Proud to Be a Pipefitter’s Son
Here’s a letter to a now-frequent correspondent.
Mr. B__:
You mistake my insistence that Americans are fortunate today not to have as many factory jobs as we had in the past – and my identifying myself as a son and grandson of pipefitters – as evidence that I’m “ashamed” of my father and grandfather.
Nothing could be further from the truth. I’m immeasurably proud of my father and grandfather, and I’m grateful that they had the economic opportunities then afforded to them. Even though I grew up in the 1960s and 1970s in a working-class American family, my siblings and I were nevertheless among the wealthiest children ever to live.
But ordinary Americans today are even wealthier, in no small part because job opportunities in the service sector (where I happily work) have expanded and improved. I assure you that my father and grandfather would have thought me mad had I dropped out of college to follow in their career footsteps.
Loretta Lynn was a famous American country-music singer-songwriter, whose anthem song, which she wrote in 1969, was “Coal Miner’s Daughter.” With unmistakable sincerity, she sang that she was “proud to be a coal miner’s daughter.” But she chose to work, not in a coal mine, but in the service sector (specifically, entertainment). In doing so, she earned a much better living than her father ever did.
Surely you wouldn’t accuse Ms. Lynn of being ashamed of her father – and you shouldn’t accuse me of being ashamed of mine.
Sincerely,
Donald J. Boudreaux
Professor of Economics
and
Martha and Nelson Getchell Chair for the Study of Free Market Capitalism at the Mercatus Center
George Mason University
Fairfax, VA 22030
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