I called somebody to come look at / fix an HVAC unit. It was a Saturday afternoon. He was in his 60s. One man operation. I said no rush, whenever you can come out. He said today. The guy came out late afternoon and was there for all of 30 minutes. Problem solved. His phone rang twice while he was there. Similar situations. He wrote stuff down on a piece of paper he carried in his pocket. When somebody told him an address, he’d say, “So that’s out there behind the middle school, on the side by the baseball fields?” Totally boss. He knew every street and neighborhood. He’s been doing this for 40 years. One phone call was a repeat client from a couple years ago. He charged me $150. I paid him $200 because he was great. He said he had 3 more jobs on his schedule that evening. Do the math. The guy drives his old work van. He’s living and living comfortably. Calls his own shots. Makes his own schedule. Takes long vacations to go fishing. But tell me again how every kid needs to go to college. And how it’s the “poverty of low expectations” if we encourage young people who are mechanically inclined to pursue a trade. America trashed physical trades and working with your hands for the past 25+ plus years. For what? So more young people could go get degrees in psychology, pile up debt, and go get a job as a barista? To feed the college industrial complex? You know one of the biggest things America needs? People who can work with their hands. Fix things. Build things. Grow things. That’s not for everyone. But nobody who has those types of talents and inclinations should ever be steered away from a craft or trade. And nobody should ever be looked down on for pursuing a trade rather than a degree.
When I was a high school teacher in Baltimore City in 2005, Teach for America, Hopkins and everybody else was pushing this absolute TRASH about how every kid needed to go to college. And if we didn’t push every kid toward college we were condemning them to a terrible life and a life of poverty. Crazy how that gets swept under the rug and forgotten in 15 years. That was the dominant paradigm for decades.
I find it amusing we are trying to celebrate a guy that has to work on a Saturday. No one is trashing tradesmen. They're the hardest working people I know and some of the best people out there. College is simply the easier way, and has a MUCH higher lifetime earning potential. It also opens doors that won't open if you go to tech school. Choose wisely. Short term profit or long term gain.
Agree with most of your points, but have to come to the defense of Psychology majors here 😭🤣! Feel you can leverage almost any major for a good job (at least tangentially related to the field of study) out of a good undergrad school. Most students do not effectively network/take initiative in undergrad and then get left out to dry when they graduate. Psychology is very interdisciplinary & can translate well to a broad array of job prospects! But definitely agree with your overarching point. Jonathan Pollard
I deeply wish we did sortition in middle school years onto individualized tracks. Based on careful evaluation and screening, each student would get broad and general education in everything, but 70-80% of their secondary studies would be only in their natural cohort: Either STEM, Liberal Arts, Creative arts or Trades.
Can I like this a thousand times? So true, and that guy was making GREAT money and is his own boss.
When my daughter was in middle school I overheard her and some friends making fun of a kid because their dad was a plumber. I took her aside and gave her an assignment. 1. Call some plumbers and ask what their hourly rate was. 2. Do the math for a week. 3. Ask each plumber she called why their job might be important. After she did that she told me that she had no idea. She is now investigating the possibility of the trades for her future. Kids don't know if we don't teach them that it is ok to be dirty at the end of the day.
I know two brothers: one went to college and got his engineering degree, the other started plumbing in high school and took the trade up full-time when he graduated. Fast forward 20 years, the engineer has had a good career in the technology sector and makes a great income landing him firmly in upper-middle class. The plumber learned the business, started his own company and now runs 4 crews. The plumber makes more than twice what the engineer makes and could double that if he can find more good employees. (Mind you, the plumber pays his plumbers enough that they themselves are middle-class.) When my children talk about various jobs, industries, trades, I help them explore those opportunities, which includes examples of successful people we know working in trades.
Just turned 42, and considering getting into a trade. After almost 20 years working in various supply chain roles, it seems that I'll never compete with a shiny new degree for most roles, and everyone has one. I never finished college, and love working with my hands. I figure even at my age, doing a career 180 still looks more promising than fighting for a few more bucks and job hopping for greener pastures. I have a lot of friends who do trade work, and do very very well....and student debt-free!
Employment Law. Non-Compete Defense. Trade Secrets. Partnership Breakups.
1yWhat really pisses me off is the sort of disdain America has had for people who work with their hands from circa 1990 onward. It's absurd. Looking down at people who actually know how to build things and fix things and make things--- and acting like you're somehow better because you have a college degree OF ANY SORT or work in an office etc. It's disgusting. I grew up working class. My dad sold shelving and racking for a living. I loaded a lot of trucks when I was a teenager and did a lot of grunt work in the warehouse. He's 70 and he still loads trucks. Or leads a crew that puts this stuff together in massive stores or warehouses. I know that's not a skilled trade in the sense of being an electrician or a welder or something like that. But it's hard work and it's honest work. And how dare anybody look down on someone else who makes a living that way.