In this episode of Rowe’s Podcast, “The Way I Heard It,” the VP appeared to promote his forthcoming memoir, “Communion: Finding My Way Back to Faith.” The conversation turned to a discussion about what defines dignified work, the state of employment in America and, by extension, the role of higher education.
White collar versus blue collar jobs
Reflecting upon his grandfather’s influence on his own career trajectory, Vance pointed to what he sees as a persisting fallacy from earlier generations who believe that white collar work means you’ve made it — and that working with your hands is less admirable, desirable and overall below careers where a degree is a prerequisite. It’s a stigma Rowe has slowly chipped away at with his own show and advocacy work.
“If you were blue collar, somehow that wasn’t as good or as prestigious as the people who went to college. But I do think our society has learned a lot since then,” Vance said.
One of the main things he believes we’ve learned: that many white collar jobs are “kind of bulls**t” and “kind of fake.”
“A lot of the people who are going and getting four-year degrees, they aren’t engineers or doctors, they have effectively fake jobs,” he said, giving the example of the COVID era, which he said really put into perspective those roles in which “people sit at a laptop and don’t actually do much.”
Must Read
Join 250,000+ readers and get Moneywise’s best stories and exclusive interviews first — clear insights curated and delivered weekly. Subscribe now.
Redefining dignified work
The duo went on to define, in contrast, what dignified work means to them: something, they agreed, that benefits another person or adds value to society, regardless of what the day-to-day of the job looks like.
“Whatever the conditions, If you do something that you know is valuable, it’s very hard to get bored with it. Whereas if you do something that you know is not valuable, it doesn’t matter how much you’re paid, I think it’s very hard to actually take meaning from that,” Vance said.
He provided examples of dignified work across both white and blue collar professions, such as building homes, fixing plumbing or solving someone’s dispute as a lawyer (for which you most definitely need a college degree). He said military service topped the list of careers that have felt the most meaningful, noting “this false dichotomy of dignified work being white collar or blue collar.”
