I don't think it's a matter of "beneath the dignity", but where the best incomes are. The USA has morphed from having a strong manufacturing and blue collar economy to being a service economy, and the jobs in the service industry has required college degrees. Why would parents gamble on declining jobs in manufacturing and ignore the increasing service industry? Life in the USA is getting more expensive so workers are looking to jobs that offer higher pay. What does picking fruit and vegetables offer? Low pay and hard work.
Ok look, I came from an upscale public school in the midwest, which graduated like a couple hundred students year. I haven't kept up with many of my classmates 20 years on, but I bet that many of them went to higher scale colleges, looking for six figure jobs. I bet that like none of them went to work the 'lower rung' jobs at farms or factories like I did, unless they were beset with various issues somewhere down the line. These aren't things that people in that echelon of society would typically plan to do, I would guess
I don't think that people can accurately see if anything changed, or 'morphed.' I think a lot of the manual labor jobs are still being done here, it's just that people don't see it: there is a separation and bifurcation of people here. People here don't really know what's being done out there - I don't think they go and do those jobs, to know. The context of their lifestyle and expectations probably doesn't even give them access to these jobs, as they likely have no expectation in their social context that they will ever do anything like this
From what I see it is the right wing making this a cultural issue. And it is using migrants as scapegoats for a lack of success among blue collar workers. And let's note that the right has been anti-union which has been one major way for workers to get increased pay and benefits.
People just don't want to do it, left or right. And maybe they can't do it, to speak to part of your point - expecations are just too high. Everyone here needs the 'best income.' But I've met many immigrants who somehow make do without that, and they have families and seem sated with they're doing. So then, maybe they don't get the three story suburban mcmansion.. so what? If you're confident enough in a certain role in society, you don't need it
And look who the conservatives picked for president. An elite who is always seen in a suit, and flaunts his wealth. How does this make sense? He loathes lower class workers.
It's apolitical: we all see the same thing on tv, and on youtube, and are told it by our families, and culture: you need wealth. Without it, you deserve nothing: you should not have a family, or a house, or much stability at all. Any rich leader we have is just a minor symbol of that, it's represented all over pop media, and by what our families think. Meanwhile immigrants come and do the blue-collar work, and instill it with social value, as I have seen many married immigrant couples working together in the factory in the past 10 years. Good for them then.
What the hell is this supposed to mean?
I think most religions probably play a part in stopping atomization from occuring, and one effect of that, is that it may bind a sense of community-wide social acceptability in work over money. I posit that perhaps the atomization of a more secular community can cause money to be chased ahead of work. These are generalizations, but there is more to think through about this, using this rough perspective
