Charlie and the Chocolate Factory

In my younger days I worked in a pharmaceutical factory where we made things like shampoo, vitamin pills and toothpaste. At the same time I read lots of mags like Cosmo, Cleo & Dolly. They were reasonably appropriate for me at the time but there was one aspect of them that I hated: every time that they would write a case study or maybe interview a reader, that person was what I would regard as a "high flyer"- lawyers, doctors, executives, etc. Now, I have nothing against high flyers (some of my best friends are lawyers! ) but I was always irritated that the "ordinary" people were not represented.
Every day we come across bus drivers, station attendants, couriers, operators in call centres, shop assistants, you get the idea....
These people are everywhere but often they're treated as though they were invisible. Invisible or not they wield some power....if your call centre operator has no idea whats going on it's really annoying. If your bus driver is always cheery it can be a little highlight in the day. Rude shop assistants get on everyones goat.
Anyway, right about now you're wondering how Charlie and the Chocolate Factory fits in aren't you?
I was reading the first chapter to my girls ( I'm familiar with the basic story but have never read it before ) and I was thrilled to see that Charlie's Dad, Mr Bucket, worked in a factory screwing lids on toothpaste tubes.
Since those days of my late teens I have realised that the ordinary people are represented all over the place but it was still good to see that Roald Dahl had represented a factory worker....and a toothpaste factory to boot!
In Australia we're proud of our egalitarianism but I wonder if it's as strong as we imagine. If we truly value equality we need to be mindful that the people who do the menial stuff make the world go around just as much as the people who make the big decisions.