Port workers are physical laborers and therefore in our popular culture are perceived as stupid. Humans of lesser value.
This inherent bias exists in all of us, whether we admit it or not. That's why we view knowledge workers getting paid more than they deserve in a MUCH different light than physical laborers getting paid more than they deserve.
Sad but true. Definitely a lot of elitism here as well as anti-union.
I'd happily remain on my butt at a computer even if the trades started making double my salary. They are sacrificing their bodies for this theoretical higher wage. They deserve it in my eyes.
But of course, that's not how a lot of "smart people" think. "I can life boxes, why are they paid more"? Big difference between lifting a box, and lifting boxes for 20,000+hours for a part of a career. Life is short as is, I will try to make the best of it.
I'm speaking to cultural biases in the west, I'm not speaking from a personal perspective. Physical laborers are percieved as humans of lesser value, and that's why the bar or standard for what is mistreatment of them is much higher. We do the same with, for example, prisoners. They are humans of lesser value, so the standard for mistreatment is really high. We can force them to work, physically hurt them, starve them a bit, and the average person doesn't care. We have to do something really bad for people to start caring.
That's why your office worker can take a 15-minute walk and nobody bats an eye. But the grocery store cashier wants to sit down, and millions of people lose their mind.
I don't think you understand what culture means. When I'm saying it's the culture of the west to put down physical laborers, that doesn't mean I think YOU PERSONALLY do that. I really didn't think this is the type of thing that needed to be explained on hackernews of all places, but here we are. Try to keep up.
This inherent bias exists in all of us, whether we admit it or not. That's why we view knowledge workers getting paid more than they deserve in a MUCH different light than physical laborers getting paid more than they deserve.