We were just telling each other stories in Katag about our high school experiences when Dimple brought up how she graduated from high school by asking a classmate to write her final paper for a fee. And in my case, doing someone else's assignment too for a fee. This is, in its simplest form, what they call the knowledge-driven economy at work.
After all, this is the age where your buying power is measured by your degree, or your selling power by the patents you hold. This is the age where instant money is available through answering sometimes obscure questions in game shows. Gone is the age of manual labor--replaced by machines that are build on and from a foundation of knowledge.
This is the age of the white-collar worker; enclosed in his/her cube of glass, steel and plastic, he/she controls the world or helps "run" it.
And it's not necessarily for the better--as my Anthro prof had said, this mindset placed the manual laborers at the bottom of our priorities. She continued by saying we could live without accountants (who are, well, white-collar) but we can't live without the farmers that supply us food. Not to slam accountants--they're also important--but at the very least we musn't treat blue collar workers as lesser. Their work is as every bit as essential to those of the office worker.
Maybe it's time to appreciate them more.
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