Somewhere along the line
Right around my generation, skilled trades became a frowned upon path in and after high school. It was expected one go to college and earn a degree to get a real job. For whatever reason making and fixing things became frowned upon.
I think I would have been happier throughout my life having been a mechanic or technician of some sort. I very much enjoy understanding how things work, being able to diagnose problems and change parts out.
I used to work on my own car. I remember I had a Honda prelude and the ball joints were shot. I took the entire front suspension apart in my driveway, took the control arms to a mechanic to have the ball joins pressed out and in and brought everything back home and couldn't figure out how to put the car back together. I put all the parts in the trunk and was prepared to have the car towed to the shop the next day to have a professional complete the job.
The next day, I woke up and went out to the driveway, opened the trunk and put the entire car back together and everything worked fine. It was the strangest thing. Like my brain was working while I was asleep and bam. It all came together - literally and figuratively.
I've changed valve covers, brakes, radiators, water pumps, rotors, bearings, etc. I enjoy reading the service manuals, using tools, and getting something to work that was once broken.
I wrote about repair the lock to our front door and how much I enjoyed that exercise.
When I was a frontline supervisor I would help the line maintenance mechanics when we were dealing with a
Maintenance issue.
The point is, not everyone is destined for university. And going into skilled trades has been frowned upon for at least 40 years. Unfortunate.
Nowadays one can make a lot of money welding, being an automatic, a plumber, welder or carpenter. Yet, the trades are still held in low regard as a post high school career path.
Mike Rowe and John Ratzenberger are advocates for skilled trades. Mike Rowe because you can make a good living. John Ratzenberger because he thinks people don't know how to think and we are losing a necessary component of society by not understanding how things work and how to use tools.
It's obvious people are stupid when it comes to how things work. Evidence is presented in the number of people that think an electric car has minimal environmental impact. The reason they think that is because the EV advocates are too stupid to know how electricity is produced. It's not all wind and solar. It's the burning of fossil fuels and coal. All the electric car does is take the environmental impact from the car and moves it up line to the power plant. Electricity doesn't just come out of a wall or a charging station. Dummies.
I sometimes get frustrated with my kids because they aren't interested in learning how things work and how to take things apart and fix them. I've tried to show them and they couldn't care less.
Every once in a while my wife suggests I change careers. At 53 years of age, being a mechanic doesn't seem feasible. It's physically demanding. 30 years ago, sure. On the tail end of my working years, no. I'd still like to be a service writer someday. Not willing to take the financial hit at the point in my life to start over.
The skilled trades are a viable career path with immediate employment and rapid advancement where one can earn a very good living if they're proficient in their chosen field. Too bad society short changes the opportunities available to actual do work instead of white collar jobs. Obama and Clinton were misguided when they declared we are moving beyond the Industrial Revolution into the age of information. They were typical elites looking down on the people that make our world work.
I think I would have been happier throughout my life having been a mechanic or technician of some sort. I very much enjoy understanding how things work, being able to diagnose problems and change parts out.
I used to work on my own car. I remember I had a Honda prelude and the ball joints were shot. I took the entire front suspension apart in my driveway, took the control arms to a mechanic to have the ball joins pressed out and in and brought everything back home and couldn't figure out how to put the car back together. I put all the parts in the trunk and was prepared to have the car towed to the shop the next day to have a professional complete the job.
The next day, I woke up and went out to the driveway, opened the trunk and put the entire car back together and everything worked fine. It was the strangest thing. Like my brain was working while I was asleep and bam. It all came together - literally and figuratively.
I've changed valve covers, brakes, radiators, water pumps, rotors, bearings, etc. I enjoy reading the service manuals, using tools, and getting something to work that was once broken.
I wrote about repair the lock to our front door and how much I enjoyed that exercise.
When I was a frontline supervisor I would help the line maintenance mechanics when we were dealing with a
Maintenance issue.
The point is, not everyone is destined for university. And going into skilled trades has been frowned upon for at least 40 years. Unfortunate.
Nowadays one can make a lot of money welding, being an automatic, a plumber, welder or carpenter. Yet, the trades are still held in low regard as a post high school career path.
Mike Rowe and John Ratzenberger are advocates for skilled trades. Mike Rowe because you can make a good living. John Ratzenberger because he thinks people don't know how to think and we are losing a necessary component of society by not understanding how things work and how to use tools.
It's obvious people are stupid when it comes to how things work. Evidence is presented in the number of people that think an electric car has minimal environmental impact. The reason they think that is because the EV advocates are too stupid to know how electricity is produced. It's not all wind and solar. It's the burning of fossil fuels and coal. All the electric car does is take the environmental impact from the car and moves it up line to the power plant. Electricity doesn't just come out of a wall or a charging station. Dummies.
I sometimes get frustrated with my kids because they aren't interested in learning how things work and how to take things apart and fix them. I've tried to show them and they couldn't care less.
Every once in a while my wife suggests I change careers. At 53 years of age, being a mechanic doesn't seem feasible. It's physically demanding. 30 years ago, sure. On the tail end of my working years, no. I'd still like to be a service writer someday. Not willing to take the financial hit at the point in my life to start over.
The skilled trades are a viable career path with immediate employment and rapid advancement where one can earn a very good living if they're proficient in their chosen field. Too bad society short changes the opportunities available to actual do work instead of white collar jobs. Obama and Clinton were misguided when they declared we are moving beyond the Industrial Revolution into the age of information. They were typical elites looking down on the people that make our world work.
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