Tuesday, January 22, 2008

Green Collar Workers

The democrats are busy creating a new buzzword and industry at the same time. Now, I had to ask myself, having never heard of it before, “What the hell is a ‘green-collar job?’ It must have something to do with the religion of Global Warming.” I remember when we went from manufacturing things to a “Service Economy”. Now we’re looking at all the folks that know how to build (you know, actually turning wrenches) airplanes and fix airplanes and steel mills and such are dying. They’re taking that knowledge with them, and the kids are getting out of college being design experts, catering experts, financial advisors, etc. No blisters on those fingers!

What we have is a set of folks called White Collar, who may have desk jobs, shuffle paper, type and answer phones, make appointments, have meetings, and possibly lucky enough to enjoy some perks. On the other hand, we have Blue Collar folks that work and break a sweat for a living, may come home dirty or physically exhausted, manage a crew of dirty, tired or sweaty people. Now, we’re going to have a third hand, called “Green Collar”, and these people will be like Blue Collar people, except they’re doing something good for the environment. Let’s examine this.

In this article, there are some examples of Green Collar industry. The first one listed made me giggle slightly, because unless you’re doing it for children, you’re not going to make great headway with the adults. (Also, bear in mind how many people ride bikes with 70% of the population being overweight.) Some are already covered in the Blue Collar Category and are blatantly obvious, such as hazardous materials clean-up (unless those guys in orange and yellow jumpsuits wear them because they like it), “car and truck mechanic jobs”, or mechanics, some are redundant, made to make the list look longer, and some are just not thought about very thoroughly.

An example of one would be the production of solar panels, bike cargo systems (whatever that means), green waste bins (not sure if that’s the color or the lingo meaning it’s recycled somehow…), and I’m sitting here thinking, what makes this person believe that these great solar panels that we’ll all be installing won’t be Made in China in five years? And then, especially with the landscaping/tree pruning end, wouldn’t it make sense, at the rate things are going now, we’ll have trouble with the Illegal Aliens doing those jobs? Do YOU want to install solar panels in the midday hot sun for $10 an hour? Well, Juan Doe doesn’t mind.

This is what Hillary Clinton proposes to put us in a new direction. Have a New Collar industry, with its own Green Union, perhaps. Why, we’ll have to have legislation for new discriminatory/harassment laws for these Green Collar Workers. Can you imagine Mr. Green Landscaper saying to his Miss Lady Coworker, “Hey, looks like you need to trim your bush up a bit, it’s getting a little wild down there.” I mean, I work in an office, if someone said that to me, it would be obvious, right? Forget about the Southern Border guys, we have a whole new ballgame we’ve got to create.

Now, does anyone remember why our manufacturing jobs left our country to begin with, and can anyone take a guess why these “new” manufacturing jobs will go? Why would we “create” a new sector that will be outsourced? Why, even White Collar jobs are being outsourced. Called Microsoft, lately? You’ll talk to someone in India.

It’s all meant to make you feel good about yourself, make you increase your self esteem, brought to you by people and politicians who really believe that you can’t think for yourself and will swallow whatever BS they feed you because you’re dumb, they know better than you and they smile while they do it.

And this is great, because it addresses Global Warming. What a load of crap. Didn’t you just love it when The Goracle said that office buildings should install fluorescent lighting to save energy? You know, I can’t remember the last time I was in an office with fluorescent lighting. While congress is busy making sure that polar bears (who aren’t drowning) aren’t drowning, real folks are busy trying to figure out why they paid $10 for a CFL and then pay to recycle the stupid thing, or throw it away for free and poison the (eco-friendly legislated) landfills with mercury. But you know, Waste Management is building baseball fields over their landfills in their commercials.

While I’m talking about congress, I’d like to take the time to congratulate Miss Nanny Pelosi for a job well done in making sure our elected representatives eat a healthy and well balanced lunch, by throwing out those terrible cold cut sandwiches and pizza slices (so they say) and bringing in a whole new line of gourmet food. It’s green-for your guts. Now, while she is busy having meetings about meetings she’s going to have and not getting much else done besides measuring her drapes and buying flowers, we’re all still wondering if they think we forgot about the border, because of the election. I mean, the southern border.

She managed to pork up the omnibus bill so much, our great grandkids are going to be feeling it, and is trying in vain to find a way to add some kind of earmark to the economic stimulus package, to add a tax or roll back a tax cut to pay for it (because she can’t stand to part with it- it’s all part of her budget after all), or swap one tax for another to not loose any money. It’s really sad, she just can’t bear the thought of Americans getting money in their pocket- from them. It’s supposed to be the other way around. (Don’t worry, you’ll probably have to claim anything on your next income return.) And what does the government think they’re going to do giving people hundreds of dollars back? Do they think they’re all going to invest wisely, perhaps buy insurance, pay off a loan? Can someone say Hurricane Katrina? I’m all for giving the people’s money back to them, but seriously, we’re grasping at straws here. Some people will buy more groceries for their kids, some people are going to buy color TVs. And when that money is gone, it’s gone, and then what’s the government going to do? Cut another interest point?

The republican side isn’t much better, but at least they refer to “hate crimes” as crimes, and “green collar jobs” as blue collar jobs (and sometimes jobs Americans won’t do). They care about money, bringing it in and keeping it flowing. The democrats care about taxing it and controlling your thermostat. Republicans talk about what’s good for Americans and the American Dream, Democrats talk about what’s good for the common good and making sacrifices for the common good (only their idea is socialism). You know, because they all make so many sacrifices.

But none of them really have any idea on how to fix the mess they’ve made, except for whose to pay for it. And every single day you go to work, you pay for it. Every cent of interest you earn- which is less today than yesterday- you pay for it.

And speaking of paying, did you know that you could be facing a 40 cent increase per gallon of gas for federal taxes to pay for fixing roads and bridges? Gee, all this time, I thought we were paying for it, not in just our federal tax, but the taxes on gas and the tolls we pay. Silly me. I never thought I’d see the day when congress had the audacity to ask for more money to fix something that’s their job and should have been in their budget to begin with.

So are you a Green Collar Worker, or a regular American trying to figure out how you’re going to manage 40 cents more a gallon in gas? I hear you can download a copy of your local bus schedule from the internet- which may also soon be taxed.