Father: See those construction workers? That’s you if you don’t study well.
Brother: How much do they get paid?
Father: Very little!
Brother: But that’s unfair. They’re doing heavy work for small wage?
Father: Well that’s just how it is. If you do study well, you can be the architect of the building. It has a higher wage!
Today, I had an epiphany. These construction workers are being used as a cautionary tale. “Study well so you don’t end up like that man over there”. That’s what we tell children so they’ll follow the system. Yeah, let’s ignore the fact that society needs construction workers too.
Because we do. We cannot just have a world full of educated people.
For who would clean the floors of your school while you are studying? Who would clean your house when you are busy working? Who would drive you back and forth? Who would work blood, sweat and tears to make your dream house come true? These are the uneducated. These are the under-appreciated.
So who deserves the higher wage now?
No one. For education should not be the basis of a person’s wage. A person’s occupation should not identify the range of the money they could earn. A construction worker should be able to become a potential millionaire just by working physically. That privilege should not just be given to men in suits and ties, who only use their brains and not their muscles.
The problem with our society is that it values industrialism; it is the idea of creating, of making, of inventing, of selling, but not the idea of using your own hands to accomplish it.
dolor hic tibi proderit olim 
I do appreciate the sentiments in this essay; however, wages come in the form of money, and money is handled by economic concepts. While it may be true that construction workers don’t get paid well enough considering the dangers of their job, it does not take much time to become a construction worker, as compared to surgeons, engineers, and business consultants. White-collar jobs take the higher wage as it is hard to produce these kinds of people with the know-hows required in their field; their supply is limited in society. Unfortunately, in a capitalistic system such as this, this system must be followed, no matter the indignation felt by these workers, and people who are concerned about the welfare of these workers.
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I see. I admit I’ve never looked at it that way before. Thank you.
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