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The crime of post-60s liberalism is that it created permanent Black underclasses all over America, including on the South Side of Chicago where I live. The schools here are poor. Opportunities have been replaced by government handouts. Violence robs far too many families of their loved ones. Yet, there is much untapped potential in these underclasses.
I thought about them as I listened to Mike Rowe of “Dirty Jobs” detail the need for hundreds of thousands of tradesmen and women recently at the Pennsylvania Energy & Innovation Summit. He began by saying, “We’ve been telling kids for 15 years to learn to code.” I, too, have been told to pursue that as a means of opportunity for my youth. But I always believed in the power of the trades.
Rowe pointed out how the advent of AI has decimated many coding jobs but has not come after “the welders, the plumbers, the steamfitters, the pipefitters, the HVAC, or the electricians.” AI cannot do manual labor.
For the last 20 or so, our nation has emphasized the college degree above everything, including vocational training. In my opinion, this has been disastrous. In my community, there are still those who look down at the prospect of working with their hands. They believe the college degree is their ticket. Maybe it is, but my point here is that work done by our hands should not be looked down upon in our culture. It’s honest work.
Rowe said that he heard Larry Fink, Chairman and CEO of BlackRock, say in Aspen that “we need 500,000 electricians in the next couple of years — not hyperbole.” My non-profit has provided training in the electrician field to many individuals, including a Chicago Police officer who eventually left the force to work full time in her new field.
He said the over 80,000 collision repair technicians would be needed.
Over 140,000 tradespeople are needed to help companies build and deliver nuclear-powered submarines to the Navy.
And for the energy field, 300,000 to 500,000 people will be needed.
AI can’t do any of this work. But I know people from the South Side and similar neighborhoods across America who can.
We need to train these people and put them to work. They may be living in poverty and they may not have received the best education. But many of them are hungry to improve their lives. That is why our nation must reverse the decline of post-60s liberalism by giving these people direct pathways to opportunity.
If one should fail or act detrimentally, then dismiss that person and let him or her be an example to others of what happens when one doesn’t fully commit.
We are a nation in a crisis. If we don’t reverse the fortunes of my neighborhood and others like it, then when?
The Golden Age for many Americans lies in the pursuit of a livelihood in the trades.
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