Hands Over Twist

Late last year, Adam Davidson at NPR's Planet Money brought up the case of his 25-year-old cousin, DJ. Davidson, with his years as a business reporter, had concluded that DJ was "facing economic danger" because he had decided to drop out of college and forgo higher education for construction work. Davidson even brought in Georgetown University finance professor Pietra Rivoli to prove his point. But he was wrong.

Turns out, Pietra says, DJ will probably be okay. In fact, he might be more okay than most in this economy because jobs like the construction work DJ is employed in aren't the kind that can be outsourced.

More recently, there have been a few articles backing up this point. Charles Murray, in the Wall Street Journal, wrote a story titled "For Most People, College is a Waste of Time." Matthew Crawford made a similar case in a story for the New York Times Magazine. Crawford, who earned a PhD. in political philosophy, went on to find personal fulfillment as an auto mechanic, a job in which he used his hands and his brain.

It's a story that sort of gives permission to people to think outside the box about their jobs. What's so wrong with being a plumber anyway? Crawford explains how the prestige factor can get in the way of people doing something that can be truly satisfying: working with your hands.

But there's another side to it, too. Today, Crawford appeared on the KQED radio show "Forum", where he got feedback from listeners. One guy who worked eight years as a mechanic said he wasn't making any money. He had no health insurance. He's going back to law school. As another listener put it: "You can't pay your mortgage with personal fulfillment."

Crawford admitted that when he started his repair shop, he relied on his wife's income and health insurance. But Crawford's piece, along with Murray's and Davidson's, present a compelling argument for a generation so used to the relentless drive towards college and the success it ostensibly promises. There must be a way to temper our desire to chuck our cubicle jobs for a life on the farm with the reality that money does bring meaning, too.