It is an extremely common conception that "blue collar" workers, otherwise they guys (or women) who maintain or build everything we enjoy in life, are uneducated and slovenly and burdensome to the progress of society as a whole.

That might be hyperbole in most cases, yet I see people reflect those attitudes way too damn often. Formal education doesn't equal smart, nor does lack of it equal stupid. Trade workers often have yearly earnings that rival the white collar industries, and their trade is literally a skill learned through hard effort and years of learning that commonly costs your physical health.

It is necessary to our society ... plumbing, sanitation, framing, electricity, landscaping, mechanics, and so much more. Yet, all too often, people young and old are stuck in the 1950s mindset that blue-collar is ditch digging and failure to start in life. It boils my blood, as this attitude equates to classism. Your clothes are dirty? You don't wear suits? You work in a high-risk job? You wear hats to work ... backwards?? They see that as failure.

It's just bizarre to me, as often these very people are apparently progressive, yet they use "uneducated", meaning no formal college, as an end-all insult. Some of the most ignorant people I've known have been only "book smart".

This classist point of view needs to stop. Everyone in every industry contributes to society, not just the ones with soft hands and white collars.