Tell Me What You Really Think…

I haven’t done a mailbag edition in ages, so it’s time. This is a longer one, but the feedback was rich. I’m sorry I couldn’t include more.

Let’s get to it!

Draining the Swamp

This is for Sean:

God bless you for actually telling it like it is. That is so rare. I urge your group to propose paths to a better situation than the US finds itself in at this time. I am a businessman and, more importantly, a grain farmer in Illinois. Not much gets past my scrutiny, and this is not my first rodeo. I prefer the direct method / at least you know, very quickly, where you stand in the situation. Point to it and call it what it is. Otherwise, how can it be fixed if the true situation is not really what is in sight?

Food for thought.

Heaven help us all, we will need it very soon.

Edward S.

Well, Sean,

Rather than talk about it, why don’t people like you, who claim to know the truth, do something about it? Your talk appears to be weaker than the Donalds of the world. If all you (and we) can do is pontificate about it, then WTF is our existence worth? Might as well move to Panama, where the incentives for a better life seem to be growing.

Keith S.

Thank you both for writing in. Edward, I strongly recommend you read what my colleagues write for Paradigm Press. We propose solutions all the time, whether it’s Jim Rickards, James Altucher, Adam Sharp, Dave Gonigam, or any of my friends and colleagues. They’re the best in the world at what they do. Much of our best stuff, like Adam Sharp’s Daily Reckoning, is zero cost.

As for you, Keith, I have one question: if I came to your city and told everyone that the situation was hopeless and that they should listen to me, do you think they would? Nope, me neither. You can’t be a prophet in your own land. You can only lead by example.

Here’s some information for you: I left the United States 26 years ago and never returned to live there. I write to share my experiences, hoping readers can find ideas that work for their situation.

I have lived in six countries, including Italy, where I live now. My house (which, by Italian law, can never be taken from me, even in a lawsuit), bank accounts, retirement accounts, and trading accounts are all in different jurisdictions. My wife, son, mother, and father live with me. There’s enough room in our farmhouse for my wife’s siblings and their families to visit whenever they want to, and we’re welcoming them for a big family Christmas. And unlike most who claim to be libertarian, I actually renounced my U.S. citizenship so I can spend those funds on family, rather than the military industrial complex. In short, I have done something about it.

As I often write in the Rude Awakening, you can’t save the world, but you can save yourself. I hope that clears it up for you.

DEI Liberates Blue-Collar America!

Good article, Seanie.

That is why next year, when I turn 72, I’ll still be pouring concrete with my 67-year-old friend, along with a few young assistants.

Aldon B.

Boy howdy, are you ever on the nose. I served a NYS apprenticeship in 93 at Carrier Corp. in Syracuse. We were so sought after in-house that management graduated us early, and we were told that we’d finish the OJT requirements. The pay was good, and the camaraderie the tradesmen shared was enervating. Then Billary threw us so far under the bus we all scrambled around town to find jobs. We didn’t look long, even back then. Now, long retired, I often encounter tradespeople that hearing of my background, immediately offer me a job. Even Tinytown USA is in dire straits. I’d conservatively estimate it will be a decade before we start filling the master trade positions. Where will we be until then?

Faithfully,

Randy T

To: Sean Ring

Great article, and very key. DEI is madness, pronoun-selection at work is silly and foolish, and rational folks know that you adjust yourself to the work environment, the work environment does not adjust to your personal quirks, nor should it. DEI is silly and wasteful. And wrong, also, of course.

But Sean forgot a key thing to mention about trade-jobs. You can get a trade-related job – eg. electrician, truck driver, or welder – and you have a very nice path forward, if you want it. You can hang out your own shingle (like the doctors used to do, and the dentists and the vets still do), and go into business for yourself.

This is a really key point to mention. Getting qualified as an electrician is a really good idea. You can specialize in keeping rural properties connected to the gosh-darn power grid. This is a REALLY good business. I have a farm, and a tree knocked down my power line, last week… just before the crazy cold weather was due to hit (which it did!). I called my PowerLine guy, who is a young fellow – maybe late 20’s, and he has a six-figure costing truck, with a boom and a pole-digger auger – and he can fix anything related to a power-line problem – and he works with developers, putting in new lines. He has a few employees, and he works hard and fast, like a smart man with his capital at risk. Need to put a new insulator on the pole, and string a new piece of line? He gets his equipment and zooms up the pole in a few minutes while giving his guys instructions on what they need to do. The electrical Safety Inspector has to check the work. But my guy and the ESA guy have figured out that my guy can send detailed pictures from his iPhone to the ESA guy, who can see that all is good, and then call the Utility control room and authorize the reconnection.

My line got smashed and repaired – all in just one day! By 6:40 pm, we had power again at the ranch house. Next day, it snowed a foot of snow. Working fast and running your own show, is a real special superpower that private-sector trade guys can acquire. And then get well paid for what they can do.

How often does that happen in an office job? In that environment, if you work too hard, or too fast, all your fellow employees will not like you very much, and will make that fact known. Not very good.

This is a key thing about trades. You can – if you are good and willing to work quick and work well – you can eat everybody’s lunch, if you can be the first call the worried property-owner makes. All rural property owners own their own power poles and lines now – so you need private guys to get things fixed, if anything goes wrong. The Utility people will come out and ground the circuit, and then switch your line back on, once it’s fixed. That’s all they do, if it’s your problem. If you go into the trades – you can start your own shop, be your own boss, and set your own hours. This beats the heck out of an office job, where you have a hierarchy of brown-noses all looking to say what they think the managing director wants to hear.

Keep writing. The world needs to change – one reader at a time. 🙂

– MCL

Sean,

Excellent article on working in the trades. I would like to add a word of caution or perhaps, wisdom.

In 1983, I was a truck mechanic. Back then, most mechanics were paid half the labor cost of a job. I made $55K that year. That was quite a bit back then, the equivalent of $165K today, according to the BLS inflation calculator. As it happens, I started transitioning to computer programmer the next year (long story). Today, mechanics are paid a salary or an hourly rate. They make about the same thing I made in 1983. The companies that use mechanics are the ones making money today.

In learning a trade, you need to learn how your skills might be applied in other areas. For example, the skills I had as a mechanic were the same skills that made me a good computer programmer, particularly when it came to debugging programs…just like debugging automotive and truck problems. Same logic, different environment.

Regards,

Tom

Sean

This is absolutely one of your most informative articles I have read. Congrats!!!

I worked with several Japanese manufacturing companies throughout my career, and I saw firsthand how a depleted skilled trades market made it difficult to keep up.

And this was in the early 1990’s. I hope the US gets it together before it’s too late.

Regards

Steve G

Thank you all for writing in. Your contributions are much appreciated. I LOVE reading your stories!

Wrap Up

I’ll try to get out one more mailbag edition before year-end. In the meantime, have a wonderful weekend!