Younger generation has ‘stigma’ against blue-collar jobs, hasn’t had to ‘work hard’ CEO says

[Free Vulcan]

I agree that in the urban areas and the coasts it is not valued. Here in the interior it's a different bird. I like these kids alot, they are alot more responsible than many of my classmates were at that age.

[sneakypete]

Work is no longer valued in this country.  Yankee thrift and industry is no longer in vogue.

The elite braniacs' view is that we are living in a post-industrial information age. Information is the value-added product we produce and consume.

@DefiantMassRINO

That's because information is what the "movers and shakers" in the Board Room use to manage their personal stock holding in that corporation,as well as other corporations.

If THEY,personally need to buy something,they can always have their secretary buy it from Europe or Asia,and have it sent to them.

it's all they know,so it is what they use.

They are many,many steps "removed" from the realities of the working class,to the point  they are for all practical purposes,a different species.

[Cyber Liberty]

I agree that in the urban areas and the coasts it is not valued. Here in the interior it's a different bird. I like these kids alot, they are alot more responsible than many of my classmates were at that age.

 

[DefiantMassRINO]

I had a fleeting glimpse of that world in the mid 1990s.

I was a crew member on a sail boat that was sailing up to Marblehead, Mass, so it could be used for a para-Olympic sailing event.

As soon as we hit the dock, I noticed a G-man looking guy at the top of the gangway.  He was a security agent doing advance work for a visit from a Spanish princess, who was going to open the competition.

Next, we walk up the gangway, past parked cars - all luxury Mercedes, Jaguar, Porsche - BMW's were to low-brow for this W.A.S.P. yacht club.

Most of the club members there that day were blue-eyed, blond, and the women had diamond rings that outshined Boston Light(house) and were dressed to the 9's.

After sailing for a couple of hours, we were looking for coffee, soda, and cigarettes.  None were to be had by the docks.

The yacht club did let us go into the (formal) bar area to get something to drink.  This was the oddest bar I've ever been to - they don't accept cash, members bill things to a tab, and guests pay with a credit card.  The attendant was too scared to take a cash tip while members were present.  Once club members left, we were able to give the guy a cash tip.

It was a bizzarre experience of a segment of high society that was beyond my working class comprehension.

I was glad to get back to our own working-class yacht club that only accepted cash, had coffee, cigarettes, beer, soda, and you were free to leave a cash tip at anytime, no matter who was present.

Before that experience, I couldn't imagine there are places where one does not need to carry cash because everything is put on a tab.  But, I guess there are people who live like that (John F'ing Kerry?).

@DefiantMassRINO

That's because information is what the "movers and shakers" in the Board Room use to manage their personal stock holding in that corporation,as well as other corporations.

If THEY,personally need to buy something,they can always have their secretary buy it from Europe or Asia,and have it sent to them.

it's all they know,so it is what they use.

They are many,many steps "removed" from the realities of the working class,to the point  they are for all practical purposes,a different species.

[catfish1957]

One of my favorite celebs out there is Mike Rowe.  I have tremendous respect for his opinion, and he has been preaching this for ages..

Wish, he'd get into politics.

[Cyber Liberty]

One of my favorite celebs out there is Mike Rowe.  I have tremendous respect for his opinion, and he has been preaching this for ages..

Wish, he'd get into politics.

I've donated quite a bit to MikeRoweWORKS over the years.  He is a stand up guy!

[Kamaji]

One of my favorite celebs out there is Mike Rowe.  I have tremendous respect for his opinion, and he has been preaching this for ages..

Wish, he'd get into politics.

[Bigun]

One of my favorite celebs out there is Mike Rowe.  I have tremendous respect for his opinion, and he has been preaching this for ages..

Wish, he'd get into politics.

I doubt that even Mike could get the stink off from that sort of job.

[andy58-in-nh]

I had a fleeting glimpse of that world in the mid 1990s.

I was a crew member on a sail boat that was sailing up to Marblehead, Mass, so it could be used for a para-Olympic sailing event.

I lived in Marblehead for a couple of years in the early 1990s. There are more blue collar areas of the town as well, but what you describe is definitely to be found on Marblehead Neck and especially the yacht club.  Insane amounts of money.

[Smokin Joe]

Work is no longer valued in this country.  Yankee thrift and industry is no longer in vogue.

The elite braniacs' view is that we are living in a post-industrial information age.  Information is the value-added product we produce and consume.

Information? There's a buttload of it out there, alright, for free and worth every dime you paid for it. Plenty is just wrong, a lot is opinion passed off as fact, and many of the consumers wouldn't know facts if you beat them with them.

If anything, there's an overload of useless trivia masquerading as something worthy of note.

[jmyrlefuller]

Work is no longer valued in this country.  Yankee thrift and industry is no longer in vogue.

The elite braniacs' view is that we are living in a post-industrial information age.  Information is the value-added product we produce and consume.

Well, when we tax sweat of the brow at higher rates than capital gains (realized or "unrealized"), what do you expect?

[berdie]

Maybe it's because I'm in a rural area, but the repair/service guys seem to be pretty happy and getting very comfortable economically. The guys that mow my yard are in their 20's and making a darn good living, or so they say. I needed an electrician not long ago and couldn't beg, borrow or steal one. That is my biggest fear. At some point people will not want these jobs, no matter how lucrative. Or will be so overloaded they won't be able to do all the desperately needed work.

[Fishrrman]

Cyber wrote:
Words I have never heard in my life:
"Kids These Days!"

Here's Tom Rush for ya:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hGvLR14juDc

[Kamaji]

Well, when we tax sweat of the brow at higher rates than capital gains (realized or "unrealized"), what do you expect?

Long term capital gains are taxed at a lower rate than short term capital gains and wages to account for the deleterious effects of inflation.

[mountaineer]

Reviving this old thread to post this.
The owner of a automobile restoration business in Peoria, AZ, has posted this on Facebook.

AZ AMC Restorations
https://www.facebook.com/amcmusclecars
April 24, 2024

Due to the dwindling supply of quality machine shops and very poor quality aftermarket parts as well as a lack of people interested in learning the engine building and machine shop trades, I regret to inform our many followers and current as well as past customers that we will no longer be taking on any new engine build orders unless it is for a car we are restoring.

Since Covid, we have had to do rework on multiple engine builds due to poorly manufactured parts that failed during break in or machine work that was below our standards due to all the old farts like me dying off with no younger workers interested in taking their place.  For example, rod bearings are now made too thin resulting in 390 and 401 crank grinds needing to be ground .0085, .0185 or .0285 under standard rod journal size yet all but one machine shop in the entire Phoenix area refused to do anything other than the standard .010, .020 or .030 grinds.  Even worse, when the one shop that will grind the cranks the way we tell them we need them loses their crank grinder to retirement in another year or two, they do not plan to replace him.

Machine work that used to have a turnaround of 2-3 weeks now takes a minimum of 2-4 months due to an acute lack of people interested in learning machine work and doing manual physical labor. In fact, one engine block was at a machine shop for a year and when we got it back hey did such a poor sleeve job in one cylinder that it was not even useable so it is now a 250 lb paper weight.

About 15 years ago I nearly bought out an aging gentlemen's machine shop and continue to regret not doing so due to the lack of availability of places to get the work done. 

As for poor quality parts, Edelbrock aluminum heads are now such poor quality and filled with so much manufacturing machining slag that we have to completely disassemble them, reset the valve stem and spring heights and even sometimes have them resurfaced because the slag scratched the head gasket surface. Similarly, there are only a couple of camshaft manufacturers remaining that harden their cams correctly and nearly all flat tappet lifters are now such terrible quality and inconsistent hardness that we are no longer willing to risk losing a cam due to poorly made cams and lifters.  In fact, we now only use either rollers or custom ground flat tappets with Johnson made lifters from Howard or Herbert. 

For example, we have probably used 50 or more Summit cams over the past 15 years but the last 4 we used did not even make it through break in so they too are now off the list of acceptable quality parts as well. 

So what does all of this mean?  We will honor whatever engines builds that are not part of a full restoration that we already have in the queue however we must warn all those who have been patiently waiting for their engines to be built that supply chain constraints in addition to rapidly declining parts quality along with a lack of qualified machine shop workers is resulting in our anticipated wait times to get an engine built often doubling in duration.  And if anyone is tired of waiting and thinks they can do better elsewhere, we will fully refund their deposit and wish them well.   

What used to take a couple of weeks to get back from a machine shop can easily now take 2-4 months or more resulting in our overall engine backlog now being 15-18 months.  The bottom line is that custom engine building is on its way to becoming extinct and it won't be too many more years before all of us old farts that currently do this work either retire and/or die off resulting in engine building within the collector car hobby becoming nearly impossible to find And when you do find someone, don't be surprised if they are backed out 2+ years or more and that they only want to do Chevy builds and know zero about our beloved AMC engines.   "The times they are a changin'."

And any know it all's that are not in this business who try to show everyone how smart they think they are by declaring that these conditions do not exist, despite literally hundreds of others saying they are experiencing the exact same thing, will have their comments deleted because they are clearly talking out of their ass.

[Timber Rattler]

I saw that post and shared it among several of the local politics groups I run.  Sad!

[mountaineer]

Mike Rowe posted on Facebook today about his visit to Oklahoma:

... I got a tour of Central Tech, and learned that it is in fact, one of the best trade schools in the country, if not the best. Students come here from seventeen different public schools to get a hands-on experience in dozens of trade jobs. Students who are determined to enhance their high-school education with a skill that will make them instantly employable. Students like Jamison, a gifted welder who will give Rosie the Riveter a run for her money.

Central Tech exists because the industries in Oklahoma that rely on a skilled workforce – oil and gas in particular - didn’t wait for the government to put shop class back in high schools. They simply built a world class destination where the trades are amplified and staffed it with a wide variety of accomplished instructors.

Instructors like Phil, who worked on pipelines for years and decided to help train the next generation in a real-world classroom, for a long list of jobs that can pay upwards of $50 an hour. His students are awesome, eager, and very enthusiastic. They can’t wait to roll their sleeves up and get to work.

And John, who in spite of his salmon sweater, is a bad-ass truck driver with decades of experience on America’s highways. Today, he teaches kids how to drive a big-rig in less than six weeks. Kids who quickly go on to make $70,000 a year, thanks to a national shortage of roughly 50,000 truck drivers.

The success stories at Central Tech are too numerous to mention in a Facebook post, but look for a new television campaign this summer, made possible by OERB, that elevates the skilled trades, and helps me prove once again that opportunity in this country is alive and well - especially in the energy industry, where a long list of critical jobs are waiting to be filled. ...

https://www.facebook.com/TheRealMikeRowe

I'm kind of sorry I don't have any young people under my wing at present to try to guide toward practical, rewarding careers - and I'm really sorry our niece went to law school!

[LMAO]

My first “job” was to help a local guy, whose business was pumping out septic tanks, clean his equipment and truck at the end of the day. I was 12 years old at the time and I was required two times a week to show up to help him with that and he paid me

It wasn’t glamorous. But I learned things like punctuality. I had to be at his house those days at 5 o’clock. Would work for an hour.

I also trapped furs  and did other odd jobs for neighbors and when I was 16, I got a job at the Duluth Arena. I saved up my money that summer to buy my first car which was a 1973 Camaro. And I was open to pick up any extra shifts they had available


I was pretty blue-collar until I finished college

[roamer_1]

Don't worry... Hunger is a great teacher. and Hunger is a'coming...

[DB]

Don't worry... Hunger is a great teacher. and Hunger is a'coming...

It certainly looks that way...

[Cyber Liberty]

It certainly looks that way...

I am glad for the kids who can see it now, and are going after careers in the Trades.  Mike Rowe has a scholarship program to pay tuition for young people to get into a Trade School, the application process includes an essay section for kids to convince him in their own words why they deserve it.

His Foundation is at https://mikeroweworks.org/

[Free Vulcan]

Don't worry... Hunger is a great teacher. and Hunger is a'coming...

I tell the kids in no padded terms to get backwoods, self-sufficient, and learn every skill they can, from building a fire, repairing their own clothes, to building computers, lasers and rocket ships if need be.

The young generation is going to have to know how to do everything again, just like those guys that built the country did over 100 years ago.

[berdie]

Don't worry... Hunger is a great teacher. and Hunger is a'coming...

It certainly is. But how many of today's urban youth will learn the correct lesson? Or just go to stealing and killing to get what they want.

[roamer_1]

I tell the kids in no padded terms to get backwoods, self-sufficient, and learn every skill they can, from building a fire, repairing their own clothes, to building computers, lasers and rocket ships if need be.

The young generation is going to have to know how to do everything again, just like those guys that built the country did over 100 years ago.

IOW Redneck sh!t.

You're preachin to the choir, son. 

But ain't that just always the case, anyhoo? It has always been true for me. Even when I had money, it never occurred to me to buy anything new... Never stopped hunting and fishing, and the garden has always been in my life.

Use it up
wear it out
make it do
or do without.

 

[roamer_1]

It certainly is. But how many of today's urban youth will learn the correct lesson? Or just go to stealing and killing to get what they want.

They'll either figger it out or die trying. That's how it works.