The decline of the trades ...

Illustration: Natalie Peeples/Axios

The shortage of tradespeople, you know, plumbers, mechanics, electricians, etc, etc., aka the folks that keep America running while the meritocracy, the rich and the entitled pontificate and make love to their cell phones in the act of doing mostly nothing for the large part of the day, has become a crisis because we don't make anything anymore, thanks to Ronnie offshoring the manufacturing prowess of the nation to China in order to gin profits for stockholders.

To whit.

America needs technical workers — and supply isn't measuring up to demand.

The big picture: Older workers in the skilled trades are retiring and not enough young people are training up to take their jobs as construction workers, plumbers, electricians and beyond.

By the numbers: The construction industry faces a gap of a half million workers, according to Construction Dive.

• And that gap is expected to widen as federal money flows into new infrastructure projects around the country — calling for even more labor.
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• The application rate for technical jobs like plumber and electrician dropped by 49% between 2020 and 2022, NPR reports.

What's happening: As America de-industrialized in the second half of the 20th century, education was reimagined to emphasize seeking four-year degrees, says Anthony Carnevale, director of the Georgetown University Center on Education and the Workforce.

As a result, "we have a K through 12 system that does create better education and more high school graduates, but doesn’t do any job training," he says. And four-year college is held up as the ultimate goal for every student.

Some 30 million jobs in the U.S. that pay an average of $55,000 per year don't require a bachelor's degree, according to a Georgetown analysis.

And while college graduates do earn more on average than trade school graduates, a four-year degree doesn't guarantee a high-paying job. Student debt is rising, and only two-thirds of those with degrees say the debt was worth it, per a YouGov poll.

Given where the economy is going, the notion of college grads making more money than tradespeople is becoming rather dubious, right?