&gt; why the rancor and assumption that the OP and other commenters (like the GP) haven&#x27;t also had physical jobs?<p>I&#x27;ll be happy to accept evidence to the contrary, but by the looks of it the OP has not.<p>&gt; I certainly have…<p>Good, so you&#x27;ll appreciate my viewpoint a bit more than those of us who happen to have lucked out and have been desk jockeys since the start of our professional lives.<p>&gt; It&#x27;s all I did the first several years of my life. And like you, my life is now quite different.<p>My assumption is that because of having had a period in your life where you worked really hard for relatively very little pay that you appreciate what you have today a lot more than you would otherwise.<p>&gt; You have a different point of view, but it&#x27;s not because we haven&#x27;t done physical work. In fact, in my case I&#x27;d say it was my experience doing that kind of work that leads me to identify with what the OP describes in the linked article.<p>I subscribe to some parts of what the article relates to but I take exception with certain parts and the casual way in which &#x27;men without a college degree&#x27; (which the lady writing the article is not on both counts) are being labeled as implied slackers because &#x27;We know they watch more television and do less childcare than working-class women, and are less likely than more affluent men to work long hours&#x27;.