Work

There has been some talk in the blog-o-sphere about jobs and pay [View From The Porch, for example]. Some people are of the opinion that there are plenty of good-paying jobs out there if these complainers would just apply themselves.

It's now reached the point that a first-class, middle-class lifestyle in America requires pert near $200K a year. It wasn't too long ago that I was thinking that it 'only' required $100K per year.

I heard some fool on the internet saying that UPS drivers are now making $50 an hour. I was doubtful, but now I'm not so sure. From where I sit, they seem to be only ones in the world who are doing anything at all.

Problem with all those good-paying jobs out there is they require a certain amount of mechanical aptitude and they require a certain amount of dedication. I'm guessing that only about ten percent of the population has the necessary mechanical aptitude necessary for mechanical work. In men I suspect it is higher, and lower in women. I may be way off in my estimate, but I will say that at least 25% of the population is mechanically incompetent. The rest of the population is on a gradient, from being able to use a screwdriver as a pry bar to being able to suss out a mysterious misfire in an everyday automobile (now expand that to include ALL everyday automobiles from the dawn of time to today. Anybody who can do that is some kind of wizard.)

Through experience, the trades have pretty much figured out the kind of people who are suited to their particular line of work. Of course, you need the basics, like showing up on time, showing up on a regular basis, and showing up well rested and sober. You have to have a certain amount of mechanical aptitude. After that you have to be willing to learn more about your job, even to the point of actually spending some time studying it. And then there are the plans. Plans, charts, diagrams, concepts, ideas and math. You don't need to be a genius, no industry would exist if required geniuses to operate. There might be a few geniuses in the mix, but the majority of the people are going to be of slightly above-average intelligence. That same mechanical aptitude that got them the job enabled them to score higher on IQ tests.

So if you land one of these jobs and are willing to dedicate yourself, you should make good progress. Problem is, how long is your trade going to be viable? A zillion years ago you could count on a single career lastly your lifetime. Shoot you might be able to pass on what you learned to the next generation and they could find it still useful.

Nowadays I'm not sure any careers are safe anymore. You build a new factory to make a new fangled widget and by the time you have production up and running some yahoo has announced a new technique that will cut the cost of manufacture in half, And they are starting plans for a new factory to build the new widget. How long does it take to build a factory these days? Well, depends on how big it is. A big box style building can probably be erected in six months, though add in six months for permits and another six months for installation of the machinery and tuning of the production line.  In that case you have like a year and a half to sell as many widgets as you can, which is going to be made more difficult by the announcement that the same widget will be available for half the price in a year a half. Some people will elect to wait.

Anyway, that's those with mechanical aptitude. What about that great mass of people without any of those abilities? They work in bars and restaurants and warehouses and driving for Uber. Their ranks are swelling and the number of jobs available are shrinking due to automation. Anytime the size of the labor pool exceeds the jobs available, wages are going to go down. So this mass of people is being squashed by auotmation on one side and inflation on the other, so of course they are going to be pissed off. I'm only surprised it has taken this long to hear from them. Seems like we have heard from everybody else, whether they had any legitimate complaints or not. Of course, those were the ones who were able to leverage our new age of personal broadcast. That talent is working it's was into the working class. Who knows what all this will bring.