don't you think blue-collar and white-collar employment are fundamentally different? it's true that in both cases you need a paycheque to survive, so they are perhaps more similar to each other than to truly self-sufficient life styles or the FUM class (fuck-you money), but that doesn't eliminate the important distinctions that remain between them
Not really. I remember some years back waiting in line at a boat dock and mentioning to my friend the parade of new shiny boats towed by new shiny trucks. His reply was, "look who owns all those expensive boats: plumbers and electricians. They're the ones who make the real money."
The "irony" that a friend of mine who is an EE with an MBA and manages group at a large corporation was looking into getting a low-voltage electrician's license was not lost on me.