America’s Labor Crisis with Mike Rowe

[@claybob]

Doesn’t sound like labor is in a crisis. Employers might be in a crisis. Owners might be in a crisis.

[@cstuartdc]

Yeah, it's a shame. All people want is a fair social contract. They want to be able to work and not go to the ER, pass a kidney stone and lose all they worked for all year. But that's exactly what Dave and Mike Rowe's side of the political spectrum fights for. For years. . .since 1980 really. They don't understand in eurosocialilst countries that entrepreneurship is quite robust. So yeah. . .why work (and I work 2 jobs). . .it's just easier to pass the kidney stone without all the work.

[@jamisonmunn9215]

There are multiple things here. If available jobs don't pay enough to live on, why get them? A normal job won't pay enough to ever buy a home, so why accept that job? Corporations are treating employees like crap while at the same time demanding loyalty when they show no loyalty to their employees.

[@karlstrauss2330]

This.

[@greg9429]

What the heck is a "normal job" anyway?

[@yamchayaku]

Apparently service jobs are looked down on and never compensated accordingly, despite the fact that they produce a significant amount of value to the company compared to those in the C-Suite. In fact C-Suite doesn't produce ANY value.

[@greg9429]

@@yamchayaku So both Dave Ramsey and Mike Rowe are in the C Suite of their respective companies, are you saying that neither one of them bring value to their organizations? Service jobs aren't looked down on, but a lot of them are unskilled and are entry level positions so the pay tends to be lower.

[@yamchayaku]

@@greg9429 Dave Ramsey and Mike Rowe don't actually produce value... Like AT ALL. Their product is probably the equivalent to a megachurch pastor giving garbage sermons. They're no different than the likes of Andrew Tate and Dan Lok, whos advice are questionable at best. I'd probably go as far, and say that Both Dave and Mike's companies are not even needed in this world, and even if they didn't exist in the first place, it wouldn't have affected ANYTHING. This is unlike Bezos and Zuckerberg, whose companies ACTUALLY changed the world. And yes, none of the C-Suite produce any value. You can get rid of a significant portion of them from a company and the company will keep working. But if you get rid of a significant workforce, the company suddenly stops producing values and hitting goals.

[@TT-uy5el]

As a millennial whose held a number of engineering and leadership positions my experience would say the "quiet quitting" and "race to mediocrity" is more of a symptom of how corporations and private equity groups etc have treated their employees. Treated them as disposable, always have an excuse why they can't give a merit increase yet have record profits and CEOs making 8 figures / year. Noone wants to work 60+ hours a week so some suit on wallstreet can buy a Ferrari. The behaviors they are describing has more to do with people don't believe in the American dream anymore.

[@TT-uy5el]

@@scottmichaels12 no

[@jareddahlseid551]

Yes people are shitty and they will get away with whatever we let them, unfortunate truth.

[@imamonkey431]

I couldn't agree more, I have no problem working hard and working smart and doing hard grueling jobs not many want to do. I've done roofing, 3 years in a steel mill, 10 years of my life as a cook and a couple as a chef, packing plants, concrete, and I have given every job I've ever done with pride in my work. All I've ever received is to be constantly told I'm replaceable a higher workload due to my performance and attendance in these fields, and not a single time was i ever paid enough to comfortably afford to live (rent, utilities, gas, insurance, and food). TLDR: I'm more than happy to work like a dog, but I will be damned if i'm going to be treated like one.

[@ktefccre]

Yeah. The problem is the way corporate law is set up though. Corporations HAS TO generate a profit for shareholders.

[@hitandruncommentor]

This is true. Every under 40 person I know started out as a go getter, then they got wrote up for nonsense, saw others that were less productive get rewarded, and realized that everyone got paid the same. We realized the better worker you were, the less likely you were to be promoted because they were needed where they were. So most of us do just enough not to get in trouble.

[@karlstrauss2330]

I wish Mike Rowe and Dave Ramsey would hold corporations accountable as much as they do for workers struggling paycheck to paycheck.

[@53block92]

Exactly, and you will never hear them blame any of the women that aren't getting into trades and only want the desk jobs or corporate level jobs because of their arts degrees even though they are so strong and independent. Dave continues to blame the men who are tired of putting up with this corporate crap that leads to men being let go with no job loyalty towards the employee while other men refuse to join the military or government jobs who chit on them any chance they get. I don't blame these young guys 1 bit, they are fed up with it.

[@georgewagner7787]

How are women supposed to get into the trades? Even my college roommate, who could throw me over her shoulder and run down the hall, broke her car because she wasn't strong enough to get the oil filter off

[@yosemite735]

@@53block92 Meh, quit your whining. Lots of women truckers. Lots of em.

[@53block92]

@@georgewagner7787 Just like men do, go to a trade school, learn a trade... It's not hard to do especially now a days, but you never see a female plumber, mason, sanitation worker, laborer, the list is very long where you only see men, especially what's considered "dirty" jobs.

[@53block92]

@@yosemite735 Ha, yeah that's a rare site when compared to the overall population, the last time I saw a female truck driver was on YT and she was saying how easy it is because all the men are always going out of their way to help her with her loads. Typical...

[@kirkdarling4120]

I worked for a Fortune 50 company that was strong and confident 25 years ago, a company that employees bragged about working for, a company that had a half-century reputation for loyalty to its employees, a company where it was truly possible to literally start in the actual mailroom and rise to executive levels, a company that laid out for you a career path from day one to retirement when you first onboarded. Employees would fight you on the street if you criticized their CEO, and everyone at the company headquarters had a positive testimony of their own personal interaction with the CEO. I watched that company begin running scared after the 2008 recession (although it was barely hit) and since then gradually become a company that has no loyalty to its employees, that outsourced every entry position (including those jobs in the mailroom). Nobody, not even the computer programmers have confidence in being able to keep their jobs to retirement, because they're being outsourced as well. Even HR got outsourced. Oh, and the company did away with its pension plan, too. That's what's happening all over. I'm a Boomer retired now with Social Security and two pensions. That promise no longer exists for my children. We can't act like times have not changed since we started working.

[@jareddahlseid551]

What you are describing is exactly what killed that company. Which is financially supporting a group of people who are no longer productive and making the company money, while continuing to tax the ever rising medical costs into old age. While this may seem like a good idea and a great selling point for loyalty it is clearly not sustainable for more than a few decades at best. This generation set its children up for failure (my parents included) by being greedy to the fullest extent possible, and to boot many of those children will carry on these destructive traits. No one should be surprised if they know how to do the math correctly :(

[@wesleybarber5612]

Facts

[@teenahweenah6632]

100% facts

[@ajays9936]

You are one of the good boomers, conglomerats and f500 companies are ruthless now. Truthfully so are mom and pop shops now cause thats the business landscape you have to compete in as a small business owner

[@valiantvigilante]

@Kirk Darling Thank you for acknowledging this. Regardless of whether or not someone agrees with what the problem is or how we work on it, we all must acknowledge there is a society-wide decay occurring for all demographics. You Boomers for example are going to nuke the healthcare system over the next 10-20 years. That is the very next problem that has to be addressed, and the problem has already started years ago, and is getting worse. This is about rebuilding America from the ground up into something that truly benefits everyone in a meaningful way and doesn't leave giant swathes of society behind.

[@wabio]

Those 7.2 million uninterested workers didn't just happen overnight. This is what happens when you have decades of layoffs, outsourcing, stagnant wages, and dwindling benefits. Most workers capitulated to these job conditions, but some gave up all together.

[@JeremySharpSMSG]

They're Mommas boys actually. Sitting in the basement on Minecraft. They haven't even tried

[@douglasdroscoski6405]

@@JeremySharpSMSG😂

[@silverman5707]

You forgot watching their parents retirement money, that they worked 40 years for, got the gold plated watch, evaporate with inflation.

[@jaygold4467]

That's is EXACTLY what's going on. Corporations throwing people in the streets for profit with no notice. It happened to me. I've seen people's lives destroyed. Screw loyalty!

[@billyb4790]

ok fair enough but what's the alternative? Am I the only one scratching my head wondering how any of these people are making a living? You don't just get magically decide not to work and everything is OK after that.

[@genep.6008]

Drayage trucker here with an Economics degree from a good public university. It took me 20 working years to realize trucking is a better fit for me than most office positions. Meaningful work is a blessing.

[@yosemite735]

Economics isn't much of a degree. I put myself through college driving to get out of them damn trucks.

[@genep.6008]

@@yosemite735 as with most things, it's what you do with the dang thing. Being in the financial services industry across several spaces, my retirement and investments are alright. But office was always a stressful place for me, and being on the road has brought meaningful purpose in my life, and much less stress, and much more enjoyment at work.

[@thomasmorrison3279]

I remember working as an engineer and hearing I would be the first to be laid off from a corporation, because I was not generating money and costing the company. Simultaneously, I was asked to work with a Mexican manufacturing plant to help transition all manufacturing to Mexico and also told that sales people making bonuses for high sales performance. This is what has caused "quiet quitting" along with stagnant wages for decades, and simultaneous increases in tasks for the same salaries. Companies lay off and expect the lower amount of workers to perform the same amount of work with no job security. I believe people re-evaluated their lives during the pandemic and decided not to run in the rat race and continue on the same unfulfilled journey doing whatever corporations asked of them for no additional pay and no recognition. Being told that the reward is in being able to keep your job for another year is not worth it to anyone. Dave and Mike are removed from reality. Also, many job openings do not pay a living wage. This is why many jobs are not filled.

[@jasonproctor9896]

As a 29 year old millennial who did a decade in the army and am now a first responder, most people my age group are tired of low wages and bad benefits. They are creating their own revenue streams because 45k a year is just unlivable with a family in a lot of places in the country. Our parents generation sent us into the technology age and are now mad at the world they created for us. They created the industry standard of you need a bachelor's degree to get an entry level position that doesn't even pay you enough to live on your own. Our parents' generation took all of the manufacturing over seas and took thousands of jobs away from Americans. We created our own problems due to greed. We're waiting until 30 to have kids because we can't afford it.

[@adamwalker2377]

I've got a theory. I think those over-spec'd job requirements are the product of female run HR departments projecting their hypergamy onto the job market. Hey..it fits the data, doesn't it?

[@donshaffer4169]

A late Baby Boomer speaking here. What you are saying here is largely correct. I got five adult kids and the cost of finding a place to live can make it difficult to accept some job offers. And that is for a non married person. I can't imagine what it's like for couples with a family. A lot of policies that benefited a few, essentially screwed a generation. I would like to see that addressed on this show. And don't get me started on the whole college degree scam. So people who never went to college are expected to foot the bill for kids with worthless degrees in Transgender Interpretive Dance. Go figure...

[@BruceLee-xn3nn]

Government did that 💩 .If you were old enough during that time you'd know your parents lost their jobs.

[@visick7241]

27 here. Went to college for IT and have multiple certificates only to get minimum wage entry level jobs with no chance of promotion.

[@adamwalker2377]

@@scottmichaels12 you may be gen X, but you sound like a boomer. What are you gonna argue when you finally realize that this isn't about demands for short term gratification? I can't wait to see your defense mechanisms flare up.

[@anthonyhoffmann543]

Two corporate talking heads blaming the workers for the problem. Just pay more!

[@seankelly819]

Good point

[@Hauoli129]

I've worked the baby steps with my wife. One of the best things we've done together. I've been in the workforce over 20 years...But I'm currently one of those able-bodied men that has been sitting out. I'm tired of the assumptions made about my work ethic. I did my BS. I did my MS. With my experience and certs, I am -by definition- a subject matter expert in my field (cybersecurity compliance\GRC\IT audit), and have an in-demand skill set. Fact: the average tenure of cybersecurity professionals is plummeting. Current numbers are showing that a typical CISO lasts 18 months before leaving. I've been able to sit out of work the last 6 months while deciding if I want to stay in the field. I'm not lazy. I'm not getting government assistance. The baby steps put me in this position to step away. Whether I stay or leave the field (I'll probably return...I do like the work itself) -I can tell you; employers aren't attempting to solve burnout, and I'm not the only cyber professional throwing my hands in the air and walking away.

[@Donkor640]

I think it’s lazy thinking to assume that all the able bodied men are just lazy. It’s easy to say and easy to believe but nobody wants to get down and do the dirty work of getting to the bottom of the problem. Judgment and shaming is way easier.

[@jamisonmunn9215]

I consistently hear the lazy, entitled argument but yet the normal people I meet are working multiple jobs and doing as much as they can on the side.

[@Donkor640]

@@jamisonmunn9215 I like Dave Ramsey and Mike Rowe, and I love that they’re trying to make a difference with their actions. I dislike the oversimplification of the reasons men fall out of the system. There’s no argument that laziness is a part of the equation but to constantly highlight that one aspect out of hundreds of reasons why people are giving up is not helpful.

[@JonyRotten]

@@Donkor640 Very true

[@whenhen]

@@Donkor640 In my household, like many others, I make far more than my fiancée. Thanks to the lack of maternity and paternity leave in the US coupled with the ludicrous cost of child care, he’ll be the one staying home if we have kids. Meanwhile they’ll judge and shame him because we dared to defy the rigid gender norms and think that since he’s able bodied he’s lazy, even though parenting young kids is absolutely exhausting

[@mw4507]

I have pretty much checked out of working. My goal is to work as little as possible and live well below my means. My point is why work hard for stuff that will end up in the land fill anyways. I am clocking in maybe 30 hours a week and hopefully will get to 20 or less in the next year or two.

[@engineeringoyster6243]

It is amazingly efficient to reduce your need for income. So many Americans are vulnerable to sales pitches and Affluenza.

[@Brokeasweat]

Dont feel bad though because it takes effort and discipline to stick to a budget. I like this attitude. Gives you time to find ways to reduce the waste and work on your income without being stressed about bills and debt. Create your own foundation yes

[@benjaminbrowardONEOG]

Work ethic woke me up after a 14-hour open heart procedure that replaced two of my valves with carbon valves. At 11:45 on a Friday night, I was handed off to the ICU. 7 hours later, I woke up. I'm supposed to be asleep until Monday. 3 am, was my wake-up time for work, and that's the same time my nurses said I started getting agitated. For whatever it's worth.

[@innocentrage1]

Only a problem for idiot CEOs who dont pay their employees enough

[@karlstrauss2330]

If CEOs don’t start paying their employees more soon, UBI will become an inevitability.

[@maryfields1382]

and then the CEOs whine "Why can't I find good workers? Why aren't my employees loyal?"

[@BradCampbellmn]

Blah, blah.blah....don't spend your money on crap. Many people are lazy and just put the minimum effort into their job....are you one of them?

[@kenny8351]

Just have to work hard! Yeah that's it keep working harder and harder, your nose to the grindstone! Hard work will set you free! LOL ! Spent your later years in surgery, and a wheelchair for what? And when you finally reach that time, remember to tell your offspring to work as hard as they can! To many educated, intelligent people with common sense is hurting corporate profits. We need to stopped funding all public education.

[@SteveR-ym3yc]

We CEO's will pay you $100 per hour as long as you are ok with your $50 happy meal, $5000 rent and $200,000 Kia!

[@barnabusdoyle4930]

One of the largest issues with the way our economy is constructed is that people are not rewarded based on value or productivity. A company does not care about its workers at all and instead exploits them to the greatest extent. The 30 people working the assembly line that create the product get peanuts compared to the guys at the top who actually do very little to run the business and just pocket a majority of the profits.

[@azhardav]

unionization solves this. worked in the past, can work today and does.

[@TheOHenry666]

@@azhardav And then people just dismiss unions as "Stalinist-style communism", the lack of nuanced thinking is infuriating. The working class is hurting badly; "Work ethic" and "personal responsibility" have their reasonable limits. Rich managers who choose not to care about their subordinates love the one-sided, and honestly juvenile view expressed in this interview.

[@Mavericks90]

Y'all are always more worried about the people at the top instead of putting in the effort to increase your value by either being dependable or finding better opportunities for yourself.

[@azhardav]

@@Mavericks90 you don't think people are doing that NOW? It doesnt matter when the system is rigged agains the working man. Case in point, minimum wage today that keep up with inflation in 1970 is $26 dollars. CEO pay is 442 times its workers pay NOW, and in 1970 it was 11x.

[@Mavericks90]

@@azhardav You're mindset is why your stuck in the position your in and you'll never find yourself making what you want to make.

[@jasonbeil7093]

Can’t afford families or houses why would men hustle if the carrot on the stick is so far out of reach for much of the working class.

[@seankelly819]

Good point

[@SuperGhettoBob]

Mike Rowe never had a dirty job in his life. He has a liberal arts degree and worked in TV.

[@Asfgxff]

He plays a tv character that tells young impressionable men not to go to school but to live in a sewer. In this clip, he’s being interviewed by a boomer who’s stated you can pay for college by delivering pizza at night.

[@utubedude2842]

It’s a wage crisis, not a labor crisis.

[@lizhoward9754]

It is a labor crisis which is why there is a wage crisis.

[@utubedude2842]

@@lizhoward9754 wrong. Cost of living crisis aka wage crisis

[@lizhoward9754]

@@utubedude2842 what does cost-of-living and low-wages have to do with labor shortage? Look at the early 20th century when they didn’t even have minimum wage but an abundance of workers? It is irrelevant whether inflation is 0 or 90 percent, people still need to work. Unless you are saying people aren’t working because wages aren’t high. If so, who is supporting them? Early in my career in the early 80s, inflation was between 8-13 percent PER YEAR. Wages were not even coming close to keeping up with rate of inflation, yet unemployment was over 6 percent. There was no correlation between the lower wages of the early 80s and cost-of-living.

[@utubedude2842]

@@lizhoward9754 let’s back up. Explain how a labor crisis has caused a wage crisis?

[@lizhoward9754]

@@utubedude2842 I never said there was a wage crisis; I said there was a labor crisis. I understood your comment to mean that if companies paid higher wages that that would solve the labor shortage problem. I don’t believe it will. I believe there is a labor shortage problem because there are not enough people to do the work. I believe that because 1) for the first time in US history, there is a decline in population; 2) for decades demographers have said there was going to be a big problem finding labor in this country once the baby boomers are retired. The pandemic just sped up the time frame for most boomers to retire. Most, but not all, boomers are retired or are only working part time. There are very few people following in their footsteps. My point is if they don’t find labor elsewhere, the US economy will suffer

[@scottbriggs4960]

I started a business over a year ago, and gave up on hiring additional staff. I have found success and peace working as a solo entrepreneur. I’d encourage anyone to consider that route. No one cares about your business and success more than yourself.

[@achievecollege]

I am a professional college counselor and I 100% agree that we need to be promoting jobs/career paths that do not require college degrees. The problem is that this requires a culture change from the employers themselves - and some places have already taken the lead on this (i.e. certain state governments have stopped requiring degrees to work for the government). But still, in most private sector jobs with salaries/benefits...they still require degrees. That is not the job-seeker's fault, it's the employer's. And most of the time, the job they're hiring for could easily be done by someone with a high school education.

[@nikkithehuskydog]

Go to hell! I'm a union IBEW construction worker..... too many immigrants driving wages down and housing prices up.

[@Mathis218337]

My grandfather just passed. He was a WW2 vet and fought in the pacific theater. He had a saying that I’ve taken to heart and is relevant here. “No matter the labor, great or small, do it well or not at all” People should take pride in their work. Regardless of what it is.

[@tonyherdina9142]

My dad was a WWII vet as well. I remember when my friend graduated college and was telling my dad about how he was disappointed in his job. He told him "it doesn't matter what you do for a living, just be the best you can be at it".

[@Mathis218337]

@@JonyRotten 100%

[@pwk22]

Lotta people going with the 'not at all' option.

[@yamchayaku]

I got paid nearly 90k/yr but the surrounding area had an insane cost of living (California... go figure). I got tired due to my job, saved as much as I can, quit my job and moved to an area with a significantly lower cost of living. After that, I said screw it and dropped out of the labor force. I have enough money to coast till I die, but there's no way you're going to make me work 100 hour weeks and feel proud doing it. A job is a means to and end. I've met my goal and F***ed off of the labor force at an early age. If you're able to, save as much as you can and get out of work ASAP. There's no way you're going to get me to keep working at a toxic job and make me feel proud of it.

[@Mathis218337]

@@yamchayaku you’re missing the point.

[@Chinunit22]

2 year minimum construction experience for entry-level manual labor job that pays 15 to 20$ per hour and must supply own tools. Where they expect you to get the experience?

[@whenhen]

Meanwhile my company pays our entry level customer service reps $25/ hour while the construction crews are out here trying to max out at $22. One sits in an air conditioned office for two days a week, works from home the other three, while the other definitely doesn’t

[@visick7241]

Same thing with tech jobs. They want you to have 2 years experience for an ENTRY level job for near minimum wage.

[@dbz4586]

I'll never forget my attempt in construction. It was horrible. 14 hr as a plumber apprentice breaking my back and trying to learn how to do the job. For me it was a terrible experience.

[@nicholasshook7513]

Coming from 2 guys who have never done a day of blue collar work in their career. Mike Rowe talks for a living and Dave is a financial advisor.

[@JakobROsser]

Thank you. Dave’s audience infuriates me with their sycophantic love for his content. There’s a little something called nuance.

[@pro-seriesfabrication3810]

Dave flipped houses before he started doing financial work. Doesn't matter....the content is either right or it's not. Saying the background matters is a logical fallacy

[@nicholasshook7513]

Never said it wasn’t true, just hypocritical. How about you stick to words that you know how to use correctly.

[@101SEAL]

welll put

[@redman2751]

He talks about the quiet quitting thing. Im sure it's not a tactic of laziness, it's a symptom of employer treatment. Workers are getting tired of being run to death and then being told "oh there's no room in the budget for a raise". Then as soon as you get an offer from somewhere else, oh they found room in the budget. We are tired of employers treating us like crap. Period. Me personally, Im quitting sometime this year. I have given above and beyond for my company for over 10 years. For that 10 years they would tell me the algorithm says I couldn't get any raise. I got an offer for $10 more an hour and my company then all of a sudden came up with the money to pay me. Apparently the algorithm changed all of a sudden. Ive watched too many good people give everything only for the company to strip them of everything they've worked for just so they can hire someone younger and cheaper, or the company goes under due to greed and the people that ran it into the ground walk away with millions meanwhile the workers are left without their pensions or retirement accounts. I have personally seen this many times over and over. There's tons of stories from others as well. Why would any rational person want to work hard for a company now unless it benefits the person directly in some way. Meaning higher pay, rub shoulders with the right people, indirect benefits, or to just jump from job to job and be able to put a company name on the resume. Look at what amazon does. They churn through workers like crazy and treat their employees like garbage, but people put up with it just to put AWS on their resume. Since all the other companies are tied into the AWS infrastructure they want that experience. Then people like Dave wonder why there's a quiet quitting. Probably because you're OLD Dave, You lived in a time where work ethic was rewarded and looked up to. Not anymore. You can't just churn out new workers without changing the work environment. You'll just get more workers that are burned out and are quiet quitting.

[@LavishPatchKid]

1. Inflation over the last 40 years has made it to where the average job is worthless. 2. When women reach critical mass in any industry - it becomes a nightmare for men to work in it. 3. If the government abused eminent domain laws like they abuse the ability to garnish checks - NO ONE would buy homes. 4. Public education, through higher education, all revolves around the girls. 5. Men no longer have any marriage/relationship incentives to drive their tolerating of the rat race. Home is now the only place to escape the idiocy of women. And men can live alone quite cheaply. - To sum it all up: it is amazing ANYONE still shows up.

[@sandradavis33]

Wow your hatred of women is amazing, does this stem from a mommy issue? Please seek help before you become a serial killer, if you haven't already.

[@ethxo6734]

Why do some many seemingly knowledgeable people not understand why this is happening? The able bodied working men opting out of the labor force , are they married or have children? If they don’t, then there’s no “I need to provide” motivation. Corporations / Big Businesses DO NOT care about you. Before companies would look after you and your family, greater separation between home and work, pensions, benefits, etc. Unless you are salaried, alot of companies want to keep you working less than 30hrs a week so that they do not have to provide benefits. The push towards the gig economy, side hustles just to get by. It’s depressing. I Can understand why some people just say ef this and opt out.

[@maqclark]

These knowledgeable people fully understand what's happening, they would just rather blame individuals instead of the corporations.

[@nsiebenmor]

Because they’re too old

[@mirabella2154]

Treat employees fairly and pay them well or continue whining.

[@calebclark6739]

There is no labor crisis. Plumbers still ain’t being paid shit. Why do it

[@30H3Sunrise]

I hope plumbers and electricians are getting like 125k to 150k a year minimum. If they aren't they should because housing is f'ing ridiculous.

[@ColKorn1965]

No matter who you work for, be it a corporation or Mom and Pop, you are just a "hired hand" to line their pockets.

[@SteveR-ym3yc]

Then get a license and line your own pockets. Or shut up and go to work.

[@stevenbelow2502]

If they aren’t able to line their pockets they don’t stay in business. Businesses aren’t in business to support their workers, workers are there to support the business. It’s a symbiotic relationship.

[@iomis2001]

This does not take into account that people are tired of killing themselves and being poor. People are saying no more. I blame corporations for treating people like meat for decades and not paying them enough to afford to live. These businessmen can't seem to figure this out and want to blame the workers.

[@preparetobedazled]

This talk made me feel a lot better about going in to my blue collar, physical demanding, union job this morning.

[@Tictokshorts]

Mike Rowe is a salesman they want more people in the trades so they can pay us less

[@yosemite735]

and that is why they do it. You make them money. They went to college, and you did not.

[@darkmoongaming1010]

​@@yosemite735 Thinking like this is why we have a trade shortage. Tradesmen make good money and we desperately need them. When all the Boomer tradesmen retire and there are no young men to replace them, this country is going to be in big trouble.

[@youngblood23rb]

​@@yosemite735You say that like its a bad thing?

[@tommygertcher2747]

Key word pal, "Union". These two douchebags don't believe in unions.

[@brookswoodward7278]

"Show me the incentive and I'll show you the outcome " Charlie Munger.

[@maryfields1382]

Boom! 💯

[@AncientLemomTree]

I grew up never hearing the word “skilled trade”. The focus was so heavily on going to collage. Then I met my husband who was in an apprenticeship for machine repair. He paid $0 for his education. In fact, his employer will pay for his engineering degree if he decides to pursue furthering his education. He makes $38 an hour, gets all the overtime he wants, and triple time on holidays. Last year he made $200,000. All the people of my generation have been fooled into thinking college is the only way. How sad.

[@aolvaar8792]

I graduated from a #1 University: Highest Median Starting Salary from a public institution in the USA. My Engineering B.S. was paid by an alumnus.

[@danielbraswell3334]

That’s only a base pay of $79,000. That’s a lot of overtime hours to make $200k.

[@brockeaton8698]

It's only 80 hours a week... Not counting any triple time on holidays

[@AncientLemomTree]

@@brockeaton8698 correct

[@AncientLemomTree]

@@danielbraswell3334 he averages 70-80 hr per week

[@jimm2442]

It’s a good time to be in the trades. I retired at 56 years of age after a 35 year career as a mechanic. HVAC, electrical, plumbing, mechanic, construction, there is steady lucrative work. Skills are needed and constantly in demand.

[@BradCampbellmn]

This here. Many of friends are in the trades and make very good money.

[@johnthelen2696]

You are right on the mark! Shout it louder, because there are literally millions of people who need to hear it. It takes some effort to get trained in a trade, but the payoffs are huge.

[@maqclark]

The American workplace is by and large a crap place to spend your time but no one wants to have that conversation.

[@YTSparty]

"People aren't willing to do dangerous, low wage, crappy jobs for really low wages, but they should, we should make them." - Mike Rowe, TV Host millionaire

[@ak74srthebest0909]

🤣😂🤣 pretty much.

[@stevenbelow2502]

Don’t puts quotes around your take on what he said. His point is that if you want to eat you need to work. It’s been that way since time immemorial. If you don’t like your job and the wage you’re paid get additional training and make yourself more valuable.

[@YTSparty]

@@stevenbelow2502 No. His point is if you can't find a good job, work a lousy horrible job that pays low wages. And do it hard. Work your heart out for $7/hr cleaning toilets. The guy didn't become a millionaire working at McDonalds, he did a TV show. Anyone who has worked long enough knows working hard for the boss man is for SUCKERS.

[@stevenbelow2502]

@@YTSparty So what’s your alternative; sit on your ass in your mom’s basement playing video games? It’s all about getting off your ass and working. Keep working and bettering yourself and the money will come. Typically, dangerous, crappy, jobs pay quite well because no one wants to do them. Roughnecks are a good example of this.

[@9libertybell]

People who have been taken advantage want the ones behind them to run through the same situation. In 2023, people got to earn a lot more to have basic living covered. Why would someone do a horrible job that will leave them on the streets anyway?

[@TM-jo4wz]

Answer to some comments: Had a plumber over few weeks ago. $110.00 per hour. He and his wife only. He ran the labor she did the booking and the books. All the trades. If you learn and do a good job you will get paid well. Medical sales. Great! Food service equipment sales. Great! Piano technician. Has a learning curve but if you learn and create work you can make serious money. Example: tune 3 pianos a day 5 days a week: serious money! It may take some time but well worth it. Piano moving. Not bad. Get a van. Hire your self out as a currier service. Go to a tech school. Learn amp repair: $75-100$ per hour. Just to name a few. Just to name a few.

[@jeremyraw7274]

It's not hard to find good help these days! If u take care of your employees and pay them a fair wage! Simple! That's been the problem for many decades!

[@jimsmits151]

Best conversation I've heard in years men. Thank you.

[@auggieedc205]

I'm not usually one to complain about compensation because I feel like most people are fairly compensated for the specialization of their skillsets, and jobs where I feel I haven't been I left and went somewhere that compensation matched my skills. My complaint is with benefits, I pay 20% of my gross pay for my family to have a PPO plan through my company, and when everyone is talking about how young people needing to start families again is the solution to all of the world's problems. Meanwhile I had to borrow against my vacation time just to take a couple of weeks off for the birth of my first child. Why isn't paid parental leave an expected benefit? Why don't employers pay for more of their people's insurance costs? Seems like you can either have a fair salary or good benefits, never both.

[@daleclarke2849]

Who wants to do labor work when a pickup cost 50000 house cost 350000 .groceries cost 200.00 a week insurance cost 250 a month. Gas cost 400. A month. And make 25.00 a hour. Do the math!!!!’

[@DrProgNerd]

Politicians have demonstrated that 'faith in government' doesn't work. Change doesn't happen in the voting booth - it happens when we acquire the skills to develop good character ...and teach this to our children. Change in our culture happens when we 'teach' by example - by living a good, moral life. It doesn't happen by having 'online fact-battles' with people whose minds we'll never change. I'm grateful to people like Mike and Dave - who inspire people to live their best lives. They're a much-needed reminder that the whole world hasn't gone mad - just a loud few.

[@TheOHenry666]

I think the government does work, but it works increasingly only for our neo, increasingly criminal class of elitist oligarchs. The answer is to take the tool back and make the government responsive to the needs of the middle class. Power in our society flows from money, which basically means corporate board rooms lobby and purchase our politicians, and control the news media via consolidation (90% of our news media is owned by 5 large corporate conglomerates). The politicians are mere tools, a means to an end.

[@michaelcap9550]

Brandon and his ilk focus on the voting booth because they rely on emotion not facts.

[@Dialogos1989]

If the conversation needs to happen, then let’s hear more of the other side. It’s not so simple as “people don’t want to work”. People will work as long as there is an incentive.

[@habbadabbado5765]

Eating food and a roof over your head is an incentive to work. My attitude is to prove myself so my employer is incented to keep me. The incentive is on them! If they didn’t see it or want to do anything about it, I left.

[@Dialogos1989]

@@habbadabbado5765 If the problem is so widespread as it is, I think that is indicative of something more than just "laziness". Not everyone has to option of uprooting themselves and moving elsewhere, it costs a lot of money, energy, and resources to move.

[@Dialogos1989]

@@habbadabbado5765 “eating food and a roof over your head is an incentive to work” Honestly not really. If my entire existence revolves around working jobs I hate just for the bare essentials, then I would probably self delete. That is a miserable and pointless existence not too far from that of a slave.

[@UrbanSipfly]

Employers are largely to blame for the labor shortage. Employers have not changed their company growth potential that accommodate the affected individual and family needs to make work feasible. Blue chip companies should visit local elementary and highschools that spark interest in seeking long term employment instead of sitting idly by on the sidelines waiting to be seen by folks who have no idea their business even exists.

[@neuralismgamingtv4511]

Sure individual and family needs are solely being neglected by employers not by authorities or realtors or landlords or government agencies that segregate condemn and impoverish otherwise successful healthy families. Sure let's just keep it a binary perspective....

[@georgewagner7787]

High school should train for the trades

[@barondystopia]

@@georgewagner7787 I agree. High school should actually train you for something as opposed to just pushing you to hit college when you graduate.

[@cle_roknn3742]

So I grew up in the 80’s and 90’s. I watched my city as assembly line jobs disappeared, the steel mill closed, and ancillary jobs evaporated. By the time I left for college in 99 the place was a shell of what it was. There were no jobs in the trades, they were gone, taken over by offshoring and corporate profit taking. You used to get a decent job at LTV Steel, Ford, GM, or any manufacturer that paid a decent wage, it was not easy work, but it paid enough to support your family. Those jobs disappeared in front of my eyes. Now you have two people harping on work ethic and the fruits of labor, news flash there is drastically less labor jobs available and those aren’t paying squat. I got out, was able to get through undergrad and grad school with no debt. The first job I took was as a “trainee” working right along with non-degreed individuals. I learned a lot from them, but the hit I took in benefits and wages haunted me until I got another job at another company. Get out to move up was the montra and to some extent it still is. It does not pay to stay long term at places unless you get decent wage increases and the corporate structure is not flat. If either of those two situations are occurring your stuck and leaving would be your best option.

[@56silvershine]

I've spent 43 years working in military and commercial aviation, raised a family and never regretted it for a second. Was it hard sometimes? you better believe it was but it was rewarding and I and my coworkers took pride in what we were doing and man what a life.

[@iomis2001]

You also came up in a time when you could get a warehouse job and rent a small apartment. Stop living in the past. Kids today can either get low pay warehouse jobs that don't pay enough or go deep into debt for a degree that will get them a job that may pay slightly more, while saddling them with a huge college loan. Good for you that you were lucky enough to be born before everything started to fall apart, but your attitude of just work hard is dated. Many people work hard and don't get ahead, because they are not getting paid a good wage for their hard work. Stop living in the past. Times have changed for the worse.

[@danielsnook5029]

"We were at the lake house..." I don't know why but that makes me laugh.😂

[@smokinhalf]

The problem with delayed gratification is that most people see the delay part and not the other

[@kirkdarling4120]

I think you mean "get" the delay part and not the other.

[@garywestenberger3336]

I was out of work for over 7 months and applying for 4 to 5 job's a week this whole time only had 3 interview. Finally got a job. There's not a employee problem they don't want people over 40. Even though we are the last worker's out there.

[@SueCL1480]

People ARE working. They are doing social media. You tube. Some doing uber. Some working from home doing remote jobs like Editing, or customer service, sales, etc. They are finding online side hussle jobs Etc. Etc. People do not want to work for uneducated, cruel, discriminatory managers who treat their employees horribly. People wont put up with it anymore so they find remote jobs. Jobs where they work for themselves. They become minimalists and lead a more simple life.

[@waybackarcades2112]

There's no labor shortage. There's a shortage of jobs that pay enough for people to live even a spartan lifestyle.

[@SteveR-ym3yc]

So it's better to stay home and make nothing? Well welfare I guess.

[@savvageorge]

That's an insult to the Spartans to suggest modern pampered people could live like they did. I would say 99% of people wouldn't survive a single day as a Spartan.

[@percivalgooglyeyes6178]

The government has been "quiet quitting" the American people for decades now.

[@waywardgeologist2520]

I wish it would quit and go away. We could do with a much smaller government

[@josephstevens9888]

When I was in high school, college was pushed as the only way to succeed in life. The trades were considered for "losers". I was planning on joining the Air Force upon graduation, and one teacher in front of a college writing course I was taking told me I would be a failure in life for not going to a 4-year university out of high school. That was back in the 80's. As a matter of record - I got an "A" in the college writing course!

[@barondystopia]

I remember them pushing this same BS in the 90s, too.

[@michaelb.8953]

With that indoctrination from our public education onto students and parents it over saturated our labor system with college degrees in many households almost making the BS degree what a high school diploma was 60 years ago, all while college tuition was rising many times faster than inflation itself at the same time. This is a recipe for a collapse of higher education and creating a student loan crisis. Not all negative on college degrees as not all degrees are created equal.

[@blakeharrison3972]

I feel like there isn’t an appreciation from learning from mistakes, leaders I’ve had that have called me out, shown me how to fix where I was going wrong to improve meant a lot to me, if you never mess up at a job, you’re missing so much

[@drn13355]

Yes but look at even politics. Now when someone loses instead of learning and growing and changing they say :"I was cheated". "it isn't fair". It is an epidemic problem across the board in the country. I grew up working on a farm in western Nebraska. Did twenty years army. And now back working on the farm. It is what it is I guess. Sad times.

[@JD-hh9io]

How is there a labor crisis when all of the good manufacturing jobs are sent to China and elsewhere.

[@VenerableBede2510]

They were sent to China because thousands of “management” morons WITH COLLEGE DEGREES sent them there because some little number on a brainless spreadsheet told them it was a good idea.

[@saltyp123]

You move to 30 hour work weeks and you won't have a labor crisis anymore....nobody wants to just work then die. Quality of Life is a real thing...you have a generation that watched their parents work themselves to death and only have a few years to "enjoy" retirement. Also, America's local economies are made up of entertainment and services. You need time to do those things.

[@georgewagner7787]

40 hours isn't that much. People have only done that since the 20th century

[@saltyp123]

@@georgewagner7787 then you work those hours...I'm not stopping you. But your mentality is stopping me from enjoying MY life. So respectively... STFU. In this world is excess production and technology...there's no need for those hours.

[@youngblood23rb]

​@@georgewagner7787I cant even imagine working 30 hours a week, even when I was digging ditches and cutting grass I saw it as a physical and mental exercise for which to make progress. Add value, assume more responsibility and compensation follows, I never settled for normal or mediocrity

[@JoeSmith-gb4ng]

But you still want the salary of a 40 hour work week don't you. So corporations should just pay you extra money for nothing. Yes quality of life is a real thing but so is a work ethic. What really needs to be fought is not a 30 hour work week but stop asking 5 people to do the work of 10, have on staff the correct amount of people and it won't be an issue. Corporation GREED is the problem, but it really is GREED of society that makes it last.

[@elvisfan6475]

Grow up. Adults work. School is over. Work gives you vacation. You work until you die. That's life. Read the comments people bitch about the money. The hours. The kind of work. People are just lazy.

[@rhondashuman7730]

Saw the pod cast...Thank you so much for this pod cast.

[@atx4fun]

I find the comments so very telling. I have been in HVAC and trades since I worked part time in High School. I went to trade school for 8 months and then into my field. At around 32, I got my BS in Business Operations while I was self employed and wanted the paperwork. I have been in private and public companies with levels as high as VP of Service Operations and Director of Service. My trade has consistently paid me $20k more than my degree. In 2008, my degreed job went away and I went back to my trade. I get offers for jobs to this day, but my trade is paying me $95-100k religiously. I do work some holidays, I do work nights. That being said, I work nights 4 nights a week and the company I work for provides great benefits and 5 weeks of PTO after 5 years. So when I read these comments, I have a hard time figuring out how I am being taken advantage of. Here is the best part. I am 55 years old. I don't have issues getting job offers or the fear of being forced to retire. The reason is that there are not enough young people coming up to take my place. So I guess its "boomer like" for me to be happy with what I do.

[@atx4fun]

@@SecondPlaceSince1865 Wages are already high. Thats not the problem with most trades. A good Electrician, Plumber or HVAC guy can make more than most degreed positions. Its just work and dedication to get it and thats what is missing.

[@ig4091]

Great video 👍🏼 please do a follow up video ,on what are people doing now for money if they are not working? Thank you

[@karenclark266]

They're living off the taxpayers' dime - ie they're on welfare.

[@diggernash1]

As long as they have food and fun, most people will not choose to work.

[@patchworxbrewing4164]

I did this twenty years ago, joined a union went through an apprenticeship. Today I'm making north of six figures on the check not including full retirement and full family health insurance benefits. Again you can do this if you go join a local union.

[@Tictokshorts]

Big fan of Dave ramsey but I don't think he made his fortune doing the physical labor of flipping and building houses..

[@azhardav]

nope, got his fortune from his mommy and daddy who were in real estate. he's an evangelical cultist who speaks well but full of BS. like texans say "all hat no cattle"

[@majtom5421]

I think the conversation about how thee non workers survive is one of the top 5 conversation we need to talk about

[@bowlbrigade]

Don't forget about quiet firing... there's a reason people are mad at employers as well. If the boss doesn't like you for whatever reason, justified or not, and the boss just doesn't want to do the paperwork or doesn't think you deserve any unemployment insurance even if you don't plan on taking it... there are useless bosses out there too.

[@richardrice3137]

At 77, I have appx 2 1/2 years of formal education with 55 years of experience. jobs I held, aircraft maintenance instructor, Nascar car owner, crew chief, part-time driver, ASE master tech for over 40 years including diesel mechanic, new/used vehicle sales preparation, and now an antique store owner. I can say that I have been unemployed for no more than 10 weeks during that time.

[@jackdeniston59]

Seriously. This boils down to a fair days work for a FAIR days pay. The crisis is, as ever, a Management crisis.

[@VenerableBede2510]

Too many college degree MORONS making all those decisions that leads to this. We should throw all the professors in prison. Or the ocean.

[@allenfischer5878]

30 years ago my high school abondoned the industrial arts in favor of expanding the sports programs. Talk about favoring instant grattification, placing playtime ahead of developing life skills, that actually put food on the table.

[@2WhiteAndNerdy]

The "labor shortage" is fake. Theres PLENTY of people who want to work, but companies are reeeeeeally enjoying seeing just how few employees they have to pay. The proof is in HOW they hire, being online only, where your application goes straight to the shredder. Ask anybody who's looked for work lately. It sucks to even find entry level jobs these days.

[@silasz.rayner1518]

Thank you for a few more moments of SANITY!

[@JustinBeller]

Mike was the keynote speaker at a conference I attended last fall for my industry and he talked about how our country needs to go through a paradigm shift or attitude adjustment when it comes to how we view work. This was my takeaway: We used to find honor and dignity in work, no matter what we did. I don't know how to solve this labor crisis, but all I can do is instill a good work ethic in my family. Maybe that's where each of us can start and hopefully turn things around. It's just sad that we have so many capable people out there doing very little to contribute to their families and their community.

[@jasonbeil7093]

I think a lot of young men can’t afford homes and families if I don’t have either why would I work so hard there’s no carrot at the end of the stick. Why play a rigged game?

[@treasurethetime2463]

Agreed. Let's be honest though. People are full of crap. One time in America a barber, factory worker and accountant were all treated with respect. They each could afford to house, transport and feed their families. Today that is not the case. The social stratification of today dictates that a barber and an accountant would almost never interact socially, much less a factory worker. Hands on occupations are the targets of ridicule in comedy, tv and film. Guidance counselors and eductors repeat indefinitely the importance of an education, least you be relegated to some hard "dirty" work thought to be reserved for the "dumb kids" or "slakers". This culture talks from both sides of the mouth. I've even heard married women complain about being married to a mechanic because of his dirty hands. Smh.

[@matthewwoodard9810]

We used to could buy a home and somewhat decently take care of our family (to say nothing of healthcare or education costs) working just about any job 40 hours a week. You can’t do that now unless you’re making close to 75k / the majority of Americans aren’t. The median salary in 1960 was equivalent to close to 60k in 2020. In the meantime, the median salary(, as of 2020)not household income) today is just under 42k/year. Not much higher now. Wages, in terms of adjusted dollars, hasn’t budged much in 50 years, despite workers being much more productive. All those gains from the increased productivity have gone to the top 5%, vast majority of it to top .001% - to the tune of 47 trillion dollars. Not only has workers’ pay not changed, their spending power has been drastically diminished as the cost of necessities - housing, childcare, health, education, etc - has increased magnitudes faster than wages. Of course your parents and grandparents had a more dignified view of work.

[@gregbenwell6173]

At the last factory job I worked at I was doing the work of a machinist within six months after starting there, even though I was hired to be an assembly person, AND I was doing assembly on the products I had to machine parts for! BUT then in the next five years I was working there, they put my in charge of FOUR totally different departments, basically giving me all the responsibility of at least TWO supervisors with around 20 co workers beneath me. And as if the problems WITH THAT were not enough I was BY THEN TOO, doing the same work as at least three or four engineers, and I was even working part time in the stock room to handle my own stock flow of all the parts FOR MY four departments, BUT ultimately they were tossing me into three other departments to work as well so in a given week I could be working in SEVEN different departments all building completely different things, and also loaning me out in the shipping department and inspection where I did those functions, inspecting products and packaging the inventory for shipping also!! And THE PROBLEM was I was only earning $7.50 an hour to do ALL THIS WORK, as the local Burger King was offering $9 to new hires just across town where I lived!! And while I was grateful that I had a full time job, I ALSO should point out this same company was hiring "new employees" and starting them out at $10 an hour, and most of the people who started with me, were earning $12 an hour, while I was still being paid just $0.50 more an hour after FIVE YEARS of loyal service to the company!!! In fact my monthly pay was only $804 a month, on "straight time" (without an overtime) and at that point I couldn't even afford the "company health insurance" that I had to "opt out of", just because I couldn't afford the $300 month bill at the time (this was back in 1999-2005), before the government stepped in and required businesses to offer healthcare to their employees!! ALSO at this time the company offered us ZERO retirement programs, and when they finally did the last year I was there, they wanted to "take away" a total of $200 from our incomes to cover a 401K that was only matched by the company a "quarter for every dollar" you put into it!! AND you had to be "vetted" for three years in order to see ANY gains out of it.....meaning you have to "put your money into it for three years" before you'd ever see any return out of it!! Just by chance, I quit the job after my boss had created a hostile work environment, leaving them high and dry, on my FOUR customer product lines I built!! They had never trained anybody to do the jobs I was doing, and within a month lost all four customers I built products for, even with the people I had working under me, who'd never been fully trained on most of what I did!!! Not three months later the company closed its doors and went out of business!! And while I don't want to say that it was "my fault", in a part, the customers I was building products for were the last four customers this same company had, that was giving them ANY BUSINESS, but without me there......they had to lay off around 300 or so people!!! And before you think this is "no big deal" some of our customers were Allied Signal, Sequoia Voting Machines, Lockheed Martin and others that depended on our custom manufacturing platform!! So the work I did was VERY technical....and yet the company decided I was "worthless"!

[@gregbenwell6173]

O)ne other thing I should mention too is, my monthly income at this job was $804 a month.....while my house payment alone was $632 a month!! In the final two years of my job, my cheating wife left me for another man!! And it doesn't take a NASA engineer to figure out how screwed I was earning $804 a month with a $632 a month house payment in 2003!!! And I couldn't afford to move....because in my area typical rent on an apartment is around $800 a month and up!! It isn't unheard of where I live in New York, for apartments renting for $2300 a month either!!

[@marknolan2799]

I'm a Gen X'er and I've already been indoctrinated in the 40 hour work week. A couple of points. First, it's hard to be an employee. Your have to have reliable transportation, insurance, show up on time, be well-groomed, speak appropriately, engage with people, refrain from MJ, be competent, consistent and predictable. A minimum IQ of around 100, ability to deal with autocratic supervisors and difficult customers, all for pay where you can barely afford an apartment.

[@CH-wt1xv]

Doing it for 15.00 an hour. America wake up

[@dmmcmah1]

@@CH-wt1xv No you wake up. Median income for 1 earner households ranges from $50,000 to $76,000 per state. $15/hour is $31,000 for full-time work, so you're not describing very many people.

[@CH-wt1xv]

@David McMahon I hold two jobs and been doing two jobs for 11yrs and I don't pull in 51,000 thousand. If you want a better career people have to go to college but how are you suppose to do that full time and pay car note insurance, utilities and ect.i am a single woman. It shouldn't even be that way here in the United States.

[@CH-wt1xv]

@David McMahon the politicians in the White House and CEO shouldn't be making millions of dollars, but who am I to say anything. Why do we have billionaires? How come we all can't be equal? People in retail barely make it. We are slaves to Corporate and its sad.

[@CH-wt1xv]

@David McMahon America does need to wake up. They say vote for the people in the White House, they will change everything, and they do the opposite. Raise minimum wage, but then the rich raise the food and gas. Or the business owners make the rules, which is the people with billions. It's called greedinflation. It's like how bad you need the milk eggs and bread. Let's just gouge the poor and middle class pockets with price gouge/greed inflations

[@Dave-zl2ky]

So many young people are not looking for a job. Why? Because they work 60-70+ hours a week off the books. They can not afford those regular jobs that offer 20 hours a week or $8 hr for 35 hrs.

[@StudioRMD]

These guys are spot-on. The only variable they’re not considering is: Historically low wages as opposed to inflation. Unless that’s also fixed, the problems will continue to persist.

[@strategicsage7694]

When you include the value of benefits though, it's not historically low. Wages are definitely a major concern in some professions, but not in others where there are shortages. So I'll only going to give partial credit on this :).

[@curiosi-tea6914]

Imagine the hubris of assuming that there couldn't possibly be any validity behind the decision of 7.2 million men to sit out employment.

[@JJ-fg2wd]

Mike Rowe is a professional working-class LARPer, his criticisms ring hollow because he doesn't have the fortitude to live by his words.

[@engineeringoyster6243]

Mike Rowe has the ideal radio voice.

[@Publius-24]

Saint Matthew 7:13-14 “Enter through the narrow gate; for the gate is wide and the road broad that leads to destruction, and those who enter through it are many. How narrow the gate and constricted the road that leads to life. And those who find it are few."

[@jseekell]

Thank you to Mike and his Scholarship! I was able to attend a community college, and get my class A CDL paid for with the WE Scholarship. Since getting my class A, my job opportunities exponentially increased and with that - higher pay! Still, It feels like a slap to the face, when you are offered pay for a position that took thousands of dollars of training and developing skills, that only pays a couple bucks more than starting wage at McDonalds (and with a lot more responsibility) . Just keep looking, doesn’t mean you should give up. Better opportunities always show themselves if you are looking for them.

[@whenhen]

My fiancée is an electrician apprentice and after three years the typical inside linemen makes less than what we pay our entry level IT techs or call center reps, who have far less education, and whose work is frankly much easier. It’s easy to see why people don’t want to do the trades when the typical pay for years isn’t enough to rent even a 1 bedroom apartment

[@kenny8351]

Corporations have destroyed the trucking industry! Glad I was able see the good trucking years, when unions still had a hold. And technology did'nt run drivers into the ground.

[@Lolatyou332]

I'm already a software engineer and do some of my own software licensing on the side, but I think housing repair costs are waaaay too expensive. I've been renovating my house for the past 2 years or so just doing all the work myself, I recommend everyone, even if you don't want to work in trades, to understanding building design and code so that you can save a TON of money. I water proofed my basement, did the framing, wiring/lighting, drywall, mudding/taping, and painting. It probably would of cost over 50k$ just to get someone else to do the work. I was able to do the work in a couple of months and my main problem was leveling the floor and logistics issues since I don't have my own truck to transport materials. I insulated my entire main floor and upstairs / drywall / sanded and refinished my floors, etc. I had someone quote to add a small bathroom in my upstairs, they wanted nearly 20k. It wouldn't even cost me 1,000$ in materials even with the cost of all the toilet / shower / sink fixtures to do it myself, the plumbing isn't even going to be difficult because the entire 4" vent stack is directly where I want to put the bathroom already. Additionally, I've noticed that hiring people to do the work almost always results in lower-quality work than if you just did it yourself. They have one guy at the top doing the quotes acting as the general contractor and then hire cheaper labor to do all the work. So you are paying a premium for someone who doesn't even care about doing the best job, but just doing a good enough job to not get call backs or to get fired. After I'm done renovating my house I am planning on learning metal work and I'm going to build my own car from scratch (planning on using an entire C8 corvette rear cross member / suspension with the engine / transmission). Now a days people will just go deep into debt and never bother to learn how to do anything themselves. They don't understand every dollar you spend isn't just 1$ from your gross income, that 1$ is likely worth close to 1.50$ of your gross income due to taxes. When you build things yourself you appreciate them more, rather than spending money you don't have on something that you will wish you could upgrade from in a couple of years.

[@TheOHenry666]

Yeah, also every other general contractor, electrician, or plumber seem to be scumbags who don't have their shit together and steal from you. (sorry to honest contractors who do fair and decent work). I also found it true, that honesty and good quality work isn't even guaranteed if you go with someone more expensive. Basically, it's a similar thing with car dealers.

[@atx4fun]

I have to wonder. Reading your comment, you complain about the cost of contractors and then complain about the lack of craftsmanship. You get what you pay for. IF you paid the money for a reputable contractor, the work would not be shoddy. I am always amused by people who shop for the lowest price available and then complain about getting cheap work. I used to be self employed in HVAC and I always told people, its alot cheaper to pay me the first time than the second time. There were many times that I would sit down and explain the cost, the reasons for the cost, what could be done cheap and what needed to be done right for the best system. I would have them go with someone else, then call me to fix the mess and complain because of the cost to undo the first contractors work before I could do it right the second time.

[@TheOHenry666]

@@atx4fun "You get what you pay for". I have not found this to be the rule, unfortunately. The profession is too filled up with people with low self-esteem, or just general fuckups and drug addicts. Every single time I have to call a contractor I am praying that they don't rip me off, or string the project along for months. Even when I pay top dollar, I have been ripped off in the past or the project took 3 times longer than it should have or etc. Holmes on Homes gives an accurate picture of the industry. Basically, on the moral level of car salesmen. That said, specific types of contractors like electric, plumbing, HVAC have less of this. It's the general contractors/handymen that more often than not are scum.

[@Lolatyou332]

​@@atx4fun "you get what you paid for" isn't relevant at all, unless you've done business with the person many times (almost never the case unless you are already old and have been living in the same house for 20 years), it doesn't matter. I always research going rates for work and because I understand all the work I know what to ask and what would need to be done. The thing is, unless the person quoting you is doing the work, they are going to hire cheap labors to actually do the work and maybe have someone with more experience to inspect it. Also you have to realize you aren't paying for the 'work' most of the time, you are paying for the 'time' that the person uses doing the work. So because someone thinks they are more valuable because they can do X task which takes more experience, they charge the rate to do X task. But the reality is they are going to do A, B, and C tasks 99% of the time which are usually braindead work. Electrical work is the easiest shit 99% of the time, but because they know the code regarding changing transformers / panels, they charge the going rate for that work even if they are doing something as simple as labeling all the circuits which is easy but time consuming. It comes down to, if you want something done right you really need to learn how to do it yourself. It's tedious learning things at first, but in the end you'll learn the skill and the knowledge will compound throughout your life, similar to investing.

[@xlerb2286]

We need to make the pools of Anthony's (meaning employers that treat folk fairly) bigger as well. I strongly believe in a good work ethic, that behaviors have consequences, etc. The phrase "an honest day's work for an honest day's pay" remains a good saying. But the actions of businesses have consequences as well. If a business treats employees poorly year after year it shouldn't be surprised when someday it doesn't find a long line of qualified applicants. I work for a place that treats people right, we're not showered with money, but compensation is in line with the jobs we do and how the company is doing, we're not jerked around on vacation, benefits, etc. And we have zero trouble hiring. Now the place down the street that doesn't treat people so well, I hear they've had job openings posted for months.

[@mothmanmothman4909]

I agree. Sometimes these guys forget they come up in a different time. I work in a factory. All these guys that are Dave's age were making the same and in some cases more 15 to 20 years ago than they are now. They still get COLA checks twice a year and they still get a decent pension. Anyone hired in the last dozen years doesn't get the pension or COLA. It took me personally 10 years to make 100 percent of what the legacy guy next to me was making. The latter only changed because we were bought out and they couldn't keep employees. Maybe this generation isn't lazy. Maybe they're tired of feeling cheated. I get it too. Who wants to slave away at a job for a fraction of the pay and benefits plus deal with the cost of living now days? I make out pretty good. I've gotta fight tooth and nail for it. But I'm the exception because of where I work within the plant. So don't think I'm crying personally. I'm just saying when I put myself in someone else's shoe that I get it.

[@karlstrauss2330]

We also have got to stop glamorizing corporate executives as rock stars. Especially when they make catastrophic mistakes that damage the company and get rewarded with golden parachutes as bribes to leave the company.

[@Kevin-oc2jb]

If we have such a large labor shortage then why do real wages keep falling?

[@highbrass3749]

Record immigration, offshoring jobs, and automation.

[@Kevin-oc2jb]

@@highbrass3749 Record low immigration?

[@highbrass3749]

@@Kevin-oc2jb record high. Check the numbers crossing the border.

[@PoppaLongroach]

I was a Ford tech all my life. I retired early and have my own 1 man shop now. I don't get food stamps or any of that stuff. I don't turn my income in or pay taxes I am a cash shop. Why should I use my skills working for someone else, making them money.....AND pay taxes to the government???? I'm an able bodied 51 year old man, I'm highly trained and skilled. Noone can come close to paying me what I make working 4 days a week for myself. It's that simple

[@stevewhite4231]

Start out with Love both these guys and appreciate them and what they say. Always worked hard I'm white collar 57. That being said when CEO salaries are 398 times average salary and when the company crashes the lower level people always take the hit first and have the worst severance packages but the high levels are getting golden parachutes regardless of performance. When i got my first job my health benefits were included. Now we have to pay (which hurts lower level people way higher than higher level people). Don't even get me started on Stock Buybacks instead of reinvesting in the company and the people. PS my daughter tried to get a job without a college degree and struggled to get someone to hire her for jobs that clearly didn't need a college degree. Don't even get me started on the pension liabilities. So many companies got rid of pensions (i'm not a huge fan of pensions)... they got those liabilities off the books but then replaced with an absolute joke of matching because it was so important to take care of the c-suites. So in a sentence or 2..its not totally out of line that people dont trust corporations anymore and dont want to work the long hours in hopes that they will take care of them later. Trying to get a Union job in the east is not so easy either.

[@ljkleinjan]

When I was younger I drove a used jalopy Pinto that I paid for, and worked full time. Now I'm 60, work a side gig at a drive thru coffee hut before my full time afternoon job. My best customers are teenagers buying $8 fancy lattes, Lotus, etc while driving pretty nice new rigs. We were not parented the same.

[@justing6594]

It's not a labor crisis. It's a bum wage crisis.

[@strategicsage7694]

But a lot of the jobs are not low-paying. That's a sensible argument when it comes to fast-food, retail, and similar entry-level jobs. It's not one when it comes to many of the other professions.

[@justing6594]

@@strategicsage7694 tell me what union jobs are in crisis. My union job has a waiting list. Then they have to hold lotterys because there's so many applicants.

[@strategicsage7694]

@@justing6594 Good for your union.; I'm not being flippant, that's an excellent situation for them to be in. Union jobs are not the only ones that pay well though. I can't answer your question in union-specific terms, but I can tell you that nurses are needed, computer programmers are needed, experienced plumbers make six figures a year, heavy machinery technicians/repairmen make very good money are in high demand, etc. I currently have a union job, although not a high paying one, in which I simply was hired because I was literally the only person in my area willing to work at the time required and several other applicants didn't even show up for their interviews. My experience of course doesn't invalidate yours, or vice-versa; the larger data sets are what matter and they say that some businesses, restaurants are a bad one right now, have not adjusted as they need to in delivering better pay. And that's on them. Other industries are paying well, and still can't find nearly enough employees. The Single Cause Fallacy does not apply here.

[@justing6594]

@@strategicsage7694 kool story bro.....

[@craigchipps30]

Lotta Love for Mike Rowe, I really enjoyed the Dirty jobs Series when he did it. I think we need a new series, MIKE ROWE MANAGING - base it around small business owners and the difficulty they have hiring, managing and maneuvering the applicant field. Show that degrees aren't necessary for high income jobs in America and what our Small business owners are looking for when it comes to the job.

[@smoothierip5693]

Is it ever the gov. Or the corporations fault?, Nope just the people with no means to fix any of it.

[@MiguelNoyola1]

Just food for thought. Think there’s also quite a few that are choosing to go another direction and start small business or work for themselves. As having some time in corporate America I understand why most are leaving.

[@karlstrauss2330]

Corporate America treats employees like cattle.

[@kayak_homie]

Lots of trade jobs posted, but not a lot of attractive wages to go with them. Gotta pay to play.

[@varg8696]

Why pay when you can invite the 3rd world to do it 😏

[@garywestenberger3336]

The only real reality show ever.

[@John3.36]

Boomer need Z man to work hard so boomer can make more big money on investments. So work hard!

[@seankelly819]

Exactly

[@visick7241]

They are scared for retirement because not enough people are working. They care nothing for the young.

[@Dialogos1989]

Dave might have to give up his lake house. Oh no!

[@paulbomberger9686]

Great discussion!! It’s time for America to go back to work a!

[@yamchayaku]

If you are aware about the CEOs of Clearlink and MillerKnoll, you'll see why employees stopped giving a sh*t about their companies. They're clearly not valued and treated like children. You have to be blind to not see that cultures like this are primarily the reason why employees get detached... If you have a fair paying job, save up as much as you can and gtfo out of the work force ASAP. Don't wait till your body gets broken before you do and don't fall for the "feeling proud" of what you do garbage. Businesses don't see you as an essential part of their team and they will ALWAYS see you as replaceable. Treat your job as it always SHOULD be... A means to an end. Once you meet your goal, stop contributing your services to the baby grinder.

[@jeffsnider3588]

Part of our problem with skilled labor is K-12 and even College so much focused on sports and not offering anything related to technical skills. I'm a retired Engineer and hated high school and really did not know what Engineering was until I became one. I weld, machine and run my farm now that I have retired from Engineering Manufacturing and stay busy.

[@firefly9838]

As a 25 year old who plays Halo I'm glad I piss you off Dave. Get that blood boiling. One step closer to death getting you before it gets me.

[@pro-seriesfabrication3810]

The guy is worth several hundred million. I'm sure he can use some $100 bills to wipe his tears from you sitting on your ass all day

[@Dialogos1989]

@@pro-seriesfabrication3810 all that money won’t buy him more time on earth.

[@jfalbo]

Mike Rowe for Education Secretary!!

[@cythe7614]

I am 19, and i think it boils down to what peoples first work experiences are with places or companies who see their employees as numbers, massive corporate entities that expect the work worth 20 an hour for 10 an hour, and sometimes its not even about the pay, they just wanna be treated like people, not numbers or tools, thats how i felt working at walmart. They dont give a damn about their workers, they care about pushing their profits and bonuses up, while pushing more and more work on you, without giving you a bonus or pay raise (only managers get bonuses at walmart and its based on how well their teams are, so your hard work compensates a person who makes easily 3-4 times the money, least thats what i was told and read). it makes younger people think thats how everything is and think that the people before them just dealt with it to live, and people for the most part now arent gonna tolerate that, ive watched the nicest people ive ever met be turned into mindless zombies by how they where treated by a work place. If these companies realized they need to treat people like people and not numbers, not tools, tools can be replaced, good working people can't. Though im 19, walmart was my 2nd job, and im looking for my 3rd, i just want to be treated like i belong and that my work is appreciated, but finding that in a workplace that also pays enough to live a good life is very hard, least around where i live it is

[@XennialGuy]

Those are nice things to wish for. But as you will soon learn, those are wishes you may never see come true. There is no loyalty within most companies, and you will be treated like a number. Corporate politics and shareholder bottom line will always take precedence over you the little guy. Beloved companies like Google have just proved this. You just need to go out there and work, it's a job, it pays your bills, you don't have to love doing it, but you don't have to hate doing it either. If you don't like your job, get another job, go work for yourself. But you have to work.

[@JonyRotten]

You bring up valid points, and I don't mean to sound harsh but that's why it's called work. If your frustration leads you to toward self-employment/entrepreneurship then good. If your frustration leads you to higher education then good. If your frustration leads you into a field you enjoy then good. If the frustrations of hundreds of thousands out of the workforce leads to businesses changing then good. What if it doesn't? What are you going to do?

[@Mavericks90]

Quit looking for a job to appreciate you.... Don't like the place, move on and find better. Stay motivated to move up and build experience, you do that and the price tag for your services will go up. I went from working at Walmart making $8 in 2010 when I was 20 to making $27 at 30. Now that it's hard to find help I'm making over $30 now at 33....

[@cythe7614]

@@JonyRotten find what pays the most that doesn't make me outright miserable, I took the job at Walmart knowing id probably hate it, but I needed money and at the time it was my best option, I did it for as long as I could stomach it. I have money to last me a good while, doesn't mean im just sitting on my ass being ultra lazy, I've been looking for a new job since I quit, im still working on my driving license which is going much faster now without a fulltime job, not having my full license is the limiting factor in jobs, all good jobs are out of town and my parents are only willing to ride with me within city limits. im working on it, that's the best I can do and say

[@valiantvigilante]

As many others have pointed out in this comments section, to anyone paying attention and adequately informed about this topic, this is not a worker problem. This is an employer problem. Full stop. For at least 25 years or more, corporations have tried to offshore jobs as well as offshore the quality of those jobs. They've tried to convert first world wages compensation and benefits into those of the third world, while still maintaining first world mega profits and endless money wasted on fattening the already obese cats in management and the C-suite who do no real work and don't directly provide the products and services that make a company successful. If anything is going to de-motivate the majority of employees who are doing the real work, making money for the company while a relatively small number of people at said company see real meaningful benefit will do it. This is patently obvious, and undebatable. We have been living in an age of unmatched and untold success and riches...for an ever shrinking number of people. That is not a communist/anti-capitalist position. There is nothing capitalist about a minority of people benefitting from the majority's work. It's common sense. These people and organizations who have been amassing obscene amounts of wealth over the years have been utterly blasphemous when it comes to identifying what the problems are. It's an insult to blame your workers who are making you rich while you sit back and enjoy the benefits of being a lord in a feudalist system. And that's what this system has become for a long time now...feudalism. It has no resemblance to capitalism or anything else that is sane and healthy. And we're tired of it.

[@joshpratt5519]

I like Mike Rowe. But he wouldnt take the jobs he speaks of. Its great when its for other people.

[@seankelly819]

Good point