Have you been a member of the blue-collar work force

I'm a student. (And that's why I voted no.)

 

I've had one or two summer blue-collar jobs, depending on if you consider going door-to-door collecting census forms "blue-collar".

 

Toughest but most enlightening work I ever experienced. Worked for a general contractor in an industrial chemical plant as a pipe fitter-helper. I was a freakin grunt. Hardest $18/hr I ever earned.

 

A lot of stuff when in HS/college. Loaded hay bales, McDonalds, delivered furniture, worked in a warehouse, convenience store clerk, intramural BBall ref, paddleboat rental guy/maintenance at a state park, and HS football.

Occasionally, my current job could probably be considered non-white collar.

 

Without context, not sure why this is D&D. Anyway, was a waiter during my college days. Since then, I've moved on to jobs that got me addicted to wasting time on the internet debating meaningless stuff.

 

never as a full time, year round job but I have:

cleared drainage ditches
built trailer frames
built air conditioners
pipefitter's helper at a smelly chemical plant
delivered furniture

and, poured the concrete for the elevator shaft at Kyle Field (elv. 237')

all of which sucked ass.

The one full time blue collarish job I had for two years that was the best job ever. I drove a taxi out of DFW airport when it was new. You got paid by the number of miles you drove in a day so every day was like Daytona. Blasting around Dallas in a big V8 Impala at 100 miles an hour.

 

Reinforced my convictions that the Democratic party was the party of the common man, while the GOP catered to the rich and greedy.

 

Your convictions are just that, your convictions and certainly not factual.

I have done blue collar work (Sandblasting) and currently have a white collar job (Director level at a large Healthcare Company).

Dems sure like to wine about people who have money.

 

Though the Democrats (under Carter and Clinton's administration) accepted money as readily from corporations and special interest groups as the GOP did, the Republicans are markedly different in that they have pursued policies for the ultra-wealthy with more zeal and success since the last 30 years.

A good article on this:

http://www.rollingstone.com/politics/news/how-the-gop-became-the-party-of-the-rich-20111109

 

Washing other people's cars (though this might not count as blue collar) and working in pipeline construction before going off to college helped me to realize there is little difference between either party since money buys them both.

I'll make this ambiguous so it's easier to understand. In the pipeline business, I observed that most of the workers were Democrats and most of the managers were Republican. However, each group largely supported whichever party favored them over the expense of what was good for America.

That is, Democrats had Policy A which workers liked because it rewarded them; Republicans had Policy B which managers liked. Both Policy A and B were short-term political maneuvers that weakened our nation's economy in the long-term. Policy C was not attractive to either groups, but it would have been better for America. Due to lack of understanding of macro and microeconomics, combined with greed and selfishness, most workers and managers didn't vote in the country's favor.

This experience led me to correctly believe an outside group who had zero interest in the country's well-being and only itself was playing both of them against one another. Today it is listed on the Dow 30, and it accomplished this by influencing their opinion using the media and funding campaigns of politicians who supported it and not the US.

Until we don't recognize corporations as the psychopaths they are, and that we should vote for politicians who have America's interest at heart (a strong middle class), nothing will truly change.

 

There is no political party or candidate out there that have America's best interest at heart. Mainly because to get votes you need to appeal to specific groups. Those groups are obviously going to look out for themselves and there you go.

Nationalism is dead (which I consider a good thing) but a consequence of that though is the amount of people that truly put the country in front of them in the political arena is staggeringly low.

 

I've never not worked a blue-collar job. Even when I was responsible for the technology at a company, I still worked out in the field.

that's why I always get a kick out of reading what office monkeys think blue collar, middle class types think and feel. Not a clue was had.

 

Of course I have. While going to college, I worked at a tent rental company that put up large tents, some the size of football fields, not only in the Houston area, but sometimes in other parts of the state. I swung a 12 pound sledge hammer for a while, but changed to a 16 pounder, because you could pound the stakes in faster. Trust me... hard Texas dirt is harder than asphalt. That was when I was in the best shape of my life. Damn, I wish I had muscles like that now. I worked for an oil exploration company in the Gulf on the cable crew of a sesmic boat. Wrestling a big cable several hundred feet long wasn't easy. I worked for several months for Brown and Roots doing construction. The entire time I had very long hair, which made it all entertaining. To this day, I can talk like a dude from deep East Texas if I want to, as I cultivated the talent. It helped to get along with the guys, although I really learned it from my grandparents up in East Texas, so I had a good grounding in "Good ol' Boy" speak. Worked in the mail room of a couple of major Houston newspapers, tossing bundles of papers around. Actually, that was fun, because I made so much money doing it part-time. Bless the unions! Had a job stuffing ice cream bars into boxes. Got sick of ice cream! I had a few other labor intensive jobs, but those stand out in my memory at the moment.

Why? Hasn't everyone?

 

Not sure I see the contradiction there .

Seems like his approach is consistent...

 

I had a job as warehouse staff for a furniture store, the only plus was just like you, I got jacked like hell. too many minuses to count.

Blue-collar work is a hell of a lot harder than most people give it credit for. I respect the hell out of people who toil 8 hours or more a day just to put food on their table.