[Kluny]

I'd love to work construction. But every time I've mentioned it to my family they tell me about how it will destroy my knees and back, I'll lose fingers, get hearing damage, head injuries, and the pay is crap compared to the risk.

If there was decent workplace safety (my hometown is infamous for it's poor safety standards), and a good pension program where you're expected to want to quit and do something else after 10 years or so, before your body is ruined, then I'd be all about it.

[49531]

This is a big reason why unions were created in the first place. Create safer working conditions, and make it possible for people who wear their bodies out can retire.

[bodas]

But what if I want to retire with a healthy body not a crippled one?

[lotsofpulp]

Then you choose not to perform manual labor. In an ideal situation, the market will pay people a premium for choosing to sacrifice their bodies, assuming everyone is competing on a level playing field and you don't have a huge supply of undereducated workers from another country who have no other options.

[PantaloonFlames]

Good point about the pension (or other retirement provision).

You won't lose fingers or lose your hearing if you take proper care. You won't destroy your back if you stay in shape. There are pressures to do the wrong thing. People can resist them. There are risks; this is why people wear hardhats and steel-toed boots on worksites. But the risks can be managed.

The pay remains .. a challenge.

[CydeWeys]

Accidents happen. You only have so much control over them. You also aren't the only person on the jobsite. You can be the most careful person in the world, and then die because your fumbling coworker a few stories up dropped a beam on your head.

A good parallel is motorcycles. A good motorcycle rider is much less likely to experience accidents than a bad rider, but even the best rider is still more likely to experience accidents than a car driver, simply because of all the other people on the road. You only have so much control. Likewise, even the best construction worker is still more likely to wear out their body or experience accidents than the average office worker.