Posted on 06/12/2015 11:42:28 AM PDT by Cincinatus' Wife
Mike Rowe’s successful Discovery Channel show Dirty Jobs gained a following thanks to being exciting, vivid television: He joined workers as they wrestled alligators, cleaned septic tanks, and rounded up yaks on a ranch in Montana. But it also became something of a tribute to America’s blue-collar work ethic, and as Rowe finishes his second season with a new show on CNN, some can’t help but take exception to his hard-working creed.
Rowe was recently moved to make the case for his message after getting a viewer e-mail: “Craig P.” was upset with Rowe’s constant “harping on the ‘work ethic’” and accused the Somebody’s Gotta Do It host of maligning the working class.
Rowe’s response, a rousing defense of his worldview and indictment of work-averse American culture, has now been shared more than 90,000 times.
“Hey Mike … Just because someone’s poor doesn’t mean they’re lazy. The unemployed want to work!” Craig P. wrote. “Rather than accusing people of not having a work-ethic, why not drop the right-wing propaganda and help them develop one?”
Rowe responded forcefully — but politely — refuting Craig P.’s diatribe point by point.
First, Rowe addressed the accusation of “right-wing propaganda” — both sides of the political spectrum, he says, aren’t taking the issue seriously:
For the record, I don’t believe all poor people are lazy, any more than I believe all rich people are greedy. But I can understand why so many do.
Everyday on the news, liberal pundits and politicians portray the wealthy as greedy, while conservative pundits and politicians portray the poor as lazy. Democrats have become so good at denouncing greed, Republicans now defend it. And Republicans are so good at condemning laziness, Democrats are now denying it even exists. It’s a never ending dance that gets more contorted by the day.
President Obama, Fox News, John Stewart, and the rest, he said, spar for political advantage, but miss the point. “This is a national crisis,” he wrote. “We’re churning out a generation of poorly educated people with no skill, no ambition, no guidance, and no realistic expectations of what it means to go to work.”
As to Craig P.’s claim that “people want to work” but the unemployed simply can’t find jobs? Rowe had an answer to that, too.
“In my travels, I’ve met a lot of hard-working individuals, and I’ve been singing their praises for the last 12 years. But I’ve seen nothing that would lead me to agree with your generalization,” Rowe wrote. “From what I’ve seen of the species, and what I know of myself, most people — given the choice — would prefer NOT to work. In fact, on Dirty Jobs, I saw Help Wanted signs in every state, even at the height of the recession.” (Indeed, the share of Americans working or looking for jobs is at the lowest it’s been in decades, even as the number of job openings reaches historic highs.)
That certainly sounds like the conservative critique of modern America. Rowe also provides what sounds like a conservative, American solution:
I don’t focus on groups. I focus on individuals who are eager to do whatever it takes to get started. People willing to retool, retrain, and relocate. That doesn’t mean I have no empathy for those less motivated. It just means I’m more inclined to subsidize the cost of training for those who are.
He concluded: “That shouldn’t be a partisan position, but if it is, I guess I’ll just have to live with it.”
In the meantime, Rowe’s walking the walk: His foundation, the work of which Craig P. seemed to find either pointless or condescending, “promotes hard work and supports the skilled trades in a variety of areas.” According to its website, the foundation awards “scholarships to men and women who have demonstrated an interest in and an aptitude for mastering a specific trade.”
Rowe’s full post: [scroll down]
I do not buy the argument that the GOP accuses poor people of being lazy. Nobody should accept false premises.
Lead by example and those coal miners will watch you shovel coal all day.
Changing topics, let’s face it, some folks is just plain lazy, shiftless, worthless, no account, good-fer-nuthin’, bone idle, work shy.
Okay, I’ll do it.
The poor (on average) are lazy.
I see it every day.
By which I mean the permanent poor.
Most people are temporarily poor when they get their first job. Then they are soon not poor.
See tagline.
People learn by example.
When you grow up watching (and helping) your parents work, you “get it.”
We sat elbow to elbow using roach clips to attach caps on units and we were not allowed to talk. We got 2-ten minute breaks per 8-hour shift and 1/2 hour for lunch.
Bathroom breaks - you signed in and out with a time limit and they weren't happy about it either. Make your quota!!!
How ironic Mike has a show illustrating Americans working hard and doing the jobs Americans won’t do. Incredible.
>>The poor (on average) are lazy.<<
Perhaps the Vunnables. Ever seen a road crew, roofers, brick layers, construction crews, plumber/electrician helpers, painters, AC/Heating guyz.
Typically low wage earners, barely above the poverty threshold...and they work harder than most.
In fact, most youngins today working in IT, offices, government workers that make twice/three times what they do couldn’t last two hours on the job they do without having an anxiety attack or shear exhaustion.
Mike Rowe
BTTT
How are they counting "job openings"? I have applied for jobs that fit my skill set and never got a call back. The job will be advertized for six weeks and then vanish only to reappear a couple of weeks later.
Is that counted as one job or two? And is there even a job there in the first place?
I have gotten the impression that many job postings are simply resume collections with there not being an actual job opening.
“PERMANENT POOR” Are you thinking of those people who have been on welfare since FDRs welfare programs in the 1930s, which were expended in 1965 by LBJ? Then I agree. A program some 4 or 5 years ago showed a family in one of the southern states.
It showed a family sitting on the elevated porch of their unpainted house, in early1965, living on FDRs welfare program. The same family with grandparents, parents, children and grandbabies sitting on the same elevated porch of the same unpainted house, upgraded their
welfare. Nothing changed except they were receiving MORE welfare through LBJ’s 1965 welfare programs.
“let’s face it, some folks is just plain lazy, shiftless, worthless, no account, good-fer-nuthin’, bone idle, work shy.”
Sounds like the imposter we are saddled with for the next 17 months.
I got my first work permit at 12yo, to working on a farm.
Truthfully I began working when I was about 8yo on that same farm.
We would pick our 5 crates of berries(more crates as we got older) and then we were free for the rest of the afternoon
AND he and the queen are living in our whitehouse for free. However, they “must?” pay for their laundry and food.
Exactly. I’m in Tacoma (howdy, tillacum), and on the East Side, there are welfare cases who sit on their butts across multiple generations and complain about “The Man” holding them down.
LBJ is still holding them down, as planned.
Mike Rowe speaks more honest truth on economic and workforce issues than 99% of elected officials do, who are in a position to actually do something about it.
Straight-shooter.
Howdy backache Uncle Miltie. Are the restaurants along the boat floats still serving those wonderful extra small oysters appetizers?
I audited the safety program of Consol Coal in PA. numerous times. The first time, we went 2500’ DOWN and got on a railcar that went back into the mine maybe three, four miles. I kept looking for the miners. After an hour or better our escorts said “Shhh!” as we listened, we heard ‘CHoom, Choom, Choom (not Obama’s kind). The foreman said “That is the sound of money.” As the sound got closer and closer he pointed out where we were sitting and how far away the wall of coal was (about 16’ away). Soon a machine was seen, huge, and tearing that wall of coal down, sending it up a belt and I finally saw a coal miner.He had a “TV remote” to keep the height of the LONG WALL at the right height (about 16’) and the other kept the LONG WALL horizontal at about 20’ in. My glimpse of coal miners was 2 guys with electronics and a fabulous machine. No dust, no backbreaking and no safety issues. The wall was about 30 foot away. God bless Consol Coal and ALL of their employees.
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