Maybe it’s just me...
I graduated high school in 1980 and back then, one could get into a pretty good job without a college degree. This worked for us who had no dream of being a doctor, lawyer, accountant or engineer - basically the only fields our aptitude tests gave us to choose then..
So a few years after graduating, you got in a place, worked for 20+ years and then our fine recession hit. They lay off all the guys making salaries that could support a family and keep all the entry level folks like college kids..
It’s a different world today. To be a janitor you need a college degree and five years experience. -To earn $8.50 an hour. Other manual labor jobs require about the same.
I’m fortunate to get some music gigs to barely pay the bills. I can’t imagine finding money for college -doing what, at my age, I just don’t know. Even if there was something, in four years I’d be nearly 60. I’ve been turned down for jobs now because they really want someone younger..
I’m not trying to gripe or feel sorry for myself, we’re getting by, we’re simplifying.
It’s just a WAY different world and a tough place to be for guys like me these days.
Yep graduated HS in 1980 also. Always worked. Even during the bad late 70’s you could find decent work.
Its a different animal today and the bucks don’t go very far at all.
There are a ton of people on SSD/SSI but also you have a tremendous load of illegals/immigrants working for peanuts in fields that used to pay a decent wage.
In my field (plumbing) you’ll have an owner of a plumbing business hiring them when he needs them while he still charges his regular rates and pays them crap.
Personally I think they are nuts just from a liability standpoint but they do it anyway.
Always see them in the plumbing supply using sign language to try to communicate with the counterman.
I’ve seen plenty of there work to. Horrible.
People think that something magically happens when they come across the southern border and they become expert tradesman.
We’ve trained a whole generation or two of youth to think the trades are beneath them. They are actually extremely rewarding careers. My dad worked in the building line (carpenter/builder) for over 60 years. The houses he’s built since 1948 will be his legacy. Just three men. Him, my uncle and a cousin did all of it. He’s 87 now and “retired”.
It is true what you say.
Democrats assure us this kind of discrimination does not occur. Neither does turning down people because they don't speak Spanish, Hindi, or Chinese (to work with the rest of the staff on site or offshore).