Date:         Thu, 14 Aug 2008 13:59:03 -0700
Reply-To:     Don Hanson <dhanson@GORGE.NET>
Sender:       Vanagon Mailing List <vanagon@gerry.vanagon.com>
From:         Don Hanson <dhanson@GORGE.NET>
Subject:      Re: Are Today's Young People Mechanical Nitwits?
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Young people today (especially in the USA) don't need look very closely at
life to know that those who do stuff with their hands, as in "the Trades"
are now mostly living  below poverty level.
 Remember those professions?  "Tradesmen"?  You know, Carpenters,
Electricians, Plumbers, Mechanics, Painters..etc?.  Not "Happening" any
more. Learning how to do something like fix a car or hang a door...That is
considered a waste of time and beneath a "real person"..All the trades seem
to be handled by the illegals now, because they are jobs "Americans" won't
do any more (for the money that's being paid, anyways)
  I know, having been a journeyman carpenter and sometime-contractor, that
wages in the Trades are about what they were 20 years ago.  Great money, if
you are from south of the border.  But you'd have to be a real fool to
consider learning a trade as a career now...
  For a few years, I worked as a master shipwright, building and repairing
custom sailboats in an upscale boatyard in the Northwest.  One winter during
a slow day, we got out all our past year's customer invoices and for
curiosity went through  to see what all our yacht owner-customers did for
money....Of 300-odd customers  only two actually  did anything the resulted
in 'real' results....by real, I mean created a 'widget' that they could sell
or point to and say  "That's what I do"...The yacht owners didn't do any
manual labor at all...they bought, sold, advised, brokered, commissioned,
etc..If they didn't do their money making jobs....nobody would miss their
"product" because they have no product...except money..
  So youngsters today aren't dumb.  They look around and see what is what.
Then they decide to spend their time learning how to earn enough money to
pay 'flunky's' to fix their Porsche Cayenne or their Hummer while they play
tennis or golf and phone the office once or twice to make a few more mil...
   Getting dirty working on a  car?...Out of fashion.  Pounding a nail?
Nah, you go by the local 7-11 and get a casual day labor guy to do that for
you for a few bucks an hour..
    "Nitwits"?  The young people today think working on a car is a
nitwit-job and not worth doing..most of em.  If they can pull it off, they
may be right.  I kinda like it, though...so I guess I'm a dinosaur, doing
stuff with my own hands...
  Don Hanson