[Fish]

Originally Posted by DJ's left nut

Your position is that those logistics 'require' that they work harder than the average American.

My ass they do. You act as though there aren't 'logistics' in any other job.

Shit, a mechanic needs to maintain and operate tons of equipment worth millions of dollars - turning a wrench is turning a wrench. The mechanics that are keeping fire trucks running can claim a similar job description.

Do farmers automatically work harder than the guy working at the body shop that answers to a shitty boss, works in a sweltering garage and has asshole customers in his ear all day?

No, no they do not. Putting large numbers like 'tons' and 'millions' in their job description doesn't impress me. They're by no means the only ones that can claim similar burdens.

How about a line accountant at a big-3 firm? That guy's going to work literally 18 hours/day for weeks at a time. He's going to have 7 figure earners absolutely shredding him for missing a single transaction in thousands of lines of them. He's going to have ulcers the size of half-dollars because nothing about his time is actually his. Oh, but because he doesn't risk a fence-strecher backfiring into his shoulder, he doesn't work hard.

Hell, let's just keep going up the chain. How about actual executives? The fat cats, according to the fine folks in overalls. They have to know where billions of dollars are getting spent at any given time. They have to be responsible for oversight/administration that carries with it legitimate criminal liability. They are responsible on any given day for decisions that could leave scores of people unemployed. And yes, they're often working 12-14 hour days as well and feel like the weight of every one of their employees, clients and their own family rests on their shoulders. My god, look at the health record of people in the banking, medical or legal professions - stress kills those fellas off in droves.

Spare me. Farmers don't work harder than the average american. They don't have the high ground when it comes to work ethic. "City-folk" as they like to say, often work just as hard, face just as much shit and have even less gratitude for their efforts.

Farmers do not have the patent on hard work.

Mechanics, accountants, and executives? LOL... you can't be serious.

That mechanic is on a set 8-5 schedule. His little 9/16 wrench is actually quite a bit easier to turn than the baseball bat sized wrench needed to loosen the nuts that are bigger than your hand. So no, all wrench turning is not the same. Not even close. Not to mention that the farmer can fix the same pickup the mechanic is working on, in addition to having the responsibility of fixing the combine, fleet of diesel farm trucks, the tractor, all the different things the tractor pulls, the Farmhand used to feed the animals, the buildings where it's all stored, down to the fence that's surrounding the farm. Quite a bit more responsibility.

An accountant? Yeah, sitting in a chair pecking a keyboard is quite a feat. With the TPS reports and whatnot, now there's the definition of hard work. Forget working outdoors in weather varying from below freezing to over 100. Accounting can give you stomach pains sometimes.

And how about those executives? Working with other people's money. My how difficult. Nevermind that the the farmer deals with just as much money as that executive, with most of it being his own investment. And you're forgetting that not only does the farmer also deal with just as much if not more money and all the same responsibility that comes with it, the farmer is also expected to do the mechanics job as well, and still fit all that in to a day's work.

So the farmer is simultaneously doing the job of two of the other professions you've listed. Show me the executive that also does the full job of the mechanic, and then you might have somebody to compare to what a farmer does in a day.