Friday, March 13, 2009

The Three Divisions

The three categories that Reich mentions are routine production workers, symbolic analysts, and in-person service workers. Unlike previously when jobs were defined as either blue or white collar, these new divisions have occurred as the result of the information age, where the focus on manual labor is significantly less than what it used to be. Now more technical and computer skills are needed to succeed within an ever competing business world.

Routine production workers tend to deal with every day tasks and most resemble the blue collar label. Their tasks can range from sealing envelops to packaging boxes for companies. They tend not to require a lot of education. In service workers are those that provide various services for companies and customers alike. Examples of in service workers can range from secretaries to people taking your order at a drive through. Here again, not much education is required, but comparatively less manual labor is involved with in-service jobs for the most part. Symbolic analysts are the brains of the operation. They are entrusted with development and management and require more technical and computer skills than the previous two categories. Hence, the education required for symbolic analysts is much longer and almost always require them to go to college to obtain the skills needed for their line of work.

However, these divisions do represent a hierchy in that people who can't afford an education are unable to become symbolic analysts. They are stuck in lower rung jobs such as routine production workers, which causes a financial divide within society. Because of this lack of education, lower income families get stuck in a racial ravine and often can't afford to get out of it, hence the cycle continues.

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