I am not resident in America but like many countries around the world mine has much American TV shows and other cultural imports. One that has long puzzled me is the apparent assumption that not pursuing tertiary education is a failure of intelligence or ambition or both and dooms a person to a lower standartd of life in both material and social status. Even in my country now people might say the equivalent of 'I am just a plumber' or 'just a builder' so I was interested to read this article in the New York Times today that addressed some of these points. It is interesting how words take on new layers that then seem to become inseparable parts of them.