Trades pay well with a customer base to support them. The core problem is, ultimately, the customer base is led by the white collar jobs who lack the skills to

Trades pay well with a customer base to support them. The core problem is, ultimately, the customer base is led by the white collar jobs who lack the skills to perform those tasks. The blue collar tradesmen, frankly, has the skills to avoid buying services from each other. I know a mechanic that does her own plumbing, electrical, etc. She'd never try to make money at it but to the best of my knowledge the only time she hired anyone was to get the HVAC installed. That was largely a size/experience issue with a crane to move it into her backyard over the fence.