Recognition of the Dignity of labour is universally acknowledged to be an American virtue.America is credited with recognising the nobility of work no matter how menial it seems to others. But I tend to see this in a different light. Any work is regarded as just work or not much importance is attached to the intrinsic quality of work. That is , in America work is graded according to the dollars it earns. This does not signal a great understanding of the nobility of labour. Elsewhere work or vocation has different scales. For example an academic earns more respect and is given a higher esteem rating in society than ,say a cab driver or a dust man. This does not mean cab driving or cleaning is not work.It is just that they do not compare equally on the social scale. But in America , the cab driver becomes an object of veneration over the Professor if the cab driver happens to earn more than the learned professor.This happens only if the income of the cabbie is more than that of the professor.What does this show? Certainly not the vindication of dignity of labour. It only shows a crass and shameless approval the place, not value , money occupies in American society. There money is worshipped and the man who makes more money is God. This blind confidence in money is what makes the American society consider the quality of work insignificant and the rest of the world mistakenly describes as the great American tradition of recognition of the Dignity of labour. If it was solely the dignity of labour that concerned them , then the cabbie would have earned the same respect as the man of science or culture or art if the cab driver's income was less. But that is not the case. Therefore, Dignity of labour in the American context is a misnomer. What it really is an abject admiration of money. There is nothing wrong with it. In fact there is a whole world of good in such a hedonistic attitude. But it should not be confused with the higher values such as dignity of labour. That is a grave mistake.