Young people don’t want construction jobs • Hacker News Board

Re: Young people don’t want construction jobs

#91

Post by null000 » Thu, Aug 02, 2018, 5:22 PM UTC

conanbatt wrote: post #89

bobthepanda wrote: post #41

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Depends on the market you're in and what you can do. > A crane operator in New York City earns $82.15 an hour in base pay and benefits, according to the Engineer News-Record, a trade publication. That's well's above the $66 an hour he would earn in Chicago or the $39 an hour in Washington, D.C. > But the real reason New York crane operators and other operating engineers earn such big salaries is overtime and benefits…

Thats unions, but such thing also reduces the amount of housing and construction you can make.

If it can't be built with labor compensated by living wages, it probably doesn't need to be built all that bad...

Re: Young people don’t want construction jobs

#92

Post by johnvega » Thu, Aug 02, 2018, 5:26 PM UTC

berbec wrote: post #63

johnvega wrote: post #33

3D printing construction tech should be a great way to offset this. Also great for space explorations.

Scaling 3D printers to the size and cost require for usefulness is an interesting idea. Otherwise, you're talking about a Lego house.

You're right short term within 5 years, but 10 years out, technology is growing exponentially

Re: Young people don’t want construction jobs

#93

Post by _rpd » Thu, Aug 02, 2018, 5:53 PM UTC

berbec wrote: post #63

johnvega wrote: post #33

3D printing construction tech should be a great way to offset this. Also great for space explorations.

Scaling 3D printers to the size and cost require for usefulness is an interesting idea. Otherwise, you're talking about a Lego house.

16 House 3D Printers Available in 2018

https://www.aniwaa.com/house-3d-printer-construction/

Re: Young people don’t want construction jobs

#94

Post by zaccus » Thu, Aug 02, 2018, 6:12 PM UTC

mozumder wrote: post #66

crooked-v wrote: post #2

So pay them more.

and increase inflation, punishing the poor and elderly on fixed income the most?

Inflation happens anyway. Unless wages rise faster than inflation, you can't really argue they drive it.

Re: Young people don’t want construction jobs

#95

Post by zaccus » Thu, Aug 02, 2018, 6:16 PM UTC

mozumder wrote: post #69

CydeWeys wrote: post #14

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If there isn't a market for it then there isn't a shortage of labor -- the correct equilibrium point has been found. And yet, they're claiming a shortage. They want to eat their cake and have it too.

And this is how you cause an economy to collapse, by raising inflation. The market doesn’t know what’s good for it. It’s only interest is the immediate short term.

Inflation provides an incentive to not hoard cash. As long as it's under control, it's not a bad thing.

Re: Young people don’t want construction jobs

#96

Post by TheCoelacanth » Thu, Aug 02, 2018, 6:26 PM UTC

chuckgreenman wrote: post #61

I love all these "Young people don't want $job_type any more". And then go on to talk about how the jobs don't pay enough, or aren't attracting talent because it's not interesting. Over the past couple of decades the percentage of young people getting degrees has swelled, we've been encouraging everyone to get a degree. Did we expect people to remain in low paying jobs when they can do something else? Those student l…

Why don't young people want to take difficult and dangerous jobs for 1.5x minimum wage? I can't figure it out.

Re: Young people don’t want construction jobs

#97

Post by TYPE_FASTER » Thu, Aug 02, 2018, 6:31 PM UTC

Bluecobra wrote: post #73

learc83 wrote: post #22

What's the endgame for construction workers? Everyone can't move into management. Many people's bodies can't handle that kind of manual labor for 40 years, and even if they could construction jobs tend to be insecure. If you want people to make those trade offs you have to pay more. This kind of rhetoric from companies drives me nuts. They push to remove regulations, but when the free market says they have to pay mor…

Maybe it would be something like Tesla's model (highly automated assembly line) but for homes. Manufactured homes have been around for a long time but it's not cool. I would buy a eco-friendly modular home if were awesome.

We've been looking at modular, for example:

https://huntingtonhomesvt.com/portfolio/

https://huntingtonhomesvt.com/featured-home/sylvan-knoll-1/

Going from an old house built in 1890 to one built in 1980 with 2x6 walls and modern insulation has been nice. I'd like to go the next step, and homes like the one above combine a nice interior with great efficiency.

Going from a 30yr old furnace and standard 10yr water heater to a highly efficient single tankless system was a great step up, both from the energy efficiency and creature comfort perspectives.

Re: Young people don’t want construction jobs

#98

Post by conanbatt » Thu, Aug 02, 2018, 6:39 PM UTC

null000 wrote: post #91

conanbatt wrote: post #89

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Thats unions, but such thing also reduces the amount of housing and construction you can make.

If it can't be built with labor compensated by living wages, it probably doesn't need to be built all that bad...

Say the homeless and the 30 year-olds living with their parents and the unemployed or workers earning less than unionized workers.

Re: Young people don’t want construction jobs

#99

Post by conanbatt » Thu, Aug 02, 2018, 6:40 PM UTC

zaccus wrote: post #95

mozumder wrote: post #69

Earlier quoted context omitted.

And this is how you cause an economy to collapse, by raising inflation. The market doesn’t know what’s good for it. It’s only interest is the immediate short term.

Inflation provides an incentive to not hoard cash. As long as it's under control, it's not a bad thing.

If I tell you im burning your wallet at the end of the day, will your spending be better or worse?

We can test this :)

Re: Young people don’t want construction jobs

#100

Post by megaman22 » Thu, Aug 02, 2018, 6:59 PM UTC

learc83 wrote: post #22

What's the endgame for construction workers? Everyone can't move into management. Many people's bodies can't handle that kind of manual labor for 40 years, and even if they could construction jobs tend to be insecure. If you want people to make those trade offs you have to pay more. This kind of rhetoric from companies drives me nuts. They push to remove regulations, but when the free market says they have to pay mor…

Most of the people I know that did construction worked like dogs for six months of the year on the road, then took most of the rest of the year off. These were mostly workers for largish construction contractors, so they would go into a plant during the biannual shut downs, tear the thing apart and put it back together over the course of three weeks or a month, then move onto the next job. They tended to work a lot of hours, since it's a very tight schedule with deadlines - it costs tens or hundreds of thousands of dollars every day these kinds of plants aren't operating - so they'd rack up a ton of overtime, plus living on the road with housing taken care of or a per diem. It's not really that bad a gig, especially if you can live somewhere cheap the rest of the time. In a lot of ways it's very similar to people I know who are merchant marine.

After a few years they tended to have specialized into something, so they'd get a more regular job or go into business for themselves.