Essay Questions

What is meant by the terms blue-collar and white-collar?

The entire premise of the book revolves around the well-known classifications of white-collar workers and blue-collar workers. Today, these two terms have entered the stage of being almost entirely symbolic, but their origins are quite literal. The rise of office jobs and professional employees in the early 20th century led to a dominance of white shirts worn by what were overwhelmingly men and thus the term white-collar work. The earliest known use of the term to describe professional workers dates back to 1910. Blue-collar worker was coined about a decade afterward specifically to manual workers and their collective propensity to wear a darker color because white clothes would obviously show soiling and thus require constant cleaning which laborers simply could not afford. From these literal origins rose the two terms which are now more use more to represent perceived status than actual economic disparity as blue-collar workers in many specific industries can expect to earn as much or more than white-collar workers in specific industries.

What purely economic element—as opposed to the broader implication of class—likely accounts for why most blue-collar workers connect work to their self-identity less than white-collar workers?

The author indicates that a very strong dividing line between blue-collar and white-collar workers lies in the important of jobs to the creation of self-identity. White-collar workers are far more likely to make work and self-identity inextricably linked to each other while most blue-collar workers tend to easily separate their view of themselves from what they do for a living. While the author is quick to identify the social conditions of environmental differences as the cause of this divergence by focusing on such aspects of growing up in white-collar homes as an increased ambition and more robust drive to succeed, the actual explanation seems far simpler and easily limited to just the economic aspects of blue-collar life. Lower wages for most blue-collar jobs stimulate an attitude toward work that defines it as place that one must go to in order to survive and where appreciation for hard work is rarely rewarded in ways that substantive improve lifestyle. Locating your identity in a job is far easier to do when you are well-paid, are afforded greater opportunities to find employment elsewhere without a reduction in pay, and are treated as essential members of a team.

What does the author mean when she writes that white-collar spouses organize their leisure activities around accumulating “cultural capital” while blue-collar spouses prefer to just let leisure time unfold?

The blue-collar psychological state of mind is overarching in its preference to act impulsively and without a great deal of organizational planning. This extends to workspaces both at jobs and within the domestic sphere so it should only be natural to expect the same laid-back attitude toward spending leisure time. On the other hand, just as white-collar spouses tend to be highly organized to the point of being managerial in their work planning, so too they tend to view leisure time as something that needs to be organized. Not just organized, but organized around a goal. The term “cultural capital” refers to all those various elements of life that many people see simply “stuff” but which the white-collar mind views as assets which can be accumulated and exploited for the purpose of social mobility.

In other words, if a couple’s child announces a sudden desire to play soccer, the blue-collar spouse is likely to look for league offering the most convenient access to practice and games. The white-collar spouse, on the other hand, will view this decision as an opportunity to increase status or make important connections with parents and thus will eschew the convenient fifteen minute drive to the where the local league practices three days a week to make the hour-long drive across the upscale practice field where the league populated by the kids of wealthier families play. A weekend getaway in pursuit of accumulating cultural capital might mean attending an overnight stay to take in Hamlet and Macbeth at a Shakespeare festival instead of attending a blue-collar family reunion. Leisure in the pursuit of cultural capital no longer really becomes about the pursuit of leisure.