What's happening to my country?

[KJShover]

I agree that most young people today don't have a marketable skill set to put to work for themselves.

Sad but true. in the 80's I went to highschool part time then the rest of the day I was in a trade school. were the attendee's learned Auto body and mechanics, drafting, welding, small engines, aircraft mechanics and more.

Other kids at the high school looked down on us, like we were beneith them because we chose to learn a skill. The best part was we had the best looking cars back in school and not one of the cookie cutter IROC cameros that flooded the streets unk:

Like my uncle that worked for Boeing, I was a master draftsman before the AutoCAD invasion. I saw the writing on the wall and studied the new format and kicked it's ass. Back in 2000 I was teaching a AutoCAD class at the university. I was telling the class the way things used to be and you would be amaized of the amount of ppl who don't know how to work a simple t-square and triangle, let alone a perspective board or french curve.

It was like teaching simple arithmatic to students with calculators. They didn't understand simple drafting theory or how to calculate an ellipse. All they needed to know was c=circle, L=line and if you screw up type "undo."

thus another skill has been washed away.

Like Jeff commented about, Its an easy money thing. I've always saved for what I have or built it myself. I do this for two reasons. The first is, I don't have to make payments on it. the second is, alot of the time, while I'm saving I realize I really don't need it after all. That thinking has carried me to this day. I still drive the same rig I drove in highschool and the only thing that isn't payed for is my house. I'm not like a few of my friends who are in debt up to thier eyeballs cause of all the toys they have accuired and rarely use. Seems like alot of today's youth wan't that big bucks, no skills check cause thats what the feel is owed to them.

 

[WESLICH]

I'll be 50 this year. When we grew up we didn't have alot so we had to make do with what we had. We learned to improvise and do without the things we couldn't afford. If we wanted something bad enough we would figure out a way to get it. It usually meant hard work, saving money and having patience.

People today want instant gratification. Part of the reason America is in situation we are in now is because we can't wait for the things we want. It's so much easier to get it on credit even when we know we will have to pay much more in the long run.

It's true that many of our children don't have the practical life skills that we learned growing up. It's mostly the fault of us parents. It's so much easier to give them what they desire than to allow them to figure out a way to get it on their own. I've tried to teach my own kids as much as I can, but it's hard. Much easier to do it myself than to teach them, but that's not the helping much in terms of preparing them for what's out there. Us parents all want our kids to have more than we did, but we're not doing them any favors by making it too easy.

 

[Rusty McNeil]

I posted the thread asking for machinist, toolmakers and fabricators to come forward. Thought there would be a long list of people. Guess we don't manufacture enough in this country to support apprentice programs for younger people anymore.

Pretty sad. Being an R&D manager here in Connecticut where Pratt and Whitney Aircraft is actually in my back yard. We have a hard time finding skilled machinist and toolmaker help. When we do, their generally in their mid 50's.

It seems that if you don't sell morgages, sell insurance, deal in investments, oil or build buildings for people doing said jobs. There isn't a whole lot to do here for our youth entering the job market. It seems to me a good place for President Obama to start healing the economy would be... to start making things here.

What's happening to this country?

There's plenty of good inside machinists, CNC guys, programmers and the like in the Gulf Coast Area...

The thing is that the industry pays most of them $35-$55 an hour, so most of'em aint looking.....

 

[dave741]

hi im 32 , and im a machinist and a welder . or atleast i was till CAT layed of 26000 of us :bang head:

 

[TURBOVMAX]

hi im 32 , and im a machinist and a welder . or atleast i was till CAT layed of 26000 of us :bang head:

Sorry to hear that and it plain sucks to be layed off. Been there a couple of times. Always seems to be when you need the cash the most. When I was a field service rep for a company called Cushman Chuck.(Cushman held the original patent for the lathe chuck) I would visit Peoria quite often. Huge place back then. Cushman established in 1847 no longer exists. I remember when they brought the first wave of orientals in armed with cameras. They were going to produce some small standard chucks for us. Now they make them all.

Greed Prevails! Sad

 

[TURBOVMAX]

There's plenty of good inside machinists, CNC guys, programmers and the like in the Gulf Coast Area...

The thing is that the industry pays most of them $35-$55 an hour, so most of'em aint looking.....

Rusty,

We have the same situation here in Connecticut. I started at Pratt & Whitney Aircraft. Left a long time ago...it was a sea of people back then. Most of my friends that stayed and are very talented machinist's. All have lost their job's at Pratt and they can't find a job for more than $15.00 an hour. There aren't many of those jobs. It's interesting to talk to people in other trades. We recently moved our facility and I had the opportunity to talk to the fella who owned the rigging company, that did our machine shop move. He was surprised he was moving the equipment locally. He said that most of his work for machine tool involved moving the equipment port side. For shipment to the Orient.

Again...Sad

 

[Rusty McNeil]

Rusty,

We have the same situation here in Connecticut. I started at Pratt & Whitney Aircraft. Left a long time ago...it was a sea of people back then. Most of my friends that stayed and are very talented machinist's. All have lost their job's at Pratt and they can't find a job for more than $15.00 an hour. There aren't many of those jobs. It's interesting to talk to people in other trades. We recently moved our facility and I had the opportunity to talk to the fella who owned the rigging company, that did our machine shop move. He was surprised he was moving the equipment locally. He said that most of his work for machine tool involved moving the equipment port side. For shipment to the Orient.

Again...Sad

it's sad and it's gonna get worse....
Even the Houston Area is beginning to feel the effects,...our unemployment rate has climbed to 5.2 I believe...lots of chemical plants and refinerys idling capacity till the economy picks up....
My Company has laid off almost all of it's contractors

 

[hubeerjw]

hi im 32 , and im a machinist and a welder . or atleast i was till CAT layed of 26000 of us :bang head:

Dave, sorry to hear about it. I work for a design engineering company in Peoria, and I worked on-site at Mossville designing engines for the D5 and D6 dozers (before they went to Perkins engines) Our company is feeling the effects of the economy as well. Hang in there and it will turn around, but I think it is going to be a pretty long and gradual increase.

Jeff