Maggie's Farm

(This post posted elsewhere but re-posted here on the subject of Joe The Plumber, McCain-Palin, and social class threats explored in the Weekly Standard piece. I think this post strikes closer to home at why the Dems are so defesnive about Joe The Plumber).

I believe the en masse defensiveness about Joe The Plumber exhibited by the elites and their media allies has more to do with their knowledge, deep down, that plumbers- and many formerly so-called "working class" careers- have a better shot at a middle class lifestyle these days than does the average liberal arts/graduate degree holder, i.e., their crowd. It is just the simple economics of supply and demand- could BD attest to that given his recent adventures with tradesmen? I see it as bitter acknowledgment of reality, finding it unacceptable, and lashing out at same.

The elites have been indoctrinated to believe that "education" is the be all, end all of anyone's life achievements and goals but we all know that has been revealed to be just another myth, at least from the income standpoint, they perpetuate to keep the "Education Establishment" in business. Figures don't lie when you make the comparisons: The fact is that there are many so-called "working class" positions, which is what they used to be called, mostly skilled, which in many cases enable a person to earn a higher income than does one with a liberal arts B.A., Masters or even a PhD. We all know people like this in our communities- nurses, police, fire, contractors in the trades, airline pilots, IT people, industrial technicians of many types, accountants, beauticians, and many others too numerous to mention.

I understand that this topic, i.e., the fact that it is becoming increasingly difficult to show a positive return on investment for a 4 year liberal arts degree, is touched on, among others, in Charles Murray's new book, "Real Education: Four Simple Truths For Bringing America's Schools Back to Reality", sure to be a "hit" with America's Education Establishment! The fact is, we need plumbers, electricians, carpenters, cops, firemen, technicians, and a whole range of other working class folks in short supply a lot more than we need another much over-supplied English major. And their pay scales will reflect the inexorable law of supply and demand.

A bitter pill to swallow for many. I see the Joe The Plumber derangement syndrome as evidence of this, hopefully the last stand of the NEA and others opposed to school reform and freedom of parental school choice. We need to start training students for the jobs that this economy will actually have available and not the ones we wish were available.

Yes, BD, I recall your posting on this topic in the past. I have found the reaction to this whole thing just fascinating- and very telling. Liberals always want to defy the market economy law of supply and demand in everything they do whether it is health care, abortions, energy, welfare, banking, education, business, jobs, etc., etc. "Managed, Command Economies Are Us"

But it is the scorn with which Joe The Plumber has been treated by Obama and Biden on the campaign trail since the last debate which is most telling. They are saying: "Imagine the nerve of this blue collar guy believing that he can make $250,000 income" with the unspoken part being " We have to say that to mollify all of you suckers..er..voters who have wasted a lot of money on educations that will not buy you a standard of living equal to the Joe The Plumbers of this world".

And so now the Dems are going to pick winners and losers in this formerly free market economy. That is something to rebel against, and fight against with everything we're got between now and November 4, and especially on November 4. I believe that based on late trends from recent Presidentialsthe voters are swinging to McCain-Palin and that this trend will acccelerate as November 4 nears.

Good points MM, i. e. "good manners never go out of style", as my mother would always say! You see, although I am a baby boomer, I still learned that good manners are essential to effective human interactions on all levels! Unlike so many of our generation. I would add Ih ave observed that southerners, in general, also have very good manners, as do our friends in flyover country and our men and women in the military serving our country, as MM pointed out. When my European friends want to see the "Real America", I tell them Kansas City is a good place to begin, then motor down to Springfield MO and hook on to Route 66 for the journey west. En route you will meet some real Americans, the kind you have always heard about!