A few weeks ago I was listening to public radio while driving and heard a guest say that “[t]he heroes of our economy are janitors and nursing aides.” While I understand the sentiments, I disagree. Stereotypically my mind jumped to billionaires like Musk and Carnegie, those with vision and drive not found in most of us. More recently my mind goes to those getting squeezed by the proposed Republican tax plan. Those in the 200~400k income bracket: engineers, doctors, lawyers and such.
This election cycle it has often been repeated that many working-class conservatives admire the rich but despise professionals. They may be viewed as pesky know-it-alls, pushing for regulation and meritocracy. If that professional is a person of color you might even hear about entitlement; adjectives like ‘uppity’ come to mind.
At the same time middle-class liberals like teachers, nurses, paralegals and such may call their professional friends yuppies, accusing them with going along with whatever is best for the economy at the expense of social justice and an egalitarian democracy.
I believe that climate change and overpopulation is the single biggest challenge facing humanity in this century. I also believe that we need more professionals in government at all levels. No other group is better suited to design system level solutions to America’s problems. Solutions with balanced triple bottom line thinking.