Why doesn't he have these jobs listed on his website? I have 2 friends who are unemployed one with a newborn who would be more then interested in those welding jobs he mentions. Does anyone have more information? Do you have to own your own gear? How much is school? Is there a lot of travel?
A CNN Viewer Has Questions for Mike Rowe
51–60 of 230 posts
Re: A CNN Viewer Has Questions for Mike Rowe
#52Couldn't read the whole thing. I might actually agree with her but the questioner is strawman-level superficial and trite.
I can only imagine how frustrated Mike Rowe was answering those questions. It's a shame he's too tactful to scream "Maybe if you stop blaming literally everything on the political party you weren't raised as, you could spend a minute focusing on real ideas for solving problems!"
Not sure why it should bother us that a basic cable celebrity is getting frustrated with questions. It's not like people are asking Andrew Wiles to answer long division problems here. Low-to-middlebrow amateur political economy, by contrast, seems pretty solidly within the pay grade of a spokes-actor like Rowe.
Re: A CNN Viewer Has Questions for Mike Rowe
#53He's spot on. We Americans focus so very very often on how we disagree rather than how we agree. If you look at both parties, they broadly agree on so many things. Instead we focus on unimportant social issues, shaving a couple percent off government spending, and so on. The educational system we have now is largely a scam, it promises that if you spend tens of thousands (or more) dollars on a 4 year degree, you'd ha…
I kind of choked on his message of tolerance. We says we should stop talking about how we disagree, then he goes on a tirade against all the lazy, spoiled, stupid people. "We shouldn't disagree on party, but, if you don't agree with me and the GOP, you're a stupid, lazy slob!"
He writes very well, but he's still spouting right-wing, pseudo-libertarian nonsense.
Re: A CNN Viewer Has Questions for Mike Rowe
#54He's spot on. We Americans focus so very very often on how we disagree rather than how we agree. If you look at both parties, they broadly agree on so many things. Instead we focus on unimportant social issues, shaving a couple percent off government spending, and so on. The educational system we have now is largely a scam, it promises that if you spend tens of thousands (or more) dollars on a 4 year degree, you'd ha…
Mike Rowe is the bomb. He also has an a classic TED talk http://www.ted.com/talks/mike_rowe_celebrates_dirty_jobs.htm...
Re: A CNN Viewer Has Questions for Mike Rowe
#55Can someone American explain what the core of the issue is for people like me?
American culture leads kids to believe that trades jobs have low social standing, so they borrow obscene amounts of money to go to college because they think it will get them a good job where they do paperwork for lots of money.
Instead they wind up in debt working in an unskilled retail sales or service job, or just unemployed. If they had gone to a legitimate trade school[1] or even just an entry-level manual labor job that trains you they'd be much better off.
[1] most of the trade schools in America are outright scams, signing up people for government tuition loans then giving them garbage education. Some of them are not, and anyone who graduates from them will have valuable skills that can support a family. Have fun finding out which ones, 17 year olds!
Re: A CNN Viewer Has Questions for Mike Rowe
#56I hadn't heard about Mike Rowe until he started his program to popularize the trades. It's an interesting perspective, and I don't really have a beef about it. But let me make a few factual points, borne out of my experience and the experience I have in growing up around tradespeople and being related to tradespeople. * The trades are physically hard labor edit: It might not be clear what this entails, as perhaps not…
> The trades do not pay well until/unless you specialize into certain areas. A problem that makes this particularly bad is that many now don't pay at all until you manage to become qualified as a high-skill specialist. A lot of the low-end work has been automated, which has gutted the traditional pipeline where you start with low-skill jobs and move upwards. It's not just that low-skill welding jobs (say) don't pay w…
>> If you really want to DIY a trade without a college degree, I'd recommend learning PHP or web design before I'd recommend trying to break into welding.
Isn't that have the exact same 'problem', where only high-skill developers are paid $40/hour and a beginner is going to have trouble finding work and when he does it will only pay $12/hour?
Re: A CNN Viewer Has Questions for Mike Rowe
#57On education, Mike Rowe is correct, it's not in the government's hands what the price of education is. Now the government could choose to subsidize higher education fees more, but that would cost a lot of money so its a difficult choice to make.
The problem with all discussion on jobs is that they are treated as a special kind of market where free market principles don't apply. Rowe doesn't even go as far as suggesting letting the market determine who works where.
Cracking down on illegal immigration would help deal with the lack of jobs at the low end of the market, unfortunately hypocritical politicians find enforcing the law to be an untenable platform.
In general though, jobs should come from having skills that are useful, not protectionism. We do need to be training people to fill the new class of technical positions and this includes programmers, even though it will lower the salaries of existing programmers.
Re: A CNN Viewer Has Questions for Mike Rowe
#58He's spot on. We Americans focus so very very often on how we disagree rather than how we agree. If you look at both parties, they broadly agree on so many things. Instead we focus on unimportant social issues, shaving a couple percent off government spending, and so on. The educational system we have now is largely a scam, it promises that if you spend tens of thousands (or more) dollars on a 4 year degree, you'd ha…
I kind of choked on his message of tolerance. We says we should stop talking about how we disagree, then he goes on a tirade against all the lazy, spoiled, stupid people. "We shouldn't disagree on party, but, if you don't agree with me and the GOP, you're a stupid, lazy slob!" He writes very well, but he's still spouting right-wing, pseudo-libertarian nonsense.
The pseudo-libertarian nonsense is unpleasant for me, too, but I see great value in cheer leading for blue collar work.
I don't know of anyone else saying "Blue collar work is an honorable thing to do, and you're a fool to judge someone for doing it." At least no one with as high a profile as MR.
Re: A CNN Viewer Has Questions for Mike Rowe
#59Earlier quoted context omitted.
For a few of us, it reads as him basically blaming them for not taking the jobs he references time and again. Maybe that is unfair, but it does echo in the rhetoric to me.
I think he'd be more likely to agree that people just don't know, as in there is an information problem.
This doesn't fit with his rhetoric.
"Doesn’t it make sense to fill those positions before we start demanding that companies create more opportunities that people don’t aspire to?"
"And no matter where I went, the biggest challenge was always the same – finding people who were willing to learn a new skill and work hard."
"Because virtually every single trainee decided it was just too damn hot. I’m not even kidding. They just didn’t want to work in the heat. And so … they didn’t."
Re: A CNN Viewer Has Questions for Mike Rowe
#60Why doesn't he have these jobs listed on his website? I have 2 friends who are unemployed one with a newborn who would be more then interested in those welding jobs he mentions. Does anyone have more information? Do you have to own your own gear? How much is school? Is there a lot of travel?
He does: http://www.mikeroweworks.com/job-site/
Thanks, clicking around I eventually found this website too http://search.jobsinwelding.com/jobseeker/search/results/
But on both of these there are very few entry level jobs and the one I did find that actually listed the salary was only $22k a year!