Comments by "alex smith" (@alexsmith-ob3lu) on "PolyMatter" channel.

  1. Many folks don’t even realize that many trade fields have either become extinct or degraded because of the lack of people going into such fields for several decades already! A good example is HVAC for medium sized buildings. Back in the 1950s, HVAC controls was all pneumatics. By the 1980s, we transitioned over to electronics because all the pneumatic techs retired with no one to fulfill their spot; other than electronic techs from other fields. By the time you get to the 2000s, most of the electronic techs have retired and computer techs stepped in from other fields to fulfill the work in HVAC controls (BAS). 2010s onwards we see a perpetual labor shortage in HVAC control techs because nobody knows or cares.
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  2. America has way too many white collar labor and too few (highly experienced) blue collar labor. When it comes to maintaining buildings, you need design engineers, control technicians, and a variety of skilled tradesmen to get the job done. Property owners aren’t competitive for such maintenance labor, so they’re forced to use multiple contractors.
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  3. Not all trades are back breaking physical labor work. There is a reason why we use the term SKILLED for the trades. You need to have a mix of theory, hands on ability, love, and practical experience in order to excel in your given vocational field. Most trade fields; people really don’t know what they’re talking about. Folks think all an electrician does is install light bulbs. You don’t need an electrician to install light bulbs; you can pay a minimum wage unskilled, installer to put up light bulbs. Licensed Electricians are required to understand motors, control systems, automation, commercial practices etc. We live in a society where people don’t think enough before doing something.
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  4.  @tydude  Well done earning a bachelor of mechanical engineering! If you can’t find work, try taking some community college courses/certificates in machine tools or HVAC design. The hands on and practical theory offered by community colleges helps to build your resume. I had a friend who graduated with honours bachelor of civil engineering and couldn’t find work. So, he went to community college for one year to learn construction and met an instructor who gave him a civil engineering job!
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  5. Try doing pre-apprenticeship first and then start applying. Other guys have ruined it for the younger cohorts like you.
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  6.  @nick15684  Amen!! Keep on preaching!! Too many people think that college is the end all of your education. It’s not! College is there to assist your education, but there are STILL many other lessons to be learned outside the classroom.
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  7.  @mevans4953  U.S industrial productivity was already declining in the 1960s. Just look at how GM and Ford produced terrible cars back then in the 1970s. America industrial rise was thanks to high tariffs imposed on imported goods. When those tariffs were removed, that was when our manufacturing base declined.
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  8. It’s not weird, buddy. Asia is following the 1950s American style of education of “every able bodied person must go to 4 year college and graduate school.” You only need 20% of young people going into university and then onto a white collar career. The other 80% should be doing a “middle skill set” career such as automotive mechanics, service technician, plumber etc. China is already experiencing a shortage of professionals with middle skill sets, just like America.
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  9.  @Bruceman17  USA, yes, but for Canada, no. Labor shortages could have several different meanings.
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  10.  @blaiseutube  Pre-apprenticeship can have different meanings based on where you live. In Ontario, Canada a pre-apprenticeship in the union is paid and you learn all the basics before jumping into a real apprenticeship. Pre-apprenticeship could also mean doing a community college trade certificate first before you start applying. It all depends, just do your own research.
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  11. Same here!!! I feel you bro!! The same thing happened to me as well when I was finishing high school!! We had many representatives come in and talk to us about how great university is and the few of us who did not apply to university were sidelined and totally left out!! This was even the late 2000s! I ended up doing community college, but still did great!
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  12.  @DiamondKingStudios  Those politicians would feel indifferent because they’re not public servants. They’re self serving servants living off the public.
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  13. @ Building maintenance labor is pretty thin on the ground these days. Those who do get into maintenance of buildings, tend to work as contractors because property owners are not competitive.
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  14.  @JR-fl3yx  I’ve done HVAC work for many school/college properties as a controls technician over the years. The one common pattern found everywhere is that property owners will complain about the high costs of the utility bills, but won’t spend more money on maintenance and servicing their building. They’re eager to spend ten million dollars on internet but won’t spend a dime more on maintenance, Lol.
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  15. “Race to the bottom”
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  16. Sounds to me that you are advocating “Ethical Socialism” based on the German model of educational training, skilled labor, and small business operations. In Germany, only 20% of youngsters go to university for a degree while the other 80% are given vocational training in theory, hands on aptitude, and small business operations. In other words, the 80% of German youth are trained to think and act independently as a craftsman.
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  17. 1000% agree!!!
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  18.  @fsaldan1  Not surprised. I meet a retired physics professor several years ago who told me that most students going into college didn’t have the basic skills to succeed, but were allowed through to meet certain quotas.
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  19.  @cramsa  What you say is true, but I think a lot of people confused industrial skilled trades for construction skilled trades. The demand for machinists is declining, but when it comes to construction trades; that all depends on you local region.
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  20. Don’t be surprised by how your friend was treated while working as an auto mechanic. When GM replaced its engineers with accountants and replaced highly trained auto technicians/mechanics with high school dropouts back in the 1970s/80s. American cars went from best in the world to becoming a joke.
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  21.  @manstonhisk667  Yes, indeed. All in the name of greater profit margins by the bean counters, at everyone else expense.
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  22. Carpenters will work in construction 10-20 years before moving up to managerial positions (i.e.: foreman or home inspector) or doing something else related to carpentry that is less physically demanding as they age.
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  23. Office workers who push paperwork around all day at desk also develop serious health problems too. You won’t find heart disease and high blood pressure among construction workers, but you do among many office workers.
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  24. Yes and no. It is really GM and Ford that made SUVs popular in recent years. Other car makers such as Mercedes and Toyota simply jumped on board because of how profitable it is to sell bigger cars that are less practical.
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  25. China is great at copying and imitating technical ideas/patents. However, China is terrible when it comes to research and development. So the Chinese rely on American research to “stay ahead.”
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  26.  @eisenkrieg553  Go to community college first and earn a pre-apprentice trade certificate. Then start applying to various contractors/companies. In recent years, many young dudes have ruined the entrance requirements into the skilled trades. Small shops cannot stand taking on new apprentices (with prior no experience) for work, only for these dudes to flake out in a few months.
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  27.  @HTV-2_Hypersonic_Glide_Vehicle  I don’t blame you. Our economy stinks right now. It’s only going to get worse from here on.
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  28. China is in the same situation as the USA. Too many young people going for fewer and fewer white collar jobs. What China is now lacking is “middle skill sets” that America is also lacking too. Seems to me that every nation is following the “American blueprint” of “progress”.
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  29. Not if you’re in the union!
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  30. It’s very simple. Give out incentives for families, marriage and raising children. Other than that, I don’t care about the declining American Empire. The U.S secured its own decline after 1945.
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  31. I’ve worked as a technical instructor for a technical community college in the New England states and I can also relate to what you mentioned. International students from China are either exceptional, or mediocre students who are trying to get by, or they’re from wealthy families and just here to party. Typically, the smarter, more motivated ones go on to state/private colleges for degrees in medicine or engineering. Those in community college are just trying to pass so they can transfer over state/private college programs or are there to not really learn anything but to waste time.
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  32. I somewhat disagree with what you have to say. I’m a union plumber and not only do I get great benefits, but I also have the option of working over time for more money.
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  33. China is in the same path as the USA. The mentality of sending every able bodied person to university, regardless of the long term costs or whether there are THAT many white collar jobs. In China, it’s stress, overworking your grades, and going crazy with academics. In America, it’s student loan debt and other ridiculous admission standards that is driving society downhill. Realistically, you only need 20% of your youth to go to university. The other 80% should be doing a middle skill set education or some sort of vocational training. Finland, Denmark, and pre-WW2 Germany all had this type of “standard education” model for their youth.
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  34.  @crashdavis4123  That depends on what kind of contractor you work as. I don’t know how your school communicated with the painters, but here is what I can tell from my experience working in HVAC. If you’re an HVAC controls technician/engineer, you’re making decent money because nobody understands how pneumatics/DDC systems work anymore. Most men working in HVAC are dinosaurs who are part of a dying breed. On top of that, we’re got anti-trust laws enforced on small-medium sized enterprises to encourage ridiculous business competition. When you have dwindling labor in controls/HVAC, high business competition for the sale of proprietary equipment, and government mandates for energy efficiency on buildings. You get into a situation where anyone who owns large property gets financially burned real fast.
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  35. I don't understand what my fellow Americans have become. All you guys do is complain all day about how the Germans or Italians or Japanese or Koreans run their automotive business. Meanwhile, you don't want to invest or improve American automotive design/engineering/manufacture while you drive your foreign built clown cars around. What a damn shame...
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  36. I’m sorry to hear that. I didn’t want to borrow a lot of money to pay for college. It seemed foolish to me when I was 18 years old. Instead, I saved up $10k and went to community college for an electromechanical engineering technology program (AAS). Fast forward 10 years, and I’m working as a welding engineer earning a good $110k/year.
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  37. Office work is the reason why you have so much obesity and heart disease in America. If all you’re doing is ordering takeout, driving a car and sitting in a cubicle all day; you’re guarantee to give yourself a lot of health problems later on in your life. No different from some blue collar trade work. So I don’t understand what you’re going at.
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  38.  @Paeoniarosa  You don't go from 0 to 100 overnight. You have to build up skills, work experience, social connections, and understanding of more subjects in order to run a business well (if you can handle it). I've worked self-employed and small shop as a journeyman electrician. But it took me many years of work experience, additional community college training and mentorship in order for me to even do a small business operation.
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  39.  @nanny8675309  Good on you! Bravo! I think the reason why he mentioned plumbing, car mechanic and electrician is because those are the only trades most people "know about." However, he also emphasized that plumbing and car repairs is not something that is easy to get in. It takes several years of vocational schooling and work experience under a master plumber/mechanic/electrician to actually be really good in your given trade. I work as a journeyman electrician and can easily tell who is a good electrician or not based on their hands on ability with building motors.
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  40.  @jowen001  Those in the skilled trades work physically for only ~15 years of their career. After that, they move up to become foreman, managers, supervisors, master tradesmen etc. doing work on blueprints with engineers. A master plumber doesn’t go around building toilets for various properties. That’s apprentice level work. A master plumber will be busy in an office setting working on blueprints with a mechanical engineer. Same applies to electricians, sprinkler fitters, carpenters, cement masons etc.
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  41.  @slayer2450  Your mother is right and wrong at the same time. Her statement might be true for some trades, but there are many other trades that are unionized, highly regulated and highly competitive.
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  42. @ There is no such thing as an “ideal career.” Many white collar workers get heart attacks and high blood pressure problems from sitting on their ass all day. Blue collar trades such as a carpenters, tend to leave their respective trade after 15-20 years or they become a foreman. At the end of the day, you have to decide for yourself what is your priority instead of listening to whatever nonsense idiots have to say.
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  43. @ Some blue collar trades have very strong labor unions that back them up. Yet very few people even realize it. Instead, we keep pushing more folks into white collar professions without any sort of safety net, benefits, proper pay etc. to add salt to the wound, many parents even demand their own children to take out student loans to pay for college degrees.
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  44. From my experience, majority of newcomers to Canada and immigrants who came to Canada 30, 20 or 15 years ago are mostly leaving Canada for the USA or somewhere else. Canadian dollar is weak, jobs are scarce, the Canadian economy is tanking, housing is insanely expensive, and the cost of living is ridiculous. Most immigrants to Canada simply use Canada as a gateway to get into the America in a much faster and easier way. That’s really it. If not, America, then they’ll use Canada to get into Australia or Nee Zealand.
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  45. Even if we were to drop zoning codes, the government has big taxes on new housing construction. As we speak, new housing construction is already slowing down because nobody can afford anything.
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  46. Good luck building more housing outside the green belts of the GTA. If there are no adequate schools, hospitals, employment, public transit, cheap gasoline etc. nobody is gonna settle in those areas for the long term.
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  47. It’s easier to add on more zoning codes than it is to dissect existing zoning codes. Even then, cost of housing is not going down because everyone knows the land is too valuable in Toronto with all these high rise condos going up everywhere.
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  48.  @后宫后  Is that best you got? I know your another one of those lousy astroturfers.
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  49. EV's cost more than a gasoline powered car. On top of that, EV's don't perform well in cold weather when compared to gasoline cars.
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  50. I’m 100% happy with my associate of applied science degree from technical community college. I’ve got plenty of work doing controls and automation. Unlike so many of my fellow peers, who were basically shamed or guilt tripped into wasting time at a four year college.
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