Mike Rowe of Dirty Jobs and Deadliest Catch fame is speaking out to defend blue collar workers, as he laments the fact that he feels Americans no longer “appreciate” them.
While being interviewed by the Fox News host Sean Hannity to promote the latest season of his show How America Works, Rowe complained that Americans have lost their appreciation for blue collar workers.
“There are two different things. Realization and appreciation,” Rowe said when asked how he feels about the way Americans treat blue collar workers.
“Most of us have never really realized it, but we’ve always intuitively appreciated it,” he added, according to Daily Mail. “We know that when we flip the switch and the light comes on, that that’s the result of a miracle. And that miracle is made possible by men and women doing things out of sight and out of mind.”
Rowe went on to say that he is fearful about the “overall lack of appreciation that has infected society over the last 30 or 40 years.” He explained that his shows are his way of trying to “tap the country on the shoulder” to help it have a “fundamental appreciation” for the oftentimes dangerous jobs that make “civilized life possible for the rest of us.”
Related: Mike Rowe Fires Back At Backlash Over Filming ‘Dirty Jobs’ During Pandemic
Rowe believes that forgetting about the importance of these jobs will lead to a list of consequences that is “longer than my arm.” He also said that in post-COVID America, there is a new appreciation for telecom workers who tirelessly work to ensure that fiberoptics and communication channels are working properly.
“I think in a lot of ways, COVID gave us a wake-up call, but I’m afraid it did something else, too, honestly,” Rowe said. “I’ll tell you what nobody’s talking about: No one is talking about the 7 million able-bodied men who are not only unemployed today, but who have affirmatively left the workforce.”
Check out Rowe’s full interview on this in the video below.
Rowe further elaborated on this on Monday morning in another interview with Fox News, saying that skilled workers are needed now more than ever at a time when we’re dealing with high inflation.
“There is just simply never been a need for skilled work like there is right now,” Rowe declared. “If you’re inclined to think that way, to work that way, the world is your oyster. If you’re not, sadly, and you’re a man, statistically, you’re probably sitting home spending 2,000 hours a year looking at your screen.”
“We have to talk about that,” he added. “We’ve got to do something about it, not in a scholarly lecturing way, but we’ve got to acknowledge it because it’s enormous.”
Check out that full interview in the video below.
Related: Mike Rowe Admits That Topping Adele On iTunes Chart Was ‘So Weird’
Rowe goes above and beyond to help the next generation find blue collar jobs through his organization MikeRoweWORKS, which is based in Baltimore, Maryland. Through this organization, Rowe said that the problem is that America has “made work the enemy,” and that he is on a mission to “make work cool again.”
God bless Rowe for taking a stand for blue collar workers in such a passionate way. If only we had more celebrities out there like him!
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