You shouldn't need to make $150k to get by as a welder. In any sensible society a person who knows how to do something useful like weld should be able to muddle along. Some of my friends from high school in Oklahoma became oil field welders in the 90s. They made good money, bought houses and raised children early in life. It seems like a square deal to me. Of course, that was possible because houses in Oklahoma were plentiful and cheap and the public schools were good and so forth. You know, the way civil society is supposed to work.