That is a misinformed view - especially back then solid blue collar work was highly valued and they did pretty good. He died better off than others, but it was more a function of his abnormal savings habit.

Even today, in some pockets of America manufacturing is highly valued. My town has an excellent program that introduces high school kids into 3 year apprenticeship programs that earns them a certificate. Its modeled after the more common program in Germany. A lot these kid are ahead of the curve by 5-10 years in earnings potential than their peers who went the college route (especially ones who honestly were better suited for a different life path).

I also find your dislike of "upper management" interesting whenever I hear that point of view. I own my company - there would be no employees without me. They'd simply be somewhere else working - so I try to compensate them better than all their alternatives so they hang around. You think "upper management" are exploiters - the us vs them attitude only works when you're intentionally trying to divide and conquer, and upper management is not typically the group to employ this strategy...

Edit: grammar (us blue bloods don't like a record of our grammatical errors viewable by the peasants)