I know many people who work their way through college. Most of them hold jobs in places such as restaurants, bars, retail stores or banks to pay the bills.

However, just as there are many who have jobs in the blue-collar work force, there are many who don’t lift a finger while attending college.

Now, those lucky enough not to have to worry about working during college could be fortunate in a number of ways.

They could be students to the highest degree and have their school paid for, which is a job in itself to maintain the requirements to keep those scholarships.

Increasingly, I have found there are people who have rich mommies and daddies who can afford to have their money squandered on the college experience of partying and good times, as opposed to getting a worthwhile education.

But who am I to care what other people do with their money?

My bone to pick is with the type of people who make it into the real world with the same attitude they harbored while attending the university on their parent’s dime.

There is a whole, rather large, subsect of the world that participates in blue-collar work.

In America, the corporate system is prevalent in almost every job you could hope to score with a degree.

There is little empathy or understanding of how much that corporate world hinges on the blue-collar work of almost every country in the world.

If we had the same amount of manual laborers as China or India, we would see a tremendous change in attitude toward blue-collar work, as well as a discernible growth in our own nation’s productivity.

Universities and trade schools would be held in the same light, and students who do not wish to pursue a career as a paper pusher would contribute to society with the notice and respect they deserve.

Instead, there are people who tip badly, who are the people who make your day as a cook, waiter or waitress a living hell.

Their sense of hard work and what it takes to maintain the little comforts of society has been distorted. Some act that way on purpose, but I believe many of these people do it out of ignorance.

It is an ignorance that has stemmed from lack of experience in the blue-collar world, a world that carries that upper class on its shoulders.

This is a world that, if vanished, would take the comforts of the first world with it.

That is why everyone, no matter what your financial status, where you come from or who you think you are, should hold a job in the blue-collar sphere.

Even if it’s only for a summer or semester, everyone should experience customer service jobs for a while before heading back home.

Because the one thing I have learned as a blue-collar worker is there is so much you can do to not be a jerk.

The world needs fewer jerks, and I think that by gaining a new appreciation for the working class, we will in turn diminish society’s stratification and hopefully understand each other without being rude and impatient.

We would learn to not be so expectant, and we would understand and deal with things better when they don’t go our way instead of throwing a tantrum like some kind of grotesque man-child.

Trust me, I know your day might have been rough, but you can bet mine was as well.

It would just lead to more civility within our day-to-day lives.

Shared experiences promote empathy. Empathy promotes understanding. In my experience, understanding breeds peace. I think we could all use a little more of that.