I am a forty-year-old man working in road maintenance in the Queens area of New York. I belong to the class commonly referred to as "blue-collar."

Starting my day at 8 AM with a cup of coffee, I put on my hard hat and head out onto the road, and the day passes in the blink of an eye.

Whether it's hot or cold, snowing or windy, the roads always need someone to clean, fill, and maintain them to keep functioning.

In fact, whenever I see a city like New York running, I always think about something. The massive machine we often call the "American economy" is ultimately driven by workers like us, moving like cogs in a wheel.

People often think that the "power of America" comes from Silicon Valley engineers or Wall Street financiers.

But think about it for a moment. If the roads are damaged, deliveries are delayed, and if the subway stops, workers can't get to their jobs. If the power goes out, office buildings and luxury apartments are left in darkness.

Behind the glamorous buildings, there are always invisible drops of sweat. So I sometimes joke, "If workers stop for just one day, New York wouldn't last a single day."

Looking at the whole of America, the blue-collar class like us holds a much larger share than you might think. According to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, when you combine transportation, construction, manufacturing, maintenance, cleaning, and food services, nearly half of all workers fall into these categories. In other words, tens of millions of people among the 330 million in the U.S. do 'hands-on' work. This number is by no means small. In other words, the people who actually "make America move" are us.

But what is the reality? Blue-collar jobs are often undervalued as "hard work that anyone can do."

When people see someone sweating while laying asphalt on the streets of New York, some just walk by. But those are the very people who commute on that road every morning. America is said to be a land of freedom and opportunity, but many do not realize that it is the silent, sweating workers who support the real scene. I always find that disappointing.

So I leave this message on my blog. What moves America is not the reports of giant corporations or the graphs of the stock market. It is the workers paving the roads, the carpenters building the buildings, the sanitation workers cleaning up the trash, the truck drivers transporting goods, and the fast-food employees serving hamburgers to the hungry. The moment they stop, the lights of the glamorous city will inevitably go out.

Of course, I also get tired sometimes and wonder, "Why am I going through this hardship?" My back hurts, and the winter winds of New York cut to the bone. But when I see the asphalt laid neatly on the road and the cars flowing smoothly on the commute, I feel a sense of pride that I am a part of what makes the city alive.

In the end, America is like a giant machine made up of cogs.

If even one small part stops, the whole thing shakes. We blue-collar workers are the oil that keeps that machine running and the axis that transmits power. People may not realize it, but I am sure of this: America does not run on its own. It takes countless hands sweating to keep this country moving.

So today, I put on my hard hat and head out onto the road. My job may seem simple, but it is actually a part of the force that moves New York and America.

I am a blue-collar worker, but I take pride in it. America cannot run for a single day without us.