Posted on 04/17/2020 9:23:29 AM PDT by GuavaCheesePuff
t age 13, Montez King took a machine shop class at a Baltimore high school that later landed him a job at what was formerly Teledyne Inc., earning $10 an hour. Back in 1991, that was pretty good money for a teen.
A few years later, King was earning $16 an hour as a full-time apprentice machinist, while Teledyne paid for him to attend community college two nights a week. At age 18, he had saved enough to buy his own home.
King credits that apprenticeship with giving him the opportunity to make a solid living. But he acknowledges that today, so few young adults in the U.S. are interested in so-called “blue-collar” jobs that there’s now a frightening shortage of workers who have traditionally been the economic foundation of this country—be they builders, welders, plumbers, pipe fitters, miners or mechanics.
(Excerpt) Read more at shrm.org ...
My professional mechanic buddy, who owns his own shop, has not, for years, been able to find a competent mechanics helper.
Bit problem!
I believe that starting soon, people who know how to do/fix/build things will find their wages increasing, whereas “desk occupants” in offices will find their wages decreasing. It really annoys me that tradespeople snd skilled workers don’t seem to get any respect.
It’s almost like people don’t trust management!
For whatever reason, our society and culture has the idea that all young people should go to college, and have an office job of some sort, rather than a “dirty job” such as Mike Rowe talks about on his TV show.
If the wages for various desk jobs decline vs. wages for skilled workers who build/fix buildings and equipment, it would be a reflection of the shortages of skilled workers in building trades and “blue collar” jobs we keep hearing about.
1) Bring manufacturing home from overseas
2) Get rid of illegal aliens
3) Close down worthless colleges giving out worthless degrees
4) Praise hard work and the pride in actually doing something useful.
I try to hire craftsmen all the time, but I can’t find any good ones who can pass a piss test. Those we do find stick around for a short period of time before the retire. 5 -6 years tops.
Average age where I work is 58 for a work force of just under 300. Long gone are the places where a guy could come out of high school, apprentice and work for 20, 30 or even 40 years and never leave. Steel and Paper Mills are about the last bastions of generational employment with exception of the government.
Much of the blame for this rests with George W. Bush.
Let me explain. The urban high school where I taught had a robust trades program. And our carpentry program was probably the best in the state (no exaggeration).
Then Bush signed the ‘No Child Left Behind’ act. NCLB rewarded schools that did well on the math and English tests. Schools that did poorly were punished.
NCLB put zero emphasis on the trades. So what did principals across the country do? They dropped their trades programs and shoved everyone into advanced math and English classes.
Our trades classrooms are now empty, and have been for a decade. The kids who should have been in those classes - kids who like to work with their hands and build things - are now forced to study quadratic equations and English poetry.
Bush II wrecked a lot of things. This was just one of them. He can go to...
Sorry for the rant. But it’s a damn shame.
I’m a white collar guy who sometimes does blue collar work to relax. Yeah, I know that sounds weird, but I totally get how the 24/7 drumbeat of “college for everybody” and open borders, especially for those that do blue collar work has totally shifted the attitudes and expectations of our young.
Our Communist governor is mandating that everyone who goes shopping in the few stores that remain open don a mask. Nobody sells masks. We bought our from one of my wife's church lady friends who can barely keep up with demand. We sent a neighbor who wanted masks like ours over to see her just yesterday.
Is he willing to train people?
What I would do instead of putting an ad in help wanted, I would put an ad asking for people willing to learn the trade.
Instead of the standard interview, I would give them an aptitude test.
Layout the basic tools and ask them to perform the task.
If they have natural aptitude it will be obvious.
What you look for next is their attitude and enthusiasm for the work.
I'm sure there are many people who have mechanical aptitude but they aren't being given an opportunity to prove themselves.
Trade schools are good but they likely attract 'people looking for a job' rather than people willing to prove their worth.
Trades people and blue collar people are seen as “anti-intellectuals and people who put Trump in office”
My grandfather, a skilled machinist, worked through the Depression pouring and shaving Babbitt bearings for tractor engines - a skilled job. Sometimes he had to work overtime. He had to sneak home at night into his own house so that his neighbors, many out of work, wouldn’t resent him.
I wish he would have taught me that skill. The few people who can still do it make big bucks.
A guy who owned a one-man welding shop told me about welding skills: “You won’t ever get rich, but you won’t starve either”.
Trades people and blue collar people are seen as “anti-intellectuals and people who put Trump in office”
Still a hell of a lot better then the puppets and parasites that elect dumos.
That may have happened already if we didn’t let 30 million illegals invade the U.S. and do those jobs for slave wages.
“I’m a white collar guy who sometimes does blue collar work to relax.”
So do I, and I’m damn proud of it.
I work with a Chinese-American guy with an advanced software degree. His car had a flat on his car, and he was mad that he was waiting for someone to change it. I asked him, “why not do it yourself?”. He just gave me a funny look and told me that professionals don’t change flats or work on cars. I haven’t decided if that was Chinese or American culture displayed.
No kidding. Immigrants have absolutely destroyed the trucking industry. There is no future for an American-born truck driver. You CANNOT make a living and you definitely cannot spend quality time with your family.
You do realize that Bush gave total control of the “No Child Left Behind” policy to Ted Kennedy. Ted and the Board of Education were responsible for implementing his vision. Bush felt is was not right to simply automatically push minority students to the next grade before they mastered the subject matter taught in their class. It was a noble idea that was bastardized by Kennedy and the rats. Obama’s policies were even worse. They killed charter schools for minorities and pushed them all to public prison camps.
Dumbya trusted the Rats, that was his big mistake.
When I worked in Kuwait back in the '80s, I was talking with a liberated Pakistani female computer operator. I mentioned how my old car lasted a long time because I often changed the oil. She put on a look of disgust. "YOU changed the oil? We have PEOPLE to do that."
I suspect that is a common foreign attitude that sometimes changes to awe when an American rolls up his sleeves and fixes something on the spot.
As to that last, I suggest reading of a great WWII example in Under The Red Sea Sun". That book makes you, yet again, proud to be an American.
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