The work can be alienating, and social dynamics a tad weird. But yeah, for the most part you get a decent paycheck for sitting in an air conditioned room. My dad worked his whole life in a factory and then as a trucker. His advice was that work sucks no matter what you do, so do your best to get a job that won't ruin your body. I sometimes daydream about doing something more physically active for work, then I remember that I'd have to do said physical activity for 7 or more hours a day.
I'm trying to do the independent contractor thing and it's not as hard as you would think. Lot of time spent on your knees, but it's nice feeling like I'm making a difference in people's lives and I make my own hours.
Right, FWIW my parents are working class immigrants. While we had skilled tradespeople in our family, I think the assumption was that a well treated and well paid tradesperson was some weird quirk of the formerly socialist state we lived in and not something that happens under capitalism. So there was a firm belief in the dichotomy between well paid office job and getting treated like shit and ruining your body otherwise in my house. That's not quite true in practice, but how were my parents to know.
Most of my experiences working in hard labor jobs were for pretty shit pay. At least in the U.S. it's very common to make maybe a dollar above minimum wage and if you want to go beyond that you need to have a few thousand dollars in tools and a truck or go into business for yourself.
The ideal job for me would be a physical one for 6-7 hours per day with a 1 hour break and other people to socialize with. I did something like this for a while but it was minimum wage. Under communism it would be my dream job, though. Hell, my job now would be fine if DOT regulations weren't fucking awful and actually tried to protect workers. I've had days where my load was light and I got done in 8 hours without going at 120% and if that was every day I wouldn't have much to complain about. But instead my days are 9-13 hours long, with forced 6 day weeks.
The work can be alienating, and social dynamics a tad weird. But yeah, for the most part you get a decent paycheck for sitting in an air conditioned room. My dad worked his whole life in a factory and then as a trucker. His advice was that work sucks no matter what you do, so do your best to get a job that won't ruin your body. I sometimes daydream about doing something more physically active for work, then I remember that I'd have to do said physical activity for 7 or more hours a day.
I'm trying to do the independent contractor thing and it's not as hard as you would think. Lot of time spent on your knees, but it's nice feeling like I'm making a difference in people's lives and I make my own hours.
Right, FWIW my parents are working class immigrants. While we had skilled tradespeople in our family, I think the assumption was that a well treated and well paid tradesperson was some weird quirk of the formerly socialist state we lived in and not something that happens under capitalism. So there was a firm belief in the dichotomy between well paid office job and getting treated like shit and ruining your body otherwise in my house. That's not quite true in practice, but how were my parents to know.
Most of my experiences working in hard labor jobs were for pretty shit pay. At least in the U.S. it's very common to make maybe a dollar above minimum wage and if you want to go beyond that you need to have a few thousand dollars in tools and a truck or go into business for yourself.
The ideal job for me would be a physical one for 6-7 hours per day with a 1 hour break and other people to socialize with. I did something like this for a while but it was minimum wage. Under communism it would be my dream job, though. Hell, my job now would be fine if DOT regulations weren't fucking awful and actually tried to protect workers. I've had days where my load was light and I got done in 8 hours without going at 120% and if that was every day I wouldn't have much to complain about. But instead my days are 9-13 hours long, with forced 6 day weeks.