Blue collar (blue coveralls class) is just a derogatory term to describe someone that doesn’t wear a white collar (business suit class) to work. But it sorta turned into a badge of honor by the blue collar class over the years, but it’s meant to be an insult by the white color class.

It has nothing to do with skilled or non-skilled labor or education, it’s supposed to be an insult based on the clothes required to wear to work.

Yeah you’d probably have a bad day in America too. I think the person asking the question just doesn’t know what blue collar or skilled labor means.

But does it require skill to do the job or does skill just make a person better at the job?

A plumber can’t be a plumber without years of training and experience. There is no apprentice dishwasher or master dishwasher, just about anyone with two hands and willing to stand in one place for hours can do the job. I washed dishes at a fast food deli for three months for a summer job in highschool. It’s thankless hard work but it was mindless work and required no skill, I washed dishes zoned out and on autopilot most of the time. I’m sure there are skilled dishwashers that can was them the fastest or cleanest, but washing dishes doesn’t require skill, it requires work ethic, it requires completing the task of washing the dishes. There’s no 100 other tasks required to do or learn before becoming a dishwasher.

If any functioning human can walk in and do the job then it’s not “skilled” labor. Having a good work ethic doesn’t equal skilled labor.

“Skilled” labor is someone that spent years honing their craft and making a complicated “job” look like a simple effortless task because they spent years learning how to do it and perfecting it, hours of prep and planning. That’s is “skilled” labor.

Little addictions.

Addiction is a real problem and incredibly hard to diagnose. I’m not talking about drugs, I’m talking about those little additions that subtly sublimely control nearly every decision in your life. Addiction to caffeine, sugar, social media, TV, driving too fast, being an asshole, being a complainer, etc.

There’s a lot of reasons why we do what we do or why we think we do them but for the most part it’s about chasing those bits of dopamine. But chasing them can lead to some very destructive behaviors.

Better.

I have a good paying job, wife, not addicted to drugs, own my house, own 2 cars, have 2 kids, 2 dogs, 1 cat, 4 ducks, I don’t weigh 300lbs, saving for retirement, living within my means, and everyone is mostly healthy.

I just hope my government doesn’t screw it up for me and my kids.