I actually didn't know that welding was something with varying degrees of skill. That wasn't said out of condescension but rather ignorance. I guess "cashier" would have been a better example. There are people who want to work like cashier but get paid middle class incomes. They are "middle class cashiers & stock boys".
Middle class cashiers and clerks used to exist until reading and writing became ubiquitous, and computers took much of the effort out of keeping track of numbers and data processing.
