I've tried to live by the adage that “a society which values philosophy over plumbing is doomed; neither its ideas nor its pipes will hold water.”

Reminds me of another verse from “Icky Thump”: “White Americans, what — nothing better to do? / Why don't you kick yourself out / You're an immigrant too / Who's using who? What should we do? / Well, you can't be a pimp and a prostitute too.”

Obama has to realize he's damned if he does, damned if he doesn't, and if he wants to accomplish what voters sent him to Washington to accomplish, he needs to take action and deal with the consequences from the right and the so-called “Blue Dogs” in his own party. I distinctly recall something in his campaign rhetoric about “change.”

Nice work, Dunphy.

Rob
EightE1

During a hiring spree, all the management was warned by higher-ups to never, EVER mention to new hires that they might have to do nasty jobs too. The reason why: instant deal-breaker. They'd rather quit than do those icky jobs. This is true stuff and not isolated either. Several companies have hiring directives that prohibit the current staff from being fully forthright about such matters. We wouldn't ever hire anyone, so they said.

In my current job, I see it from the other side. I have friends, illegal immigrants, doing work for people because these jobs have been turned away from by Americans. Point blank. That job is beneath me. I won't do it.

There is a next-greatest generation out there who are prepared to work, no matter what. I take nothing away from them. Yet there is still a large portion of our population turning away from work on the premise that “they weren't born to do that, they didn't go to college to do that and, damn it, they're not gonna do that.”

It sounds insane in times of near 10% unemployment, but it's a fact.

I disagree that Americans are 'above' menial labor, however. One look into the face of a coal miner should disavow us of that notion. Or the face of the folks who left the dust bowl to come pick crops in California. The difference is pay and a safety net. During the dust bowl, there was no safety net to protect a family from starvation, save the bread lines, and of course, most of our safety net programs were born in that era. But if those jobs were considered valuable enough to pay a living wage, if employers had to pay a true living wage, and if we didn't have Unemployment Insurance and Welfare to fall back upon, Americans would take those jobs. Coal mining is a much filthier job than cleaning toilets, and a hell of a lot more dangerous. But it pays a decent wage, so people fight to keep that industry going, no matter the health costs of going down into the earth like that.