I think the American work ethic has greatly changed and it may never be the same. But again, maybe I just don't understand things. --66.30.xx.xxx

Laziness, plus people being paid to stay home. Plus all the bra nd on money being thrown around, a lot of people are fixing up their houses. My good contractors are slammed! They have been slammed. I have been helping my one electrician lately because he’s so backed up with work. Window world that we usually use is out 3 to 4 months. We have been doing windows ourselves. DIY wins again. --24.152.xxx.xx

This is good reason to push young people into the trades to start. An organized plumber or electrician or drywaller could rival the income of a doctor or lawyer these days. Possibly easily surpass. --24.152.xxx.xx

Add into that material shortages and staffing shortages. I had to wait several weeks for trex to be delivered this summer. Also, our HVAC company (top $ big guys)who handles all of our furnaces are booked out six weeks for maintenance. Usually all my systems are serviced by October. I have some that aren’t even going to be done until next month. --24.152.xxx.xx

It's very frustrating. --68.229.xxx.xxx

I just texted one of my go-to roofers, he’s up to $500/sq for tear off and re-roof for shingles. Owens Corning. He said he’s doing 1-2 roofs a week and people are paying his prices. --24.152.xxx.xx

Governments listened to the extreme left wing advocacy groups where the extended unemployment benefits are damaging to the overall economy where now is the time to end those generous benefits then that force people to go out then find employment. Suppose that free for all then what would happen in a town or city if no one showed up work. In a third world country it is work or get nothing. --99.236.xxx.xxx

Aside from employers having a hard time finding help and supply shortages (cream cheeses is running out because they can't get the packaging) covid created this remodeling wave as eveyone moved to new digs or wanted their digs updated since they were there all the time. Contractors not returning calls is nothing new. When they are busy, they don't have to. Asphalt companies got hammered by all the rain in July. Their workers are free now though. My local news had a segment about how if you didn't schedule your snow blower for service in Oct, it wouldn't get service now. One guy's shop had 100 service tickets and was only talking to people who purchased from him. --24.194.xxx.xx

This is what I don't get: people won't learn the trades, which pay well, yet they demand a "living wage" for unskilled cashier jobs. --72.188.xxx.xxx

Piece meal-ing it saved us 40-50%... --47.155.xx.xxx

I think it has all been caused by "the little rocket man". Back when the gov. wanted to dispose of native americans the gov. used smallpox, on purpose. This is no different. It was certainly caused by someone and it is working better than any war could. --67.22.x.xx

His DAD taught him all of his skills which was passed down from HIS dad. Seeing that the gov't and the women's lib movement has gone to great lengths to eradicate the role of fathers in the home, I don't see a ending to this. --72.231.xxx.xx

We see lots of male nurses but almost no women in the trades. And when they are there it is usually part of a husband/wife team. --72.188.xxx.xxx

Exactly MAP, that’s why you have to live the old ways. Practicality. Common sense. Tradition. Just because they aren’t main stream these days does it mean they aren’t needed. People who can maintain them will be invaluable in the future. Some people can’t even cook beyond a microwave. --24.152.xxx.xx

J, because it’s “equality” until it comes right down to it. It’s equal pay for equal work until you have to dig down 2 feet through frozen dirt and pop the lid off the septic tank to pump it out. Then it’s not so much about fairness. --24.152.xxx.xx

J & MAP, Let’s not forget how overemphasizing the build up of women and the tearing down of men aids in the destruction of the nuclear family as well. That’s a whole ‘nother topic. My boys get “don’t be wimpy cuz the world will try to push you around when you’re older” and my girls get “you need to learn these things, cuz your babies will need them some day”. Yes, I am a feminists worst nightmare. --24.152.xxx.xx

--72.188.xxx.xxx

J, I’m sure they do. I’m talking more in the public sector. --24.152.xxx.xx

I remember my dad railing against those TV ads that make men and husbands look like fools...and that was decades ago. I think that stuff started in the '70s. --72.188.xxx.xxx

J, you are probably right. 50 years of weakening the American male and look around. This is what we get. Soy boys and man buns. --24.152.xxx.xx

J, I often joke with my wife and tell her when the Covid restrictions “officially” end, I am going to make her start complying with them. She must wear a mask in public, stand where I tell her in the stores. She can’t visit her family or friends until I give her permission. It’s accepted now by many, but if I kept it going one day longer than the media permits it, I would instantly became a toxic male. Interesting how that works, isn’t it? Justified now, but abusive later. What’s the saying? Oh what tangled webs we weave? --24.152.xxx.xx

You're right about tradesmen making as much as doctors. At the rate it's going tradesmen will be a new rich class. --75.7.xx.xx

Richard, one of the guys I use and helped get started made $500,000 last year. When he first started with me, he was driving a rotted out Jeep Grand Cherokee that barely ran. He would do anything for me, fill the dumpster, demo nasty drywall, rip out urine soaked carpets. Now he runs his own crew of 8-10 guys and is so busy, I can barely get him. Good for him. --24.152.xxx.xx

I asked and got his card. Didn't need anyone immediately, but will have it for a couple upcoming moves. Wish me luck! --176.113.xx.xxx

As for women in the trades, the company that does my painting is owned by a woman and she and her kids do the painting. Not the best painter I've ever used, but she shows up on schedule and works. --76.178.xxx.xxx

What are all those people who won't work doing for income? --76.178.xxx.xxx

Guess not that much thought went into what happens after the fact though. --24.101.xxx.xxx

Ray, the government never seems to be aware of the unintended consequences of their actions --107.141.xx.xxx

If McDonalds is offering $21.00/hour, I will go down and apply for that job. Not long ago, the only employers here that were paying anything over $18.00 were union type jobs. --71.207.xxx.x

NE, I worked with volunteers doing landscape construction for 20 years. The women were ALWAYS more eager, had a get 'er done attitude and did the hard work. They guys would do it but they had less gumption and sometimes less determination. It comes down to, women care about things and men don't. --24.194.xxx.xx

Landscaping is making things pretty. A lot different than snaking a blocked drain line that splashes back in your face. --174.198.xx.xx

But poop? Women deal with poop all their lives, from pet poop to baby poop to adult parent poop. Cleaning up after a toddler who decorated his entire crib, the wall, his hair and face with his own poop ON A REGULAR BASIS: priceless. He did grow up to be an artist though so that's something. :) Poop's nothing. --50.82.xxx.xxx

Guv mint is handing out $300 per child to the "right" people. They know who is R or D and who voted R or D. I had a call from a newspaper who looked up my voting and wanted to know why I stopped contributing to the T campaign. I stopped because Winred had put the donation amount on my credit card 4 time and used up what I had budgeted for that. Everyone knows how we vote. So when the guv mint hands out rent payments, or welfare or unemployment they can skip the people who are Rs or who voted R. But they pay it out to the D's and if there are a couple of kids pulling in $300 a month per head, you don't think the dad or mom is going to go to work do you? And I am sure they lie about how many kids. What a boondoggle. And then of course they are all smoking the legal weed. --108.24.xx.xx

Working a no-brainer, base level job has some appeal. Why bother putting in more effort, time, and taking responsibility when you can just coast? My guess is the trades are starting to feel similar: why go out there and grind 60-80 hours a week and have upset people pestering you all the time when you can just cherry pick the jobs you want and live okay on a moderate income? --108.230.xxx.xx

Changing a poopy diaper vs crawling through a dirt crawl space on your belly in the freezing winter time to snake a line plugged with tampons, poo and chicken bones is a different story. But you’re welcome to join me! --24.152.xxx.xx

For the record, NE, I spent the better part of an afternoon last week in a crawl space running new plumbing lines, because my regular guy couldn't fit. Fortunately there was minimal spillage from the lines I cut out! I think the fact that not many women choose to snake plumbing lines filled with disgusting unmentionables has a lot to say about their common sense. --174.96.xx.xxx

Well done Robin. But it doesn’t mean that the man is stupid or lacks common sense because he will do it either. --174.198.xx.xx

So yeah, in this day and age, we've still got plenty of gender (self) segregation. --75.129.xxx.xxx

Hollis, there is definitely a generation that doesn't want to work for the 'man' and didn't drink the homeownership koolaid. To them life needs balance and they are not honing the grindstone like those before them. They don't want to be another cog in the machine. --24.194.xxx.xx

There are businesses advertising on the television looking for workers. --76.178.xxx.xxx

Although, I confess to a bit of surprise when I went into the local restaurant supply who had been advertising for months to find workers and they are now fully staffed and all the workers are female. So maybe women are more willing to work, even at a job where the requirement is to be able to lift 50 pounds. --76.178.xxx.xxx

It's very hard to find people. I lucked up and found a guy the other day when he was working across the street on a renovation. He was looking for work because the investor he was previously working for is starting to slow down. I put him on a renovation of a small bathroom in the rooming house immediately and plan on continuing to work with him on other work just to keep him busy and available to me. --209.122.xx.xxx

I disagree with the statement made that landscaping is dangerous work. It is hard work but no more dangerous than many other occupations. --172.58.xxx.xxx

My point is is that they aren’t going to line up for the less glamorous work even though it may pay more. --174.198.xx.xx

J, I agree that landscaping is not dangerous per se but I was almost run over by a car that crashed through a fence and a bullet whizzed by me and hit a woman 15 feet away. --24.194.xxx.xx

J, I am also discouraged about the lack of females working in the trades. My daughter is 23 and has training in woodworking and construction. She was hired on a construction team and she and the only other female on the crew were assigned to sweep floors daily. Even the other males didn't understand why their time was wasted sweeping floors. After a few months my daughter got discouraged and left the job because, even though she was being paid the same as the male employees, she wanted to get more actual construction experience to further her career. The trades need all the workers they can get, male and female, and hopefully the norm is not to have those interested in the field to be pushed out as she has been. --70.184.xxx.xx