Gen Z Plumbers and Construction Workers Are Making BlueCollar Cool | Hacker News Reader

Gen Z Plumbers and Construction Workers Are Making BlueCollar Cool

wsj.com

I think that USA culture at least has certainly gone too far in the direction of "college degree = white collar job = comfortable middle-class lifestyle". From what I understand, the PRC ironically also ended up in a similar situation with a vast oversupply of college graduates.

That said, the article focuses on people who have two jobs (their day job and also social media influencing), so I wonder if this sort of stuff is an overcorrection: romanticization of blue-collar jobs with little discussion of its health risks and working conditions.

US level of tertiary education is closer to middle of the pack among OECD countries between France and Switzerland.

https://data.oecd.org/eduatt/population-with-tertiary-educat...

This kind of consumerist equation: Pay money, physically present to classes and follow explicit instructions, receive grade, [repeat at med school], get high paying job expectation etc. also has the side effect of totally lowering academic standards both as pressure from the top down and friction from the ground up. It's a super depressing realization to hit any passion-oriented graduate student supported on a teaching appointment among other things

> "[get good grades =] college degree = white collar job = comfortable middle-class lifestyle"

It's not entirely, but mostly a lie omitting AI & automation, outsourcing, and the crushing debt of college loans. The end resulting job ladder has to be worth the opportunity cost of time and investment of treasure and debt.

Working with your hands in skilled trade probably can't be replaced anytime soon while office jobs are waiting for the other shoe to drop for layoffs.

0. Apprentice somewhere surrounded by people who are passionate about excellence and integrity.

1. Find a local area that needs a large enough niche(s) such as automotive mechanic A/C-electric, commercial HVAC, or jet turbine overhauling and own your own business when you can rather than being an employee.

The other thing that has to change is women discriminating against men who don't have Master's degree, don't work in an office jobs, and/or aren't already decamillionaires because it's one of the subtle, unrealistic pressures placed on 20- to 30-something men who are often sent mixed messages about lacking academic achievement they're systematically dissuaded from pursuing.

White collar salaries still pay better than blue collar salaries. Making 6 figures is considered a big deal among blue collar workers in America, while making 6 figures is a baseline expectation among white collar workers.

The US gets thousands of people coming in through the border every day, who bring down blue collar salaries more than they bring down white collar salaries.

Believe it or not, outside of tech, white collar salaries are still not 100k+. Median white collar salaries hover around $80k. Blue collar jobs like construction and plumbing can fetch you those salaries, but without the debt that comes with getting a white collar job.

When you own your own business you can easily make 6 figures, it just takes years of sweat equity and rough times. A friend of mine has grown his business from 100k/y in sales (and 5-10k profit) to millions per year (~300k profit) installing TVs and stereos in 13 years. He worked his ass off for a long time.

Is he doing the installations himself or does he have employees

Definitely has employees (or contractors he works with). From experience, beyond $300k (~$1000/day excluding Sundays), for blue collar jobs like that, it is hard to grow revenue without the additional help.

Doesn't really sound blue collar when he's mostly managing the blue collar workers. Is management a blue collar job?

Making 6 figures is absolutely not a baseline expectation among American white collar workers. Are you mistaking finance, law, software, and accounting as the totality of white collar work?

> mistaking finance, law, software, and accounting

add sales to that, and there isn't much left. HR and Marketing catch up after a couple of years.

much left as in I've accurately captured those few white collar jobs that do earn six figures or much left as in we've listed all existing white collar jobs?

much left as in we've covered most white collar jobs

hmm, I think there's a ton of operations work, marketing, clerical work, data entry, sales, production (like fashion) and merchandising, logistics, customer support / experience, that's just 10 seconds of brainstorming.

A lot of trades not only require hands on experience as apprenticeships, but also buttloads of certifications / legal liabilities to sign off projects, which act as a sensible moat agianst unskilled migrant laborers that dont know the language well, let alone able to navigate endless bureacracy.

Also in a lot of trades once you have a "name" and book of clients its easy to work on your own and start a small business

Nonono it's the apprenticeship business school model where you work summers to learn the ropes from your uncle who speaks trade Spanish + bankrupts a leaf-node company on every claim and penalty

And while plenty of people do make six figures in the trades, it's a much worse way to make it. That level of pay almost always comes from overtime, uneven demand tied either to seasonal or boom/bust cycles, or traveling away from home for work. Often some combination of these.

Almost no one in the trades is just working a 9-5 across town for $140k year after year after year that's for sure. You might have seasons where you make that much but at some point you have to stop pounding overtime, or the work just dries up and you have to coast on what you put away earlier.

So, sort of like game dev? Game Dev is the blue collar of white collar?

Most of white collar is the blue collar of white collar.

Plus many making more are independent contractors or own a company.

Buy your own truck, your own tools and gear, pay for materials out of your cut, etc.

There are a lot of costs people don't think of.

If you go on YouTube shorts (and tiktok presumably) there's a plethora of skilled laborers showing off their craft. Everyone from roofers to septic tank servicers to carpet repair tradesmen are making videos of their profession. It's pretty neat.

https://archive.today/l6K0C

Thanks!

But yeah, pretty much as I thought here: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=40643094

Most of the content I watch on Instagram is people making things. It’s like visual ASMR. I watched a French plasterer tape and plaster a room yesterday. Weirdly engrossing. I think it’s because it makes it very clear how much skill and craft actually goes into doing that sort of thing well.

Money makes the collar and color cool.

This being WSJ it's probably behind a paywall, so not even gonna try. So, reacting purely to the headline: Naah, blue collar has always been cool.

The kids aren't making blue collar Gen-Z cool; if anything, they're making (a tiny?) difference towards making Gen Z blue-collar cool.

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