Status anxiety exists only to the extent you yourself value and reify status, and fail to see the equal intrinsic value of all kinds of honest work, regardless of how the free market derives the prices for different types and kinds of honest work. My parents are both veteran lawyers who, at different times of their lives as a married couple, also had to work other odd jobs as bakers, magazine and book subscription sellers, small store business owners, and their own entrepreneurs, before they could mainly settle into law practice that could pay the bills (not just for their family but also to support so many of their extended family) and raise all their children to where they are today. While raising their children despite their graduate degrees and legal education, both my mother and father always taught us to recognize the value of hard honest work - there is no difference between people who work with their hands or those who work at a desk, because in the end we all work with our heads, our spirits, our drive and tenacity to take care of our own. I had always thought America was the land of the free and the home of the brave precisely because in its struggle against colonial fetters, it deliberately rejected the Old World mentality of elitism and social hierarchies and strove to eliminate stratification. Of course, that is a work in progress - especially in racial politics. But all things considered, America was the New World because it was the one frontier on earth where self-determination had a literal meaning. Isnt America the country for whom self-reliance, in Ralph Waldo Emersons words, is the country where you do your work, and I shall know you; do your work, and you shall reinforce yourself? This article by Ms. Bronson at the University of Nevada - for all intents and purposes probably well-intentioned and borne out of stress - just doesnt reflect that kind of bravery anymore. Its become another example of *firstworldproblems* that are conveying the wrong message to my US students. I agree with the tremendous need for educational reforms in US higher education, especially given the burdens of student debt and the looming bubble that it is for the American economy. I just dont agree with muddling income inequality with status anxiety. You should have nothing to be ashamed about, Ms. Bronson. Honest work is not just a badge of honor, but a more practical, pragmatic, well-grounded and realistic teaching foundation for todays students beyond the ivory confines of academia. This is not the time to teach *firstworldproblems*.
Posted on: Sat, 20 Dec 2014 09:52:05 +0000
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