I share Walter Williams' disgust with those who disparage "menial, dead-end jobs":
My stepfather used to tell me that any honest work was better than begging and stealing. As a young person, I worked many jobs from shining shoes and picking blueberries to delivering packages and washing dishes. Today's tragedy for many a poor youngster is that the opportunities I had for learning the world of work and moving up the economic ladder have either been destroyed through legislation or demeaned by today's do-gooders.
I'd even go a step further. It's not just that we sneer at the low-end jobs that people start with before moving up the economic ladder. We have little respect for the people who work at such jobs all their lives in an effort to give their children a better chance. My father started on the railroad and in the coal mines and ended up as a janitor, and my mother worked in a hospital laundry. Their children have done better, and they know why.
