Posted on 05/26/2007 4:19:44 PM PDT by ConservativeStatement
Trust me, I understand — my family is one of those that doesn’t rely on credit, etc... It all depends on where you live though. For instance, we moved to Wisconsin for the lower cost of living due to the outrageous housing prices in Denver. I’m just glad we had enough to make the move...
The point I was trying to make still stands, and is valid for MANY of my peers. There is no reason my husband and others in their field should be making LESS now after 15 years of experience as a prototype/precision machinist (with a great work history, etc...) than they made during their apprenticeships. Heck, my husband made less as a supervisor in Denver than he made during his apprenticeship in Chicago, and in Denver it was considered a ‘good’ salary.
"Why go into a career you know has poor job security, layoffs, and no raises?"
They build the tools that manufacture products that are labeled, "Made in the USA."
Welcome to the New Economy...and the decline of American manufacturing.
Because in the late 80s and early 90s it WASN’T like that — far from it. We’re talking about PRECISION/PROTOTYPE machinists — the ones who make parts for aerospace, medical, etc.. Previously it was one of the most secure, best paying, safest trades to train in compared to construction, plumbing, electricians, etc... (i.e. back in 1996 he was making close to $60,000/yr.)
So, before you start maligning my husband’s career choice you should educate yourself. Without men like him and their excellent skills they’d still be using hammers and chisels on your teeth, and there would be no airplanes, or airbags, or tanks, or guns, computers, automobiles or ANYTHING that needs to mass produced — heck you wouldn’t even have paperclips! Just wait... in 20 years when planes are falling out of the sky due to uneducated workers in some far off country making the parts for $2.00/hr. you all will be wishing someone did something to not only fix this industry, but encourage MORE young people to go into the trade.
I don’t think most of us eat out more than couple times a month. The average car among us is > 5 years old. Those who carry things like Palm Pilots do so because of their job requirements.
Your post is the bunch of BS.
However, they waste too much money. 8 years ago I bought my daughter’s pickup. They had leased it, and since both of them had co. cars, they didn’t need it. I bought it at the lease buyout price which was on the high side.
I’m still driving it, and wouldn’t consider getting rid of it. Both of them have had 5 cars since...
My husband has also kept up with the trade, he can program & run CNC’s as well as the manual mills, lathes, etc... etc... and we’re talking about tolerances less than a tenth of the width of a hair on your head -- by HAND if necessary. These are not jobs the average ‘joe’ off the street can do -- not without YEARS of specialized training and experience, and the ability to not only understand but apply trigonometry, read blueprints, and problem solve when things don't work just right.
And no, it is not ‘all CNC’ nowadays. Plus, no matter how advanced the machine may be there still need to be quality, educated people running them, or the parts turn out like crap.
ALL:
Sorry to be so huffy tonight about this — but I’m very afraid for our COUNTRY as a whole when it comes to this situation -- not just my family's personal financial well-being. If things were as they are now we wouldn’t have had a prayer in WWII.
What happens if (when) we go to war with China for example, and there are no men trained anymore who can go into the factories here in the U.S. (if there are any factories left) and create the machines that make the weapons and tools our troops need, or they can't get the right replacement parts for their jets? As it stands now these jobs are going to those foreign countries (like China & Mexico) — we are handing over our very security to our enemies by not supporting these trades. Manufacturing built and protected this country, and losing manufacturing will kill us...
Those that know what a machinist/tool & die maker actually does will understand everything I’ve said. Those of you who don’t — next time you open a can of soup, or pop the top of your soda can, use the 'EZ-Open pop top' cat food can (which my husband personally helped make a LONG time ago), log on to FR using your computer (whose circuitry is made possible by machinists), or hear of someone's life being saved by a dialysis machine (for which my husband has made pump housings for), or the next time your airbag deploys at just the right time (yes, just another one of the things my husband has made over the years) -- you should thank God for machinists like him.
That says a lot about your social circle and perhaps your immediate neighborhood, but little else. The cities are full of 30 somethings who're working at Jiffy Lube for peanuts.
I don’t! I am in my thrities and make more than my father did when he was in his thirties. My father did not go to college until later in life. Most of his generation (he is 60) did not go to college directly out of high school due to Vietnam. My Dad went into the military directly out of high school as did most of his friends and family members.
The leftists and RINOS imagine a utopia where 5% of the people are super-rich members of the ruling class and 95% of the people are serfs dependent on government and who have no way to work out of poverty.
Hmmmm... seems we know of a country like this, a little bit south.
His major is Finance, he just graduated from Washington University in St. Louis, on a full academic scholarship. He had several job offers but, he chose to stay in the heartland. My daughter is joining him next month.
And I worked about 70 hours last week, and I'm on salary so I didn't even make any extra money for it.
funny
OK, so you're not lazy. Are you stupid, working for half what you get paid for?
You know, one does much better in life when he or she:
1) Pays no attention to what everybody else is doing.
2) Pays no attention to what everybody else thinks he or she should be doing.
I don't think there is a self-made person out there who gave five seconds' attention to how "unfair" life is, or worried one bit about what other people have that they don't.
No, actually I did not know that — I remember hearing something like that though. Thank you for the information, and the reminder.
What I was referring to though is the fact that there are so few people choosing this profession precisely because of the problems experienced by my husband and his peers. Many kids have no interest in any sort of ‘blue collar’ job — even highly skilled crafts that used to be respected professions. The industry (and our country) is going to suffer mightily if this doesn’t change...
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