As you, I've had the experience of manual labor and running my own business. Plus, I've been on corporate payrolls and worked free lance as one of those people paid to "sit and think".
But one of the most illuminating lessons I ever had while consulting some people (pro-enviro post-modern Clinton loving liberals) on marketing a for-profit zoo. The zoo was in the process of being constructed -- buildings built, containments erected, streams and ponds dug and lined, trees being taken out, others planted. We were on a very tight timetable for what was a rather elaborate project.
The success of making the timetable hinged on the work of the contractor and his construction laborers. And, yet, the ownership treated the laborers with the greatest disdain. They had no appreciation for the work of the tradesman or the equipment operator, much less the manual laborer.
It was striking how they looked down on these construction people, as somehow ignorant and base, unskilled and without real worth. Yet, it was work that the owners themselves could (not would) not have undertaken. A backhoe was a mystery to them. Constructing and erecting a simple directional sign was beyond their carpentry and erection ability. And not one of them had the gumption to have dug his own ditch.
In short, the owners had no respect for the people they employed, nor the value of the work they did.
The liberal elite, however, will always contend that they "stand up for the working man". Even as they secretly despise him...
That was a job I was happy to conclude. And I share your appreciation for "the people who make America work." Indeed, I'd like to think I'm one of 'em...
One of the things my Dad drilled into my head ( he started literally dirt-poor, and ended with about 630 men working for him... ) was that all honest work was honorable.
It didn't matter to him whether you were the man who designed the site, or the guy cutting trenches to install the wiring & piping the designer specified-- everyone had a place, and no one place was better than another, because without each man doing his job competently, the job did not get done.
I really wish every person who thinks they are a member of some kind of elite group
( all the chattering heads on TV come to mind... and politicians as well. )
could spend a few weeks working with a work crew at a construction site and see for themselves the comeradre', humor, and general decency of the average American.
They'd learn more from that- about human nature- than from a year of schooling...