Public transit, rail to get $10 billion in bailout funds

[zoltan]

Well, the little pansies are gonna have to make themselves rugged enough. People don't do enough honest work around here. All the unemployed whitecollar fluffballs getting some honest work for a change would be a good thing.

Problem is, if you look at the salaries being paid, society undervalues the very useful and essential contribution being made by the manual workers making things and doing things, and overvaluing the work of those in suits in offices, despite the fact, as an example, construction of road infrastructure is just as vital for business getting done as the decisions those businesses make in their offices.

 

[Green Maned Lion]

Well, the little pansies are gonna have to make themselves rugged enough. People don't do enough honest work around here. All the unemployed whitecollar fluffballs getting some honest work for a change would be a good thing.

You volunteering then?!

You're damned right I am. I'm not even looking for white collar work. I'm primarily for looking for work as a freight man, actually.

Well, the little pansies are gonna have to make themselves rugged enough. People don't do enough honest work around here. All the unemployed whitecollar fluffballs getting some honest work for a change would be a good thing.

Problem is, if you look at the salaries being paid, society undervalues the very useful and essential contribution being made by the manual workers making things and doing things, and overvaluing the work of those in suits in offices, despite the fact, as an example, construction of road infrastructure is just as vital for business getting done as the decisions those businesses make in their offices.

I'd say its more valuble. A lot of officeworkers aren't really needed.

 

[Joel N. Weber II]

Well, the little pansies are gonna have to make themselves rugged enough. People don't do enough honest work around here. All the unemployed whitecollar fluffballs getting some honest work for a change would be a good thing.

Problem is, if you look at the salaries being paid, society undervalues the very useful and essential contribution being made by the manual workers making things and doing things, and overvaluing the work of those in suits in offices, despite the fact, as an example, construction of road infrastructure is just as vital for business getting done as the decisions those businesses make in their offices.

I'd say its more valuble. A lot of officeworkers aren't really needed.

While I agree that a lot of office workers do jobs that aren't really needed or that could be consolidated into fewer jobs that involved a more efficient arrangement (healthcare billing is probably one of the best examples in this country; there are actually people who go to school specifically so that they can have careers in reading medical records and entering code numbers into a computer to generate line items that health insurance companies will pay for), I also thought I remembered seeing Green Maned Lion argue somewhere that having less highway would be a good thing.

And I don't see how we'll ever have new track constructed without someone in some office somewhere deciding where to put it. I don't see how Amtrak will ever convert to electronic ticketing without a bunch of people in some offices somewhere doing a bunch of work. I don't think having a bunch of carpenters show up at LAUS will be sufficient by itself to make a Metro Lounge appear; someone needs to coordinate which space that Lounge will occupy within the station so that it won't interfere with other activities in the station.

 

[Green Maned Lion]

I didn't say that there is no use for white collar work. But there is a hell of a lot less need for it than we have currently working, and that's with the highest unemployment in decades.

Blue collar jobs create value. Most white collar jobs move money around.