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 ...
The Trades have the Deep State on their side.
They love it, and vote for it at every step.
Regulations.
Licensing.
Local Laws.
Limited product availability.
That’s why it costs $400 for 12 ft of black pipe with a shutoff valve.
Right of Repair should come to all Homeowners.
I’ll sit back and wait for all the Grifting Trades Folks to chime in.
Mike Rowe has been pleading with us to re-populate the trades - really just about the only AI-proof jobs.
Somehow I don’t think this will lead to the Star Trek Utopia where machines do *ALL* the hard work, leaving mankind free to pursue enrichment through arts, the sciences, sports, exploration, and just plain recreation, due to the enormous wealth generated by automata and distributed freely to any and all citizens.
Other things can lower the value of my trade but AI won’t.
The answer is to deport illegals.
Unfortunately, Trump flip-flopped and is now advancing amnesty instead.
its like mechanical looms of the 1700s, tractors of the 1800s, or machine presses of the 1900s
Its a disruptive technological advancement which can’t move faster than the economy, society or capital availability, and will eventually get worked into the labor market
I look forward to robots who can staff nursing homes to eliminate the need to import more illegal aliens to change our diapers and curb the elder abuse that goes with it, and ditto for insane asylums so we can get the homeless crazies off the streets.
It also does not exist.
And probably never will.
Automated welding systems have been arpund for decades. Of course it takes a human to set them up
LOL. We’ll see about that. I think the days of an Optimus robot showing up at your house to fix the toilet are decades away at the earliest.
Not YET.
Give it a decade.
I hear Elon Musk is working with a major farm machine company to produce robotic farmhands, they’ll call the line of humanoid field workers “Juan Deere” models.
Rowe never talks about wages.
There are enough Americans. They just don’t want to pay.
The “robots will replace everyone” now sounds like the “cars will fly like airplanes—like the Jetsons” of the past.
the biggest issue will be a glut of trades guys, will happen in 6 years.
More likely the robot shows up and takes out the plastic, modular toilet which is just two years old and replaces it with another plastic, modular toilet which has a twenty three month warranty.
Even today you don't repair a toaster; just get another from Red China.
UberRepair
AI believes that you need the following done
....
at an UberRepair book rate of $312.
Bob-available now-80% of UberRepair book rates
[photo][rating][qualifications][credentials][reviews]
Jimmy-available ~5pm-75% of UberRepair book rates
[photo][rating][qualifications][credentials][reviews]
....
Everybody has an opinion but no one knows how this will go. I do know that buggy whip manufacturers are rare these days. AI is just another step in a long progression.
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