A.) A common theme that appears in all 3 videos is that the everyday people working at lower wages at infrastructure jobs are undervalued and at the mercy of more powerful institutions (media, government, etc.). From these 3 videos, the one thing that stuck out to me was Mike Rowe's discussion of following your passion vs. reality. If everyone followed their dreams, how many jobs would exist today that have to do with castrating sheep and mining and farming maggots? Not very many. It was even evident in the video that those people who Rowe talked to working these lower-end jobs actually seemed happy (ex: whistling roadclearers). And then he asked them if this was their ideal dream job and they would just laugh. So the point is that these jobs that are frowned-upon/looked down upon by most are all the more necessary than high tech jobs and stockbrokers and the such. But their reputation suffers because they aren't viewed as the most ideal. But talking to the people who actually do the jobs, it's evident that they skillfully adjust to the point where they even begin to enjoy what they're doing. These "infrastructure" jobs are necessary for everyone's prosperity and something needs to be done about their recent decline. To start, it's definitely helpful that guys like Mike Rowe are bringing to light the situation and trying to educate the public about the goods in manual labor.
B.) What efforts are the government taking to protect these infrastructure jobs from near extinction? Why don't they pursue this issue more fervently?
Can we really afford to keep telling our kids to "follow their dreams" if all that's doing is moving the workforce away from skilled manual labor?
If the trend continues, what will happen to the balance of labor jobs and "glamour" jobs? How much longer until we can't actually sustain this imbalance any more?
C.) These 3 media outlets were assigned to bring to light the issue with the decline of infrastructure jobs and how without them, the mass production and distribution of new technologies is virtually impossible. These people unfairly get a bad wrap and while it is true that trade is always good and the recent improvement in living standards is absolutely a good thing, we need these jobs nonetheless to sustain today's lifestyle and provide more opportunities to progress.
No comments:
Post a Comment