UTMC

Interesting video, from a time when there was pride in manual labor.

I and many of my friends happen to be manual laborers. I think we're proud of that. I know I am.

Without labor there'd be no wealth.

I'm calling osha. I spotted at least a dozen violations in that video and I'm not doing any more work until someone gets them straightened out.

Let us not forget the contributions of Manuel the Laborer.

Pattio wrote:Let us not forget the contributions of Manuel the Laborer.

And Jesus, the lawn guy.

I thought that video was wonderful. I miss the days when people had to know things about many things and were very knowledgeable on a breadth of subjects. Nowadays, you can take a car to the shop and after they hook it up to the OBD2 port they will tell you that everything is fine... "Are you sure that the front wheel missing isn't a problem?" "Well, the computer doesn't have a code for that."

Mechanics these days aren't all real mechanics, a lot of them are glorified instruction manual readers. I miss the days when you couldn't just 'google it' but by the same token, the amount of stuff that I have learned from 'just googling it' is quite extensive so I am not really dissing the internet but... I miss real knowledge.

This.

Sisyphus wrote:Without labor there'd be no wealth.

Watching this just reinforces how in awe I am of my Grandfather (and women and men like him) who started working on steam locomotives during the depression at age 14 in a logging camp, was an engineer in a general combat engineering company through North Africa, Italy and into Germany then went on as a machinist to help build petro-chemical infrastructure on the west coast up until the 1990s. All with an eighth grade education.


I love stuff like this. I've lost hours and hours watching archival videos through journal, etc. archives that I can access from the school library. Some of my favorite old informational films are essentially union advocacy/propaganda films from the 50s and 60s that employed hollywood production houses and actors. These in depth documentaries on down to idiotically simple old super 8 high school lesson reels are all pretty valuable in my book. This stuff really provides an illuminated lens with which to view our recent history that allows perspective on things that have faded from the living memory of many (most?) sections of society.
People in 'middle' America today are so separate and isolated from the means of production and labor that create all of their convenient widgets it makes me sick.

UndertheGun wrote:
People in 'middle' America today are so separate and isolated from the means of production and labor that create all of their convenient widgets it makes me sick.

right - it takes plumbers and electricians and assembly workers to make the world go 'round... my brother has a mechanical engineering degree and he's lumberjacking for a living now - he's happy, even if the 'rents are not. i wish more families valued blue collar instead of making the kids who want to do it ashamed.

The world would be a better place if "middle management" became and "unskilled labor class".

SmAsHeRs wrote:

UndertheGun wrote:
People in 'middle' America today are so separate and isolated from the means of production and labor that create all of their convenient widgets it makes me sick.

right - it takes plumbers and electricians and assembly workers to make the world go 'round... my brother has a mechanical engineering degree and he's lumberjacking for a living now - he's happy, even if the 'rents are not. i wish more families valued blue collar instead of making the kids who want to do it ashamed.

For some reason this reminds me of something that happened many years ago. I was at a punk rock benefit show near downtown LA, and was drinking a few outside with some kooky homeless dude. For some reason, he started to think I was a cop, and didn't believe me when I told him I wasn't. Finally, he said, "Let me see your hands." After seeing how beat up and cut my hands were, he said, "Hell, you're no cop."
I love being part of the long lineage of tradespeople in this country....