大家好！欢迎回来MaoMi Chinese！
最近我看到一个让人深思的新闻。让人深思，意思是让人认真地思考。是什么新闻让我深思呢？在中国，很多年纪大的工人失业了。失业，意思是失去工作了，没有工作了。他们失业的原因是工厂不需要他们了，因为很多年轻人都愿意去工厂工作。我很吃惊，因为几年前，人们一点儿都不认为工厂的工作是个好工作，甚至看不起工厂的工作。现在，这个变化到底是为什么呢？今天，我们一起来聊一聊吧。
在中文里，做体力活的人，叫蓝领工人，比如工厂的工人，建筑工人，修理工人，快递员，超市服务员，等等。做脑力活的人，叫白领，因为他们常常穿西装，比如电脑工程师，律师，银行职员，还有很多办公室职员。在很长的一段时间里，人们都认为当白领比当蓝领更好，更体面。过去的几十年，人们一直有一个观念，那就是脑力活比体力活更体面，因为只有受过教育的人才能做脑力活。也因为这样，年轻人都很嫌弃工厂的工作。在网上，如果你和一个人吵架，想说这个人很烦，你可能会说一句很坏的话：“你这么闲，不如找个工厂上班吧。”工厂的工作又累又无聊，除了年纪比较大的工人和农民工，没有人想要做。然而，这几年，改变发生了，一些工厂的工作也变得抢手了。这到底是为什么呢？我觉得有这几个原因。
第一个原因是最近的经济不景气，也就是说，最近的经济不太好，很多公司裁员。裁员，意思是一些公司开除员工。很多人失业，也有很多人的收入都少了。一些白领的收入甚至比工厂工人，或者快递工人还低。一些年轻人找不到工作，只能去工厂上班，做一些体力活。这些年轻人都是被逼无奈。被逼无奈，意思是我们一点儿不想做这个事情，但是因为很多原因，我们不得不做这个事情。
第二个原因，很多白领工人的精神压力太大了，所以他们放弃了白领工作，宁愿去做体力活。在一些公司，很多人都只能九九六，也就是九点上班，九点下班，一个星期工作六天，甚至更久。在工作上，他们还有各种各样的压力，比如，和领导、同事的关系不好，客户很麻烦，等等。相反，做体力活就没有这些压力，只要用身体劳动就好了。
第三个原因是中国政府的宣传。因为大学毕业生越来越多，很多大学生都找不到在公司上班的白领工作。另一方面，很多工厂没有足够的工人。政府宣传，工厂的工作也很重要，工资也不错，所以，也有一些找不到工作的大学毕业生决定去工厂工作。
其实，不管是做脑力活还是体力活，我们都应该尊重每一个认真工作的人。你呢？你现在的工作是什么？你更喜欢脑力活还是体力活？欢迎留言，和我们分享吧！
Hello everyone! Welcome back to MaoMi Chinese!
Recently, I saw some thought-provoking news. Thought-provoking means that it makes people think seriously. What news made me think deeply? In China, many older workers are unemployed. Unemployed means they lost their jobs and have no work. The reason they lost their jobs is that the factories do not need them anymore since many young people are willing to work in the factories. I was surprised because a few years ago, people did not think that working in a factory was a good job, and even looked down upon it. Why did this change happen? Today, let's discuss this together.
In Chinese, people who do physical work are called blue-collar workers, such as factory workers, construction workers, repair workers, delivery drivers, supermarket clerks, and so on. People who do mental work are called white-collar workers because they often wear suits, such as computer engineers, lawyers, bank employees, and many office workers. For a long time, people thought that being a white-collar worker was better and more prestigious than being a blue-collar worker. For the past few decades, people have had an idea that mental work is more prestigious than physical work because only educated people can do mental work. Because of this, young people used to despise working in factories. If you argue with someone online and want to say that they are annoying, you might say a bad thing like, "You are so idle, why not find a job in a factory?" The work in the factory is tiring and boring, and no one wants to do it except for older workers and migrant workers. However, in recent years, a change has occurred, and some factory jobs have become in high demand. Why did this happen? I think there are a few reasons.
The first reason is that the recent economic downturn, meaning the recent economy is not good, many companies have laid off employees. Layoff means some companies fired employees. Many people have lost their jobs, and many people's incomes have decreased. Some white-collar workers even have lower incomes than factory workers or delivery workers. Some young people cannot find jobs and can only work in factories, doing some physical work. These young people are forced to do so. Forced to do means that we don't want to do this thing at all, but for many reasons, we have to do it.
The second reason is that the mental pressure of many white-collar workers is too great, so they give up their white-collar jobs and prefer to do physical work. In some companies, many people can only work from nine to nine, which means they work from nine in the morning to nine at night, six days a week, or even longer. At work, they also have various pressures, such as bad relationships with leaders and colleagues, troublesome clients, and so on. In contrast, doing physical work has no such pressure, as long as they use their bodies to work.
The third reason is the Chinese government's propaganda. Because more and more college graduates are coming out, many college students cannot find white-collar jobs in companies. On the other hand, many factories do not have enough workers. The government promotes that factory work is also essential, and the salary is good, so some college graduates who cannot find jobs decide to work in factories.
Actually, whether it's mental work or physical work, we should all respect anyone who works hard. What about you? What is your current job? Do you prefer mental or physical work? Feel free to leave your comments
and share with us!
It is the same in the UK. For many years the government encouraged children to go to university and train for white collar work but now we are left with very few manually skilled workers. We have very few plumbers, electricians and manufacturers. The UK government is trying to promote manual apprenticeships to address this problem and change people’s snobbish attitudes towards manual work. My father was a chemical engineer all his life but when he retired he became a train guard on a steam railway. He is so much happier in this more physically demanding and friendly job than he was working on computers all day. He’s in his late seventies now and healthier than ever
It seems like blue collar workers earns a lot more in UK too!