> it absolves us of our shared responsibility to address the reality of his limited economic prospects. Why do I have a responsibility for someone else’s econo

> it absolves us of our shared responsibility to address the reality of his limited economic prospects. Why do I have a responsibility for someone else’s economic prospects? The man profiled in the story didn’t sound like he was a victim of anything I’m responsible for: I didn’t make him late for work so much he got fired. I didn’t ask him to get married and have two kids at age 21. There is a whole bunch of “not my problem” going on there. I’m also not convinced only $30-40 per hour in a pretty cheap cost of living area is a bad wage. That’s much more than many degreed people working in the city make. Also the potential with welding is that he could start his own shop and be making some serious money. The national demand is huge. My dad is a retired precision machinist and his “side business” in his garage makes him more money than his job working with physics Nobel laureates at a major university ever did. Most of his business is contract work for universities and oil field tooling companies and he hires welders almost continually. Most welders he works with are at full capacity and can’t hire people fast enough. The problem is that many people that go into the trades are like the guy profiled in the story: unreliable, often losers, who don’t stick around very long. The good ones, the sky is pretty much the limit. The economy is flying — there is a lot of work. Same thing in the construction trades as well, especially plumbing.