The kinder lower-middle class
In one day, I managed to visit all the tire companies in my area. I finally found one shop--Pep Boys--who were able to unlock the lock on my tires and replace them. Anyway, I talked with more mechanics today than I probably will for the rest of my lifetime. They all had one thing in common: a casual, down-to-earth approach.
In general, I try to avoid making generalizations about the races and classes. In fact, I feel uncomfortable even speaking of races and classes, but lets face it: America is classist and racist. I saw it in the tire companies today. The mechanics tended to be hispanic and black. I'm sure they don't make a lot of money. In the auto industry, race and class dovetail. (And what race do you think their supervisor often was? White!)
Maybe I was just getting fleeced :) (It's easy/tempting to take advantage of a girl in an auto shop, right? Oh no! Now I'm making gender generalizations. Well, let's face it once again: girls on average know less about cars than guys.) Fleeced or not, (I happen to think I got a fair deal), I was charmed by the easy-going, friendly nature of many of the mechanics I encountered. In comparison to the type-A people in my Berkeley school environment, these mechanics had a sense of humor and took the time to be friendly.
That is not to say that these guys aren't working their buts off! But, here's the difference. The (mostly) white and Asian, upper-class kids at my school are on the make. We have been raised to believe that, with hard work, the world can be ours. We are there to be successful, to accumlate status, to get good degrees that lead to good jobs. Sounds smart and practical, right? The fatal flaw here is identification with work. Our self-esteem gets so wrapped up in what we're doing. We have such high expectations for our careers. We expect personal fulfillment and great compensation. Our high expectations keep us willingly going at 150 mph.
I think the guys in the auto shop are better able to putting work in its place. They don't expect so much from their job. It's tedious, pays comparitively low, and that's that. Anyway, they don't expect work to bring them everything worth having. There's a sense of seperation from the job. (They can't identify themselves completely with their job, right? They'd be depressed!) So they take the time to be friendly, to have a sense of humor, to have a little personality.
In general, I try to avoid making generalizations about the races and classes. In fact, I feel uncomfortable even speaking of races and classes, but lets face it: America is classist and racist. I saw it in the tire companies today. The mechanics tended to be hispanic and black. I'm sure they don't make a lot of money. In the auto industry, race and class dovetail. (And what race do you think their supervisor often was? White!)
Maybe I was just getting fleeced :) (It's easy/tempting to take advantage of a girl in an auto shop, right? Oh no! Now I'm making gender generalizations. Well, let's face it once again: girls on average know less about cars than guys.) Fleeced or not, (I happen to think I got a fair deal), I was charmed by the easy-going, friendly nature of many of the mechanics I encountered. In comparison to the type-A people in my Berkeley school environment, these mechanics had a sense of humor and took the time to be friendly.
That is not to say that these guys aren't working their buts off! But, here's the difference. The (mostly) white and Asian, upper-class kids at my school are on the make. We have been raised to believe that, with hard work, the world can be ours. We are there to be successful, to accumlate status, to get good degrees that lead to good jobs. Sounds smart and practical, right? The fatal flaw here is identification with work. Our self-esteem gets so wrapped up in what we're doing. We have such high expectations for our careers. We expect personal fulfillment and great compensation. Our high expectations keep us willingly going at 150 mph.
I think the guys in the auto shop are better able to putting work in its place. They don't expect so much from their job. It's tedious, pays comparitively low, and that's that. Anyway, they don't expect work to bring them everything worth having. There's a sense of seperation from the job. (They can't identify themselves completely with their job, right? They'd be depressed!) So they take the time to be friendly, to have a sense of humor, to have a little personality.
posted by Kristin @ 6:49 PM
3 Comments:
At 10:08 AM,
Anonymous said…
Interesting that while running this morning, I listened to a lecture on Marx and he hit this topic right on the head, back in the late 1800's. The idea is that man develops through three stages (plato, freud, they all like to do this in threes). But thats a different topic. Bottom line, we don't get to our third or highest stage until we can focus on creative work which, under capitalism we can't do. Hence, the need for communism where everyone focuses on what they want to do and where they can best add to the society.
He goes into great detail about the alienation caused by capitalism, where people are just what they buy, we become simply a "cash nexus" rather than a creative individual.
Maybe this is why Marx remains so relevant. He seems to really have put his finger on the ills of our age. Your post points out the ugly fact that its really getting worse, or more this way.
Unfortunately, Marx was much more eloquent on defining the problem than the solution. His descriptions of a positive communism were pretty general and certainly didn't provide a clear political blueprint. Maybe why his name has been tacked to so many simply authoritarian regimes.
At 4:50 PM,
Kristin said…
Thanks for the post, I agree with yours and Marx's ideas. Another problem with capitalism is that I think it's forced the 3rd world to specialize too much. In my ethnic studies class, we studied Jamaica and the banana industry. Up until the early 90s, banana production was central to the Jamaican economy. The IMF had restructured the Jamaican economy to specialize in bananas. Then, Latin American producers out-competed Jamaica and their economy suffered a huge downturn because suddenly everyone bought Latin American bananas. The idea of specializing in one good and competing for the lowest price doesn't make sense when a counry's economy depends on it. Also, who's to say that every Jamaican wants to work on a banana plantation? Economies should be diversified to accomodate everyone's interests and capabilities.
At 3:07 PM,
Anonymous said…
No doubt about that.
I hate to say that I agree with Jesse Jackson, but I remember that he called for a world minimum wage. I don't know how you would actually do this politically, but if you could implement this worldwide you would lift the tide of humanity by a huge level with a single stroke of the pen.
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