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ok I'm not a prepper type although some aspects of it do appeal to me. I recently moved into a brand new development and most of the neighbors are younger than me. Child ages for their families are typically 10 or younger. My oldest is going to college.
Among my young neighbors it seems there is no desire to do anything for themselves. Hiring people to wash and fold their clothes, pick up after their dog and build their garden beds seems ridiculous to me but when I'm out there building my gate, fixing my car and mowing my lawn it feels like I'm the only one in the neighborhood. My 12yo son was dog sitting for a family on vacation and I could see some things in the house that needs a quick repair that just gets ignored entirely.
is the age of the handyman just lost to this new generation where they have to hire someone to perform the smallest of repair jobs?
They are probably more successful than you. You are likely about ten years older based upon your child's age, but you are at their level or below financially. You might examine yourself rather than attack them because they need not perform the menial tasks that you must.
Yes, we see this all the time. Most people in our very middle class neighborhood hire their grass cut, and other landscaping done. Look at it this way, it will make for all kinds of part time/handyman jobs for your son while he's growing up, saving for college etc. I might do some of this in retirement.
We have a friend who moved to this area a couple years ago. She moved here from a suburb of Boston, where she cleans houses. After moving here, she still cleans houses in Boston. Every week she drives the 6 hours to Boston, spends a day cleaning houses and backs back here. By working as a house-keeper one day a week, she earns enough to support herself here. She is single, she owns a nice home [no mortgage], a nice sports car and a Harley.
High Cost-Of-Living cities pay super high wages, and those people think nothing of paying for household servants.
When I lived in Scotland, we had a live-in nanny, but it was very cheap. The Crown subsidizes everything, so you could have household servants and it does not cost much.
We used to know a guy who supported a family by walking dogs. But again that was in a city.
I would make 100g a year working as a nurse at the top of my game. But still, although working my tail off in the regional trauma center ICU I chose to live in a cabin in the country, frame my own chicken house, grow tomatos, shoe my own horse and figure out how to fix things such as washing machines. I could have paid someone for these things, but why? Its fun.
I would make 100g a year working as a nurse at the top of my game. But still, although working my tail off in the regional trauma center ICU I chose to live in a cabin in the country, frame my own chicken house, grow tomatos, shoe my own horse and figure out how to fix things such as washing machines. I could have paid someone for these things, but why? Its fun.
It's only fun if you are debt free and own everything you have fair and square . Most people simply do not have the time or energy to learn all these skills you speak of when they are juggling kids, jobs, mortgages, car payments etc. etc.
I would make 100g a year working as a nurse at the top of my game. But still, although working my tail off in the regional trauma center ICU I chose to live in a cabin in the country, frame my own chicken house, grow tomatos, shoe my own horse and figure out how to fix things such as washing machines. I could have paid someone for these things, but why? Its fun.
I would have never made $100g as a biologist but I agree on the fun part of working with your hands. I spent a couple of decades mostly in an office but very few days went by when I did not think of a time when retirement would allow me to shed the dress shirt, tie and computer screen for a khaki shirt, blue jeans and a socket wrench.
Even when working in an office, I paid very few people to do what I knew I could do. While I was still working, I did most of the work on my cars (brakes, oil, even body work), rebuilt a kitchen and baths, wall-papered a house and even once re-roofed our house (by myself) that was damaged in a hail storm.
However, age has a way of catching up to you. This past week I paid a young fellow to install a large swamp (evaporative) cooler at our New Mexico home. I still assisted although he threatened to charge me more for the help.
ok I'm not a prepper type although some aspects of it do appeal to me. I recently moved into a brand new development and most of the neighbors are younger than me. Child ages for their families are typically 10 or younger. My oldest is going to college.
Among my young neighbors it seems there is no desire to do anything for themselves. Hiring people to wash and fold their clothes, pick up after their dog and build their garden beds seems ridiculous to me but when I'm out there building my gate, fixing my car and mowing my lawn it feels like I'm the only one in the neighborhood. My 12yo son was dog sitting for a family on vacation and I could see some things in the house that needs a quick repair that just gets ignored entirely.
is the age of the handyman just lost to this new generation where they have to hire someone to perform the smallest of repair jobs?
Basically its the age were time is money to those who can hire others to do what they are not interested in. Of course this leads to not passing on old skills. But few now days are self sufficient really and even in preppers they support a large industry supplying foods and even army rations. Times change and with that the skills need to survive in todays world. I has young man read the series of books called Fox Fire which records skills to survive in wilderness past Americans used. Very interesting if you care to check library. I do have to say tho having seen work of many past handy men; some did terrible often dangerous work that has to be correct by someone really skilled.
Is anyone interested in self-sufficiency is it just about hot air and running down everyone who doesn't conform to some imagined ideal? We have a bunch of people who seem to believe that they can do all sorts of wonderful things that makes them giants among men. Does every thread need to devolve into braggadocio? I'm sick of it.
I found a what started as a light-hearted thread that evolved into something very realistic. It's on the Retirement forum. No one is bragging about their military prowess or exotic skills; they're just sharing ideas. However, in my mind they have more of a real survival instinct than the vast majority of people posting here who seem to have reached a new low on this thread.
Take a look at a thread that has gone up instead of down. Its so far attracted 106 threads in nineteen hours. It really is important to have toilet paper.
People today are actually a little scary. They don't seem to care about their fellow man at all. O'Reily just did a Watter's world segment about SF, and their sanctuary city policy and the recent murder of that young woman. The people interviewed couldn't care less for the most part. I think that is what happens to a lot of people living in a large city. Dog eat Dog and little caring for their fellow human being.
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. Most people simply do not have the time or energy to learn all these skills you speak of when they are juggling kids, jobs, mortgages, car payments etc. etc.
