I certainly understand how quickly one can find herself on a sudden and unplanned track of “downward mobility,”  and I’m pretty sure that most of my readers understand exactly what Ehrenreich is talking about. Many of them are already there and are also part of the indentured educated class. That makes it even worse. (Edububble recently made a compelling argument about why it’s so bad to be a part of this new class).

This is an email conversation between UP member Pamela Allee and UP site editor Diane Alexander:

Pamela writes:

Everyone deserves to earn a good living! Let’s stop the nonsense that people without degrees are less deserving of respect, etc. — so often by those with degrees. Possession of a degree does not necessarily indicate anything more than privilege.

I do agree with your site – up to a point. I think it is also very important to caution disgruntled members of the professional class against taking it out on those of us who are “merely” support staff. I’m speaking from 55 years of working experience, mainly in two fields (medical laboratory and marine engineering).

Diane writes:

Dear Pamela,

Thanks for your comments — I agree with you. But I hope that our site does not imply that people without college degrees are less worthy of respect or the opportunity to earn a decent living.

The idea for United Professionals, as you may have read on the site, came after Barbara Ehrenreich wrote “Bait and Switch: the (Futile) Pursuit of the American Dream.” She was overwhelmed by how many people she met on her book tours who had similar experiences with layoffs, age discrimination, and many other obstacles in trying to find work in their fields.

Before that, Barbara wrote “Nickel and Dimed,” where she went undercover to expose the futility of trying to get by on entry-level pay as a aid, Walmart worker, and waitress. I know that Barbara and UP’s entire board of directors are ardent advocates for a living wage and dignity for workers of whatever kind.

I understand that the terms “white collar” and “professional” can be seen as elitist, though in fact UP has members from all different income, job, and education levels. One fellow I’ve corresponded with asked if, as a truck driver, he could be a member of UP. I told him that he is a professional — a professional truck driver — and that UP doesn’t care what color anybody’s collar is. Our emphasis is really more on the endangered middle class than on white, blue, or pink collars.

I’d love to have you write your thoughts into a blog piece.

Pamela writes:

Hi Diane — Thank you for replying (and so quickly). I totally agree with the intro on your page, and yet I responded to a nerve that has grown ever more tender over my working life. I don’t know how much is “just me” and how much is “the times,” but I’m ever more aware (and resentful) of class distinctions based chiefly upon education.

I blush to realize that I’ve been resorting to classic scapegoating and muddling of related issues. My frustration is probably exacerbated by the continuous disregard for the public exhibited by our (degreed) public servants (sic), from the smallest town hall to Congress.

Thanks again, and I hope UP contributes to some much-needed social equality along the lines of an America that needs to be. (Langston Hughes said it best.)

Diane writes:

Hi Pam — I also feel somewhat uncomfortable with the terms “white collar” and “professional.” But there are lots of white-collar people who didn’t go to college, and plenty of college graduates who have working-class jobs.

I would love your perspective to be heard on the UP site. I bet you’re not the only one who feels that way.

Pamela writes:

All honest labor is skilled labor, and as such, deserves respect: both self respect and the respect of others. I very much object to ranking work as “peonage” or feeling that one’s job is somehow”beneath” one, simply because this mindset seems always to bleed over to condescension or worse.

The absence or presence of higher education is a crap shoot as far as predicting actual ability. It is becoming more of an indicator of privilege than anything else, unfortunately.

All of us — especially, I suspect, people who read and write for UP — can come up with an “in a better world” list around education, among other things.

That better world can start now, in the workplace, if we each begin to acknowledge what I began with: All honest labor is skilled labor and deserves respect. I know this is a bit simple, but I think it’s a very good place to begin questioning one’s own responsibility in the general scheme of things.

Pamela and Diane would like to hear other people’s comments on this subject.

An excerpt from http://dailyrevolution.net/?p=5548:

“Fellow job hunters: isn’t it amazing how, just at the moment when you don’t have a dollar to spare for anyone, everyone’s hands come stretching out? Resume services, career coaches, training institutes, online colleges, interviewing experts, and one service after another that pitches to push your name to the very front of the line, straight under the noses of corporate deciders. Meanwhile, you’re probably a lot like me in terms of being able to pay for any of this shit: I’ve got $14.72 until Thursday; and every nickel the state ponies up for the next few weeks will go straight toward June’s rent.

One of the outstanding writers and journalists of our era, a woman named Barbara Ehrenreich, exposed this tragicomic folly in a book from a few years back, appropriately titled Bait and Switch.

Ehrenreich is also the moving force behind a new online movement called United Professionals. …”

I am employed but have been unemployed. I am joining UP after reading “Bait & Switch” to make efforts towards the health insurance reform movement. I would like to help prepare for the possiblity that I may be suddenly unemployed and uninsured. Since I am not currently on the job hunt I have the time to do this.