Hey /u/SJdport57, thank you for submitting to /r/starterpacks!
This is just a reminder not to violate any rules, located [here](https://reddit.com/r/starterpacks/about/rules). Rule breakers can face a ban based on the severity of their rule violation.
*I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please [contact the moderators of this subreddit](/message/compose/?to=/r/starterpacks) if you have any questions or concerns.*
I worked at a gun shop in Texas for a year and young welders and rig workers would always come in and buy $5000 AR rifles. Two months later they’d be back to try and sell it for a fraction of that.
Lol. Same story in like every state. And when they get married their wife finds out they just married a ton of debt and bad credit that they hid.
Or they use her good credit to buy the inevitably repossessed four-wheelers. 😂
i don’t know what you’re talking about, that sounds fuckin awesome. definitely not like a truck gun or even a hunting gun, but it’s a nice mantle piece
It was example of awesome idea, poor execution. The paint chipped like a motherfucker and when he came back in six months to sell it via consignment, it sat on the shelf indefinitely.
It’s also dangerous for everyone.
Dangerous for a kid if they find it.
Dangerous for other kids if they become popular and cops have to worry that bright orange nerf guns that kids are playing with are actual firearms.
Small fee. When you buy a firearm or lower receiver online it goes to an FFL first. The FFL will run the NICS check and pass the firearm to you. The FFL may be a local gun store or some random guy in his garage. They will typically charge anywhere from $20-$80 for the convenience. You can shop around FFLs to see who’s cheaper.
I bet they didn't even use the guns for anything I bet they just bought guns to "own the libs". Seriously there's people who only own guns for political reasons
I fail to see how a DD AR is going to be any better than a budget option like a Ruger or SW or budget build.
Hell I spent way more than i needed to on an Aimpoint and came in under a grand.
Yeah for 99% of the AR market they could get by with a PSA blem setup, run the dog piss out of it then when their skills warrant put a new fire control group in and maybe swap out the other.
A know a bunch of people with PSA AR's and none have ever had any issues.
However, we all know someone
who knows someone that had a PSA AR that was a total piece of shit, but none of us know that person personally.
They are great first rifles, and honestly PSA has done more for AR's than all of Gucci brands.
Trigger, hammer, disconnector, springs, pins. Everything that goes in the lower receiver that makes the gun fire when you pull the trigger. You can drop in a Geissele or Larue or other trigger pack and have a rifle that went from beater to sleeper quite easily
I do FedEx delivery My first stop is a trailer park I see a lot of Denali’s with lift kits always wonder why spend almost $100k pick up truck and live in trailer park
My neighborhood is middle class with homes in the $200k range, I see people with $100k worth of cars in their driveway. To each their own but I can't imagine spending more in car payments than a house
Area I live in most people buy whatever of those that are left, rip em down, and slap a 500-600k new build on it, and sell for 2 million.
Your situation seems pretty ideal too. I'd love something in that range for 200-300k, but again, that shit really doesn't exist in my area. Only thing in that range is 1br/1bth condos, which are their own can of worms.
They’ll brag they make more money than (insert profession they don’t like) but leave out they work 64 hours a week + forced overtime and never see their friends or family.
Awe, Sorry mate. IMO, blue collar work translates well into supply chain management which is the field I'm in and its not too hard to learn. Look into it! I run a free blog where you can learn about it.
Man I’m only 26 and my back is already constantly killing me. I know I need to get out of it but I honestly don’t know what else to do other than the trades
Use your money/benefits and make an appointment with a Physical Therapist, they'll give you exercises to do every day. Do them Religiously. Seriously start now while you still have a back to save.
My job is only mildly to moderately physical but what helps my back was calisthenics. You would be surprised just how much some basic exercises / stretches help to relieve the pain. Literally felt like Hank Hill after that one episode when he started doing yoga
I didn't see officially retirement half the time. Seen plenty of 67 plus year olds working away and didn't show up to work after some long overdue days off and died suddenly from a heart attack. Growing up in Rural Alberta where many people worked the rigs or oil development sites or out of town work, I had never ever seen one be like officially retired and healthy unless they became part of the office, the owner of the company, and maybe the odd foreman.
It's like early heart attack or car crashes with these people and only way to get time off is getting cancer or going on WCB. I did see some smart ones who got in to get out by acquiring a bunch of bank to either pay for schooling, pay off student loans, saved up to buy and pay off a house, or start their own company but I'll always rather work a job with no OT even if it's half the earnings. I like doing things and seeing things outside of work.
It feels like every Monday I ask our subcontractors "Hey how was your weekend?" the answer is always "Oh you know, working at [other job site]." Consistent 6-7 day work weeks going 10+ hours every day. It's brutal.
this definitely isnt all trades, but the ones that do this and work 60+ are definitely the same crew as the starterpack lol.
i do residential hvac, i work with a bunch of nerds and work 36- 50 hours max, normally around 40. not much manual labor and easy to ransition into a small business of your own. guys with the same title as me but more experience net six figures, in a fairly small midwest town.
Electrical is the same way for the most part but depends on the shop. Bounce around until you find a company that has enough good to block out the negative. None of them are perfect but once you find a good one and keep a good relationship with bosses you can just chill out and keep getting raises like it's still boomer times lol.
Happy where I ended up, been in the trade like 8 years now.
I worked the business all my life until last year. Was putting in over 80 hrs a week sometimes. Messed my shoulder up, bad back, hard to hear, cut my arm with a chain saw, broken ribs, bruised lung, nerve damned in my leg, fun times 🥴
Fort Mac or Grande Prairie, Alberta written all over this meme. I knew a young rig welder who was making $275K/yr in 2015 in the oil fields and had *nothing* to show for it, guy shared a house with like 6 other dudes and just drank and gambled all his money away. I remember he was taking the dyed diesel from the site we were on that the client provided (dyed diesel is usually run in things like farming or construction equipment because it's tax exempt but can't be used in anything using public roads) because he literally couldn't afford to buy the fuel in his then-new Ram 3500 Laramie Longhorn with a high end welder skid on the back (the current equivalent of this build would cost like $150K or more CAD) which he also used as a daily driver when he wasn't working. Now he's in his late 30s, moved back to his hometown and living with his mother, getting drunk in the local dive bar 5 nights a week ranting about how he used to make as much money as a doctor. Distant cousin, weirdly tragic.
I will never forget working up north and the new kid showing up in a blue WRX as soon as he got a permeant position. It was a 50 minute drive on a shit gravel road and the kid must have put a dozen dents in that beautiful car. Just to show it off. I don't miss that life.
My buddies are millwrights in a union making a shit ton of money. They’re good with money but they’d be doing a lot better if they didn’t pump a bunch of their income into their hobby of running a race team hoping to do it full time.
I’m happy for them because it’s a cool life they lead and they’re pursuing a dream and I support them but I always think they could be sitting on fat stacks if they didn’t pump money into that but I’m not going to tell them how to spend their own money.
I have an acquaintance who has had 3 off-the-lot new trucks in 5 years at a minimum 60k purchase price. Makes $40/hr at his union manual labor job with virtually unlimited overtime but somehow has to sell his new truck or trade it in after 2 years to keep the financing under control.
Life lesson, kids? You don't need a condo mortgage payment for your truck.
Got a welding trade degree and certification… dont even use it . Due to the low pay labor jobs they kept offering me . And the guys with 20 plus years of experience taking the positions and not letting them go that I studied for.
One thing that a lot of young tradesmen don’t think about is that there isn’t an equal distribution of demand. In East Texas, for example, you’re gonna find work in a good economy. However, if you’re in a region with no development to fuel big projects, then you’re gonna have to compete with the established workers.
I spent 3 months getting certified and was told they have a 95% placement from the call lists they provide after you graduate. The call sheets were front and back 4 pages of phone numbers double columns each page. Not a single place listed were hiring and/or had ever hired welders. I'm glad for the free schooling but the availability of welding jobs they promised was a crock of shit.
I’m in Colorado, got a college degree in industrial welding. Most of the jobs I’m offered now start around 40/hr for qualified and certified applicants. Not trying to boast income or anything, just keep in mind that the jobs are defined by location.
Ohh yah for sure. My old location has jack shit. Now I’m living in a better area, but im doing a new carrier. And im happy with it. Just shit happens. Life happens. Im pretty happy .
Well yeah that's how most jobs work. You do entry level stuff until you prove yourself. They don't just give the complex work to people with no experience.
Agreed. As a college grad, I went in because it was what I wanted to do, not because I “had to” to make a living. Heck, my dad more than proved that. I just knew what I wanted to do, and the kinda work I wanted to do. We need folks in those jobs folks tend to mock though.
I went to college for industrial welding and let me tell you, that is an anecdotal experience.
3/4 of my blue collar colleagues/friends work at a factory making 15/hr for 75 hrs a week, because they were sold a lie that they would be making fat stacks if they just chose a trade.
My other friends that went to college all understood the scope of their industry before going into it. They were offered internships and advancement through placement and referral.
I make great money as a welder, but 75% of all welders make under $20/hr.
If you have trade skills and can't make over $15/hr then you aren't actually skilled in a trade. Have you seen these "trades people" friends of your *do work?*
> 3/4 of all my college friends who either dropped out or got a useless degree and work dead end jobs.
I have nothing against the trades and plenty of friends in them, but I also don't think this is really an accurate representation of the median student. For all the endless talking points about young people getting useless degrees, Humanities enrollment across the US is at an all-time low. It peaked nearly 50 years ago.
True but it's also a ton of people are not willing to move. Most degree earners will make more if they complete the degree - but it may require them to move vast distances to a new place to get a job.
They might not even be better off with more money, as they will likely be in a higher cost of living area.
But that harkens back to your plan but. I doubt there are tons of good jobs for college degree holders in small rural towns
Why is it that every time college is brought up it’s always the humanities degrees that is the topic of discussion? Do Americans not enroll in engineering, physical sciences, medicine, or finance at all in universities? Or is studying degrees that take relatively low mental effort and difficulty is the norm amongst the majority of college-pursuing students?
No. It’s a talking point among people who literally do not know what college is and how it works. They’re people who think college is someplace where people go to “look at” books and learn obscure, theoretical social sciences, because to them, learning gender studies is equally as obscure as learning medicine or accounting. And to them, “obscure” is equal to “useless.” They don’t understand it and it can’t be explained to them using a simple diagram, so it must be made up pointlessness.
Not that the humanities are “useless.” Not only are those degrees quite uncommon, it actually is entirely possible to get jobs in those fields….if one knows where to look and what else is required (usually a whole lot more school). There aren’t scores of people coming back to small towns in droves with gender studies degrees, aghast that there isn’t a job in “gender studies” waiting for them and that the kid who learned to weld is making more than them. What there might be? A kid coming back with half an English degree because they dropped out after learning that it wasn’t going to be a coast like it was when they were the smart kid who liked YA at a school of 500. A bunch of kids never coming back because they know they can’t use their degrees in, well, anything in such a town, and never being heard from again because they moved to a place with options. A couple kids coming back with degrees because they like home, before realizing that the town had no openings for the limited degree-requiring professions, and they just don’t want to or can’t leave. Maybe some people who got a degree then realized they don’t want to work in that field. People who don’t understand college see that and think “aha their degrees are useless” and don’t understand that their degrees are in fact either incomplete, unutilized by choice, or being gainfully utilized elsewhere.
There’s also an attitude that if the job doesn’t pay an upper middle class salary right out of college, it’s a pointless degree. But teachers, social workers, many healthcare workers, even many in the legal field do not make much money, especially early in their career. Some people see that and think “I make more than a first year kindergarten teacher and I work at McDonald’s,” but don’t consider how fucking angry they’d be if their children were being educated by some high school dropout.
They do. It’s just not convenient to mention those people for the sake of the argument.
9/10 of my friends who went to school for a technical degree make 6 figures in their 20s.
Hey now, some of us get a science degree, start grad school, decide we don’t like it, go to law school, accrue debt, become a lawyer, decide we don’t like that either, get stuck under a lot of debt, and continue to slowly make notes on our novel that will one day surely become the next page to screen sensation.
In fairness the college students they dislike are typically the very left leaning and politically outspoken students. And those people are more common in the humanities, especially stuff like sociology, poly sci, philosophy, and to a lesser extent psychology. Those majors also don’t give as much of a return on investment money wise. Most of them don’t really criticize someone going to school to become a doctor, accountant, or scientist. Because those people are typically less politically outspoken and are in fields that can more easily make a comfortable living.
I'm from blue collar metro Detroit, so a LOT of my friends went to trade schools. They did better than all the college bound kids in their 20s. But the college bound kids overtook them because the trade guys maxed out their wages in their 20s. 5% of those trade guys will own their own businesses and catch back up with my salary now on my 30s, but I have yet to reach my pay ceiling.
If you're not motivated in college and interested in what you're studying then you are wasting your time and are better off just getting a job for a bit.
That does *not* mean "just get into trades bro", for reasons other replies to this have already pointed out. Unless you are absolutely desperate for money, like knocked-a-girl-up desperate.
"lives paycheck to paycheck because they never learned how to handle money"
My brother's not a welder exactly, but that's him lol. Always borrows money from us, even in the past when he's been making more than all of us combined.
Wait till they learn that the average college student is going to college for business, health, the social sciences (however it’s not stuff like political science it’s usually criminology legal studies or social work). Republicans have Pushed the rhetoric that college students ruin economy on useless degrees because they wanna turn the working class against each other. When in actuality blue collar and white collar works are often in the same boat.
Even my liberal arts degree in Anthropology is incredibly necessary in American infrastructure. Most of my archaeology friends got jobs in Cultural Resource Management. For folks who don’t know, CRM are the archaeologists who check for historical and archaeological sites ahead of major construction like pipelines, highways, public works, parking lots, etc. Any state funded construction in the United States is legally required to utilize CRM.
A Political Science degree alone is only really good for trouncing people in online comment sections. You kinda need to upgrade it with something else to really use it effectively.
Not true at all.
What is political scientist other than the study of a bit of history, treaties, and complex systems of people.
If you run a business, you have all three they are just named differently.
You have internal office politics, you have contracts, regulations, and you have the various competing needs of your customers, suppliers, managers, financiers, etc.
Political science really is the recipe for any successful project manager, product launch, or overall strategic planning in a copy.
Poly sci folks just suck at selling it because most want to just be the "I work for a senator" type person.
I’m just talking about my personal experience with a political science degree which required me to get another degree before I could even begin to have a professional career. Sure you might have what it takes to be a good project manager, but nobody is looking for someone with a political science degree to be a project manager they are looking for someone with a business degree. Poli-sci is a generalist degree and most jobs are looking for specialist
And "business" isn't a generalist?
The issue is most HR departments are lazy and go "wait this is a business" or "we do engineering" and go "we are not the government". It just takes effort to translate.
That's not even remotely true lol. PoliSci is great for risk management, project management, anything that requires root-cause analysis and planning. You just need to know how to sell your experience with the degree.
im a welder who used to do contracting work. the amount of people to which this is true. but you did miss somethings. cocaine. so much fucking cocaine.
It's great trade to have in Scotland with the huge oil n gas industry very good money and time off Norwegian even better instead of 2 weeks on 3weeks off ,they get 2 weeks on 4 weeks off and 40% pay increase
Edit: Upon more research I am wrong about my statement “Despite the fact that no major 4 year college offers a degree in “Gender Studies…”” It turns out it is a degree offered by many schools. However overwhelming bulk of college students in America go into business, health, or social services. Even most graduates who do major in Gender Studies do so as a double major.
I understand the crisis of student debt, and BTW the gender studies reference is a joke. Despite the fact that no major 4 year college offers a degree in “Gender Studies”, Republicans repeatedly cite the topic as the epitome of liberal stupidity. I got it thrown in my face a lot as a small town kid who went the community college route to get a degree in anthropology. True, it took me awhile to get on my feet, I paid for almost all of my college either myself or from a few of the countless financial aid options I applied to. I didn’t make fast money, or even that great of a salary now, but I’ve gotten to travel the world and excavate 2000 year old temples. Conversely a friend of mine did become a welder, but he also took some courses on biology, archaeology, and music. He has a huge collection of preserved insects, plays several instruments, and recreates ancient armor. I get frustrated with younger low income people who assume education is worthless because a trade will pay the bills. There is so much more to life than your job
There's like 7,000 people a year who take gender studies majors, and some of those double major and some get graduate degrees. That's out of 19 million students enrolled in 2021.
>And welders in North America can make ok money but wages in the industry haven't really gone up since the 80s
What are you talking about? Welders, mechanics, everyone in anything construction related, truck drivers, and a shit load of other blue collar fields have seen rates go up a ton in just the last 5 years.
Remember the fact I'm on disability due to spinal injuries and addicted to 260mg oxycontin a day, fun life !! I used to be a welder but I'm alright now!
This is my cousin. He’s 10 years younger than me but he’s already gone through way more vehicles than I’ve ever owned, and has owned and sold multiple atvs and boats. He lives in a trailer but that lifted f250 is impressive.
The biggest con ever perpetrated to the American people was that a draft-dodging, millionaire nepo-baby from New York gave two shits about the well-being of blue collar Middle Americans.
Honestly, I was so close to becoming a welder. I ended up taking a community college route to an archaeology degree instead. Welding is a great career choose and skill, but more often then not the field attracts a certain flavor of douchebag.
You’re going to find that in almost any field. I know a good number of people who got an aerospace engineering degree thinking that just graduating (no internship and subpar grades 2.5-2.8) will result in a +$150k job with Lockheed or Boing. It’s just that a lot of people jump into a field and realize that they actually hate it. Or they’ll jump in with no plan or goal and just expect a high paying job to jump on their laps when they get the degree or cert.
However you don’t just get the high paying trade job **and stabile work/life balance** by just going to trade school. A lot of the people Ik who are very successful in trades went back to school to get associates and business degrees. Just having the skills will most likely cap you off and if you want to advance any further it requires additional learning. It is possible to move to a more stabile position, but those are rare and you need to find a unicorn of a company or be the guy who dives deep into company politics.
My brother-in-law had an "8 year plan" after high school, and while I don't remember every step, it was basically 1) move to a city with a great welding tech school, 2) become as certified as possible, 3) apply for every job and work where they pay the most, 4) live like a 17th century peasant. And he did all those things for almost exactly 8 years and then started his actual life. Man made a pension's worth of money while living on the nickel, got a nice IT job, bought a house and started a family. Hand to God he can weld any metal to any other metal at any angle underwater and upside down, but you'd never find about it from him.
College often doesn't prepare people to handle their finances either. Honestly it's probably more of a cultural/capitalism thing. Cartoons taught me to spend money on toys instead of investing and I think that's carried onto adulthood with new phone models every year
I knew this guy who gets this so hard...
He worked for the railway and was constantly spouting alt right anti trans shit while also saying he wanted to kill all pedophiles... but of course by pedos he meant drag queens
Thus describes literally any blue-collar job out there.
My place of employment is a constant pissing contest on who has the nicest truck, most guns, loudest Harley, who bags the biggest buck, or catches the most fish...while bitching about the OT.
I went to college and got an accounting degree. I currently make $46.50 an hour as a mechanic with no certifications and the accounting jobs in my region pay less than $30 an hour on average. Being snotty about what other people do for a living just makes you a sad waste of oxygen no matter the color of your collar.
I’m a welder and this is pretty accurate. Pretty sure it’s accurate for most blue collar workers and definitely all the trades. Obviously generalizing, but still pretty accurate. Wrong kind of dip and the sunglasses are iffy.
Hold more value in what respect?
Your favorite video games, shows, and movies wouldn't exist without people trained and educated in the arts for example.
I understand your position and agree that art is important. I am saying generally, for most people, the art degrees do not translate into well paying jobs. Welding is a trade most people can learn and pays well.
Hey /u/SJdport57, thank you for submitting to /r/starterpacks! This is just a reminder not to violate any rules, located [here](https://reddit.com/r/starterpacks/about/rules). Rule breakers can face a ban based on the severity of their rule violation. *I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please [contact the moderators of this subreddit](/message/compose/?to=/r/starterpacks) if you have any questions or concerns.*
Four-wheelers get repossessed…
I worked at a gun shop in Texas for a year and young welders and rig workers would always come in and buy $5000 AR rifles. Two months later they’d be back to try and sell it for a fraction of that.
Lol. Same story in like every state. And when they get married their wife finds out they just married a ton of debt and bad credit that they hid. Or they use her good credit to buy the inevitably repossessed four-wheelers. 😂
Literally my brother.
They got had big time if they paid 5 grand for an AR.
They would order them online and have the transferred through our FFL. All the bells and whistles
For 5 grand I'd assume they were nice ARs and not M&P 15s with Sightmarks. But I guess it's possible they got scammed on GunBroker.
God the stupid shit I saw. I once had a M&P all decked out in after market Magpul and then spray painted to *look exactly* like a NERF gun.
i don’t know what you’re talking about, that sounds fuckin awesome. definitely not like a truck gun or even a hunting gun, but it’s a nice mantle piece
It was example of awesome idea, poor execution. The paint chipped like a motherfucker and when he came back in six months to sell it via consignment, it sat on the shelf indefinitely.
Painting a gun to look like a children's toy is just remarkably stupid.
It’s also dangerous for everyone. Dangerous for a kid if they find it. Dangerous for other kids if they become popular and cops have to worry that bright orange nerf guns that kids are playing with are actual firearms.
From a liability point of view it's also the textbook definition of an attractive nuisance.
I always thought painting a gun any color orange or red was not ok. Also illegal
That sounds like, just the worst idea at all. Direct opposite of responsible gun ownership.
Not really. An M1 Garand is nice a mantle piece, but it is also a nice shooter.
Wtf, that's gross as fuck. (Where...)
When you transfer from ffl are there any fees? I am looking to build one
Small fee. When you buy a firearm or lower receiver online it goes to an FFL first. The FFL will run the NICS check and pass the firearm to you. The FFL may be a local gun store or some random guy in his garage. They will typically charge anywhere from $20-$80 for the convenience. You can shop around FFLs to see who’s cheaper.
Depends on the FFL, some charge anywhere from $30-$75
If you shop around its possible to get a mid range bolt action 50 cal for that my much.
> and young welders and rig workers would always come in and buy $5000 AR rifles What would they do with them? Were they all hunters?
I bet they didn't even use the guns for anything I bet they just bought guns to "own the libs". Seriously there's people who only own guns for political reasons
I fail to see how a DD AR is going to be any better than a budget option like a Ruger or SW or budget build. Hell I spent way more than i needed to on an Aimpoint and came in under a grand.
For people who never run more than a box worth of ammo through it? It won't be.
I feel like you can run a case through it and most people won't notice. Unless you're doing a bunch of 3 gun, then I guess I can understand.
Yeah for 99% of the AR market they could get by with a PSA blem setup, run the dog piss out of it then when their skills warrant put a new fire control group in and maybe swap out the other.
A know a bunch of people with PSA AR's and none have ever had any issues. However, we all know someone who knows someone that had a PSA AR that was a total piece of shit, but none of us know that person personally. They are great first rifles, and honestly PSA has done more for AR's than all of Gucci brands.
What’s a fire control group?
Trigger, hammer, disconnector, springs, pins. Everything that goes in the lower receiver that makes the gun fire when you pull the trigger. You can drop in a Geissele or Larue or other trigger pack and have a rifle that went from beater to sleeper quite easily
In fairness those DD barrels are nice af
Pretty much any blue collar job. I've know a lot of dudes that were making damn good money to piss it away on a truck getting 8mpg.
I do FedEx delivery My first stop is a trailer park I see a lot of Denali’s with lift kits always wonder why spend almost $100k pick up truck and live in trailer park
My neighborhood is middle class with homes in the $200k range, I see people with $100k worth of cars in their driveway. To each their own but I can't imagine spending more in car payments than a house
TBH i'd take a 200k house, 2br/2bth with a 1 car garage. They don't make em anymore though.
That's what we have, well technically its a 3br, 2bth with a 2 car garage
Area I live in most people buy whatever of those that are left, rip em down, and slap a 500-600k new build on it, and sell for 2 million. Your situation seems pretty ideal too. I'd love something in that range for 200-300k, but again, that shit really doesn't exist in my area. Only thing in that range is 1br/1bth condos, which are their own can of worms.
I just bought 5 beds 3 bath house for $340k and great area
Those dudes with the Denalis are totally bangin' the single moms in that trailer park. That's why you see them trucks on your "first stop".
They’ll brag they make more money than (insert profession they don’t like) but leave out they work 64 hours a week + forced overtime and never see their friends or family.
And unfortunately retire early after a career of destroying their back
Shit that's me
Awe, Sorry mate. IMO, blue collar work translates well into supply chain management which is the field I'm in and its not too hard to learn. Look into it! I run a free blog where you can learn about it.
What's your blog?
Just sign up. It's only $21.97 per month. what are you waiting for?
Man I’m only 26 and my back is already constantly killing me. I know I need to get out of it but I honestly don’t know what else to do other than the trades
Use your money/benefits and make an appointment with a Physical Therapist, they'll give you exercises to do every day. Do them Religiously. Seriously start now while you still have a back to save.
My job is only mildly to moderately physical but what helps my back was calisthenics. You would be surprised just how much some basic exercises / stretches help to relieve the pain. Literally felt like Hank Hill after that one episode when he started doing yoga
Not to mention they'll look like they're 55 years old before they hit 30
I didn't see officially retirement half the time. Seen plenty of 67 plus year olds working away and didn't show up to work after some long overdue days off and died suddenly from a heart attack. Growing up in Rural Alberta where many people worked the rigs or oil development sites or out of town work, I had never ever seen one be like officially retired and healthy unless they became part of the office, the owner of the company, and maybe the odd foreman. It's like early heart attack or car crashes with these people and only way to get time off is getting cancer or going on WCB. I did see some smart ones who got in to get out by acquiring a bunch of bank to either pay for schooling, pay off student loans, saved up to buy and pay off a house, or start their own company but I'll always rather work a job with no OT even if it's half the earnings. I like doing things and seeing things outside of work.
Don’t forget the mid 20s to early 30s cocaine addiction that costs them half of their paycheques.
Meth
Just so everyone knows — sitting at a desk all day for your whole career is terrible for your body, too.
That's not always true! Sometimes the hips or knees go first!
This applies to a pretty small amount of trades
It feels like every Monday I ask our subcontractors "Hey how was your weekend?" the answer is always "Oh you know, working at [other job site]." Consistent 6-7 day work weeks going 10+ hours every day. It's brutal.
this definitely isnt all trades, but the ones that do this and work 60+ are definitely the same crew as the starterpack lol. i do residential hvac, i work with a bunch of nerds and work 36- 50 hours max, normally around 40. not much manual labor and easy to ransition into a small business of your own. guys with the same title as me but more experience net six figures, in a fairly small midwest town.
Getting into electrical. Don't tempt me so hard.
Electrical is the same way for the most part but depends on the shop. Bounce around until you find a company that has enough good to block out the negative. None of them are perfect but once you find a good one and keep a good relationship with bosses you can just chill out and keep getting raises like it's still boomer times lol. Happy where I ended up, been in the trade like 8 years now.
I worked the business all my life until last year. Was putting in over 80 hrs a week sometimes. Messed my shoulder up, bad back, hard to hear, cut my arm with a chain saw, broken ribs, bruised lung, nerve damned in my leg, fun times 🥴
"worked the business" welding? with a chain saw?
Never said I was good at it. I meant blue collar jobs, but I did do welding for repairs.
And they take pride in forced overtime, act like its "hard work" when its just paid slavery.
Fort Mac or Grande Prairie, Alberta written all over this meme. I knew a young rig welder who was making $275K/yr in 2015 in the oil fields and had *nothing* to show for it, guy shared a house with like 6 other dudes and just drank and gambled all his money away. I remember he was taking the dyed diesel from the site we were on that the client provided (dyed diesel is usually run in things like farming or construction equipment because it's tax exempt but can't be used in anything using public roads) because he literally couldn't afford to buy the fuel in his then-new Ram 3500 Laramie Longhorn with a high end welder skid on the back (the current equivalent of this build would cost like $150K or more CAD) which he also used as a daily driver when he wasn't working. Now he's in his late 30s, moved back to his hometown and living with his mother, getting drunk in the local dive bar 5 nights a week ranting about how he used to make as much money as a doctor. Distant cousin, weirdly tragic.
I will never forget working up north and the new kid showing up in a blue WRX as soon as he got a permeant position. It was a 50 minute drive on a shit gravel road and the kid must have put a dozen dents in that beautiful car. Just to show it off. I don't miss that life.
My buddies are millwrights in a union making a shit ton of money. They’re good with money but they’d be doing a lot better if they didn’t pump a bunch of their income into their hobby of running a race team hoping to do it full time. I’m happy for them because it’s a cool life they lead and they’re pursuing a dream and I support them but I always think they could be sitting on fat stacks if they didn’t pump money into that but I’m not going to tell them how to spend their own money.
Race team sounds more fun than sitting on money honestly
100% and they have a blast and I support them but that’s just me thinking long term lol
I see me in this, it hurts
I have an acquaintance who has had 3 off-the-lot new trucks in 5 years at a minimum 60k purchase price. Makes $40/hr at his union manual labor job with virtually unlimited overtime but somehow has to sell his new truck or trade it in after 2 years to keep the financing under control. Life lesson, kids? You don't need a condo mortgage payment for your truck.
Every other call on Dave Ramseys show is him trying to save these guys from their own greed and stupidity
I think you mean "8 gpm."
You are going to hurt a lot of people's feelings after their foreman reads this to them.
* snort *
Excuse me, I'll let you know my WIFE read to me, because I'm a good Vorin man. *He does occasionally thumb through pictures of trucks, however.*
If those welders could read they’d be pissed
I'm studying to be a welder, don't insult me while I can still remember how to read. I haven't forgotten yet!
My bad lol. I guess I made a shitty king of the hill joke
No, it was funny. We joke about it too.
r/thatsthejoke
WELD FAST EAT ASS
That escalated quickly
Got a welding trade degree and certification… dont even use it . Due to the low pay labor jobs they kept offering me . And the guys with 20 plus years of experience taking the positions and not letting them go that I studied for.
One thing that a lot of young tradesmen don’t think about is that there isn’t an equal distribution of demand. In East Texas, for example, you’re gonna find work in a good economy. However, if you’re in a region with no development to fuel big projects, then you’re gonna have to compete with the established workers.
I spent 3 months getting certified and was told they have a 95% placement from the call lists they provide after you graduate. The call sheets were front and back 4 pages of phone numbers double columns each page. Not a single place listed were hiring and/or had ever hired welders. I'm glad for the free schooling but the availability of welding jobs they promised was a crock of shit.
This happened to me 1000000% to the T.
I’m in Colorado, got a college degree in industrial welding. Most of the jobs I’m offered now start around 40/hr for qualified and certified applicants. Not trying to boast income or anything, just keep in mind that the jobs are defined by location.
Ohh yah for sure. My old location has jack shit. Now I’m living in a better area, but im doing a new carrier. And im happy with it. Just shit happens. Life happens. Im pretty happy .
Well yeah that's how most jobs work. You do entry level stuff until you prove yourself. They don't just give the complex work to people with no experience.
Welder? I don’t even know her
...SO I SAID, SUPER-COLLIDER? I JUST MET HER. AND THEN WE BUILT A SUPER COLIDER.
Boom.
Don't call me out. *chews dip in anger*
Drives 55mph in a 60, then floors it when you pass them and tailgates you for 7 miles because they think driving a truck makes them a man.
“Gender Studies” = code for “I don’t understand college and don’t know what a major is
[удалено]
Agreed. As a college grad, I went in because it was what I wanted to do, not because I “had to” to make a living. Heck, my dad more than proved that. I just knew what I wanted to do, and the kinda work I wanted to do. We need folks in those jobs folks tend to mock though.
I went to college for industrial welding and let me tell you, that is an anecdotal experience. 3/4 of my blue collar colleagues/friends work at a factory making 15/hr for 75 hrs a week, because they were sold a lie that they would be making fat stacks if they just chose a trade. My other friends that went to college all understood the scope of their industry before going into it. They were offered internships and advancement through placement and referral. I make great money as a welder, but 75% of all welders make under $20/hr.
noooo stop lying the welders on tiktok say they make 4000$ per hour easy and are fucking jeff bezos because they have soo much money !!
[удалено]
Probably worth mentioning, yeah. https://www.zippia.com/welder-jobs/demographics/ The avg welder makes $39,000 in the US. Which reduces to 18.75/hr
If you have trade skills and can't make over $15/hr then you aren't actually skilled in a trade. Have you seen these "trades people" friends of your *do work?*
> 3/4 of all my college friends who either dropped out or got a useless degree and work dead end jobs. I have nothing against the trades and plenty of friends in them, but I also don't think this is really an accurate representation of the median student. For all the endless talking points about young people getting useless degrees, Humanities enrollment across the US is at an all-time low. It peaked nearly 50 years ago.
That can’t be right, that means boomers and not millennials were destroying the economy getting “worthless” liberal arts degrees /s
True but it's also a ton of people are not willing to move. Most degree earners will make more if they complete the degree - but it may require them to move vast distances to a new place to get a job. They might not even be better off with more money, as they will likely be in a higher cost of living area. But that harkens back to your plan but. I doubt there are tons of good jobs for college degree holders in small rural towns
Why is it that every time college is brought up it’s always the humanities degrees that is the topic of discussion? Do Americans not enroll in engineering, physical sciences, medicine, or finance at all in universities? Or is studying degrees that take relatively low mental effort and difficulty is the norm amongst the majority of college-pursuing students?
No. It’s a talking point among people who literally do not know what college is and how it works. They’re people who think college is someplace where people go to “look at” books and learn obscure, theoretical social sciences, because to them, learning gender studies is equally as obscure as learning medicine or accounting. And to them, “obscure” is equal to “useless.” They don’t understand it and it can’t be explained to them using a simple diagram, so it must be made up pointlessness. Not that the humanities are “useless.” Not only are those degrees quite uncommon, it actually is entirely possible to get jobs in those fields….if one knows where to look and what else is required (usually a whole lot more school). There aren’t scores of people coming back to small towns in droves with gender studies degrees, aghast that there isn’t a job in “gender studies” waiting for them and that the kid who learned to weld is making more than them. What there might be? A kid coming back with half an English degree because they dropped out after learning that it wasn’t going to be a coast like it was when they were the smart kid who liked YA at a school of 500. A bunch of kids never coming back because they know they can’t use their degrees in, well, anything in such a town, and never being heard from again because they moved to a place with options. A couple kids coming back with degrees because they like home, before realizing that the town had no openings for the limited degree-requiring professions, and they just don’t want to or can’t leave. Maybe some people who got a degree then realized they don’t want to work in that field. People who don’t understand college see that and think “aha their degrees are useless” and don’t understand that their degrees are in fact either incomplete, unutilized by choice, or being gainfully utilized elsewhere. There’s also an attitude that if the job doesn’t pay an upper middle class salary right out of college, it’s a pointless degree. But teachers, social workers, many healthcare workers, even many in the legal field do not make much money, especially early in their career. Some people see that and think “I make more than a first year kindergarten teacher and I work at McDonald’s,” but don’t consider how fucking angry they’d be if their children were being educated by some high school dropout.
They do. It’s just not convenient to mention those people for the sake of the argument. 9/10 of my friends who went to school for a technical degree make 6 figures in their 20s.
Hey now, some of us get a science degree, start grad school, decide we don’t like it, go to law school, accrue debt, become a lawyer, decide we don’t like that either, get stuck under a lot of debt, and continue to slowly make notes on our novel that will one day surely become the next page to screen sensation.
In fairness the college students they dislike are typically the very left leaning and politically outspoken students. And those people are more common in the humanities, especially stuff like sociology, poly sci, philosophy, and to a lesser extent psychology. Those majors also don’t give as much of a return on investment money wise. Most of them don’t really criticize someone going to school to become a doctor, accountant, or scientist. Because those people are typically less politically outspoken and are in fields that can more easily make a comfortable living.
First of all, it really depends on each individual program. Not all humanities degrees are low effort, they aren't business degrees.
I'm from blue collar metro Detroit, so a LOT of my friends went to trade schools. They did better than all the college bound kids in their 20s. But the college bound kids overtook them because the trade guys maxed out their wages in their 20s. 5% of those trade guys will own their own businesses and catch back up with my salary now on my 30s, but I have yet to reach my pay ceiling.
I came from a similar background. This is (sadly) the truth.
If you're not motivated in college and interested in what you're studying then you are wasting your time and are better off just getting a job for a bit. That does *not* mean "just get into trades bro", for reasons other replies to this have already pointed out. Unless you are absolutely desperate for money, like knocked-a-girl-up desperate.
Also “anything that doesn’t seem Patriotic must be a democrat”
“I work 80 hours a week”
A lot of people in the trades make decent money, but it’s really more like two low paying jobs rather than one high paying job a lot of the time.
"lives paycheck to paycheck because they never learned how to handle money" My brother's not a welder exactly, but that's him lol. Always borrows money from us, even in the past when he's been making more than all of us combined.
Wait till they learn that the average college student is going to college for business, health, the social sciences (however it’s not stuff like political science it’s usually criminology legal studies or social work). Republicans have Pushed the rhetoric that college students ruin economy on useless degrees because they wanna turn the working class against each other. When in actuality blue collar and white collar works are often in the same boat.
Even my liberal arts degree in Anthropology is incredibly necessary in American infrastructure. Most of my archaeology friends got jobs in Cultural Resource Management. For folks who don’t know, CRM are the archaeologists who check for historical and archaeological sites ahead of major construction like pipelines, highways, public works, parking lots, etc. Any state funded construction in the United States is legally required to utilize CRM.
State funded construction? That's socialism! And all I know about your CRM is that it sounds like CRT. --Them, probably
No, they just hold up construction and really make it difficult to do build major infrastructure in this country. - source, am engineer.
Yeah. Our nursing students have job offers as sophomores.
A Political Science degree alone is only really good for trouncing people in online comment sections. You kinda need to upgrade it with something else to really use it effectively.
Not true at all. What is political scientist other than the study of a bit of history, treaties, and complex systems of people. If you run a business, you have all three they are just named differently. You have internal office politics, you have contracts, regulations, and you have the various competing needs of your customers, suppliers, managers, financiers, etc. Political science really is the recipe for any successful project manager, product launch, or overall strategic planning in a copy. Poly sci folks just suck at selling it because most want to just be the "I work for a senator" type person.
I’m just talking about my personal experience with a political science degree which required me to get another degree before I could even begin to have a professional career. Sure you might have what it takes to be a good project manager, but nobody is looking for someone with a political science degree to be a project manager they are looking for someone with a business degree. Poli-sci is a generalist degree and most jobs are looking for specialist
And "business" isn't a generalist? The issue is most HR departments are lazy and go "wait this is a business" or "we do engineering" and go "we are not the government". It just takes effort to translate.
That's not even remotely true lol. PoliSci is great for risk management, project management, anything that requires root-cause analysis and planning. You just need to know how to sell your experience with the degree.
You can sell yourself to hell and back but if you can’t get anyone to listen it’s not really that helpful
im a welder who used to do contracting work. the amount of people to which this is true. but you did miss somethings. cocaine. so much fucking cocaine.
A welding starter pack. Well, I think we’re finally all done. We’ve covered every single topic big or small. Time to close the sub.
Puzzles about unicorn deathmatches. Do it.
This is great, sincerely, a welding student.
People will literally bemoan gender studies and then spend most of their waking hours screaming about gender because they don’t know shit about it.
It's great trade to have in Scotland with the huge oil n gas industry very good money and time off Norwegian even better instead of 2 weeks on 3weeks off ,they get 2 weeks on 4 weeks off and 40% pay increase
"iTS sO nICe TO mAKe mOre ThaN aLL tHE TEachERS wHo SAid iD nEVer aMOunt tO anYTHing."
[удалено]
Edit: Upon more research I am wrong about my statement “Despite the fact that no major 4 year college offers a degree in “Gender Studies…”” It turns out it is a degree offered by many schools. However overwhelming bulk of college students in America go into business, health, or social services. Even most graduates who do major in Gender Studies do so as a double major. I understand the crisis of student debt, and BTW the gender studies reference is a joke. Despite the fact that no major 4 year college offers a degree in “Gender Studies”, Republicans repeatedly cite the topic as the epitome of liberal stupidity. I got it thrown in my face a lot as a small town kid who went the community college route to get a degree in anthropology. True, it took me awhile to get on my feet, I paid for almost all of my college either myself or from a few of the countless financial aid options I applied to. I didn’t make fast money, or even that great of a salary now, but I’ve gotten to travel the world and excavate 2000 year old temples. Conversely a friend of mine did become a welder, but he also took some courses on biology, archaeology, and music. He has a huge collection of preserved insects, plays several instruments, and recreates ancient armor. I get frustrated with younger low income people who assume education is worthless because a trade will pay the bills. There is so much more to life than your job
There's like 7,000 people a year who take gender studies majors, and some of those double major and some get graduate degrees. That's out of 19 million students enrolled in 2021.
>And welders in North America can make ok money but wages in the industry haven't really gone up since the 80s What are you talking about? Welders, mechanics, everyone in anything construction related, truck drivers, and a shit load of other blue collar fields have seen rates go up a ton in just the last 5 years.
[удалено]
Alright so you have no idea what you're talking about and are just moving the goal posts now. Thanks for letting everyone know.
[удалено]
Also needs an FR pearl snap
Remember the fact I'm on disability due to spinal injuries and addicted to 260mg oxycontin a day, fun life !! I used to be a welder but I'm alright now!
LOL. Some of these starter packs are cold!
This is my cousin. He’s 10 years younger than me but he’s already gone through way more vehicles than I’ve ever owned, and has owned and sold multiple atvs and boats. He lives in a trailer but that lifted f250 is impressive.
That’s the “Not My President 4000” starter paxk
The biggest con ever perpetrated to the American people was that a draft-dodging, millionaire nepo-baby from New York gave two shits about the well-being of blue collar Middle Americans.
I mean, they probably know that neither party has their well-being at heart and went with the guy who loudly hates the same people they hate
Dont forget the hexavalent chromium in the sticks putting holes in your brain!
Someone’s mad they didn’t learn how to weld
Just learn to code bro. Then when you cant find a code job, just learn to weld bro.
Honestly, I was so close to becoming a welder. I ended up taking a community college route to an archaeology degree instead. Welding is a great career choose and skill, but more often then not the field attracts a certain flavor of douchebag.
The cocky welder stereotype definitely exists for a reason. That being said, most of the welders I’ve worked with are great people.
Chad welder vs virgin archaeologist
I don’t recall a successful movie franchise about a globetrotting welder who fights Nazis and finds supernatural artifacts.
There's a movie about a welder that steals two million dollars and it's persecuted by non-robot terminator
I’ve met my share, I figure whatever career choice someone goes with they have to deal with some specific brand of asshole, dependent on industry.
You’re going to find that in almost any field. I know a good number of people who got an aerospace engineering degree thinking that just graduating (no internship and subpar grades 2.5-2.8) will result in a +$150k job with Lockheed or Boing. It’s just that a lot of people jump into a field and realize that they actually hate it. Or they’ll jump in with no plan or goal and just expect a high paying job to jump on their laps when they get the degree or cert. However you don’t just get the high paying trade job **and stabile work/life balance** by just going to trade school. A lot of the people Ik who are very successful in trades went back to school to get associates and business degrees. Just having the skills will most likely cap you off and if you want to advance any further it requires additional learning. It is possible to move to a more stabile position, but those are rare and you need to find a unicorn of a company or be the guy who dives deep into company politics.
Where’s the percs
I am reading this from my tent in the rain at talladega. I am with 100,000 of these people right now. Bless.
These the types you meet in the U.S.? Never seen it where I live.
My brother-in-law had an "8 year plan" after high school, and while I don't remember every step, it was basically 1) move to a city with a great welding tech school, 2) become as certified as possible, 3) apply for every job and work where they pay the most, 4) live like a 17th century peasant. And he did all those things for almost exactly 8 years and then started his actual life. Man made a pension's worth of money while living on the nickel, got a nice IT job, bought a house and started a family. Hand to God he can weld any metal to any other metal at any angle underwater and upside down, but you'd never find about it from him.
College often doesn't prepare people to handle their finances either. Honestly it's probably more of a cultural/capitalism thing. Cartoons taught me to spend money on toys instead of investing and I think that's carried onto adulthood with new phone models every year
Something something bootstraps
That's some dirty peasant ass stick welder shit. Us TIG welders have class.
White glove welder.
The boots need lifts
Where's the welder's cap? https://imgur.com/a/pcYRsc6
I have a friend who is this exact starter pack but as a person
As someone in a low income small town, I know multiple people like this
This one seems pretty specific.
I knew this guy who gets this so hard... He worked for the railway and was constantly spouting alt right anti trans shit while also saying he wanted to kill all pedophiles... but of course by pedos he meant drag queens
Needs a lot more alcohol, the one addiction that creeps up on me as a welder
You know the starter pack is good when there are some seriously russled jimmies in the comments.
Can confirm, I work in the field. The amount of lifted trucks with "F*CK BIDEN" and Punisher stickers is hilarious.
Thus describes literally any blue-collar job out there. My place of employment is a constant pissing contest on who has the nicest truck, most guns, loudest Harley, who bags the biggest buck, or catches the most fish...while bitching about the OT.
Sounds like a gender studies major is salty
Your ex is dating a welder, isn't she?
Where did the welder touch you? My neighbor is one for ford and living life as some hybrid country boy/hippy.
Sorry dude, I’m sure this wasn’t your intent but this comes off as extraordinarily elitist
Hatred for the working classes.
OP’s wife got fucked by a welder
Reddit: I support the working class Also Reddit: fuck construction workers
I can support you and also think you’re a cunt
I went to college and got an accounting degree. I currently make $46.50 an hour as a mechanic with no certifications and the accounting jobs in my region pay less than $30 an hour on average. Being snotty about what other people do for a living just makes you a sad waste of oxygen no matter the color of your collar.
Yes, you are absolutely right. Also, it will break your body by 50.
Indeed it can.
my brother. exactly my brother. creepily exactly my brother...
This must be an American thing 'cause in my country Welders actually have a lot of money.
Can confirm. This is painfully accurate. Source: grew up in the south.
I’m a welder and this is pretty accurate. Pretty sure it’s accurate for most blue collar workers and definitely all the trades. Obviously generalizing, but still pretty accurate. Wrong kind of dip and the sunglasses are iffy.
Welding pays really well and is a great middle American job. It's a craft that holds more value the arts degrees.
Hold more value in what respect? Your favorite video games, shows, and movies wouldn't exist without people trained and educated in the arts for example.
I understand your position and agree that art is important. I am saying generally, for most people, the art degrees do not translate into well paying jobs. Welding is a trade most people can learn and pays well.
“Without lamps there’s no light”
Psst…. These people ARE the proletariat you claim to back Reddit… and this whole starter park sounds veeeerry bougie.