In reply to Book Inspires Yuppies to Take Jobs They'll Regret
Actually this is more about the current economic environment. When the shit first hit the fan last year, a bunch of bankers I know where chatting about what they might do if they got laid off and couldn't find another job... suddenly they all realized that they didn't have any actual skills. Sure, they can "manage", and put numbers in spread sheets, but that's about it. Rude awakening for all of them... especially when they realized they lacked even basic home improvement skills.

I think it makes sense that the Great Recession has prompted a number of these people to reevaluate their priorities and try to find something more fulfilling than creating structured credit products.
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Borromeo
08/27/09

In reply to Book Inspires Yuppies to Take Jobs They'll Regret
"I am having fun and learning again," [a banker-turned-floor refinisher] said. "Floors are living, breathing things. They expand when it gets humid, and they contract when it gets dry, and every floor is different."

So the people whose money he probably gambled away weren't "living, breathing things"?

This country doesn't need any more carpenters it needs factories that pay people enough to make a living while making TVs and cars.
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Cynical Media Bitch
08/27/09

@Borromeo: That is so 20th Century. Manufacturing is gone, until we can lower our lifestyle (and consequent demands for living wages) to match China's.
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MrInBetween
08/27/09

In reply to Book Inspires Yuppies to Take Jobs They'll Regret
Hey, banker-turned-floor-refinisher! Aren't credit-default swaps also "living, breathing things?" I mean, they "expand" and they "contract" and every one is "different." Best of all, the U.S. government will bail your butt out if you lose money on a CDS! Good luck convincing Uncle Sam to cover the cost of that oak-wood floor you just scratched up.
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Edited by MrInBetween at 08/27/09 4:45 PM MrInBetween was starred MrInBetween was unstarred

once
08/27/09

In reply to Book Inspires Yuppies to Take Jobs They'll Regret
My NYC mailman friend makes 80k a year, has a month of vacation, great benefits, stays in shape lugging letters, & finishes by 3pm every day & gets to go home to work on his novel or hit the happy hours. He used to be fat, miserable, & work in advertising. But how is this different from the plot line of Office Space?
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smithhimself
08/27/09

In reply to Book Inspires Yuppies to Take Jobs They'll Regret
I would gladly leave my current ordeal if my dream job opened up: manager at a "gentleman's club."

I can just see myself sitting behind a cluttered desk while recorded music thumps through the walls.

"So, BookishLookish, I understand you've lost your job in the publishing industry. Do you really think you have what it takes to be a....Show Girl?"
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Edited by smithhimself at 08/27/09 4:45 PM smithhimself was starred smithhimself was unstarred

BookishLookish
08/27/09

@smithhimself: "Well, Mr. Smithhim, by the way you're staring at my chest, I really think I do. And do you like my dress? It's by Ver-saice. Shoes by Loo-boo-tin!"
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smithhimself
08/27/09

@BookishLookish:

"Ummm. How enchanting. I think we can find a position for you."
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Botswana Meat Commission FC
08/27/09

In reply to Book Inspires Yuppies to Take Jobs They'll Regret
I thought the New Yorker review just tore apart this guy's central hypothesis... that there's something inherently "better" or "more useful" about manual labor. Yes, the world needs people who can physically build things, but the world also needs people who can program the software in your cell phone or for that matter, the software that controls the fuel injection mapping in your motorcycle.
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m4ximusprim3
08/27/09

@Botswana Meat Commission FC: I agree with them in that the world needs CEO's and ditch diggers both.

Where I digress with their opinion is that many people, by virtue of the way we're wired, take much more satisfaction in a physical act skilfully performed than a TPS report well computed.

This in turn affects how you feel about your place in society, and by extension, your own worth. So I see both sides.
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Edited by m4ximusprim3 at 08/27/09 5:02 PM m4ximusprim3 was starred m4ximusprim3 was unstarred

miss_msry
08/27/09

@Botswana Meat Commission FC:

Yes, and they all live in India.
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