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Message: [QUOTE="Bigboote, post: 4062284, member: 7631"] There was a piece on this just last night on the News Hour (PBS). They opened up with a guy who owns a plumbing company in Washington state. He said most of his guys earn in excess of $200k/year (!), and he could hire 8 guys right now. But, as you said, the whole "everybody needs to go to college" mantra preached by seemingly every public official has made it socially unacceptable to be a plumber. They also cited electricians, welders, etc. I've been bemoaning this for years. My brother-in-law at one point many years ago was constantly about 6-8 skilled machinists short of what his company really needed (see the plumber's remark above). At my place of work we were having so much trouble getting machinists that we resurrected an in-house apprenticeship program. But every person who went through it bolted as soon as his gig was up, so it was closed down again. These folks make a very good living. The US needs skilled labor, and we need to respect the folks who do it. I respect anyone who's good at hizzer job. It's time we acknowledge that a good plumber or machinist is worth more than a lousy college grad. [/QUOTE]