"pyotr filipivich" wrote in message
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"Jim Wilkins" on Mon, 4 Nov 2019
15:45:08 -0500
typed in rec.crafts.metalworking the following:
"whit3rd" wrote in message
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On Friday, October 25, 2019 at 12:52:31 PM UTC-7, Jim Wilkins
wrote:


But it is a puzzlement.

My personal, unproven opinion is that a critical element is social
acceptance of successful and influential people working with their own
hands at home. A British expat racing engineer who lives in Spain told
me they don't understand at all why he would buy machine tools and
materials to make suspension parts etc at home, it Just Isn't Done.
Fortunately Brits are allowed, even expected, to be eccentric.

https://www.popularwoodworking.com/c...r-a-curiosity/
"Wll, here in Mexico, woodworking as a hobby is practically non
existent, mostly because of cultural and as mention economic reasons.
Most woodworking here is done by carpenters, and it is viewed a a
trade practiced by not very educated people. It used to be that hiring
a carpenter was so cheap that well to do people would rather do that
than be seen with a hammer in hand."

Brazil:
"Some societies have historically considered manual labor to be
demeaning, in the sense of indicating lower social status. At the
extreme, manual labor in those societies was assigned the people of
lowest status-slaves. Those who have had the social prestige as well
as the political power and economic wherewithal to change those
cultural norms, the descendants of the masters, have had little
incentive to do so."

This mirrors my experience in Germany: "On the economy" means outside
the self-contained American society of the military bases, where most
troops stayed. I was very much the exception, exploring the towns and
countryside as much as possible.
"From Glenn's post, it sounds like little has changed since I lived
and worked wood in Germany. I bought most of my wood through the
on-post craft shop because all I could find on the economy was
roughsawn blue spruce (that was in the 80's). My German friends, those
who worked with their hands anyway, were mostly into working on thier
cars and motorcycles. The only woodworkers I met were pros."