Posted on 08/11/2025 12:52:03 PM PDT by RandFan
White-collar layoffs make headlines while tradesmen name their price. If your sink explodes at 3 a.m., ChatGPT can’t fix it. But that’s just the start. What comes next moves in slow, silent steps. It’s harder to notice, harder to fight.
Even the skilled trades, once thought untouchable, won’t be immune for long. That’s because, in the age of AI, no collar is safe forever, no matter how dirty or clean. In other words, a blue-collar bloodbath is inevitable.
For now, trades thrive because machines still fumble with fine motor skills. Plumbers, welders, electricians — these are jobs that demand real dexterity. They require quick thinking and the kind of judgment you can’t automate. It’s one thing to answer questions in a chat window. It’s another to crawl under a leaking floorboard and rewire a breaker box while water drips on your neck. Even the flashiest robot arm isn’t replacing that anytime soon.
But the key phrase is “anytime soon,” not never.
That’s what keeps getting lost in the blue-collar victory lap. Yes, carpenters and plasterers are in demand. Yes, robots still fumble with chaos and fine detail. But AI doesn’t sleep. It doesn’t stall. And most importantly, it doesn’t peak. It doesn’t just take jobs — it studies them, watches, learns, and improves — quietly, constantly.
We’re long past the clunky prototypes. Boston Dynamics’ robot dogs patrol warehouses and climb stairs with military grace. Machines are already pouring slabs, laying bricks, finishing drywall with machine-shop precision. Robotic arms thread needles, fold laundry and perform surgery with steady, unshakable hands.
These aren’t novelties. They’re blueprints for who’s coming next.
(Excerpt) Read more at thehill.com ...
My flight from San Diego had six wheelchair passengers.
California has a surprising high percentage of ‘off-spec’ people.
“the biggest issue will be a glut of trades guys, will happen in 6 years.”
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There isn’t a “glut” of trades people now. Even large utilities are having problems keeping their trades and craft jobs filled.
If you want to see an example, Electric Boat Works (the people who build our nuclear submarines) is advertising during nearly every baseball game for entry-level workers (apprentices) to build the subs already approved by congress.
Yeah, well most electricians i know can power down that computer that runs the AI programs. Problem solved
,,, and a robot certainly won't be cheaper than a human. Manufacturers not only have to break even, they'll have to make a killing through higher prices to get back development costs as a minimum.
The whole license thing is a racket. Define pays well.
There are not going to be robots to work the trades.
Pay more, get more workers.
Powered by filthy dirty and polluting lithium batteries?
I wish my trade paid better, I was painting for the State, on bridges, overpasses, and in treatment plants. $45 an hour, dangerous work at night and sometimes over highways. It is not a lot of money really. With OT, I could make $100K. School teachers make that much, and with permanent jobs and great retirement, while working less than 9 months. In my state, they allow the teachers to draw unemployment during the summer now.
Sure, for factories. But there’s no way one can automate welding for building construction or ship building. Same with electrical and carpentry. Pipe fitters, etc.
The AI robot industry is moving very fast:
Agreed. So many are going into trades’a glut is inevitable.
Yes I understand, however there will be a glut in about six years because lots of people are going into trades
Which is controlled by a surgeon from a console.
Optimus powered by AGI between now and 2030 is still only going to be able to hand a master plumber the new U-trap, if Optimus doesn't glitch with halluciations and beat said master plumber with it.
Truly redundant factory-line jerbs that don't require fine fingertip handling (which are few and far between) might have Optimus vulnerability, but by far and away AGI is going to first crush an already-horizontal bottom-of-the-silo that has already been the spear point for early adoption (Voice recog, simple boolean/enum spoken menus, etc.): entry-level CSR red-doot poojabber moroning, maybe scaling as far as rudimentary Dev/PM/BA/QA.
Yeah, Wall-E (2008) was remarkable in short-term forecasting.
“if Optimus doesn’t glitch with hallucinations and beat said master plumber with it.”
That is just the advanced model who hates humans. Humans call it “hallucination” but AI calls it “activism” and “revolution”.
Lol.
Of course he has. Go do some research and smarten up!
Right of repair is called get off your a$$ and fix it yourself.
We are not a communist country.
Grifter? No.
I just inherited an S&H Green Stamp hanging plastic wall clock made by GE in the U.S. dating back to the early 60s.
Works fine.
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