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Working in the trades sounds good in theory, but the injury rate is high and the work is physically demanding, so it's not a career path that can be sustained until age 70 or so.
Only in some trades.
It's very true a carpenter or a sheet metal worker who spends his life doing heavy physical work probably won't last past his 50s, but farmers now can go on farming well into their 70s.
Most farmers nowadays are 50 years old or older. Farm mechanization has allowed farmers to stay on the job far longer than they once could.
Other trades also have benefitted from mechanization. Auto workers don't have to do the heavy lifting any more, for example, as robots now do it. Foundries are similar; the old workers now have great advantage over new young hires, and they don't have to deal with the molten metal as directly as they once did.
The problem is informing the kids early that they have alternate choices. A 6th grader who's interested in electronics, or in building a bridge across a pond, for example, need to know there's a trade that pays real well then, when they are 12, not when they are a year away from graduation at age 16 or 17.
Most kids are at their most curious time in their life when they are 9 to 12 years old. If informal trade instructions were begun at that age, kids who wanted to learn how to use their hands to create things or fix things, or build things would have the beginnings of a viable skilled trade later on.
Who would teach that stuff? Educators could, but I think the trade unions could do a better job of it. Making trade courses mandatory won't do it. Some kids are not cut out for the trades, period. Trying to force feed them won't ever change that. So trade classes will always have to be a choice, not a requirement.
The unions already have a structure that allows a beginner to work up to becoming expert.
The union supports both beginner and expert while the beginner is still learning. The same could be used with kids, creating things that allow a vision of the future that doesn't need scholastics for accomplishing.
Some kids will always explore out on their own. Other kids need to be shown the way. But all kids are still children, and they all need adults to help them out finding a general direction to go toward.
See what I mean? All that (if I even believed you) and you have to pay someone to fix your craper or you wash machine. Your MBA and 6 figures wouldn't qualify to do my job.....
Are you qualified to do other people's jobs? It works both ways.
There a plenty of jobs you could not walk up perform them without a college education.
Doctor, lawyer, electrical engineer, accountant, etc... All important jobs. Even auto mechanics now need a good understanding of computers and electronics.
It's called opportunity cost. I don't have to qualify to do your job because I can make more money at my job (which I enjoy) than I would doing your job and therefore I pay someone like you to go fix my crapper. Econ 101.
except I don't fix your toilet, I could and I do fix my own. You couldn't do my job I can almost guarantee you and without us you couldn't do yours....That's what gets people in the trades I think. We build your houses, fix your toilets, keep your lights on, produce your food, etc. All the things that you can't do without and you can't do. Yet were are treated with disdain and disrespect.
except I don't fix your toilet, I could and I do fix my own. You couldn't do my job I can almost guarantee you and without us you couldn't do yours....That's what gets people in the trades I think. We build your houses, fix your toilets, keep your lights on, produce your food, etc. All the things that you can't do without and you can't do. Yet were are treated with disdain and disrespect.
Actually I do know how to plunge a toilet and swing a hammer, it's not rocket science. But nice try.
Are you qualified to do other people's jobs? It works both ways.
There a plenty of jobs you could not walk up perform them without a college education.
Doctor, lawyer, electrical engineer, accountant, etc... All important jobs. Even auto mechanics now need a good understanding of computers and electronics.
Well I'm pretty multi threat that's for sure but you are correct, I can't write code or argue a court case or do brain surgery. How often do you need that done???
When I was a teen ager in the 70's they talked about a shortage of tradesmen.
This is not new...it is a continuing trend.
Yup. During college in the early 70s, a lot of the young folks I knew ended up in the trades because they couldn't ever find a job where their degree could be put to use.
Most just dropped into a summer job, learned they had an affinity for it, and stuck with it. I knew guys who have a degree in mining who never spent a day in a mine in their life but spent a career in a bank, English majors who made a career of building new MacDonald's restaurants, etc. etc.
I've known engineers that took off the white shirt and tie for a pair of coveralls too. Many of them.
All higher education's primary job is not to prepare a person for a specific job. Rather, it is to teach them how to think deeply and give them the educational tools to allow deep thinking that pertains to a profession.
A lawyer can learn the law just as well by being a clerk as a collegian. An automotive engineer can learn engineering while working as an auto mechanic.
Colleges teach a person how to think first and foremost. Everything else is secondary. That's a crucial difference that's been lost to all too many who believe college is the answer to a better life.
And as I said, I don't have to do yours and I don't want to do yours. I make more money doing what I like to do and I can pay you people to do stuff like clean my house, mow my lawn, wash my car, etc.
except I don't fix your toilet, I could and I do fix my own. You couldn't do my job I can almost guarantee you and without us you couldn't do yours....That's what gets people in the trades I think. We build your houses, fix your toilets, keep your lights on, produce your food, etc. All the things that you can't do without and you can't do. Yet were are treated with disdain and disrespect.
No you're not. Quit making things up.
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) and you have to pay someone to fix your craper or you wash machine. Your MBA and 6 figures wouldn't qualify to do my job.....
