If I hear one more rich fuck talk about the dignity of work...

[Lydia Leftcoast]

55. I did industrial temp work when I was an unemployed Ph.D.

If I could, I would make that whole country club set work industrial temp: work in a hospital laundry or packing airline meals or pulling hot plastic out of molding machine with inadequate gloves--all while standing on a concrete floor while someone walks around yelling "Faster! Faster! No talking!" Oh, yes, and with a 20-minute lunch break and one 10-minute coffee break between 7:00AM and 3:30PM.

It was one of the most unpleasant but also one of the most educational periods of my life, the perfect antidote to attending two Ivy League universities for graduate school.

If I had the power, I would require a year as an industrial temp as a prerequisite for an MBA. What we have now are children of affluence getting MBAs and becoming adults of affluence with no real understanding of how their subordinates live.

In this one respect, I think Mao was onto something, although I wouldn't have used his tactic of giving people 24 hours' notice to settle their affairs before sending family members off into different parts of the country for five or more years. I like the idea of making the rich "learn from the peasants."