The American public has been sold a new vision of work and working in the last few years. We have been told that America is a nation moving away from its industrial base and that modern Americans are rapidly moving toward a future in which the vast majority will work with their minds, not their hands. In this new America, we are told, our future will come from our ability to manipulate information and to manufacture ideas. No longer will Americans have to strain and sweat in factories or on assembly lines to do repetitious and difficult jobs. That kind of work will be done faster and more efficiently by machines. America will become an ...