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Inside a Booze Barrel Factory
The only time I ever see booze barrels is on Boardwalk Empire, but all of us whiskey drinkers know that before our quaff gets into those tidy glass bottles we pick up at the liquor store, it's aged within wooden staves bound by rings of iron.
At the Brown Forman Cooperage in Kentucky, coopers—actual, burly-looking guys with hammers who look like they're accustomed to winning bar fights—toil side-by-side with laser-equipped manufacturing machines, turning dead trees and metal into barrels for Jack Daniel's. (Brown Forman is JD's parent company.) Check it out:
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Have I been recycling paper for years to save the trees for this?!
As far as what jobs we want to bring back to this country: we've seen that we can't compete on a mass-production, assembly-line basis, but I'm not sure that having everyone be an old-world craftsman is feasible either. The jobs of future will likely be a hybrid of the two, or something altogether new. One thing that is certain, the jobs of the future will be skilled, and our education system has to adapt to meet the new demands.
And to end on a friendly note, a hopefully useful suggestion. If you ever find yourself in Kentucky, you can forego the tour of the Brown Forman Cooperage and instead check out the Shaker Village of Pleasant Hill, about 80 miles away. There are no more Shakers there, but they do have a working old-school cooperage.
It makes the case that there is a tradition of craftsmanship in barrel making for fine whiskey. Check, there is.
It makes the case that they are the only company in touch with that tradition, they own their own barrel production facility. Check, they do.
It makes the case that what is happening in this video is a continuation of this story of craftsmanship. This is the untrue portion that I take issue with. I understand that it is coming off as elitist. In fact a lot of things I say come off as elitist, I am a career academic, yelling down from the ivory tower, I get that somewhere along the line we have convinced ourselves that academics are out of touch and elitist, that's another conversation.
Assembly line work is not craftsmanship, this isn't an elitist position, it has to do with what it means to be a craftsman. Assembling one part of a product repeatedly is not the individual attention to quality for its intrinsic value.
Me not wanting my kids to be assembly line workers isn't elitist, my parents have worked as factories, and the "American Dream" is still alive, so I don't want that for them. Me wanting your kids to work in one so mine can have something they can't would be elitist. I want everyone to feel a tangible result of their work, so that they might find satisfaction in their work, regardless of their educational level or field. That was why I brought up the trades. You don't need to be hand making knives in an art studio to be fulfilled, but working in a factory screwing the same screw day in and out isn't going to get you there.
Are these jobs we as a nation claim to want back really the jobs we want back?
Not everyone is going to be employed in the "creative class" (hate that term) like you and I, nor in the trades like your neighbor. But without manufacturing jobs like the ones in the video, the only other option outside of agriculture is the service sector, which is probably just as demanding as manufacturing but pays even less.
It's OK to want your children to strive for more, I want the same for my own just as my Dad did for me. But to say things like "an assembly line worker is not a craftsman" and "[it is sad] what a normal American considers craftsmanship" just comes across as elitist. People who do end up in manufacturing or service jobs, whether by choice or by circumstance, still deserve respect and the opportunities to have those kinds of jobs.
If you're being sarcastic, yes, these are the "good manufacturing jobs" that we are supposed to be encouraging our children to strive for. I don't encourage my son and daughter to strive for manufacturing. If they were interested in trade work, I'm all for that, my neighbor is a plumber and loves the work. He switched out my water heater for free and you should have seen his face when we was doing it. That's the kind of fulfillment that is crucial to a successful career and full life.
I'm not looking for artisan barrels, but if they are communicating craftsmanship, I expect craftsmanship, not assembly lines. They don't have to "lie to kick it"
What's sadder is that this probably is what a normal American considers craftsmanship.