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Is owning a pickup truck a sign of being a "man of the people"?

Is owning a pickup truck a sign of being a "man of the people"?


  • Total voters
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[ame="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9LsXiV7Obds"]YouTube- Shaq's Gi-normous New Truck[/ame]
 
So am I supposed to read this as you saying that you perceive blue collar people to be better somehow than other types of workers?

I can't speak for Joe, but I will freely admit that I have a certain degree of personal bias in favor of certain blue-collar-type jobs (specifically the trades) over most white-collar-type jobs regarding how hard they work in general.

I've done both, and I went back to school in no small part because white collar jobs are generally easier than being tradesman, IMO. Way easier.

I think the main benefit of education is so that you don't have to work as hard as an iron worker or a carpenter does for the same level of pay.

But there's also a reason why these are the best paying blue-collar jobs. They are some of the hardest jobs around, but a person needs little or no education to get into them so they offer a way for someone to use hard work to get ahead in the world.

So for me, an electrician > an accountant. A carpenter > an architect. Tradesmen and women in general > politicians.

I have a great deal more respect for these occupations than I do for most other occupations.
 
I've done both, and I went back to school in no small part because white collar jobs are generally easier than being tradesman, IMO. Way easier.

I certainly agree. The main reasons I finished college was more pay and less strenuous work.

However, I differ about the jobs being more respectable. As long as a person does their job honestly and is not a detriment to the community through crime or unethical behavior, they are as respectable as anyone else who shows the same morality.
 
I certainly agree. The main reasons I finished college was more pay and less strenuous work.

However, I differ about the jobs being more respectable. As long as a person does their job honestly and is not a detriment to the community through crime or unethical behavior, they are as respectable as anyone else who shows the same morality.

I'm thinking in more of an "all other things being equal" type of situation. I have more respect for certain occupations, but that doesn't necessarily mean I have more respect for the people within an occupation.
 
In my Opinion, it does not make you a man of the people. It is used for hauling things like trailers, and for work, and Country roads ect. They will not get my vote solely on, if they have a pick up truck, or do not have one.
 
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Why do we as a nation constantly call out things that make people seem like they are "out of touch with the American people?"

Owning a truck has. If anything, since this nation represents freedom, driving whatever car you want seems "more American" since it shows you have the freedom to choose.

Then again, the guy is a politician, so things are always for show, he wears a mask behind his mask.
 
Now, I'm bringing this up because of the big deal that has been apparently made about Senator Brown's truck. It's not about his politics, it's about the fact that this truck was made into a symbol of him being "folksy".

I was a construction worker for 11 years and owned trucks and work vans which were used for their intended purpose.

Now, my view is that when someone owns a pickup who doesn't use it for real work (i.e. not helping your friends move every now and then or driving to their "job", but as a tool utilized while pursuing a career in a field where they actually work for a living.) they are just using the truck as a fashion accessory to try and look "cool".

A real truck is dented. It's got **** all over it... a bit of concrete hardened in the bed, dirt and stray nails rolling around int eh bed as well.

It gets used as a truck, not as an oddly shaped car. It's got a bunch of empty coffee cups on the dashboard from the cold days when you take your coffee breaks inside of it to stay warm.

To me, a truly "folksy" person doesn't use a truck as an accessory, because they've had to use it for it's intended purpose. Which is work.

IMO, a pickup truck with 200,000 miles that isn't covered in ****, dented to hell and gone, but still plugging away doing it's intended job is a sign that the owner of said truck is the exact opposite of being "folksy". It's a sign of being a white collar person who thinks he or she will look really "cool" if they drive a truck. It's superficial.

Now, there's nothing wrong with that. If people want to look cool, that's their business. But I can't ****ing stand the fact that this purely superficial attemtp to look cool is being portrayed as a sign that the superficial person trying to look cool is some sort of a "man of the people".

Most of the people I know who use or have used trucks and vans for their intended purposes feel the same way.

But my opinion on this is clearly biased by my own experiences. I want to know what people think of the general idea about people pretending to be blue-collar as a reflection on them as a man of the people, not about Senator Brown's politics.

So what do you guys think? Is owning a pickup truck a sign of being a "man of the people"?

Your truck sounds like my car and damn all of you for leaving nails in the bed.
Too many flat tire stories attributed to you guys.

A truck either serves a purpose of utility or it's a fashion statement.
If you drive it because it makes you look cool, I generally think that's stupid.

No, it doesn't make you a man of the people.
 
It's all good, but at least once yearly I get either nails or screws in one of more of my tires.

Grrr, the annoyance!!

The good news is that through karma, when it's your truck that is the one dropping all the nails, you tend to get more flats than anyone else. :lol:
 
The good news is that through karma, when it's your truck that is the one dropping all the nails, you tend to get more flats than anyone else. :lol:

I go through tires fast, once had three flats.

I've been wanting to get an older S-10 or something similar but never got it.
Probably get another econobox.
 
In the town I live in, owning a truck is not a sigh of being anything except a resident. I think most of the women in my town own great big trucks. For most people here they are a fashion accessory and a work truck both, since we are a farming community. It's not properly fashionable if it is not dirty with a few blocks of wood and a bag of cement in the back.
 
Trucks have largely become fashion accessories. The majority of purchasers will never use it to the full extent of its capabilities. Today's mid-size trucks are as powerful (possibly more) then full-size trucks were in the 90s. And yet the most popular truck is an F-150, CrewCab and a Short bed. Automakers realize that people have less junk, and more friends. At least living in the city most trucks are just a status symbol.

Politicians are all about image, heck, the mayor of my city is a Bike/Prius driving sbux coffee sipping (there was an actual PR stunt between old and new mayor shaking hands at starbucks), democrat...If republicans want to embrace the truck America image more power to them. If it works, just show how out of touch the populace is.

Personally, I have to stop myself from purchasing a Subaru Outback...I enjoy the image that comes with it, not just the utility aspect (something I actually need). I wouldn't drive a Volvo V70....image counts...citizen or politician.
 
Now, I'm bringing this up because of the big deal that has been apparently made about Senator Brown's truck. It's not about his politics, it's about the fact that this truck was made into a symbol of him being "folksy".

I was a construction worker for 11 years and owned trucks and work vans which were used for their intended purpose.

Now, my view is that when someone owns a pickup who doesn't use it for real work (i.e. not helping your friends move every now and then or driving to their "job", but as a tool utilized while pursuing a career in a field where they actually work for a living.) they are just using the truck as a fashion accessory to try and look "cool".

A real truck is dented. It's got **** all over it... a bit of concrete hardened in the bed, dirt and stray nails rolling around int eh bed as well.

It gets used as a truck, not as an oddly shaped car. It's got a bunch of empty coffee cups on the dashboard from the cold days when you take your coffee breaks inside of it to stay warm.

To me, a truly "folksy" person doesn't use a truck as an accessory, because they've had to use it for it's intended purpose. Which is work.

IMO, a pickup truck with 200,000 miles that isn't covered in ****, dented to hell and gone, but still plugging away doing it's intended job is a sign that the owner of said truck is the exact opposite of being "folksy". It's a sign of being a white collar person who thinks he or she will look really "cool" if they drive a truck. It's superficial.

Now, there's nothing wrong with that. If people want to look cool, that's their business. But I can't ****ing stand the fact that this purely superficial attemtp to look cool is being portrayed as a sign that the superficial person trying to look cool is some sort of a "man of the people".

Most of the people I know who use or have used trucks and vans for their intended purposes feel the same way.

But my opinion on this is clearly biased by my own experiences. I want to know what people think of the general idea about people pretending to be blue-collar as a reflection on them as a man of the people, not about Senator Brown's politics.

So what do you guys think? Is owning a pickup truck a sign of being a "man of the people"?

I bought a pick up truck and the first thing I did with it was load it up with detritus from the walls I was tearing down and hauled it to the dump. Thing had less than fifty miles on it. Then I went to school on Monday and finished getting my degree. I bought that thing specifically because I was moving across country in a year. But I used it as a the tool it was.

And by the time I got rid of it thirteen years later, it was beat up.

That's what trucks are for.

They're not fashion accessories. People looking for those should put a chihuahua in their purse.
 
I'm with Mega, I think you forgot the third option Tuck.

Work.
Looks.
Play.

Maybe its because I'm here in the south but I know people, both young and old, that own trucks and don't use them at all for a job type thing. They use it because they hunt and they'll throw the stuff in the bed and off road a bit on their property to get the the place they head off to hunt. Or they have it to haul their boat around if they don't have the money or the need for a dedicated boat slip on the lake and want to go fishing on weekends. I knew a few that had a truck simply because they enjoyed off roading, granted this was back a few years at home when the area wasn't quite as built up as it now.

Finally I do think there are some people that fit between the categories, that yes likes the looks, but also likes to be that person that by god if someone needs something moved you got a truck. My girlfriends aunt is like that. She works in a hospital, doesn't hunt, doesn't fish, doesn't do a lot of construction. But for an extended family in a single area of about 25 people, she's essentially the go to person for anything and everything any of them or sometimes their friends need moved and she likes that fact.

So while I can agree and understand the notion of the "real" truck owner being the worker, I do think there's some variations between that extreme and the "just as a fashion accessory" extreme.
 
If he bought it specifically because he wanted to LOOK like "a man of the people", then I call horse **** on his fakery.

If he bought it because he WANTED A TRUCK, for personal use, then that's fine, I don't care exactly why.

I own a 4WD truck. Most of the time it takes me to and from work. Sometimes it goes offroad for business or pleasure. Frequently I haul stuff in it, like brush, trash or gravel, or a utility trailer. It's dented and dinged and dirty and has empty coffee cups, tools, trash and a camp-chair in the back. I don't use it for the job I get paid to do daily though: I use a company truck. The company insists on it's trucks being kept much cleaner and neater than my personal truck. :doh

My truck definitely ain't no fashion statement... if that was what I wanted, I'd have one of those duallies with all the lights on it, or a Jaguar. :mrgreen:
 
If he bought it specifically because he wanted to LOOK like "a man of the people", then I call horse **** on his fakery.

If he bought it because he WANTED A TRUCK, for personal use, then that's fine, I don't care exactly why.

I own a 4WD truck. Most of the time it takes me to and from work. Sometimes it goes offroad for business or pleasure. Frequently I haul stuff in it, like brush, trash or gravel, or a utility trailer. It's dented and dinged and dirty and has empty coffee cups, tools, trash and a camp-chair in the back. I don't use it for the job I get paid to do daily though: I use a company truck. The company insists on it's trucks being kept much cleaner and neater than my personal truck. :doh

My truck definitely ain't no fashion statement... if that was what I wanted, I'd have one of those duallies with all the lights on it, or a Jaguar. :mrgreen:

Well, the part in bold shows that you are using it for it's intended purpose, even if it's not for paid work.
 
Now, I'm bringing this up because of the big deal that has been apparently made about Senator Brown's truck. It's not about his politics, it's about the fact that this truck was made into a symbol of him being "folksy".

I was a construction worker for 11 years and owned trucks and work vans which were used for their intended purpose.

Now, my view is that when someone owns a pickup who doesn't use it for real work (i.e. not helping your friends move every now and then or driving to their "job", but as a tool utilized while pursuing a career in a field where they actually work for a living.) they are just using the truck as a fashion accessory to try and look "cool".

A real truck is dented. It's got **** all over it... a bit of concrete hardened in the bed, dirt and stray nails rolling around int eh bed as well.

It gets used as a truck, not as an oddly shaped car. It's got a bunch of empty coffee cups on the dashboard from the cold days when you take your coffee breaks inside of it to stay warm.

To me, a truly "folksy" person doesn't use a truck as an accessory, because they've had to use it for it's intended purpose. Which is work.

IMO, a pickup truck with 200,000 miles that isn't covered in ****, dented to hell and gone, but still plugging away doing it's intended job is a sign that the owner of said truck is the exact opposite of being "folksy". It's a sign of being a white collar person who thinks he or she will look really "cool" if they drive a truck. It's superficial.

Now, there's nothing wrong with that. If people want to look cool, that's their business. But I can't ****ing stand the fact that this purely superficial attemtp to look cool is being portrayed as a sign that the superficial person trying to look cool is some sort of a "man of the people".

Most of the people I know who use or have used trucks and vans for their intended purposes feel the same way.

But my opinion on this is clearly biased by my own experiences. I want to know what people think of the general idea about people pretending to be blue-collar as a reflection on them as a man of the people, not about Senator Brown's politics.

So what do you guys think? Is owning a pickup truck a sign of being a "man of the people"?
You're describing my living room, just as much as my vehicle.
 
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For me, using it for play is still using it as an accessory and not for it's intended purpose.

I'd love to see your suggested car then to tow an extremely large boat on a weekly basis. How is towing stuff on a regular basis not the intended purpose of a truck, whose partial selling feature is the ability to tow stuff?
 
Honestly, most vehicles sold today in the U.S. are not maximized for practical utility. I drove a 1986 volvo 240 sedan weighing about 3000 pounds curb with a 114 horsepower engine. It had enough room to carry 5 people, plenty of trunk space and enough power to drive anywhere. Currently, the goddamn Kia Rio has better power to weight.

If vehicles were designed only to get you from point A to B, you couldn't find anything beyond 4 cylinder engines in the overwhelming majority of vehicles. Any truly 100% practical personal vehicle probably doesn't need more than 200 HP to get the job done. However, utilitarian concerns have never been the only concept in driving a car. Style, performance and the elusive "drivability" have always been integrated into design. Even baseline economy sedans have plenty of extra power because most people will pay a little extra, even if they don't really need it. The real question is how much fluff do you want? A kia forte could easily run with a 110 hp engine instead of 140hp, but overall its about as practical a vehicle as you are going to find. Obviously you can find ridiculous excesses (veyron/hummer), but even the average blue collar American is shelling out for luxury feature on their vehicle.
 
For me, using it for play is still using it as an accessory and not for it's intended purpose.

Have you seen pickup commercials? Play is a big part of their intended purpose.
 
I'd love to see your suggested car then to tow an extremely large boat on a weekly basis. How is towing stuff on a regular basis not the intended purpose of a truck, whose partial selling feature is the ability to tow stuff?

You can easily get 3000+ pounds of towing capability with a station wagon like v70 or an outback, or even the hyundai elantra. Anything more than that could easily be done by a frontier or ranger. I doubt anyone has a boat that actually needs an f150 or Silverado to tow.
 
You can easily get 3000+ pounds of towing capability with a station wagon like v70 or an outback, or even the hyundai elantra. Anything more than that could easily be done by a frontier or ranger. I doubt anyone has a boat that actually needs an f150 or Silverado to tow.

Do you tow stuff much? Just askin'... in my experience there's a gap between what a vehicle can theoretically tow, and what it can really tow without all kinds of bad things happening, like overheating the engine, breaking an axle, or being unable to reach 25mph going uphill.

Also if what you're towing is a lot heavier than the vehicle pulling, you're not going to enjoy that drive much.
 
Do you tow stuff much? Just askin'... in my experience there's a gap between what a vehicle can theoretically tow, and what it can really tow without all kinds of bad things happening, like overheating the engine, breaking an axle, or being unable to reach 25mph going uphill.

Also if what you're towing is a lot heavier than the vehicle pulling, you're not going to enjoy that drive much.

Yep. I was VERY glad my truck had a v8 engine the last time i bought some gravel from the quarry for my driveway.
 
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