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To reach across the divide for a handshake:
This is something Biden and many progressives have been pushing for,
Free community college/trade schools: https://www.whitehouse.gov/briefing-room/statements-releases/2024/06/21/readout-of-white-house-meeting-on-expanding-access-to-free-community-college/
Advanced manufacturing training and jobs in the US: https://www.whitehouse.gov/briefing-room/statements-releases/2024/01/23/fact-sheet-biden-harris-administration-highlights-new-commitments-toward-equitable-workforce-development-in-advanced-manufacturing/
And even pushing paid apprenticeships: https://www.whitehouse.gov/briefing-room/statements-releases/2024/03/06/fact-sheet-president-biden-signs-executive-order-scaling-and-expanding-the-use-of-registered-apprenticeships-in-industries-and-the-federal-government-and-promoting-labor-management-forums/
And specifically in shipbuilding and getting the workforce where it needs, both in private ships and the military, the admin is moving in the right direction, opening new shipbuilding yards, getting people to train up, and putting in ship orders https://www.whitehouse.gov/briefing-room/statements-releases/2024/07/29/fact-sheet-white-house-announces-new-private-sector-investments-in-american-maritime-industries-due-to-biden-harris-administration-efforts/
Getting more manufacturing back in the US, becoming more self sufficient, and having dignified employment are all my goals as a progressive too, and I’m really happy there’s movement from the current administration in their areas (despite complaints in other areas)
(I used all Whitehouse links as a from-the-horses mouth source, but there are plenty of articles about each)
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I fully agree, companies whine and complain that they can’t find any skilled labor without ever acknowledging that it’s their job to train and take risks on the newbies. Instead they just want the perfect candidate for their specialized position to be gift wrapped and at “market rate” and desperate enough to go through multiple interview stages.
Even in my job, I’ve asked over and over for them to hire a junior/apprentice that I can train up from the beginning on our complex system and work, but they just want to hire short term contractors instead. We end spending the same amount of time training them as a junior, but then 6-12 months later when their contract is up, they go off somewhere else and we have to do it all over again and never build on our foundations.
I was hired as a contractor, and stuck through until I was an employee, and I’m now 5 years in, but it was not easy. It was essentially a two year paid interview.
And most don’t make it that way. If I was hired as a real employee as a junior, and able to train my way up with the masters of my company, who knows where I’d be and how not-delayed and not-over-budget our project would be.
When I talk to business about it, they moan how employees and contractors come from different budgets and the stock market favors contractors so their hands are tied, and I call bullshit on that. It’s bad business and the solution is obvious - train up the workforce you want to have.
It’s like buying a good pair of boots once, or buying cheap boots every year.
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An educated population is the only way we can compete on the world stage.
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They don’t vote against their best interests.
Do you think high skill trades aren’t an education? I don’t think they are saying anything against a traditional university education, but more supporting skilled trades as well.
My mistake, they did say “instead of free college”. I think we could probably support both if we raised the standards a bit.
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Well we spent 30 years valuing college… How did that work out?
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Anyone who had a social security and blood pulse could go to college and that’s what happened.
1/3 failed out,1/3 doing jobs which don’t require a college degree.
1/3 benefited to varying degree.
Do you think we needed note millennials in college.
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No, we poured tons of government money into making college accessible. I went to college on loans designed for that purpose.
We valued college and we backed the notion with hard cash. Well, with forced loans.
It drove the price of college through the roof though. Just like housing, just like medicine, just like all the other things we provide government money to help people get.
It’s a consistent pattern. People don’t trust the free market, something is deemed too important to let the market handle, so we pump government money into purchasing assistance and, predictably to anyone who’s taken macroeconomics 101, the prices of those things skyrocket and the availability drops.
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Why shouldn’t we have both?
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Hi Boba
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While I am not a conservative, I may agree with you strongly on education. College degrees are massively overinflated in value and propped up by government-backed student debt. We need to get away from this idea that everyone needs to go to college to secure their best life because we critically need these trade skills in the economy, in conjunction with policies that support these workers with fair compensation for their high technical skill.
This system we have today cannot possibly be sustainable.
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Personally I’d prefer if we didn’t have to hyperfocus on one specific skill, where demand could suddenly dry up at any moment for any number of reasons, to have to support ourselves.
A huge factor in our stagnation is that we promise people stability if they do this one thing… then we have to cater to that one thing for the next fifty years because they now have no other way to support themselves. So we keep pandering to coal miners and corn growers and whatever else.
Education should not be tied this closely with economy. It should be about growing and expanding our horizons, our ability to better understand the world around us and the people around us. Not about how best to be stuck in the same career for the next 50+ years.
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Union jobs are typically not good paying. They pay better than entry level fast food for sure. They on paper seem to pay than non-union jobs in the same industry, but that is often an illusion - often there is weird fine print and so your yearly take home pay is about the same either way. However the elephant in the room is there are many many jobs in Engineering, medicine and the like pay much better.
