Blog

When I was a kid growing up in the 1950s, the far-off world of today was filled with wonders to come. Homes would be heated by nuclear-powered boilers and, thanks again to nuclear energy, electricity would be too cheap to meter. People would be getting around in flying cars. Robots would do away with...

Working in the trades is a rewarding experience. You closely interact with customers, playing both technical and customer service roles. You are also able to set flexible hours, and you aren’t stuck sitting behind a desk for the rest of your life. If this sounds like the lifestyle and work culture...

Think our lives have been disrupted by Covid? We’re living in Paradise compared with life without enough skilled trade workers to build and maintain the mechanical systems our modern world depends on. Do you really want to go back to a time when wood stoves were the only way to keep warm in winter...

A huge demand exists for people in the trades, especially the skilled trades like HVAC, electrical, plumbing, etc. Almost every trade employer cites a shortage of workers as one of the main problems facing the business. Pay scales are high and going up. The Bureau of Labor Statistics(BLS)show average...

Not everyone has the talent and personal characteristics to become a skilled trade worker. Too many high school counselors think the trades are for people whose academics are not good enough for college. It reveals more about their ignorance than the intelligence of the students they point toward the...

I write this as the proud father of two grown daughters and absolutely giddy grandfather of four impossibly charming granddaughters, ranging in age from 6 to 15. (Any mistakes I make can be attributed to inhaling too many estrogen molecules. It was worse when our household also included two female...

I didn’t, not until reading an article that appeared in the May 23, 2020 edition of the Wall Street Journal (WSJ). The U.S. Tax Code runs to tens of thousands of pages in volumes that occupy an entire bookshelf in tax accountant offices. Even the best among them have trouble keeping up with all the...

I read a lot, always have. Much of my reading is to satisfy personal interests and has little application to my professional life, but I always have my eyes peeled for bits of information that are relevant to the things I write about for trade audiences. In that vein I will share with you some […]

The headline reflects a goal that has served as a rallying cry for feminists. Various studies show a large discrepancy in pay scales for women versus men for similar types of jobs, but I recently came across an article that opened my eyes. According to data from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, across...