[RobbyS]

Add to this the fact that the people with the skills to make stuff are old, or if yunger, few and far between. We have discouraged our kids from becoming engineers and trained them for soft jobs behind a desk.

[EEDUDE]

“We have discouraged our kids from becoming engineers and trained them for soft jobs behind a desk.”

Exactly! Why should anyone work as hard as an engineering degree requires?

In this country it is no longer a viable career: You WILL be replaced by a cheaper imported model when you are ten years into your career.

We reap what we sow.

[reg45]

We have discouraged our kids from becoming engineers and trained them for soft jobs behind a desk or as community organizers.

[Citizen Tom Paine]

You have touched on the MAJOR problem. Twenty to 40 years ago we had thousands of men that knew how to make steel in open hearth furnaces and in bessemer converters. Now if we had open hearths and bessemer converters we don’t have anyone that knows how to operate them, but some old geezers. And ditto for most other items. Where is a foundry that can cast complicated shapes. Of course the air is cleaner now...... . There are many pessimistic conclusions which can be formulated as to the deindustrialization of the US. Have our enemies won after all??

[BBell]

I've been saying for years now that we need to encourage more people to go into the trades. There are a lot of young people out there who very bright and mechanically inclined but academically declined and what do schools do? They tell them they have to go to college so they can stare at a cubicle wall all day instead of using their God given talents to the best of their ability's. Not all bright kids are college material.