On February 1, 2006 at 22:43, Richie Rich said...
| | Given the cost of living in my area, I am considered
part of the working poor.
I really like the company that I work for, love
the people and love the job. Very few people get
to say that. Getting to play with shiny, expensive
toys all day is a great way to make a living.
It goes a long way towards making up for the pay.
But when I see friends, family and guys in other
trades buying homes, new cars and other niceties
I do second guess myself quite a bit.
My brother just started in commercial
construction and with 0 experience, he makes almost
as much money as I do.
Yeah, but shiny expensive toys, well, after while they all kind of become these metal boxes with a bunch of inputs and outputs, and vague manuals... It is hard to stay excited about what we do when we are constantly under the gun, isn't it? Then again, I guess we could be coal miners.
It amazes me to pull up to jobsites, and see guys who are up here from "way down south", who a few years ago all communally chipped in a shared like a 30 year old econoline...NOW, seems like a lot of these guys are driving tricked out new Dodge Rams etc.. Also I see more and more of these guys who are moving up the food chain, and are job "supers"... Meanwhile I can't get my teenage son interested in any kind of entry level job... He and his pals all want to start out as execs, upper management!!! He, and his buddies spend every cent they make on status stuff like $180 Nikes... He doesn't understand, you need to start out at the bottom rung of the ladder and prove yourself... But that is what the above mentioned guys are doing, and they are doing the sh*t jobs that our kids find to uncool, or "hard"...
Yeah, Richie Rich, I know what you mean... my former neighbor moved to SanDiego, and says not only are housing prices crazy... You have to like enter like a drawing, or lottery to even be able to make an offer on a home?!?!? The Median Priced Home up here is $399,000... I'm sure they're a lot more down there... Makes you wonder if the bubbles' gonna pop?
I don't know how young couples can do it today? I kind of lost my home due to "The Big D" a few years ago... and hell, I'll probably have to find a really unattractive wealthy widow or whatever! Who can save money, for a downstroke in this biz?
Last edited by Mr. Stanley
on February 2, 2006 02:20.