JB Hunt just announced another round of wage hikes. One more and it will beat the COL adjusted income of a finance job.

Even if we ignore that, I think there are several advantages to blue collar work.

Accessibility: To get a blue collar job, you need to go to trade school and make nice with a union. To get a white collar job, you must get into a prestige school, preferably Ivy, and make nice with professional networks. You can practice to improve your skills. You can't practice into being a Harvard grad. At 100IQ, you can handle a blue collar job and you will probably be incapable of a professional one. At 115IQ, you will pick up the trade very well while you will struggle in the professional workplace. At 130IQ, you'll probably be the smartest guy at a blue collar job and an average Joe in your corporate cube. At 145IQ... you are probably full of shit and a liar.

Exercise: Manual labor builds muscle. You don't need a personal trainer if the job keeps you active.

Habitus: Many people can't stand the bland cubefarm and its collars, ties, and shouty men in suits. The blue collar workplace is organically masculine. One teaches you how to catcall, ladchat, and have a brewski. The other teaches you how to ask Johnson for that report, have strong opinions about hors d’oeuvres, and enjoy drinks made by hipsters.

Value creation: One job gives you the satisfaction of creating value and a job well done. The other takes earned value and transfer it to your pocket.

Nerds may run the planet, but nerds aren't cool and never will be. This is like a primal truth.