Blue Collar

Today I talked to an aunty whom come for foot reflexology, I noticed she got a tough muscle, she said she works as freelance house keeper. She has about 13 clients, she don't have to do any advertisement, as she is a responsible house keeper, their existing clients just refer her to another house. She works 5 days week, from morning 9 am to evening 5pm, she average working 3 hours in one house, they give her S$50/- for the 3 hours work. She cleans the house, washes the cloths, irons the cloths........... some times her client will ask her to clean the fish tank, and pay her another S$50/-. She average go 2 to 3 houses a day. Imagine if she goes 2 houses, she will get paid S$100/-, if she works for 3 houses, she will be paid for S$150/-. She is capable of earning S$2000-S$3000/per month. Although it is an hard work, she is better off than many white collar workers.

I met another freelance Lock Smiths. I asked him to change the locks for my Aluminium door, for less than 1 hour job, I pay him S$75/- including material cost and the installation cost. He seems receiving many calls for his services. I won't be surprised if he made S$3000/- per month. He probably has to drive a car or ride a motorbike for the house to house call islandwide.

I know of one handicapped mouth painter. He was paralysised due to car accident in 1992. The doctor cut the nerve connection so that he won't feel the pain. He used to be working with a oil plantation, he learned mouth painting after he recovered from his accident. He enaged a trained nurse from Philiphine to look after him, I think this nurse has now become his wife now. They come to Lucky Plaza for Indonesian food quite often. That shows they are quite ok financially.

What I want to say is people who fail in acadamic acheivement doesn't mean it's the end of the road. They can make a decent earning as long as they are willing to learn and be hardworking. Poverty is not possible if you possess the quality of continuous learning and working deligently.