Going by post-secondary education status tends to filter for a character trait I’ve yet to name. The closest I’ve come is something akin to long-term emotional regulation. Obviously, there’s many, many exceptions to this.

I’ve worked in an environment where there was a mix of grads from certificate, diploma and degree programs.

There were certain “profiles” of people that you would come to expect from each “bin” and 8/10 times your hunches were right.

The trouble there is that you're probably out of your prime dating years by the time you're your own boss and really making big money in the trades. It takes time to establish and build that business, the early years can be pretty lean as people get the business going.

Most guys on the internet think a guy has to meet a high bar of requirements when really all they want is someone who is not so dependent on them: can take care of himself, cover his own bills, etc. Someone who’s self sufficient and doesn’t need a mother.

Sure, maybe that one girl passed on you in your 20s because you didn’t have the right credentials, but there are plenty of other people out there.

In America, no. College-educated women are NOT interested in men without college degrees, no matter how much money they make. There might be rare exceptions for men that managed to become educated on their own after dropping out, like Steve Jobs.

It's not about the money, it's about the class, and also the pedigree. Blue-collar people are simply in a very different class than white-collar college-educated people. Their life experiences are completely different, and in the last few decades, with political polarization, their political views are 180 degrees different too.