Opinion The disapering of blue collar workers?

[panamaican]

Many blue collar jobs will always be in demand. Always...

And lol at that asshole Biden telling miners back in the day "Learn to code"... Fucking embarrassing now.



And with some trends towards electrical and automation... Electrical, Instrumentation and Controls will only grow more.

I mentioned my brother earlier.

Here's the fields he worked as he moved up from Electrical Apprentice to Master Electrician with a degree from the University of Alaska in Automation & Controls. The company he worked for paid for his degree

- Residential Electrical
- Commercial
- Industrial
- Started in Water & Wastewater Treatment (I helped him here because I was already in this field)
- Oilfied in Western Colorado & Wyoming
- Then moved to Alaska for Oilfied - This is where the instrumentation started
- Lead mine in Alaska
- One of the giant fishing processing boats (Caught, Processed and Packaged right on the boat)

I''m missing a few I'm sure. Most of these jobs had unique working hours due to their locations and circumstances. But he loved it. The lead mine was 4 weeks on and then 2 weeks off. So he was able to go crazy extended adventures in Alaska as he's a huge fisherman and hunter.

Finally settled on a job with one of the largest sawmills in the country and heads up their automation process. Travels all over the country

Telling me about some dude who entered the trades years ago and is successful now is completely irrelevant to what will be happening in the trades 15-20 years from now. It's essentially the entire point about the problem with trying to predict job demand in the future.

I know that you think that blue collar jobs will always be in demand.

But they said that about factory work. Then they said it about computer science. And in both circumstances, technology and the economy changed things. The reality is that human beings are very bad at predicting the future more than 5 years out.

The thing that you, and others, often overlook is that quantity of demand changes. Will there always be plumbers? Of course. Will we always need as many plumbers as we currently need? Not necessarily. Will we always need electricians? Sure but maybe not as many. Hence, the shortsightedness is in assuming that technology either completely irradicates a field or it doesn't affect the field at all. Both are wrong. Quantity of demand is what changes.

This is what happened with white collar work as well. People with college degrees are still getting hired and still making truckloads of money. Frankly, the college degree people are overall out-earning the blue collar guys. There are way more 7 figure accountants, doctors, lawyers, financiers than 7 figure plumbers and electricians. Does that mean that their industries were not affected by technological advancement? Of course not, it's silly to point to the top end of any field as a way to dismiss what's happening at the bottom end of that field.

And, frankly, if you're not paying attention to the technological innovations in a field, it's the height of bad thinking to assume there aren't any happening. Are you keeping up on the innovations in the fields you listed? Or are you paying the classic investment mistake -- "Past performance does not guarantee future results."

 

[Natural Order]

Only species in history that loathes itself and is actively working to remove itself from existence.

Some might say, an evolutionary dead end.

 

[Scerpi]

Telling me about some dude who entered the trades years ago and is successful now is completely irrelevant to what will be happening in the trades 15-20 years from now. It's essentially the entire point about the problem with trying to predict job demand in the future.

I know that you think that blue collar jobs will always be in demand.

But they said that about factory work. Then they said it about computer science. And in both circumstances, technology and the economy changed things. The reality is that human beings are very bad at predicting the future more than 5 years out.

The thing that you, and others, often overlook is that quantity of demand changes. Will there always be plumbers? Of course. Will we always need as many plumbers as we currently need? Not necessarily. Will we always need electricians? Sure but maybe not as many. Hence, the shortsightedness is in assuming that technology either completely irradicates a field or it doesn't affect the field at all. Both are wrong. Quantity of demand is what changes.

And, frankly, if you're not paying attention to the technological innovations in a field, it's the height of bad thinking to assume there aren't any happening. Are you keeping up on the innovations in the fields you listed? Or are you paying the classic investment mistake -- "Past performance does not guarantee future results."

Dude... stop. You have zero fucking clue what you're talking about.

As infrastructure gets older and needs to be replaced. Which is happening everywhere... you'll need more and more blue collar workers to replace it and also build new infrastructure.

And electricians and instrumentation will only to grow.

Well... unless we're hit by a meteor of course. Or Yellowstone decides to explode

Houston water bills likely to go up as multibillion-dollar overhaul of purification plant gets underway | Houston Public Media

Houston Public Works says the decades-old facilities at the East Water Purification Plant, which supplies water to nearly 2 million Houstonians, are on the verge of failure.

www.houstonpublicmedia.org

The city of Houston is fixing to demo and rebuild it's biggest water plant... It's 50-60 years old. I've worked on rehabs on this plant since 2005 and it's indeed on the verge of failure. I've seen shit that would cause a massive shitstorm if it every hit the the media.

Estimate costs? With engineering? $4 billion... the biggest in the history of the country.

And Houston is far from the only city needing serious upgrades to decaying infrastructure.


And if the Green movement garbage actually takes hold to move everything to electric, there will be a massive demand for blue collar workers... both now in the present and for decade and decades to come to maintain...

The current electrical grid doesn't even come close to the required capacity to handle such a transition. Both in terms of generation or transmission.

Any other questions? This is my field... almost 30 years now

 

[SandisLL]

Advanced tech by itself requires a massive support staff of blue collar workers

Yeah...mandatory...and they will need technicians and engineers capable to work also with hands plus paperwork and bear responsibility... you can't send robot to court etc....

Actually a lot of jobs will need humans.

Okey, the same translators services.
They ofc does use lesser and lesser employees during last 20 years due to CAT ...usage.

# still they does have also ppl to check result and correct if needed and...to sign some " nice " papers and bear responsibility.

 

[Natural Order]

Dude... stop. You have zero fucking clue what you're talking about.

As infrastructure gets older and needs to be replaced. Which is happening everywhere... you'll need more and more blue collar workers to replace it and also build new infrastructure.

And electricians and instrumentation will only to grow.

Well... unless we're hit by a meteor of course. Or Yellowstone decides to explode

Houston water bills likely to go up as multibillion-dollar overhaul of purification plant gets underway | Houston Public Media

Houston Public Works says the decades-old facilities at the East Water Purification Plant, which supplies water to nearly 2 million Houstonians, are on the verge of failure.

www.houstonpublicmedia.org

The city of Houston is fixing to demo and rebuild it's biggest water plant... It's 50-60 years old. I've worked on rehabs on this plant since 2005 and it's indeed on the verge of failure. I've seen shit that would cause a massive shitstorm if it every hit the the media.

Estimate costs? With engineering? $4 billion... the biggest in the history of the country.

And Houston is far from the only city needing serious upgrades to decaying infrastructure.


And if the Green movement garbage actually takes hold to move everything to electric, there will be a massive demand for blue collar workers... both now in the present and for decade and decades to come to maintain...

The current electrical grid doesn't even come close to the required capacity to handle such a transition. Both in terms of generation or transmission.

Any other questions? This is my field... almost 30 years now

Maintenance will be the most pressing issue of the middle 1/3rd of the 21st century, especially in Europe, America, Canada. I've been explaining this for nearly 20 years to people and most people brush it off. It's a mathematical problem at the end of the day. And unfortunately, the swaths of immigration you see and loathe in America are a natural requirement to help fight the oncoming issue. It's a catch 22 and I'm not sure what the solution is. An inherent problem with the systems of capitalism and ideas of perpetual growth.

It isn't even remotely feasible to entertain the idea that it can be fixed with robots/AI/replacement ideas.

 

[Konquest]

I feel like they are a good option under certain circumstances like being in a good union or owning a business.

This is why I like being in IT. Definitely a white collar job, but there are times where I do have to get physical and get dirty. It is like the best of both worlds. To the point above, being on IT career boards I see a lot of questions about transitioning from trades to IT.

Being a teacher is the same way. I'm in an air conditioned building wearing khakis and a polo shirt with a badge like a white collar worker, but I also get my steps in, and plenty of excitement and stories to tell when I get home (I teach 8th grade).

 

[Scott Stapp]

AI datacenters are already a blight on the crumbling infrastructure in this country. The tech turds have invested nothing into improving the infrastructure because they don't care about anything, and that will be their undoing. They are short-sighted clowns just like the Wall St. idiots from the 2000's who crashed the economy.

 

[SandisLL]

Accountant/ bookkeeper ofc is relatively prestigious job.
Still relatively difficult to get first job etc, there are a lot of ppl with papers around looking for job.
Next stuff is that bosses usually doesn't want to risk and change existing specialist...if they does trust him/her...therefore a lot of accountants are sitting in one company xx years in row and will continue...

 

[Thrawn33]

Agreed on this...

Also some Military options out of High School can lead to excellent trade careers.

My daughter is looking at the Coast Guard here and possibly getting into the Ports and Shipping Industry.

Maybe she doesn't go that way, but a few years in the Coast Guard would be an excellent experience out of High School no matter what.

23 years of Coast Guarding here. It's not a bad gig.

 

[LeonardoBjj]

Blue collars will not totally disappear, even if technology become extremely advanced.

Simply because technology will be costly, and an advanced smart robot will cost a lot for the average man to hire him to do a simple task, when he can hire another average joe who knows to do it.

To obtain a technology is a thing, but to deploy it massively is another thing. Extreme advanced autonomous infrastractures are not gonna flood society, not until another century or two.

- The question theres no renewing. Fewer people are going on trades.

 

[Scerpi]

23 years of Coast Guarding here. It's not a bad gig.

She’s taking some sailing classes… and enjoys it.

Boats are a big thing around on the Bay and Clear Lake