>>5976095 (PB)

I'm the guy who made the backpack rockets we sent the Taliban to fight the MIG 21s in Afghanistan possible (made key, high precision, part. Quite likely, they are now shooting them at us but that is on Bush and Obama.

Yeah, I'm a boomer, but, after taking a couple bounces, my sons followed me into the machine trades. They are making well over $30 / hr with as much OT as they care to show up for. There are a lot of people who would be happy with JUST their OT. If there employers could hire enough people, that OT would shrink … but they can't find them. Not for love … not for money. Nobody seems to want to start in the trades for starting money. Employers have to eat the mistakes they make and those are expensive … so, until you can show that you simply don't MAKE the mistakes, the wages are not exceptional. Prove that you can read, write, listen, learn and apply specific and detailed information and the money will happen. If it doesn't, walk out the door and on down the street.

With about 5 years each in the trades, my sons are getting ready to buy their own homes. They are not looking for "starter" homes and they are in an expensive market (Minneapolis). The youngest also has me scouting for a vacation home in NC.

My sons also can support their own families on a single income. If you millennials have any dreams of having a traditional family, skilled trades is a good way to get there.

I think millennials are making a major mistake aiming for the white collar (heavily in student loan debt) jobs.

With all of the manufacturing that is now coming back, who is going to work in the plants? I'm not talking about button pusher / box taper jobs … I'm asking "who is going to build and set-up the plants and machinery?"

If we can't cough up a skilled labor pool DAMNED SOON, this Renaissance will fail. This is why Ivanka is pushing companies to begin training their own workers again. We DO NOT have enough trade schools and even the junior colleges ARE NOT up to the task.

You'd be surprised how many details go into drilling a simple hole through ordinary soft steel. The guys you millennials laugh at are the guys who can do it … and you can't. When they hear you rant about their Dads, boomers, they chuckle. You are SO fucked … because you aren't even nominally competent.

So, learn to spin a wrench, build a die, frame a house, finish a piano, weld a seam, drive a bulldozer, switch a boxcar, tune a jet, trace a circuit, program a robot … SOME SKILL … and NEVER aim for a degree if you don't know where and when you'll get a paycheck from it. It is all about "the Benjamins" when you are trying to feed your family.