>>>>The only people who have to take crappy jobs are those that are unwilling to learn a skill. In this country, they can't find enough welders, brick layers and plumbers. You don't need an expensive (sometimes useless) college degree to learn these skills. These people make very good money - probably better money than you make.
>>>>
>>>Actually, you might want to check that again.
>>>
>>>At one time - up till the 1970's, those jobs were unionized and paid more than some programmers earned.
>>>Since that time, union membership and union bargaining power have plummeted in the US.
>>>Not surprisingly, wages have remained flat or declined.
>>>There are lots or reasons.. robots have replaced many welders and many welding jobs have been shipped overseas or to Mexico or Canada via NAFTA.
>>>
>>>I can't speak for other parts of the country, but I watched several communities being built here in Hamilton.
>>>All the concrete and brick work was done by non-union immigrants who were brought in to do the work and then moved on. Ditto with plumbers, painters and electricians.
>>>
>>>Brick layers, plumbers etc who lived in Hamilton would starve to death.
>>>
>>>At one time those were union jobs that paid very well. The people would have lived in the area and contributed to the community.
>>>
>>>Since the deregulation of the airline and trucking industries jobs that were once high paying union jobs are now low paying non-union jobs.
>>>There are some airline pilots making less than programmer trainees now.
>>>Union truck drivers who worked at one company their entire lives have been replaced by anyone who can get a commercial driver's license and wants to make a trip or two.
>>>In some cases truck driver jobs are actually auctioned and go to the lowest bidder.
>>>Try to raise a family that way.
>>>
>>>Here's a kick... the people most responsible for these changes were Jimmy Carter and Bill Clinton.. both Dems!
>>
>>This is what I like about you, Bill. You hit them on the right and on the left :). You must be truly independent that all politicians are wooing for.
>
>Well, I'd like to be able to say something positive about our leaders now and then but it's been almost impossible of late.
>Of the current crop, the most disappointing has been Chris Christie.
>I jumped across the aisle to vote for him when he ran for his first term.
>He did a few good things in his first year but since then his true colors showed.
>He and Bill Clinton are neck and neck for the title of Most Corrupt Politician of the past 30 years.
Solution: Vote!
"The creative process is nothing but a series of crises." Isaac Bashevis Singer
"My experience is that as soon as people are old enough to know better, they don't know anything at all." Oscar Wilde
"If a nation values anything more than freedom, it will lose its freedom; and the irony of it is that if it is comfort or money that it values more, it will lose that too." W.Somerset Maugham