re: There aren’t enough skilled workers and guys under 40 willing to work with their hands

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Maybe more in some areas.. Heavy equipment can operate itself via GPS. Jobs that once required a thousand men with shovels now require a good playlist or podcast.

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that’s not incorrect but it’s mostly irrelevant

I see blue collar dudes working hard, drenched in sweat, every single day. even the union guys. Odds are you’re doing years and years of labor if you go into the trades

I’m a supervisor, when work is slow our job will send other supervisors to work together. Just so everyone gets a paycheck. I’m 56 and the work gets tough sometimes but nothing that hard I don’t mind it and grateful that our company does it instead of layoffs. We get this new supervisor 20 something straight up told the rest of us he wasn’t touching anything that he is paid to supervise. He got sent home

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I painted my entire house (interior and exterior) by myself and I can’t tell you how great I felt after I finished. Unfortunately, I’m too smart for that to be my main occupation.

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Guarantee it looks like shite. But good on you though buddy.

There is a reason blue collar work isn't as desired and its not because people haven't figured out some "blue collar work life hack make tons of $$$".


People talk about a blue collar's hourly wage or quick $1500 job but you won't hear what they earn in the terms of total compensation. That being, health ins, matched 401k, Dental, 1/2 fica, PTO. Tons of blue collar are 1099 and have to fund all that stuff themselves. Hourly wages, annual wages or job pay is pretty useless without the whole story.

As far as the toll it takes on a body, walk into any specialty supply house and observe both the physical (and mental) nature of the customers between the ages of 35-55. A real treat is the HVAC house in the middle of a heat wave. The idea "technology" has eliminated hard labor from the trades en masse is ridiculous. Any successful tradesman works his arse off. Don't get me wrong, hard labor is great. Great for every now and then but everyday from 20-60yo is a tough road.


I will say one positive of blue collar is the character it builds if it doesn't tear you down. Something about living a hard life that makes for a much more interesting person than some boob that sells insurance his whole life and at 60 still has to call someone to fix his toilet.


And its not work ethic either. To be a successful plumber or engineer you both need to know how to put your nose to grindstone. Its the free market and it has decided that blue collar is middle of the employment rung.

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younger people just have shite work ethic.

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Sorry, I'd rather go chill in my air conditioned/heated office all day drinking espresso and Red Bulls and troubleshooting tech problems for old people who can't set up a printer or didn't restart their computer after an update.

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Sorry, I'd rather go chill in my air conditioned/heated office all day drinking espresso and Red Bulls and troubleshooting tech problems for old people who can't set up a printer or didn't restart their computer after an update.

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You sound extremely talented and important.

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And spare me the plumbers make $300k a year argument.

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My Godchild made close to 150k last year as a plumber. He works for someone, once he goes out on his own he'll male more.

He told me he gets workorders to change toilet seats and they charge a 1 hour minimum for it.

My cousin is a commercial electrician. He worked a job away last year for 7 months and made $141,000.

Money is out there to be made. Young adults just need to get after it.

Old people lmao

A guy I work with came in 30 minutes late last week because he had to go to his son’s apartment and help him hang a curtain rod. His son is 21 years old and 6’2”

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It's the idiots in government and schools. They cancelled shop class, brainwash students to think that college is the only thing to do after high school, allocate trillions in easy to get student loans while signaling the loans will be easy to pay off with increased earning power

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So true. When I was a high school student in the 80's our school provided several trades classes ( welding, auto repair, etc.).

About 10 years ago our local school district built a new high school. They did not include any vo-tech classrooms in the plans because they did away with those programs over the years since I graduated. This was due to the push for all students to go to college that dominated the past 25 years or so in public education.

Fast forward a few years after the new high school opened and CTE is now being pushed heavily in the education world for those who aren't necessarily college material. So, the district has now spent a few million to buy property across from the new high school, tear down the building that was on that property, and build a CTE center to provide vocational programs to those students that want to go that route.

Glad to see they are once again seeing the value of providing this type of education but wonder why they ever decided to get rid of it in the first place. Our community is an industrial based economy and there was no reason to ever do away with vocational training. Just so short sighted.