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Blue Collar Quotes

Browse 108 quotes about Blue Collar.

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Blue Collar Quotes

“His mind filled with visions of a decadent kleptocracy in rapid decline, abetted by both political parties. America's masses, fed on processed poison bought with a food stamp swipe card. Low-skill workers, structurally unable to ever contribute again and too dumb to know their old jobs weren't coming back. The banks in Gotham leaching the last drops of wealth out of the country. Corporations unrestrained by any notion of national interest. The system of property law in shambles. The world drowning in debt.”

JobsDebtPolitical PartiesBlue CollarBanksFood StampsKleptocracy
Book:The Unwinding: An Inner History of the New America
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“The occupants of the other three looked like the people they had seen rioting in the streets of Paris that morning. They were citizens of the other France, the France one didn’t read about in guidebooks. They were the put-upon and the left-behind, the ones without glittering degrees from elite institutions of learning. Globalization and automation had eroded their value in the workforce. The service economy was their only option. Their counterparts in Britain and America had already had their say at the ballot box. France, reckoned Gabriel, would be next.”

Working ClassBlue CollarAutomationLaboring ClassThe Poor Get Poorer
Book:The New Girl
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“You know, I understand the way that some people view manual labor. With a kind of sneer, looking down your nose at it, like it’s less. But I’ve never found anything more satisfying than going out and making a change with my own two hands. Seeing a project through from start to finish, knowing that what I did…that it changed something. The shape of an object, the landscape. When you’re fighting fires, that your hands helped put up the blockade that preserved the wilderness. That you dug those trenches, ran those fire lines that saved houses, trees, animals. Lives. There’s no shame in it.”

Blue CollarManual Labor
Book:Cowboy Christmas Redemption
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“According to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, “in the last few years, student loan debt has hovered around the $1 trillion mark, becoming the second-largest consumer obligation after mortgages and invoking parallels with the housing bubble that precipitated the 2007–2009 recession…the proportion of the U.S. population with student loans increased from about 7 percent in 2003 to about 15 percent in 2012; in addition, over the same period, the average student loan debt for a 40-year-old borrower almost doubled, reaching a level of more than $30,000.” Grad students incur even more debt, and the salaries, especially in education, aren’t usually high enough to make that master’s degree (which is a great academic boost) a worthwhile return on investment financially. If it turns out that college isn’t for you or if problems prevent you from graduating, you can end up with lots of debt and no degree to show for it. Having hours toward college doesn’t qualify you for a job that requires a degree, so you could end up with the debt and without the necessary letters behind your name. In contrast, blue collar training requires fewer years and costs less than a college degree; in some fields, you learn on the job while being paid.”

Career AdviceBlue CollarFinances
Book:Financial Advice for Blue Collar America
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“Society must show that blue-collar crime never pays. Insidious white-collar crime pays very well, and nothing is declared. It's the same reason why Financial Education, probably the most important subject of all, is absent from the general school curriculum - to keep the have-nots ignorant and the establishment's riches safe.”

CrimeClass StruggleBlue CollarKeeping SecretsClass SystemFinancial EducationWhite Collar CrimeWhite Collar CriminalCrime Does Not PayHaves Haves Not
Author:Stewart Stafford
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“The schemes to set up blacks in cleaning stores, gas stations, hamburger stands and fried-chicken franchises, all the low-profit, low-capital enterprises, will rivet the Black man to the least remunerative section of the economy forever. The best such prospects offer are the dissatisfactions of blue-collar life. The big money ain't in pumping rationed gas in an Amoco station leased in your very own name, but in having stock in Exxon.”

MenWisdomBigsPoliticsNamesBlackEconomyForeverOffersLowsBlueProfitStoresLiberalismEnterpriseGasStationsChickensSchemesSectionsCleaningDissatisfactionCollarsProspectsHamburgersBlue CollarGas StationsFried Chicken
Author:Louis O. Kelso
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“I have a responsibility to the worker, both blue-collar and white-collar. I have an equal responsibility to the community. It would have been unconscionable to put 3,000 people on the streets and deliver a deathblow to the cities of Lawrence and Methuen. Maybe on paper our company is worthless to Wall Street, but I can tell you it's worth more.”

PeopleHas BeensI CanCommunityWhiteCitiesResponsibilityCompanyStreetsWallEqualPaperBlueWorkersWorthlessCollarsBlue CollarWhite Collar
Author:Aaron Feuerstein
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“Blue collar workers cannot hire each other. White collar workers cannot hire each other. You have to have a businessman or a businesswomen, a business owner to hire you. And you cannot make the environment so unfriendly to them or so unprofitable or so burdensome that they go out of business,because if they go out of business, you are out of a job.”

IfsJobsWhiteEnvironmentBlueWorkersOwnersBusinessmanCollarsBusiness OwnersBlue CollarWhite CollarUnfriendlyBlue Collar Workers
Author:Duncan Hunter
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“Remodeling defies the principles of modern commerce. You shell out great sums of money to people over whom you have no authority or power, yet these same people are constantly insinuating that you're cheap. (It reminded me of medicine, another area where you shell out great sums of money to people over whom you have no authority or power, who make you feel guilty for questioning a bill.) Construction workers are the blue-collar version of the snooty salespeople at Gucci who make $8 an hour but look down on you if you balk at a $400 alligator wallet.”

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Author:Margo Kaufman
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“Ed "The Truth Is Illegal" Markey responded to Teamster support for ANWR by dismissively sniffing, it was only "one issue." Luckily, the Democrats have all those other issues dear to the heart of the average blue-collar worker: abortion on demand, gay marriage and taxpayer-funded crucifixes submerged in urine.”

HeartSupportIssuesTruth IsGayDemandBlueDemocratWorkersDearAverageAbortionIllegalGay MarriageTaxpayersCollarsBlue CollarSubmergedSniffingBlue Collar WorkersAnwr
Author:Ann Coulter
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