With AI threatening white collar jobs, current wisdom is that trade school is (or soon will be) a better career bet than college. That has me thinking about the building trades: carpentry, electrical, plumbing, painting, masonry, as well as the more specialized areas like HVAC, roofing, etc.
For example, we recently learned a young woman who’s a protege of the other DrC is dating a young man apprenticed to become an electrician, and thought “that’s a good choice.” But is it?
RealClearPolicy links to an article about peak population, with a table showing when a bunch of nations will each reach maximum population before beginning to decline. Japan hit that point in 2008, South Korea does this year, Spain and Portugal will do so in 3 years. The United States will likely get there in 2045.
When population starts to decline, new home building will contract dramatically. Her young man, 20 years into his electrician career may find work getting scarce before he hits age 50. Her career as a nurse practitioner should still be going strong as the population ages, his may be tapering off.
This is a different way of thinking about careers, but the reasoning is hard to argue with.
