You’re familiar with how hard you’ve worked, but you’re not familiar with how hard others have worked to get wherever they are. Getting a degree is just one part of the equation. Some jobs that don’t require degrees are much more difficult than many jobs that do require degrees; it’s just a different type of “hard work.” It’s condescending and presumptuous to state that you can do anyone else’s job, but they’re incapable of doing yours; or that you work harder than anyone else (especially those who are unionized). It just isn’t necessarily true.
Many public employees work incredibly long, hard hours doing things that most people would never want to do. Sometimes, it’s physically hard work; other times, it’s mentally hard work; and in some positions, it is incredibly difficult emotionally…seeing incredibly traumatic situations with dead and/or dying people (including children) who are conscious and begging/screaming for help, for example — and it happens more often than you would think. And then there are those who walk around with targets on their backs (cops), who daily have to deal with society’s most evil filth, who are known to have some of the most stressful jobs around.
So, hard work comes in many different colors. Just because you chose your path, it doesn’t mean that the path others have chosen is beneath you. You chose what you did because that is what interests you, and (presumably) it’s something you have a special talent for. Others have done the same. Please don’t mistake employees standing up for their collective rights as “white collar envy.” Nothing could be further from the truth.
BTW, I appreciate that you understand where I’m coming from — that I want ALL workers of all stripes to share a greater portion of the wealth they’ve created.
There is no doubt that you’re intelligent and hard working, CE. It would be nice if you could give credit to others for their hard work, as well.
