Mike Rowe sounds alarm about the dropout rate of working-age men, urges a return to the skilled trades

PBandCheezWhiz · 2025-05-08T20:07:08+00:00

It was drilled into everyone by boomers to “go to college so you can get a “real” white collar job. You don’t want to be a plumber do you?”

This was inevitable. Trades and apprenticeship was looked down on as second rate.

fluffyfirenoodle · 2025-05-09T04:43:50+00:00

He says that but most trades are just as bad about taking on apprentices. Did some searching recently on a job board to connect aspiring apprentices with adjuncts and journeymen and most listings want 4+ years of trade school and preferred past experience. Y'all tradesmen are just as bullshit as the white collar sector when it isn't backbreaking labor at 8 dollars an hour. Make it make sense

SMASHTHEGASH1979 · 2025-05-08T19:53:34+00:00

I'm in the construction industry. Have been over 20 years. The lack of guys coming into the trades, or even still in the trades is abysmal. The older guys are starting to retire, and the torch isn't being passed.

Redsands · 2025-05-09T06:49:29+00:00

The juice just isn't worth the squeeze my man!

HandsomeJack44 · 2025-05-09T00:25:09+00:00

Why? Bust my ass in a hellhole camp in the middle of nowhere, beat the hell out of my body so that the government can take the first five of my twelve hour days?

And for what? Save for fifteen years to buy a house, whoops you can't raise a family anyways so what's the point in that either?

Trying to convince people to jump into a career that's going to ruin their bodies and keep them away from home only worked when it promised a certain standard of living, a standard that doesn't exist anymore

MDFMK · 2025-05-09T02:54:44+00:00

Mgtow live within your means under spend and live comfortable. This is what they’re scared of.

B1G_Fan · 2025-05-08T20:46:58+00:00

If being a plumber, electrician, or carpenter was the faster way into a woman’s pants than being a broke criminal with tattoos, Mike Rowe wouldn’t have to tell men to “man up”.

Incentives matter, Mike.

rabel111 · 2025-05-09T00:07:31+00:00

Seems like Rowe has identified the problem, but offers no insights or solutions.

Why are young men disengaging from the community? Boys disengaging starts in schools, is entrenched by time they are choosing college versus trades, and continues throughout their lives. WHY?

It's not because they are being told to go to college, because the proportions of boys going to college has fallen off a cliff. Trades and unskilled jobs have demonstrated the same cliff.

Boys are giving up before they have started, and its not a trend unique to the US workforce. Its endemic across all Western cultures. Canada, UK, Europe, Australia, New Zealand, Japan (westernised), all have large proportions of boys and young men not involved or only marginally involved in the workforce, politics, education, family or relationships.

The crisis isn't about trades versus colleges, its about the demoralisation and marginalisation of men and boys.

About trades educatuion, boys entering trades are treated like garbage, paid subhuman wages, abused, over-worked, and disparaged unless they fit the narrow mythical masculine stereotype that trades persist in endorsing in the workplace.

BidenPardonedMe · 2025-05-09T09:20:37+00:00

Honestly, good for them. This whole system is a racket that extracts tax revenue from men to subsidize women, while women's participation in lucrative careers is subsidized through DEI programs that primarily benefit white women but don't require women to participate in the competence hierarchy, which women are loath to do in the first place.

alter_furz · 2025-05-08T19:24:26+00:00

what about fuck you Mike?

bring back the times where one dude could have one job and provide for a family & own a house

omg breaking news! slaves ain't slavin'

TheDwiin · 2025-05-09T14:11:35+00:00

Another issue some aren't talking about is how even in these Skillet professions the compensation just isn't there.

We're suffering in a recession where the cost of living keeps going up and up and wages have stagnated. Why would we take a lower paying apprenticeship over a "non skilled" job that pays more?

hawksdiesel · 2025-05-08T21:56:42+00:00

What about one guy having the ability to support an entire family? how about dem apples mike....

skekze · 2025-05-08T23:54:46+00:00

Never hear this guy talking about raising wages cause he's not blue collar at all.

WeEatBabies · 2025-05-09T03:35:18+00:00

keine257 · 2025-05-09T20:43:54+00:00

I asked Grok :

do wages for trades increased since the 70s or decreased?Real wages (adjusted for inflation) for trades occupations, such as mechanics, electricians, and carpenters, have generally experienced stagnation or slight declines since the 1970s, though the extent varies by specific trade and data source. Here’s a breakdown:

Overall Trends: Since the early 1970s, real wages for most blue-collar and middle-wage workers, including those in trades, have grown slowly or remained nearly flat. For example, median hourly wages for middle-wage workers rose only about 6% from 1979 to 2013, equating to less than 0.2% annual growth. This stagnation is attributed to factors like declining unionization, globalization, technological changes, and shifts in labor market policies that reduced workers’ bargaining power

disorderly · 2025-05-09T03:27:10+00:00

Rowe is a clown

axmaxwell · 2025-05-08T22:33:28+00:00

Oh? You mean what Trump has been pushing for? Oh? You mean that thing that used to determine whether or not the guy building your house was qualified or not?

Factories and apprenticeships are what made this country great. Relying on outside labor and people who don't know what they're talking about certifying people to do work that requires competence has been an issue in this country for the last 40 years.

Adventurous_Design73 · 2025-05-10T11:02:30+00:00

and have those trades schools also be taken over by women with free scholarships and incentives?

Disastrous_Average91 · 2025-05-10T18:11:19+00:00

Why don’t you go get women to do it?

superseriousserious · 2025-05-13T18:17:11+00:00

Sending men to the coal mines to die is no different then strapping boots on them and sending them to Taiwan.

Men don't need work, they need purpose and those two are not synonymous.

Fit-Commission-2626 · 2025-05-14T00:03:44+00:00

he should ask working age women why are they not working these jobs instead of just expecting young men to work difficult and low paying and even often dangerous jobs just like women also need to join the military more because the relationship men have with this country is a very abusive one that does not have their best interest in mind and if women wanted equality than that should include going to work and war also.

hindumafia · 2025-05-08T21:19:47+00:00

How will they survive if they don't work ? Do so many men have the option not to work ? Why are these guys not encouraging women to take up the trades.

Title	Mike Rowe sounds alarm about the dropout rate of working-age men, urges a return to the skilled trades
Author	raffu280
Upvotes	317
Comments	98
Date	May 8, 2025 7:08 PM UTC (1 year ago)
Subreddit	Posted in /r/MensRights
Original Link	https://old.reddit.com/r/MensRights/comments/1khyeeo/mike_rowe_sounds_alarm_about_the_dropout_rate_of/
Archive Link	https://theredarchive.com/r/MensRights/mike-rowe-sounds-alarm-about-the-dropout-rate-of.1551821 https://theredarchive.com/post/1551821

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