A third of van drivers under the age of 35 are privately educated – and nearly half hold foundation or university degrees, according to research published by Mercedes-Benz vans. These numbers not only suggest that the end is nigh for ‘White Van Man’, the apocryphal working-class, white-collar ‘tradie’, they also ask us to reconsider the labour market outcomes for those who attended fee-paying schools.
I think we all know White Van Man but let me draw him just in case. In a meme on Reddit, the ‘White Van Man starter kit’ includes a picture of a dirty white van with ‘clean me’ written on the back door with someone’s fingerprints, a picture of the van illegally parked on a double-yellow line outside a school, and an image of what looks to be a roll of carpet hanging out of the van’s rear doors on a motorway.
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