Reply to Are we being complacent about disappearing white collar jobs?

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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]We are being complacent, but for those of us in middle age, there's nothing to do except dance until the music stops.

I'm 44. If I could do it over I would be a house builder. But 44 is too late to start that journey.[/quote]

If you had started in construction at 20, what would you do at 44+ when your body is giving out? An economy dependent on manual labor requires a robust social safety net. That's why there were so many union actions before the tech revolution.

Our politicians want everybody (else) in manual jobs but they don't want the workplace safety, healthcare, pensions, etc that people literally fought and died to get in order to make those jobs tolerable. [/quote]

This is a common myth among people unfamiliar with the trades. Owner-operators and small businesses are very common in the building trades. I'm not saying it's easy, but it's a non-white collar path with some security and inherent value. A lot of my friends who started in construction in their late teens (when I also worked construction in the summer) are owners of small-mid construction businesses now.  Basically, anybody who didn't get sidelined by heavy drinking or a nasty divorce is in a very comfortable situation. So am I, but I wouldn't recommend my white-collar route to my son with AI coming fast.[/quote]

I'm the person you responded to. My dad owns a repair shop (sole proprietor) and did some construction on the side when I was younger. We lived in fear of him injuring himself, especially his hands or eyes, because he would be unable to work. We were all on my mom's health insurance, since he had none; no paid vacation, no real retirement savings (yes he should have, but it's hard when there's no structure). As a family we know a lot of tradespeople who are good workers but just bad with money/bookkeeping and frequently in the red or losing their own company and going to work for someone else.

There are successful ones too! But the businesses you see around town are the ones making it. You don't see the people who got hurt or bankrupt, because they are janitors or salesguys now instead. [/quote]

Same for my dad. He had a construction business. Some years he did well, but he really struggled during economic downturns (most people do, but it’s worse when you own the business.) He once got injured pretty badly. He worked physical labor until he was almost 70. [/quote]

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