The Case For Working With Your Hands 386
theodp writes "At a time when the question of what a good job looks like is wide open, a book excerpt in the NY Times magazine says it's time to take a fresh look at the trades. High-school shop-class programs were dismantled in the '90s as educators prepared students to become 'knowledge workers' in a pure information economy. Was this a huge mistake? A gifted young person who chooses to become a mechanic instead of accumulating academic credentials is now viewed as eccentric, if not self-destructive, complains Matthew Crawford, who took his University of Chicago PhD and opened a motorcycle repair shop. Princeton economist Alan Blinder argues that the crucial distinction in the emerging labor market is not between those with more or less education, but between those whose services can be delivered over a wire and those who must do their work in person or on site. The latter will find their livelihoods more secure against outsourcing to distant countries. As Blinder puts it, 'You can't hammer a nail over the Internet' (never say never). Guess we all should have paid more attention to Nicholas Negroponte's landmark-in-retrospect Being Digital (ironically, no Kindle version)."
Re:Err... what? (Score:5, Informative)
Re:There's the question of IQ (Score:2, Informative)
Re:There's the question of IQ (Score:4, Informative)
A simple example......it used to be you could stop at a gas station and a couple of guys would come out, fill up your car, check your oil/water and clean your windshield. They didn't need a BA in business. What are these guys supposed to do now?
We're going to have to find a way for people to Not Work. Sooner or later nobody is going to have to. Eventually a robot will make a better burger than a person can make, et cetera. We have two possible futures ahead of us, the one where we're put into slavery and forced to work just to keep us busy, and the future where we find some new paradigm (sorry) in which it's not necessary for people to work all the time, or there are new things for them to work on.
Just think about what happens when all the cars go electric... automotive repair will be practically restricted to body, paint, and suspension work. What are all the people who fix cars now going to do? Especially since body and paint work are becoming niche applications over time; some of the newest designs for vehicles use space-frame engineering with plastic body panels and molded colors.
Re:Looking down at the 'skilled trades' (Score:3, Informative)
I can think all day about how the electrical in my house works, and understand the theory behind it. But can I wire my house so that everything works, and I don't burn it down? Maybe, but it is in my interest to have an electrician look at it to make sure. Not necessarily an electrical engineer.
My father is an electrical engineer, and I am (among other things) a licensed electrician. The stories my mother has about him trying to do his own electrical work are hilarious ("how hard can it be? It's a simple AC circuit!")
Re:IAAC (Score:5, Informative)
While some people may be missing the 'elephant in the room', you sir, have missed the 'point of the article'.
Unfortunately, half the summary talked about job security giving a false impression. Job security was only a small part of the article, and in that regard, the jobs that were referenced were specialized, intellectual jobs. You will have 'grunt' workers in every profession. You can take anyone off the street and train them in a week for those positions. It could be construction work just as it could be data entry or answering phones.
The people he references in the article are experienced craftsmen who make difficult analysis and decisions based on subtle real world problems. Yet there is a stigma attached to those who do that while working on concrete, real world problems (eg: mechanics) when there is no such stigma on those who do exactly the same thing on less tangible problems (eg: IT professionals).
The main bulk of the article focuses on this stigma, but also covers a wide range including satisfaction by being able to see the direct effects of your labor.
Re:Err... what? (Score:3, Informative)
In IL at least you need to be state licensed to be a plumber, which requires time in apprenticeship, etc. You can't just ship in a bunch of workers from India, hand them tools and call them plumbers. God forbid you manage to get people here, sponsor them through apprenticeship, get them licensed, etc., and then they look at the union laborers and realize they can make a TON more. Then the plan goes to shit.
By comparison they can ship someone in to do my IT work, no problem. There are no barriers to entry other than knowing what you're doing and being on-site.
Re:There's the question of IQ (Score:3, Informative)
People have been saying this since at least the industrial revolution, maybe longer. It was a load of bullshit back then. It is a load of bullshit today. If there's one trait that identifies Western culture more than any other, it's a misguided sense of entitlement. The idea that you (or your community) deserve something from society just for existing. They forget that unlike most of the world's population, they should feel privileged merely for having been born in a developed country where even the poorest of the poor still has the outside chance to succeed and experience things that the other 5/6 of the world can never even dream of. And everyone else doesn't really have to try very hard because they were born into the relative luxury of living in a house, having a car or mass transportation that can take them anywhere, not to mention having enough free time to squeeze in 28 hours of TV a week.
I'm in Michigan and watching the situation here is entertaining. The American auto industry has, for years, been eating itself from the inside out. Now that it's on the verge of collapse, local politicians here will say, do, or promise anything to those who thought they had some kind of God-given right to do nothing but bolt fenders onto a frame until they retire at age 65 with a phat pension check.
The bottom line is that as society and industry changes, so does the job market. Somehow, the descendants of buggy-whip makers survived to the present. Michigan families will too. As old jobs go away, there are always new ones being created. In a free, dynamic society where anyone can learn and work as they decide, there will always be something profitable to do. It's just a matter of how much effort you are willing to devote to that work. The unemployment rate in Michigan isn't so high right now because 13.4% of the population can't find work. It's because 13.4% of the population can't find work that they want to do. Whether it's because the job itself is boring or dirty, or because the pay isn't what they've become accustomed to.
Actually, there are an infinite number of futures ahead of us. It would really be for the best if more people kept that in mind.
I'm sorry, but I have a real problem with the suggestion that we simply throw out decades of engineering and manufacturing progress just so some subset of the population will never have to learn a new skill or two.
Re:The biggest problem you have (Score:3, Informative)
I find your post hilariously ironic. As a so-called "gifted" student, like an earlier poster I was prevented from taking any shop classes in high-school. But, I could sign up for theatre classes, and in those (since I had no desire to act) I learned how to use all the basic shop tools, as well as basic electrical work, lighting, and sound.
I went on to get a BFA in theatre design, the only college curriculum that combined architecture, design, and engineering with actually producing the stuff you imagined. I learned to weld, to paint, make perfect dovetail joints, repair most tools, even how to sew....all as part of my coursework! I now work for Habitat for Humanity, where the best part of my job is teaching new volunteers how to use tools and build houses.
I've always said I would make a great shop teacher, but as far as I've ever heard, those jobs are long gone, plus no one can tell me where to even begin to get the training I would need.