My brother-in-law is a plumber, and he's on his way to doing as well as any of us rank-and-file tech guys. The hard part is he's had to go through indentured se

My brother-in-law is a plumber, and he's on his way to doing as well as any of us rank-and-file tech guys. The hard part is he's had to go through indentured servitude (ahem "an apprenticeship") of several years, the risks of getting injured, and the risks of being furloughed / laid off the moment there is a downturn in work. As I've learned through him, there are actually a lot of different sub-fields in plumbing too - everything from maintenance and installation on industrial dishwashers to major construction projects. He's barely 30 but already his body is wearing down from carrying hundreds of pounds of pipe up flights of stairs. He's been laid off twice - and guys that have been in the field longer have told him that he's had it good. I have used the residential side of the company he works for - and they charge the equivalent of $250 / hour. So, like all professions it has its pros and cons. As a freelance developer though, I'd agree with your synopsis - once you get outside a few tech geographies and particular companies, the pay scale for tech work drops off quickly, as does the excitement of the work. So then money is less the determining factor than the work itself and/or the lifestyle. Do you like sitting in an office or do you want to be on the road going to job sites and people's homes? Do you want to use your body as a machine or your mind? What level of risk of layoff and career competition do you want? There's no passive income in plumbing unless you build a company and sit on top.