This is so true. Every comment I see on HN regarding welding paints it as the counterpoint example to a college education/getting a white-collar job. I have a b

This is so true. Every comment I see on HN regarding welding paints it as the counterpoint example to a college education/getting a white-collar job. I have a brother who gets worked to the bone welding for about $15 an hour. He can get pretty good incentive for producing more than the hourly "expected" rate, but it's hard work! He welds I-beams and lifts between 20-60 pounds per beam, depending on the specs of the specific beams, all day every day that he works. He does somewhere on the order of 40-60 beams per hour. Between his job as a welder and my cushy job as a software developer (making twice as much) I would choose the cushy software developer job every time. Not sure I would be saying the same thing if I had gotten a liberal art degree, but I certainly wouldn't use welding as the prime example of a trade-school "easy way out" from going to college.