Guys who work are tacky

It's difficult to have any other take-away from this piece in last week's New York Times:

HORSEHEADS, N.Y. — At the Glamour and Glow boutique in the local mall here, crystal necklaces and fake fur vests have been hot-ticket items the last year.

When the drilling workers head home between long stretches of work in this gas-rich region, explained Christy Spreng, the shop’s owner, they need gifts for their wives and girlfriends. “They know what they want,” she said. “They’ll say: ‘Looks good. Wrap it up.’ ”

Sales are up 60 percent at the boutique this year. At the two Holiday Inns here in Chemung County, occupancy has been at or near capacity for months at a time. And in the nearby town of Big Flats, the regional airport has added flights, parking spaces and restrooms, and is extending a runway to accommodate larger jets.

Hoping its sophisticated readers won't miss the point, the Times thoughtfully provides a link to Glamour and Glow's website, permitting a titillating frolic for virtual slummers.

While even the Times can't miss the economic boomlet, the article mostly tut-tuts about pollution, rising home prices, and dirty hands. Thus this:

Mr. Santulli, the Chemung County executive, attributes at least half of its tax revenue growth to the increased activity of the extracting industry on both sides of the border.

He said 28 gas-related companies employing more than 1,000 had leased or bought more than one million square feet of commercial space in the county as a staging area for current and future drilling operations in the region.

Many businesses provide support and technological services for gas fields. One of the biggest, Schlumberger Technologies, is completing a 400,000-square-foot plant in Horseheads that will employ 400 people by next year.

is dizzyingly juxtaposed with this:

Ann Crook, the manager of Elmira Corning Regional Airport in Big Flats, estimates one of five passengers flying in or out has some tie to the gas industry. Some are workers who head straight to the airport after working their final shift, which has prompted her to invest in some degreasing soap for the restrooms. “They do some serious cleanup here,” Ms. Crook said.

This is nothing new, and it's all about class. People with advanced degrees and clean hands who churn out incoherent dreck have never been comfortable with guys who work for a living, get dirty, and are concerned about momma bein' happy.

We'll be on the lookout for the next thoughty Times piece about the economics of food stamps, where the lede is a similarly condescending critique of the fashion sense of welfare queens.