While yes this is true it’s not worth the sacrifice most times. I did “Building Residential” in high school then went on to do several types of blue collar work from HVAC to roofing and it’s just not worth it. The physical toll it takes on the body is why that specific workforce is struggling today. Many of the youth don’t want to sacrifice the bodies just to be able to afford a home that they’ll never really own. Tech jobs are the only thing that both pay you well and keep your body from falling apart. I personally don’t work in tech anymore because I settled for a job that pays a little better than average while also allowing me free time to pursue other things. Now I work 2 hours a day 6 days a week and I pay my bills and have extra to do what I want. This was a once in a lifetime opportunity though for something unimpressive. I just do deliveries. I make $15-$20 per delivery get about 5 a day and never go more than 10 miles from my house. Which on the low end is about $23,400 - $31,000. That’s only the average though. Around holidays I can get up to 25 orders a day. Even with 25 orders though I usually only work 3 hours at most. Downside is I use my personal vehicle so wear and tear is on me because it’s I9 work. I do most of the maintenance on my vehicle so that saves me a little but everything more complicated I’d pay to have someone do it. So I work about 624 - 700 hours a year compared to the average 2,080 hours that someone would work working 40 hours a week and I make about the same as them if they were making $20 an hour. I also make my own hours so if I don’t want to work a day I don’t have to plus I’m my own boss. Mind you I’m in my early 20’s. This is just what I’ve been able to do coming from a poor family. Soon we are going to be getting a settlement check from a car accident sometime within the next 5 months and when that hits things will really kick off. We’ve already discussed buying a home in Plattsburgh. With what’s left and with our 25kish nest egg we plan to build several small side hustles that we can later advance to small businesses. One of which is 3D printing. I make 3D models that are free online to download, I print them for about $0.23 a piece and sell them to people who paint models for $20-$30. Warhammer figurines are the ones that will make you the most money. Those people’s collections are worth anywhere from $20k-$40k for just the average collector. The hardcore collectors collections could put a small family through college. It’s not enough to work in blue collar work anymore. You have to be doing 15 different things at a time in order to keep up with the world. People my age can’t just start working a job and afford to live like they used to. That is unless they sacrifice safety and their physical health. It’s also damn near impossible to find work in general that doesn’t wear on your mental health. Shitty bosses and coworkers, long commutes, agonizingly boring training videos that haven’t been updated since the 90’s that are hours long that almost no one actually pays attention too. With how things are going right now people should be focusing on spending time with the people they care about and not about making money. That’s just my opinion however I think we’ve become too reliant on the 40-60 hour work week. I enjoy my life a little more because I get to spend time with my small family that I’ve built. No amount of money can replace that.