Pipefitter, electrician,boilermaker, millrite helpers make close to $20 an hour straight out of high school. Journeyman $30-35 an hour non union.
How about putting it this way? Without the knowledge and skills of the “mere” tradesmen, the educated “know nothings” of this world would be sitting in the dark, working in buildings no taller than 3 stories, huddling in the cold, walking to their so-called jobs, and scrabbling in the fields trying to grow enough food to feed their families.
And horror of horrors, there would be no more whales, as the last one would have killed for its lamp oil and lubricating oils.
Such is the world of the pure “intellect”.