Employment Advice

Surly's planning on taking a bike trip with a few other guys. One of them is taking a chopper and he figured he needed a reserve tank to increase the distance between stops. Surly saw him "walking the cup" while he was welding the tank together and commented to me that the bike's owner just got his credentials. I assume he's a pipe fitter judging by the welds and the tank construction. Besides being able to make cool motorcycle parts, you can make a damn fine living working in any of the construction trades. I heard an ad on the radio yesterday for an electrician at one of the local mills. They mentioned making $80 large and bennies in the ad. Beats the absolute hell out of being saddled with huge student loan debt.

Surly has the axe finished up. He said there were a couple of pinholes in the weld but other than that, it's all good. I loaned him my leather working tools and furnished a piece of leather and he fashioned a nice looking sheath for it. He posted a couple of pictures on his Instagram page but I wasn't able to figure out how to lift them to post here. However, one important thing to remember here is that having trade skills opens up a lot of possibilities. Whether you're a welder, machinist, carpenter, leather worker or whatever, you can do a lot of things besides earning a decent living with those skills. And, since most trades people tend to run with their own kind, even if you don't have a particular skill, you'll know someone who does - meaning you can find someone to make that gas tank for your chopper, or weld up your axe, or machine up some special gizmo.

I'm certainly not knocking college, but the return on your investment had better warrant the initial expense and the juice on those loans that you'll be looking at for twenty years. And don't be looking for loan forgiveness from the government, regardless of what the presidential candidates are saying to get themselves elected. There should have been two big take-a-ways from high school Econ class: opportunity cost and compound interest. Remember that the government is the one who is running the student loan programs these days. The same government that screws up most anything they touch. Don't expect them to be looking out for your best interest. Do your homework.