House of Eratosthenes

Mike Rowe’s Testimony Before the U.S. Senate Committee on Commerce, Science and Transportation
May 11, 2011

Chairman Rockefeller, Ranking Member Hutchison and members of this committee, my name is Mike Rowe, and I want to thank you all very much for the opportunity to testify before you today.

I’m here today because of my grandfather.

His name was Carl Knobel, and he made his living in Baltimore as a master electrician. He was also a plumber, a mechanic, a mason, and a carpenter. Everyone knew him as a jack-of-all-trades. I knew him as a magician.

For most of his life, my grandfather woke up clean and came home dirty. In between, he accomplished things that were nothing short of miraculous. Some days he might re-shingle a roof. Or rebuild a motor. Or maybe run electricity out to our barn. He helped build the church I went to as a kid, and the farmhouse my brothers and I grew up in. He could fix or build anything, but to my knowledge he never once read the directions. He just knew how stuff worked.

I remember one Saturday morning when I was 12. I flushed the toilet in the same way I always had. The toilet however, responded in a way that was completely out of character. There was a rumbling sound, followed by a distant gurgle. Then, everything that had gone down reappeared in a rather violent and spectacular fashion.

Naturally, my grandfather was called in to investigate, and within the hour I was invited to join he and my dad in the front yard with picks and shovels.

By lunch, the lawn was littered with fragments of old pipe and mounds of dirt. There was welding and pipe-fitting, blisters and laughter, and maybe some questionable language. By sunset we were completely filthy. But a new pipe was installed, the dirt was back in the hole, and our toilet was back on its best behavior. It was one of my favorite days ever.

Thirty years later in San Francisco when my toilet blew up again. This time, I didn’t participate in the repair process. I just called my landlord, left a check on the kitchen counter, and went to work. When I got home, the mess was cleaned up and the problem was solved. As for the actual plumber who did the work, I never even met him.

It occurred to me that I had become disconnected from a lot of things that used to fascinate me. I no longer thought about where my food came from, or how my electricity worked, or who fixed my pipes, or who made my clothes. There was no reason to. I had become less interested in how things got made, and more interested in how things got bought.

At this point my grandfather was well into his 80s, and after a long visit with him one weekend, I decided to do a TV show in his honor…

Mike Rowe goes on to note that what we really need is a “national PR Campaign for Skilled Labor.” Truth be told, this is somewhat offensive to my libertarian sensibilities. In my universe, the government does not go telling us what is important to us — we decide that, and then we vote the government in or out and then they do that.

But that’s a minor quibble. How minor? If we did have a national PR campaign I wouldn’t shed a single tear. Because the man’s right. However we get there…we gotta get there.

We don’t have a lack of respect for skilled labor in this country. In a way, I wish we did. Because if that was the case we could say “Hey, there’s a lack of respect for skilled labor in this country” and then we could take that on. This is more like a slow burn, all smoke no fire — people who dis hard work, and then successfully delude themselves into thinking they don’t. Arguing with that is like nailing the proverbial fart to the wall. But the stink is still there.

It’s the critical thinking that takes a hit. If you never have to actually fix something, you can start thinking, you know, just plain idiotic things. Things like, we elect a black President and it will end racial discord forever…or…when there’s an oil leak in the gulf, what we need is a moratorium against drilling. Dumbass things like those. You’ll see they are most popularly championed in the urban areas. Where people call plumbers instead of doing it themselves, because they can.

Mike Rowe has long been a hero in my house. This just reinforces that. What a speech, and what a guy.

We don’t have a lack of respect for skilled labor in this country.

There’s some truth to that. Just this evening, my girlfriend, who has spent most of her career working in education, said she interviewed for a teaching job at some school, where “college-bound” is impressed on the young charges all the way back to kindergarten.

I said, “I no longer think that’s wise. College isn’t for everyone. A lot of people would be just fine wit a two year degree, vocational training, or a technical certificate of some kind. The world needs mechanics, too.” I think most of these non-4-year-college training categories would produce what you refer to as “skilled labor.” You’re referring to people who aren’t doctors or businessmen, but also aren’t fruit pickers and ditch-diggers, right? The latter would be considered “unskilled labor,” correct? You mean people like welders, carpenters, PC technicians, LVN nurses (not RN’s, which have a bachelor’s), heavy equipment operators, hotel and restaurant managers, and the like, right?

As far as the loss of respect for these “skilled labor” types, you may have a point, but I’d also argue they’ve done it to themselves. Remember that many jobs which fall into this category belong to unions…who in turn have made more and more absurd demands on employers…which eventually go under as they’re crushed by the weight of benefit packages, higher pay, pensions, and the like. Think American automakers in Detroit and all the people who work or worked at their assembly plants.. (not Toyota). Think steel workers, pipe fitters, construction workers, heavy equipment operators who work at a rock quarry or gravel plant. Think nurses, teachers, firefighters. Pretty much all unionized. I won’t even get started on state and federal employees who have some specific level of training or expertise…

It’s not all their fault, mind you. A lot of them had no choice but to join the union and pay the dues (that’s how it’s worked when I’ve been employed by a union shop). Others may be feeling that loss of respect simply because technology or automation has made their position obsolete, or their employer has off-shored the work they did in the 60s and 70s. That latter category should find the blame pointed squarely at government, for making it prohibitively expensive to do business in the US.
- cylarz | 05/12/2011 @ 23:59
Oh, scuse me. I misread that. I thought you were saying “We DO have a lack of respect for skilled labor in this country.” Pretty much invalidates everything I was saying. Oh well.
- cylarz | 05/13/2011 @ 00:03
Who says a “national PR Campaign for Skilled Labor” has to necessarily be by the government? Mike’s TV show isn’t a government endeavor nor is it on PBS.

The Republican Party, the Tea Party, the Libertarian Party…I dunn’o…the Koch Brothers…anybody could do it. Ole Mike could be the spokesman. No government involvement.

Why conclude that, Morgan?

~~~~~~~~~~~

Cylarz, while you make some legitimate points, unions only represent, what, 12% of the labor force? Skilled labor is looked down on for more reasons than the union linkage.

Call it, intellectual snobbery. But it permeates also into the “lower classes”. It’s insidious, and we’re all guilty of it. When’s the last time you drove past a construction site, or witnessed a mechanic/plumber/handyman, etc. and thought “Cool, that‘s awesome”, “I could do that“, “I hope my kid does something like that“? OK, maybe some of us, but c’mon, most of “us” don’t.

How many parents, presented with a kid who doesn’t necessarily like or does well in school and will not go to a four year college think “OK, no problemo, he can go get a skilled labor job”? Hell, no, the response is angst, gnashing of teeth, and thoughts of “How have we failed?”, “My god, what is he ever going to accomplish in life”?

We talk a lot about the failures of our representatives and government overall, and for good reasons (though aren‘t they just “us“), but sometimes, such as this topic, we need to address more often the failings of society to appreciate those things that ‘make the world go ‘round’, so to speak. Such as; respecting our elderly, common courtesy, manners, saving for a rainy day, failing is a part of life…all work is worthy…basic values and principles we we’re all taught but, for whatever reason, have gotten away from.

That should examined, with a fine, tick comb then washed and rinsed with the appropriate medicinal lather. Then maybe, just maybe, some of our other problems would take care of themselves.
- tim | 05/13/2011 @ 07:16
Good points, from both of you.

Why conclude that, Morgan?

You’re right that the non-government options are there. In response to your question — Mr. Rowe was appearing before a Senate committee panel and telling them we need a “national PR campaign.” Sounds like a pitch for government involvement to me.

But I must stress again, it’s a minor quibble. I know Mike Rowe does not see the world through a lens of “everything that is good comes from government.” Anyone with so much as a passing acquaintance with his show will understand that.
- mkfreeberg | 05/13/2011 @ 07:22
Anyone with so much as a passing acquaintance with his show will understand that.

I think you’re right. Aside from his Senate testimony which you quoted above, he always comes off as not just a likeable and decent guy, but the kind of fellow that appreciates hard work done by honest people.

If it’s all an act, he’s certainly got me fooled…because the same personality comes through in all those commercials he’s done for Ford Motor Co and Levis jeans.
- cylarz | 05/13/2011 @ 07:29
Both of which are quintessential American brands, I might add….Rowe was probably a good pick for an advertising spokesman on both counts…
- cylarz | 05/13/2011 @ 07:30
“Mr. Rowe was appearing before a Senate committee panel…”

Point taken.
- tim | 05/13/2011 @ 10:15
Love watching and listening to Mike Rowe, but we do not need bigger government. I don’t think that there is a lack of respect for the working profession, but there sure is with some of the workers. 15 years ago, we were rebuilding our kitchen. My wife and I gutted the kitchen and knocked down a wall and had plumber in to re-pipe and move the plumbing to the other side, I got tired of watching them Eff-off 1/2 the day, fired them and wound up sweating all the pipe. The point is, we hate being taken advantage of by some of the labor groups. I have worked my butt off so that I could pay folks to do what I am not good at, it ticks me off when I can do a better job than “professionals” and that is the problem today, there is very little pride in the work going on these days…maybe because most of it is done by illegals and they don’t have to come back and repair the stuff when it breaks, when you notice they laid pavers over your sprinkler heads, when they hang the gate the wrong way after drawing arrows diagrams and pictures on the driveway for them. The skills I respect, the application there of…not so much a lot of the time.
- Rob in Katy | 05/13/2011 @ 13:42
Rowe is a treasure.
- goy | 05/16/2011 @ 06:27

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