With his exit via the plane's emergency chute moments after haranguing a rude passenger on a Jet Blue flight into JFK last Monday, flight attendant Steven Slater became a hero for our time, an icon for a people sick of eking by in a recession.

He did what he did for every one of us who's sick of working too hard for too little pay. For everyone who hates the conditions of their workplace and loathes the ignorance and bad manners of the public they deal with. For every one of us who has dreamt of shoving it in the boss's face and marching out the door in the middle of a shift.

Yes, we know it was reckless and costly to pull the emergency lever on a plane. Of course, we understand it's part of his job to put up with the foibles of passengers (an increasingly ignorant people) on a daily basis.

But still, we love the elan and the style of his exit, lambasting the offensive woman who hit him on the head with an overhead luggage compartment before grabbing a couple of beers for the road. What's not to admire about a guy who, when police went to arrest him was in bed en flagrante with his lover?

This is a man of unique charisma and with a flair for drama that has most of us wage slaves already looking forward to his book and the inevitable movie. We are all mad as hell but he was the only one brave enough to say "I'm not going to take it any more." Or as he shouted over the intercom, before sliding into notoriety, "I've had it, that's it!"