Also, the government no longer regulates which trades are in demand so colleges pump put hundreds of tradies and it pushes the wages down like crazy.
If you need the government to artificially restrict the supply of the thing people pay you to do, you're probably not as special as you think you are. Immigrants stealing your job is different from your fellow countrymen; the government is supposed to protect you from the deleterious impact of shitstain pakis invading your country, but it has the same obligation to you as it does to everyone else in Canada. I have little sympathy for anyone arguing "I'm poor because the government won't let me set up a cartel!"; the milk and egg board can go fuck itself too.
Plumbers and electricians never should have been making $120k to begin with. It's not flipping burgers, but it's not rocket science either. People like Mike Rowe spent decades telling people to go into the trades; you can't complain that they've now listened. We've had 10 years of memes and smug pipefitters and HVAC guys going "You got $150k in college debt; meanwhile, I make $120k sticking pipes together at age 19"--you probably should have known that supply was going to balance demand eventually and adjusted your plans accordingly.
A good job where you can afford the roof over your head gives you meaning.
A decidedly millennial concept. You aren't owed "meaning" by your employer. Do you think the serfs grinding out paltry wheat harvests found their jobs meaningful? Do you think the guys on the Model T assembly line found their jobs meaningful? Every living creature on this earth has to work to survive; you aren't special.
I don't feel bad that you've voluntarily decided to exchange your time for money and now you wish you could spend your time doing something else. We all do that; work isn't always fun or fulfilling. A tiny percentage of us get to do something we truly love and be successful at it. More often than not, those who enjoy their work have learned to enjoy it, because they couldn't survive any other way.
We seem to have arrived in a place where no one is willing to grind anymore, under the mistaken belief that previous generations were just handed their boomer jobs no questions asked. It's important to remember that the Boomers are at the end of a 40+ year career, so of course they make more than you do. That's how tenure works...and guess what, Bob may not know how to open MS Word, but he can probably tell you every facet of that inventory system that was installed in 1987. He probably knows every part number off by heart. If Bob wasn't useful, your employer would have hired 3 of you instead of retaining 1 of Bob.
If you hate your job, get a new one; it's the easiest economy in decades to do that in. If you don't have the skills to secure something you enjoy, I sympathize, but it's also the easiest time in history to learn those skills, for free, on the Internet.
Everyone who even marginally agrees with this philosophy needs to give their balls a tug, if you can still find them.
www.reddit.com
