I'm not seeing those same numbers, anecdotally it seems people are very excited a $80 hourly rate in SF in a skilled trade that requires a 5 year apprenticeship

I'm not seeing those same numbers, anecdotally it seems people are very excited a $80 hourly rate in SF in a skilled trade that requires a 5 year apprenticeship - which suggest to me that most are not getting that. Though perhaps those doing well don't have time to post on the internet. "I can guarantee you that a tradesmen in the bay that is good and skilled is pulling that as well." - or to rephrase; a similarly skilled tradesperson isn't making more in trades than they would have made as a SWE. In general there is a competency crisis so I'm sure competent tradespeople can and do charge a premium and as things get worse I'm sure the premium they can charge can increase. That said, the US was angling to be a 'knowledge-worker' economy but for some reason, like many western countries, there now seems to be a huge appetite for importing unskilled labor to create a more mixed economy. I believe there will be an effort to push the newly arrived unskilled labor into the skilled tradespeople labor force which would put downward pressure on blue collar salaries. So the current windfall that they are enjoying might yet abate. I think the denigration of blue collar was done so people wouldn't feel as bad about shipping factories overseas to increase corporate profits. The process of financialization and deindustrialization was driven by politicians and bankers and I think culturally the rest of us are were reacting to these realities as opposed to driving them. I think financializing and deindustrializing the economy was a mistake, as is importing large amounts of unskilled labor. I truly would have loved to have seen a larger blue collar middle class.