I could be wrong, but in some states at least it seems tradesmen like plumbers and electricians do as well as some of the professions you mentioned without the huge school debt. Likely due to a shortage and fewer people in these trades, therefore they command a higher wage. Certainly it takes dedication to learn the trade but at least they are getting paid during their apprenticeship and of course in some states the test to obtain their contractor’s license requires much studying and isn’t easy.
I’m not saying that I’m thinking rationally. Do the trades present an excellent opportunity? Yes. Is it the life I want for my kids? No.
I have a friend who thought Marine boot camp was a walk in the park...he had grown up hauling hay for a living and with two cotton hooks would catch and then stack 1500 bales a day. Farm boys do know about work.
This is why we have very few qualified gunsmiths left in this country…
I've unloaded a large flatbed semi trailer loaded with hay into the hay storage area in a 2nd level of a barn. Damn hard work.
Wow.
And those gunsmiths who can build an excellent custom or semi custom African big bore hunting rifle even fewer yet.
Robert Heinlein was one of the great cultural philosophers of the 20th century. "Starship Troopers" and "Stranger in a Strange Land" should be required reading. Let's throw in "Glory Road" as well.
Spent many a summer as a teenager bucking hay, damned hard work, and every one of the 8-9 hands (extra help during hay season) were tough and worked hard. But where are these tough kids nowadays? Couple summers ago I bucked & limbed a dozen Ponderosa pine, Douglas fir and Larch at our Montana ranch and I outworked the teenagers I hired to help me form burn piles with all the cut tree limbs.
It seems like you missed the post I had made before this one about how we want better for our kids than the lives we lived, and you think I’m shitting on trades. I hold two journeyman tickets and a technical two year diploma and run a business providing services to the largest oil and gas producer in the country (none of this is bragging, I’m just stating my background). I work a rotation of seven days on and seven days off, twelve hour days, six hours away from home, wife and family. I stay in a remote work camp in a lovely 8x10 cell where I can hear my neighbour shit his guts out in our shared bathroom (which is illegal by OH&S, but the fine is cheaper than the cost of renovation). I have spent my entire adult life in steel boots, and it has worked out well for me, but it’s also come at a cost. Time away from my wife and kids is the biggest downside. It’s shutdown season now, so I get the pleasure of working 12/2’s for the next two months.
Agreed. If someone can be home every night and be a tradesman then more power to them. That said if an occupation gets in the way of what’s truly important then something else is preferable. I’m glad I quit working 14 on 14 off when I did. That’s single man stuff IMHO. Married now with a little one I can’t imagine it. I observed mostly misery with that type of employment, for attached persons that is.
True, for almost all jobs, not just trades. When I started my first company, I put in 70-80 hour weeks with no time for vacations. Worked out great financially that enabled me to cash out and fatFIRE at age 33. It also cost me my first marriage. I was very focused on work at the exclusion of everything else, heck I remember telling my first wife that my work was my number one priority and most important thing when she used to complain about being lonely. So, balance is important.
