As a spokesman for Ford he's good.
As a television personality I enjoy his show.
As a citizen I think what he said to a congressional committee rang true.
Mike Rowe Senate Testimony : Dirty Jobs : Discovery Channel

 

Amen brother.

 

I love this quote:

"And still, we talk about millions of "shovel ready" jobs for a society that doesn't encourage people to pick up a shovel".

He's right. The 4-year college degree has become the 'must-do' badge of success for everyone.....Welders? Plumbers? Electricians? Masonry? Oh pshaw! Glorified handimen showing off their butt cracks....

........Until, of course, you're toilet blows up like Mike's did......

I should know better, but it kind of struck me when he mentioned 200,000 manufacturing jobs which needed to be filled.....With no one qualified (or willing) to fill them. Kind of hits home.

 

Mike Rowe for President!!!!!!!!

 

Sad but true.

 

The problem isn't a lack of acknowledgement, it's a lack of pay. They say there are hundreds of thousands of openings, yet what do they pay? $12 an hour, typically. You expect me, at 30, to support my family on $12 an hour? I had to go through some pretty tough training and certification to be a welder, especially when I was working on subs. If I screwed up there, I could wind up in federal prison under malpractice charges. I had to do a minimum of four pages of paperwork for every single weld I did, more if it had anything beyond a visual inspection. Yet, at $17/hr I was topping out the pay scale, while the idiot desk jockeys who never set foot on one of these boats got $60k+ a year to design parts that didn't fit.
I think that pay should be based on the difficulty of the job. Having hot sparks rain down on you while trying to make a consistent and steady weld to a specific standard should pay more than sitting at a desk asking SolidWorks if something will fit together.

 

Great points.

If it's any consolation, the ownership of a college degree is becoming less and less a path to guaranteed success and fortune.

Things may be swinging the other way. When the current cadre starts retiring, those fields (welding, plumbing, etc.) may become more desperate and offer sweet-package apprenticeships for up-and-comers.........

 

So, you're saying we should just let the welders build the nuclear submarines, because you guys know how to do it. Those jerks with the pocket protectors don't know anything. That about sum it up?

I'm pretty sure I could take any Solidworks jockey and have him laying down a good bead in about a week, if he was a slow learner. Not sure I could have you maning a cad station in ... well, ever!

 

Ruh-Roh!!!

 

So, inside a week, you can get to where you are comfortable welding a penetration through a 3" thick HY-100 hull? Including following all preheat and post heat regulations, inspection procedures, and hot work coverup- Remember, if you screw up AT ALL the lives of 120 men are at stake.
You are actually proving the points made in this thread that the "working man" is something to be looked down on, that he simply does menial tasks that you feel you are above doing.
As far as you questioning my abilities, what gives you that right? I moved to this town two years ago to get my BS in mechanical engineering at BYU-I, but instead I've been busy trying to support a family working ten hour days for a pittance since I'm "just a menial laborer". Then I get to come home, and fix stuff in the house, work the garden, work on vehicles, mow the lawn, and fix other people's cars so i can make ends meet.
Maybe you should try some hard labor, work from before the sun comes up until after it goes down, then tell me that it's easy.

 

What gave you the right to question mine? I work behind a desk - now. Began my career as a welder. Work behind a desk now. You felt it was okay to insult my current career. What gave you that right?

I will not belittle you or anyone who works a day for a days pay. I've been on the floor, and I've been in the office. It does no one any good to be jealous of the other guy.

My comment before was not meant to insult you. Your certificates prove that you are good at what you choose to do. If it doesn't pay as well as you would like, choose something else. It will get you nowhere in life to envy the salary that someone else makes, or to think they are undeserving. If you want to make more money, go out and get it. Simple as that in this country. If you don't believe that is true, then you are destined to remain at the bottom.

On one side you tell us how you are going to school to learn a profession, and on the other side you insult those who did the same.

I admire your ambition. But spare me the details of how hard you work. You think you are the only one who works hard? I do not feel sorry for you.

 

Priceless......chill guys

 

Mike Rowe has made some excellent points. My dad was a home builder in is life and wood worker all of his life. One of the things that he was most proud of was that he cut his own rafters and made his own door jambs and window cases.

He was a cabinet maker, a boat builder, hang dry wall, do finish carpentry, map out a stair case with a carpenters square and fish like hell on his off days. These are skills that are falling by the wayside. Too many specialties in the workforce.

Unfortunately the us against them mentality is strong between management and labor, office workers and labor, etc.

You need people that can weld, cook, enforce the law, fight fires, carry mail, build homes and you need people that can run banks, repair and manage work stations and defend us in court. It takes all of us.

 

I don't have the welding skill to lay down a good bead......And I don't know WTF a 'cad station' is......

Although the 'iMobile' program we use in our patrol car computers is often referred to as the OLD name we had (CAD).......

 

Excuse me, but I think that this is part of the problem laid out in the article......and part of the reason that there's a shortage in the 'skilled trades' sector........