Professional and Working Class Conflict in The United States

Professional And Working Class Conflict In The United States

In the United States there has long been a conflict between the working class majority and the professional class. The conflict goes back to the workers revolution and age of unionized labor in the late nineteenth century. Since the 1870s and the rise of professionalism the daily routine of American workers has been largely designed by professionals instead of foremen.

Today, most American workers many of whom earn middle-range incomes and work in white collar occupations, are usually not resentful of the professionals though a feeling of disconnect persists. Even nowadays there is a large visible discrepancy between professionals whose main job duties include visualizing and directing the day of other workers and those who carry out the orders. While the work of professionals and managers is usually largely self-directed and appeals to the interest of the individual, that of middle-range income white collar and working class blue collar workers is closely supervised and tends to greatly stray from the worker's actual interests.

Yet another reason for professional middle class resentment among the working class stems from the embedded feelings of anti-intellectualism. When combined working class workers seem to often be under the impression that their better paid, professional managers are not actually "doing anything" as most of their duties are to conceptualize and outline their ideas.

Read more about Professional And Working Class Conflict In The United States:  The Student Movement, Current Disconnect, See Also

Famous quotes containing the words united states, professional, working, class, conflict, united and/or states:

    In the United States the whites speak well of the Blacks but think bad about them, whereas the Blacks talk bad and think bad about the whites. Whites fear Blacks, because they have a bad conscience, and Blacks hate whites because they need not have a bad conscience.
    Friedrich Dürrenmatt (1921–1990)

    As a scientist I’m afraid I’m a professional skeptic who doubts everything, even the certainties.
    Karl Brown (1897–1990)

    Every woman who visited the Fair made it the center of her orbit. Here was a structure designed by a woman, decorated by women, managed by women, filled with the work of women. Thousands discovered women were not only doing something, but had been working seriously for many generations ... [ellipsis in source] Many of the exhibits were admirable, but if others failed to satisfy experts, what of it?
    Kate Field (1838–1908)

    psychologist
    Ultimately it’s all a matter of style. What it comes down to is this: Do you spell Jennifer with a J or G? That’s a class division. As a populist, I’m all for G.
    Gore Vidal (b. 1925)

    We are not naïve enough to ask for pure men; we ask merely for men whose impurity does not conflict with the obligations of their job.
    Jean Rostand (1894–1977)

    ... when we shall have our amendment to the Constitution of the United States, everyone will think it was always so, just exactly as many young people believe that all the privileges, all the freedom, all the enjoyments which woman now possesses were always hers. They have no idea of how every single inch of ground that she stands upon to-day has been gained by the hard work of some little handful of women of the past.
    Susan B. Anthony (1820–1906)

    During the first World War women in the United States had a chance to try their capacities in wider fields of executive leadership in industry. Must we always wait for war to give us opportunity? And must the pendulum always swing back in the busy world of work and workers during times of peace?
    Mary Barnett Gilson (1877–?)