Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy

Why do some jobs carry more prestige than other similar jobs? In my book, a truck driver, a bus driver, a train driver, a ship’s captain and an aircraft pilot all have the same job.

By definition they are all entrusted with a transportation device - loaded with passenger and/or goods - to be delivered safely to a given place, at a certain time. Yet a ship’s captain or an aircraft pilot will choke in his own saliva if someone was to tell him that he is just glorified a truck driver.

Granted, an aircraft may cost a bit more than two diesel/electric locomotives, 12 passenger coaches, a dining room car, a lounge car, guard’s van and maybe a mail wagon but what is important here; the hardware or the safety of the passengers?

The same goes for other related jobs. Why does a flight steward enjoy more status – and gets a better pay – than a steward on a train’s dining car? They have the same job. In fact, our trains serve better food than most airlines; prepared in a kitchen about as small as that on an aircraft where the food is precooked and only reheated before serving.

And the list goes on and on. Doctors are seen as better that veterinary surgeons and university professors have more status than mere teachers. Yet they have the same professions. They only work with slightly different things.

Now Catfoot wonders; is a dedicated housewife not just an upmarket hooker? And is a devoted husband not just another very sophisticated pimp? We are what society tells us we are but is that what we really are?