3 ms·

Here's what look like some real numbers: https://ibew11.org/wp-content/uploads/2025/07/Residential-wage-rates.pdf https://ibew11.org/wp-content/uploads/2025/07/

by bsder 1y ago

Here's what look like some real numbers: https://ibew11.org/wp-content/uploads/2025/07/Residential-wage-rates.pdf https://ibew11.org/wp-content/uploads/2025/07/Residential-wa... Those rates are nothing to sneeze at, but the work is often hard work out in the beating sun (not everybody is installing data centers in air conditioning). And the work takes a toll on your body. Those are certainly not numbers that would make people genuinely qualified for software jobs think once let alone twice.

JumpCrisscross 1y ago
> the work takes a toll on your body It doesn’t need to. Not for welding.
- kbar13 1y ago
  your eyes tho i guess staring at a screen for 90% of your day is probably also bad for the eyes
  - deleted 1y ago
    [deleted]
- bsder 1y ago
  > Not for welding What? Where? All the welding jobs I have ever known were terrible for your body. Between the exposure to high UV, all the bits of toxic crap that you are breathing/ingesting, and the noise from heavy machinery, it's quite bad. And that's not to mention just the baseline damage from lugging and hauling and hefting heavy pieces of metal. My grandfather did welding for Bethlehem Steel as did my father. My grandfather died from a weird cancer from all the crap he was exposed to. My father quit working at the mill precisely because it was doing so much damage just by wear and tear. They both made a point to make sure that my job would be based around my brain and not my body. Electricians, by contrast, at least don't have anywhere near the same level of exposure to toxic crap.
  - JumpCrisscross 1y ago
    > My grandfather did welding for Bethlehem Steel as did my father How do they view modern eye, respiratory and skin protection every welder I’ve seen on an industrial site clad in?
    - bsder 1y ago
      So, your hands have no oil or dirt on them after working a welding shift? Wow, I'd love to take a tour of your workplace. Even if you've got protection on, you still get exposed little by little. If someone is welding next to you on a site, you get exposed. If you have slag, you are breathing vaporized chemicals and heavy metal ions unless you a wearing a closed system breather. Any solvents or fluids tend to be some level of toxic. etc. Welding is more than just putting rod to metal. You cut things. You grind things. You apply chemicals in preparation. Nobody is dressed in an environmental hazard suit all day--lack of mobility and peripheral vision is its own industrial hazard. If you're covered in grime at the end of the day, well, all that crap is toxic to some degree.
      - JumpCrisscross 1y ago
        True, didn’t think about grime like that. I’d be curious to see actual health outcomes comparing the risks of a sedentary occupation with one that has some toxic exposure.
    - close04 1y ago
      Probably the same way they’d view the young tech startup billionaire. They’d understand they’re just seeing snapshots of an industry they don’t fully know so they’d avoid generalizing to “all young tech workers are billionaires”. Why you’d think you can characterize an entire industry based on a few snapshots is not clear to me. A few more things I’d add to the health risks of welding: the inevitable toxic crap on the hands even just by taking off the protective equipment, or the occasionally extremely uncomfortable body posture that needs to be maintained for hours on end while welding. And there are more extreme welding environments that put almost any job on earth to shame, like hyperbaric welding. Over years things add up. If office work is hard on the body for too much sitting which is natural and fine is smaller doses, imagine work where even the small exposures are terribly bad. Source: only welded once in my life but worked for a company that did a lot of it, from the mountain top to the bottom of the sea. All the safety avoids acute issues but the chronic ones will build up.

by bsder 1y ago

JumpCrisscross 1y ago

> the work takes a toll on your body It doesn’t need to. Not for welding.

kbar13 1y ago
your eyes tho i guess staring at a screen for 90% of your day is probably also bad for the eyes
- deleted 1y ago
  [deleted]
bsder 1y ago
> Not for welding What? Where? All the welding jobs I have ever known were terrible for your body. Between the exposure to high UV, all the bits of toxic crap that you are breathing/ingesting, and the noise from heavy machinery, it's quite bad. And that's not to mention just the baseline damage from lugging and hauling and hefting heavy pieces of metal. My grandfather did welding for Bethlehem Steel as did my father. My grandfather died from a weird cancer from all the crap he was exposed to. My father quit working at the mill precisely because it was doing so much damage just by wear and tear. They both made a point to make sure that my job would be based around my brain and not my body. Electricians, by contrast, at least don't have anywhere near the same level of exposure to toxic crap.
- JumpCrisscross 1y ago
  > My grandfather did welding for Bethlehem Steel as did my father How do they view modern eye, respiratory and skin protection every welder I’ve seen on an industrial site clad in?
  - bsder 1y ago
    So, your hands have no oil or dirt on them after working a welding shift? Wow, I'd love to take a tour of your workplace. Even if you've got protection on, you still get exposed little by little. If someone is welding next to you on a site, you get exposed. If you have slag, you are breathing vaporized chemicals and heavy metal ions unless you a wearing a closed system breather. Any solvents or fluids tend to be some level of toxic. etc. Welding is more than just putting rod to metal. You cut things. You grind things. You apply chemicals in preparation. Nobody is dressed in an environmental hazard suit all day--lack of mobility and peripheral vision is its own industrial hazard. If you're covered in grime at the end of the day, well, all that crap is toxic to some degree.
    - JumpCrisscross 1y ago
      True, didn’t think about grime like that. I’d be curious to see actual health outcomes comparing the risks of a sedentary occupation with one that has some toxic exposure.
  - close04 1y ago
    Probably the same way they’d view the young tech startup billionaire. They’d understand they’re just seeing snapshots of an industry they don’t fully know so they’d avoid generalizing to “all young tech workers are billionaires”. Why you’d think you can characterize an entire industry based on a few snapshots is not clear to me. A few more things I’d add to the health risks of welding: the inevitable toxic crap on the hands even just by taking off the protective equipment, or the occasionally extremely uncomfortable body posture that needs to be maintained for hours on end while welding. And there are more extreme welding environments that put almost any job on earth to shame, like hyperbaric welding. Over years things add up. If office work is hard on the body for too much sitting which is natural and fine is smaller doses, imagine work where even the small exposures are terribly bad. Source: only welded once in my life but worked for a company that did a lot of it, from the mountain top to the bottom of the sea. All the safety avoids acute issues but the chronic ones will build up.