No disagreement here. My father, a skilled military aircraft painter who worked with top secret exotic metals for the federal government, didn't want his son to work in a profession where his hands got dirty. The irony was that I became a journalist covering lots of people with really dirty hands. (I guess your German student reference made me think of my father. I am at this moment holding a like new 62-year-old metal shoehorn he made for me when I was a boy. It's covered with some slimy slick aluminum-like paint that still repels water, dings, finger prints or anything else -- without being magnetic.) Well, because the "greatest generation" wanted their children to be educated professionals, we still stigmatize "dirty hands" jobs. However, my plumber nephew last year made $8,400 more than his sister, a charge nurse at a major Houston hospital. Each of their dollars buys with equal value. It shouldn't matter whether people work with their hands or their heads ... as long as put their hearts into whatever they do.
