Maybe if we stopped looking down on people because of the color of their collar, we wouldn't be having these problems. Just a thought.
These types of jobs require a long-term commitment that doesn't exist in other fields. If you go through the work to become an electrician, that's probably going to be what you do. You also need to moderately intelligent to do electrician work, and its hard on your body.
My personal opinion is that a lot of people with the aptitude for the trades look at white collar work, see that its easier on your body and has more career flexibility and choose the obvious choice.
I looked into a carpentry program when I was younger and went and got my Masters instead because I do semi-dangerous hobbies like skiing. If I break my leg skiing and I do carpentry, i don't work or make money. If I break my leg in my current career, I'd probably just take my computer upstairs.
Electricians have no such qualms.
The only question then is just how common are those kinds of salaries amongst readers here. I'll bet the distribution would be surprising. The only public forum I could see as having a higher percentage is Blind.
I do take issue with calling me a "temporary embarrassed millionaire" though. Because that refers to a certain mindset where people will vote for politicians who try to take away social welfare programs, and believe that poor people are lazy and unintelligent (despite being poor themselves). Simply wanting to be a millionaire isn't enough, and I'll fully admit to wanting to be a millionaire - who doesn't buy a lottery ticket every once in a while? Or, say, I don't know, spend a bunch of time writing out the math for becoming a millionaire, or what $10m in the bank means.
My comment didn't get into my politics. I don't believe we should get rid of social welfare programs, and I vote accordingly. And to be crystal clear, I don't believe poor people are lazy or unintelligent. In fact, I think lot of poor people work harder - longer hours, for shittier pay, in order to make rent, car payments, and buy food - than the rich, who don't even have to get out of bed or go to a job to get all three of those things.
I live frugally, drive a older car that I fully own, and aren't afraid to admit that I want financial independence and to retire early (FIRE). I still don't want to run the government like a business or get rid of welfare or EBT though. Whether or not I'll make it is another question entirely, but wanting to be a millionaire and hating poor people don't necessarily go hand in hand.
For fun, lets dig into the reality of having $10M in the bank. If you have 10M in the bank, with a 4% APY, which even 1-month t-bills are returning more right now, you'd make $23,802/month, without lifting a finger or getting out of bed. By January 19th, you've made more than the federal poverty level for the year ($14,580). By February 9th, you've already made more than the US median income for the whole year ($31,133). (Last one, I promise.) May 9th is the day that your passive income on $10M will exceed a blue collar's median wage for Wyoming, which is where it's the highest ($56,345; ziprecruiter.com). And there are still 7 more months in the year to go!
So I dare say with $10M in the bank, you would never have to work another day in your life, which, imo, would put you far closer to ruling/owning class than the median blue collar worker, who has a job that they really have to go to and put work into, that pays < $30/hr, probably not consistently (slow months are hell on people's savings), from which they have to make rent, pay car fees, and feed themselves from.
With $10M not-in-the-bank, you could definitely buy and own a small business or two, angel invest in companies, move to a low CoL area and own a bunch of real estate and several cars, and still have money left over to live off the income. I don't see how that's remotely close to the life of a blue collar worker, even if you don't want to call them part of the ruling/owning class. Personally, that sounds pretty ruling/owing class to me though.