Affolter Academy

There is an idea going around that people who do physical labor “actually do all the work” that creates wealth. The next step in the argument is people don’t get rich by working hard.

I agree with the idea of three levels of work: 1) physical, 2) mental, 3) spiritual. The people swinging hammers are working – they by no means “do all the actual work.”

The physical workers want higher pay and fewer hours. Rightly so. Don’t we all. How about cutting to a 35-hour week? Although they think they “do all the actual work”, they are a very, very small part of the work to be done.

The mental workers are often working even longer hours than the physical workers. The work is different, and it is higher pay. The workers are often on salary and putting in 60-80 hours is not unusual. Think of the architects who create the buildings and tell the carpenters what to do. Without the plans, the physical workers wouldn’t know what to do. Think of the accountants who make sure the finances are used appropriately. We could go on.

The spiritual workers are creators, visionaries. They use imagination to create the future and hire the mental and physical people to “do the actual work”. Without the spiritual workers, there is no work to be done. These are the people who put together the financing and pay the mental and physical workers. Without the spiritual workers, the architects would have no work.

The idea that all the actual work is done by physical labor is shortsighted.