Some kids will want to be actors and athletes, sure.
Some will want to be soldiers, cops and firemen.
Others will choose the professions as well.
But the essential point is that no child aspires to limiting himself to a dead end job punching out widgets. Children have aspirations and ambitions to be more than drones - and that's what the American dream is about.
With the exception of the last, those professions require brainpower which is above average.
There are plenty of jobs which require average brainpower. Factory work does not even require average brainpower - its minimum requirements are well below average.
Do I have to explain "average" to you?
Do I have to explain to you that there are jobs that lie somewhere between rote gruntwork and neurosurgery?
I'm good friends with a guy whose parents are both highschool dropouts who work in the restaurant industry. They are rightly proud of their son because he is a licensed radiology technician at a respected local hospital. He finished high school, worked at Best Buy while taking night classes at community college, got his associate's degree and then made the switch to a radiology tech-in-training.
He's not a surgeon or a tax attorney - he's an average guy with a little ambition and a little initiative.
But he doesn't work in a factory - so he must be a complete failure.
What an arrogant ass you have proven yourself to be. I have worked in a factory for 20+ years and I bet I can fix anything you can break. Just now, outside my shop, there are people who setting color and mixing water and ink balances to get a catalog right so some snob like you can buy a fancy radio.
Wait when his radiology job is outsourced (it will happen within couple of years or sooner) and all his work and sacrifices are set at naught. Just be careful with preaching the Free Market Unholy Gospel to him at that time or you might became unholy martyr.