I'm an IBEW electrician. A good electrician (or plumber, carpenter, pipefitter, etc...) Isn't cheap. A cheap electrician isn't good. No loan debt, always in very high demand, and 6 figure income with a 40 to 50 hour week. Pension, health benefits. I'm doing better than many college graduates.

I just paid my electrician $8000 for 1 day of work. He had 2 helpers and got the job done in 1 day. I paid my gas fitter $2500 for 3 hours of work. Just himself and a van. They deserve every penny.

I'm a carpenter. I think the trades have a tradition wrapped up around it. It's got honor. I also think office work...is the hardest job ever...me personally. To sit down, not move, and stare at screens and figure out programs or take information and change it into other information....to me....is my personal hell. Sit all day, be inside, partake in sanitized but necessary office talk. Plus I hate suits. In many ways office work is stressful mentally and if you are energetic...but have to sit. It makes your body feel horrible.

Don’t get a career in a trade...work in the trade to own the business. Owning the business or your own business should be what every tradesman strives towards.

I just started work as a tower climber some weeks ago. My hands hurt and so do my feet. I finally feel I've found a job that understands me. Thinking is required if you're going to be safe to yourself and those around you and do a good job, but twisting wrenches and climbing a 250 ft ladder is so straightforward. I love it when things are simple. All it takes to be valued is to be at work on time and be a hard/smart worker. And I still have enough time for BJJ, working out, and any other hobbies I enjoy. I may be no Jordan Peterson, but in my free time I can improve myself for the sake of being a better me.

Im an hvac tech and I feel for the people who are angry about their blue collar life and feel less important than their white collar brethren. I will say though that this choice ive made has made me unbelievably self reflective and help me work out issues of faith and worth value and identity my life isn't perfect but I thank God that my work has provided me with the resources to live well and the opportunity to talk to and influence (in small ways) the people I come into contact with throughout the day.

Skilled labor isn't cheap, cheap labor isn't skilled. Blue collar and damn proud of every dollar.

Anecdotally speaking, I know far more multimillionaires who started in trades than who did white collar jobs. When you're smart and do vocational work, you can really make a ton of money, be doing something fun and not taking orders

I went through school in the gifted programs but had no motivation to perform well in an academic setting. Welding is what I settled on and I have no regrets. The key is being a high level tradesmen, you will hate a career as a one trick pony no matter what field you choose. My math, material science, and metallurgy knowledge is becoming vast. My problem solving skills I would put up against almost anyone. If you are truly hungry for success and yearn to be self employed trades are the best option.

The trades people built society. Those people are valuable wherever they go.

Listen: human beings weren't created to sit around and push paper, the human body becomes its finest when exposed to physical exertion. Thats why gyms exist, so those that don't have physical jobs still get that exertion. Why not have a job that brings out the best within yourself physically? Also: who says blue collar boys are so sub-servient? Most white-collar people are a slave to their company. So you have to pick a struggle.

Jordan Peterson is always so insightful

Not everyone one is built to ride a desk for a living. There are even smart people in the trades too- and there are definitely some dumb ones in the office. People have different strengths & weaknesses. Found this to be true every place I've worked.

I made more money as an aerospace machinist than many of my friends who went to college and started white collar careers. I was already a journeyman tool & die maker and running a shift when they graduated and started an entry level career. I went to my buddy’s graduation ceremony on my brand new Harley Electra Glide. At that time I was buying a house, had a a brand new (paid cash) Toyota Supra, was restoring a 1964 Ford Bronco and taking classes at a community college at night. I have since gone on to earn 2 masters degrees (thank you GI Bill, I enlisted later in life) and am now considered a “professional” (whatever that means) and make a little bit more money, but believe I was more content working with my hands and brain.

as an tradesman my self, you can pick the people who think the blue-collar lifestyle is subservient, and good trades people avoid working for them and or charge a lot when working for people like that, and hear in OZ trades people earn more than many Oj's(office urm employees ha ha) and you know what most of us people who do real work are fitter faster and stronger than people who sit down all day long in air con,if there is an car crash we are able to assist the injurerd people than some one who isnt confronted by injuries regula(as yes we do get hurt more but we have to be physically tougher )

That's why I love you Mr. Peterson. I'm a 48 year old semi retired son of a plumber, plumber handyman. Non educated no high-school, self-taught one man show that's bored and won't build during these Brandon prices, looking for a side gig. It's 20ﾟ outside Fahrenheit, 87 inside! windows are open. I ate a venison burger , I got on opening day. With my own fresh eggs, raised in the back. Life is good! Oh i speak two languages, not very good at either. Lol

JP would say this. He's an old dude who's mature and responsible but talks in his lectures alot about the value of being young dumb and going to parties and drinking. He's nuanced. He values many parts of life. This has always been his central strength

Blue collar is 'subservient"??? LOL So many white collar jobs are super-subservient - a slave to the company. Most tradesmen can quit one job and have another by tomorrow! Or better still, start their own business. I'm a construction estimator and I really envy electricians/millwrights/mechanics/etc. Working with your hands is the most satisfying thing for income.

As a CNC Programmer/Machinist there is a world of opportunity in that industry....highly technical and unlimited innovation on the horizon. Between IOT, Machine Learning, AI, Robotics and good people to power it all, you can have an excellent career.

I've got college degrees. I've been reading encyclopedias and almanacs for pastime since before I started kindergarten. I found my calling in plumbing after I turned 40. My body hurts, but I've never been happier and more fulfilled by my labor.

I'm a water worker for the city. But I have noticed how the college educated look down and assume we're not "cultured."

White collars couldn’t exist without the blue collars

It still pays to be smart whether blue collar or white collar. A smart person can turn $50,000 into $5M in the stock market. As Warren Buffet used to say: “If you don’t put your money to work for you overnight, you will be working for the rest of your life.”

I know a 61-year-old man who lies about his childhood. He tells everyone that his father was a corporate attorney. Born an only child reared by a nanny in a 12,000 square foot mansion. The reality is that he has 3 siblings. His dad was a union plumber and grew up in a very modest home in a blue collar 1970s neighborhood.

Man idk, Commercial HVAC service tech have to be damn near engineers for what we do. Some of us even are.

worked as a data analyst were the job was always undefined. Now I work as a local delivery driver, which is way more straight forward. They definitely both have pros and cons but overall I prefer working as a delivery driver

I’m a garbage man. I pull 6 figures with lots of overtime, 70-80k with some overtime. Not to mention my job requires and makes me very fit and physically strong

Trades or STEM.

I work in skilled trades, and I make $400.00 per man hour with a 50% personal gross profit margin during an economic contraction. Now keep in mind that I also live and operate in Denver, Co. I know handymen in my area who make $900.00 per man hour relative to hyper inflation in 2022.

Some plumbers i know are better earners than some lswyers and doctors

This is the answer I expected him to give.

I really wish the trade I'm working in is that companies would actually pay what we are worth. I Do commercial HVAC and 5 years in and i'm still not making a living wage.

One of the wisest people alive

Went from white collar banking department to working as a Railman. I've learnt so much in the space of 4 months, and I feel way more motivated now than when I was stuck behind a computer, collecting jelly rolls in a swivel chair. 😂

I'm a Microsoft/CompTIA certified IT tech, and a former auto mechanic (no ASE, I went straight to owning my shop), and I still don't understand basic plumbing diagnostics. Sure, it's likely a lack of effort, but that is significant effort. I'm a terrible carpenter too, and terrified of high voltage wiring! I also studied law and have been a successful self litigant. Intelligence means nothing, determination and focus are what matters most.

Im an owner operator pest control. I kill bedbugs and cockroaches all day. I make 30k a month personally. Moved that cash to rental properties, index funds, trading stock options and crypto. Nobody knows and i love it.

I have an IQ of 140 and I’m an automotive technician. I don’t want to be a professional thinker. I want to do things and fix things and work with my hands.

I’ve graduated from university and trades college. One does not make you better than the other. Trades is a better fit for some of you can’t sit still for long.

I am a painting contractor and I make more than just about every doctor outside of cosmetics I work when I want to work and I don't work when I don't want to work I Am My Own Boss I take care of business and don't answer to anybody so piss off if you think blue collar is subservient

Why do I see everyone bragging about making 100k-200k but the average salary even in Cali is way less for a majority of trades. Assuming they don’t have a business if their own that is. A lot of you seem to not have a business of your own

My husband is an electrician, and we’re now in a position where he can support me and the kids on one salary. He’s our hero ❤

Yeah! I clawed my way to a generational-first Computer Science degree. As a late-bloomer, in 13 years I was an "old-timer" in the high-tech field. Lacking generational management examples -- or interest -- I grayed-out of the computer science field. I really aspire to innovation now...where I should have been all-along. But yeah, the 'lil "Red Badge of Courage" helps.

I was a construction Foreman all my life. White collars have no clue how smart we are. All people, in all jobs of the world, spend there life inside structures we built. We are not theoretical thinkers, we are fact based thinkers. Huge difference! I like Jorden but all he does is talk on theory of the mind.

I thought my white collar job paid well, but plumbers & tradesmen are making a killing! So much so I've considered quitting to get into a trade myself, the work is essential, adds obvious value & job satisfaction.

The trades have been decimated by a shortage of real Tradesmen. There needs to be a serious sales pitch to get people back into the trades.

I been doing construction work on and off for 28 years now I started doing construction work since I was 14 years old and I am 42 years old now and I still doing construction work for living and I enjoy doing construction work for living because construction work is definitely outher stuff for construction work and is not like office work or kitchen work for living that way I life a blue collar lifestyle also

It's crazy how we compare, working outside with the boys been paid well and laughing most of the day. What's wrong with that? Madness

Love college people, they live in the clouds, love when they call about some reno work, and they think they so smart but when i give them that estimate and see their eyes bug out, thing of beauty.

It's not a good career choice, it may have been in the past. Hard to find means nothing to the executives.

Some of the most banal people I've ever met were of higher earning white collar kind. It seems weird that some people get paid so much more for something so superfluous. I see more room for philosophical discourse and critical thinking in the trades than I have with my more limited exposure to urban professionals. Maybe there's a more conservative thread running through the former, but on the other hand there's nothing more conservative than corporatism. IT people I know tend to hold progressive values that aren't reflected in their occupation or lifestyle and are handsomely compensated to promote a technocratic utopian worldview. Humanities people are an exception, the highest intelligence to competency to pay ratios, though I've experience with judgmental therapists and close-minded doctors.

good intentions is all that matters

The main thing I'd say is work for a company in your trade get good at it and make side money on your days off utilizing the skills. It's all cash money if you don't llc.

Great stuff.

Dude what Karen asked that question? Getting into blue collar work because you "don't have any semblance of brilliance"? What a snobby thing to say.

Grew up. Upper middle class. Decided to become a Diesel mechanic. My wife is a healthcare manager. We do pretty good. We live in the burbs and drive nice cars and own 2 rental homes. I know I am not the norm for Blue collar workers. Most Blue collar live in the poorer side of town. They look sloppy and don’t care what they own. These guys tend to have lots of toys when they make good money later in life. Most people think I am White collar.

I make more money as a manufacturing worker than I ever did working in the office and more satisfied at the end of the day

I graduated from college and really hated it. I hate using my brain for tasks that I don't care about, whereas using manual dexterity to solve a problem doesn't bother me at all. I make upper middle class money as a blue collar worker. I know so many white collar, unlikable guys that I assume the career in the "professional" fields actually makes a human miserable.

Agreed!

I’m a proud software developer 🧑‍💻💻 I’m a computer nerd

Working with your hands is a respectable career, thankfully the stigma has dissipated over the years but there’s still the odd time you get looked at like trash. This video is what you need to watch if someone downgrades you for being a blue collar worker

These guys have jobs that keep them physically fit and pay good money, doesn’t sound bad to me.

I’m in my 60s I have been a self employed carpenter and don’t hardly have an education and I make 6 figures

Not all blue collar work requires much skill or makes much income, but much respect to those who still choose to work hard out there in the elements.

I don’t know why people associate blue collar with stupidity. I am a surveyor which is a blue collar job but I work use calculus all day to measure physical distance across kilometres and miles we make volumetric calculations based on measurements across hills. We preform minor archeology by establishing boarder lines created hundreds of years ago by calculating the distance from a known point then digging and scraping to find the original monument which has long since rotted away. This idea that trades people are unintelligent has been brainwashed into you by being told over and over again that because you are where you are you are better than someone else. The trades are easy to become a novice but difficult to become adept. That is why we don’t consider you a skilled tradesman until at least 5 years in the field and even then there are some people who are better than others.

Ur more likely to have a successful business with a background in the trades then being a pencil pusher with a college degree.

Carpenter/Foreman for a commercial construction company here. Im doing a lot better than 90% of the college grads i went to hs with. People sleep on trades. Theyre just scared to work hard for their money and knowledge. Physically.

Words of support for blue collar workers from THE most white collar guy ever.

When the lights go out, we will see who is “subservient”. I don’t mean that as a threat- I mean we will actually, PHYSICALLY see the white collar jobs quickly ignored. Those with no skills except white collar will simply be in the way.

I am a college grad who studied Architecture because I didn’t want to be a “subservient ditch digger.” I now work as a city bus driver, and have never been happier. My annual income is *well* over $100k, love my job, own a house, and live virtually debt free. Being academically intelligent doesn’t make you life-savvy, nor does it make you a better person. All an advanced university degree does for people in most cases, as I have witnessed, is turn them into pompous, debt-saddled, unhappy corporate slaves whose only happiness is looking down on people they consider inferior - people like common bus drivers, such as myself, who earn a high income, invest, save, travel often (because I’m afforded 6 weeks of vacation per year), prioritize interpersonal relationships, and are otherwise contented. I wear a uniform everyday which signifies to some people that I am an uneducated dirt bag plebeian to be pitied because I don’t sit behind a desk all day getting screamed at by clients and bosses because I can’t keep up with an unrealistic work load while making UNDER $70k, have terrible healthcare, almost no retirement to speak of, and maybe 1 week off a year if I’m lucky… Who is looking down on *whom* ? 🤔

I spent my life surrounded by knobhead men who kept telling me to get a trade. I fucking hated it, and I couldn't help but notice that those telling me how great trade careers are never had to do it.

I own a home exterior cleaning business in an ocean front retirement area of the East Coast.I don't make any less than $800 a day me and one other guy.Stick that in your pipe and smoke it

Thanks internet dad

I like how he talks about i.q, but I know people with 160 i.q and there not super competent people.

I’d rather be a blue collar construction guy than a white collar bull shlt job with no satisfaction guy. I’ve ran my own business for forty years. I’ve known freedom.

You can talk till the sun sets; or get the job done before sunrise. Who are you going to pay?

Know how to get more people in the trades? Get rid of all occupational licensing, including driver's licenses. It doesn't improve quality, and ruins people's chances at sucess.

I'll say this for lack of subservience: Unlike Dr. Peterson, I don't have to answer to any Board of Metallurgical Furnace Operators for what I say outside of work.

Is IT better than construction ?

My girlfriends father was a union pipe fitter. He was able to provide for his wife and 4 kids. Send two of them to college and buy his family a mansion and put in an in ground pool and etc.

I got a 1390 on my SAT, I had a 3.95 GPA when I graduated from high school. I went to a 4 year university on an academic scholarship. I lasted one semester and I realized it wasn't for me. I got a job at a local fab shop and learned to weld, read blueprints, figure out dimensions and weights, and make some pretty neat stuff in the process. I'm now an ironworker in a mill and I love doing it. There's nothing that is subservient about working with your hands. Academia has become a business and they make teenagers and individuals that graduated with useless degrees look down on blue collar workers, while they have 120,000 in debt while making $45,000 a year and the tradesman is making $115,000 with no debt.

As a "tradesman" of over 30yrs, I am subservient to none. The association of low IQ with occupations not requiring a degree from an overpriced university is made at the perceiver's peril.

I previously worked blue collar and it’s vastly overrated. There is not enough money in the world to get me to return to skilled trade jobs. The truth is that they are not anymore necessary than some white collar work. In the end, every individual needs to find what is helpful for them, and I don’t mean having a fat paycheck.

There is going to be a shift of high intelligence career individuals into the trades. I wonder how this conversation will evolve.

10k a month starting off in electrical. Not bad

This is an insult disguised as a compliment

Yup, I'm 43 years old. I have a 7 year old son that I get to see 8 days a month. I didn't leave him, I was forced away. I pay $1100 a month but I'm a dead beat dad. If my sons mom dosent let me see him, I have to pay $900 and wait 7 months to hear a judge tell her, "don't do that'.. she does It twice and he is 18. I didn't leave my sons life. I was kicked out if it. And there is nothing I can do about it

Education level doesn’t equate to intelligence.

the weird stigma people have towards the trades is weird and reeks of elitism. like just listen to the way that question was worded. how are skilled trades workers any more subservient or less brilliant than your average mid-level white collar worker? if anything, the mid-level white collar worker is in a worse position with less leverage and less job security. people are annoying

I think he may have been trolled

When this guy’s talking about stuff like this and not the pandering pundit bullshit he’s been making money on the past couple years, he’s actually great. I’m in engineering, worked trades before that. I’ve known brilliant tradespeople and retarded engineering students. Your career doesn’t define your intelligence, you can be smarter than the job requires.

while I mostly agree I do think peterson here has a small misconception, just because you chose blue collar work doesnt mean you dont have the "mental horsepower" to compete with other people in competitive fields like law or medical, now yes most trades people youll find might not be as smart but many just saw it as something better then their other desired options. I personally dropped out of University while pursuing a degree in computer science to learn how to do electrical work, im sure my iq would rank among those in the computer science field but it was just boring for me and learning it didnt feel fun, learning how electricity works was fun and its why I chose trade school. That said I dont think Peterson meant this as an attack, rather hes just slightly socially unaware at times when hes in the middle of his talks.

This guy rambles

🗣️WELP!!! 🤷🏽‍♀️ Microsoft & CHAT-Gpt are coming for everyone’s necks!!! 😒This could mean everyone suffers 😢as unchained slaves to the machine 😱or…… Everyone gets to finally live 🥳instead of working ourselves to death ☠️to stay alive!!!

Jordan. Do you think there are no intelligent people in the trades? If you think this then you obviously have much more to learn.

I’m making $2,500 today seeding grass. 🤷‍♂️ Turf management is lucrative if you do premium work.

They are so useful? As in here to serve you?

Ah yes a millionaire motivational speaker who owns business talking about the lifestyle of a blue collar worker🤣

Your body gonna be broke by 40 lol

He takes issue with subservience while I take issue with the idea that blue-collar workers have no semblance of brilliance. The most likely deciding factor that you will succeed has nothing to do with your IQ but the class you were born into in society. The media has fin making us look foolish but we are at the bottom dregs of the economy so we are used to having abuse piled onto us with little recourse to defend ourselves.

Been an auto tech for over 32 yrs. Drop me off anywhere in this world and I will have a job before the sun sets. You fat check suit and ties would starve to death before you learned the language to begin looking. Having a trade makes me free the company needs me not I who need them. I can walk whenever I so chose to and have. They send college students to work with me once they've graduated. I've mentored many of the "college" educated and I'm not impressed to say the least. College has done nothing for these kids but settle them with loan debt and wasted 4yrs of their lives. The failure rate is staggering with well over 75% leaving the field all together within the 1st 2yrs. College is a joke absolutely useless outside stem fields.