Where Have All The Tradesmen Gone

 The American Dream has always been about owning a home and providing a family life we can be proud of. College educations have become more and more the focus of our youth even though many do not have an interest in a field that requires college or the grade point average to achieve funding or success in college. The trades have been suffering dramatically as the focus has been on a higher education. More than 60% of our trade workforce is over the age of 45. Who's going to build and maintain the dream we all cherish?

Our general Contractors now average 58 years old in America. Who's going to build our dream homes? Our economy depends on small business yet the builders who craft their stores and businesses are disappearing to retirement.

Heavy equipment operators who build our roads, bridges and subdivisions are suffering from the same malady. The maintenance workers who keep all of the transportation we rely on for materials and goods to be transported are equally suffering. Likewise for most of the trades required to continue the dream for our future.

The craftsmen who build the equipment that powers our auto and other vital industries are a disappearing breed. Mexico and other countries have enticed and trained their youth to become a success in those fields. That is our success and we can reclaim it by encouraging our youth to pursue it.

We need to encourage those who are not really interested in a higher education to pursue trade schools that will fill the void in these jobs that are essential to our future. It would be helpful if our schools would focus programs that provide training in these fields along with opportunities for the students to enter the work force at the age of 17 to gain practical experience and training. These programs were available in most schools in the sixty's but have been steadily disappearing.

Executive and desk jobs have been romanticized and even become a signal to society that we are making progress in educational endeavors. Meanwhile we have high school graduates who cannot or do not want to enter college, electing to become proficient at gaming rather than enter a work force unprepared and untrained to make a living.

Real leaders comprise about 2% of our population. Let them lead. For those who do not fit into those numbers there is a place where only they can shine. It is in the trades where we desperately need them. We can all be proud when our sons and daughter's complete their first home, road, bridge or HVAC repair. We should encourage them to pursue their real dreams even it does not include college. We need them to keep the future of our dreams alive and functioning!