Just became a licensed air conditioning contractor, still working a day job but would like to employ people someday. In the process of being part of my local LCMS too, hope to be a light there, even though the number of people no less young people is pretty small. Hopefully the young boys we have will want to get into a blue collar job
The trades are great and our son is a commercial refrigeration tech. However, we do also need pastors, attorneys, doctors, teachers etc. We must be self conscious about selecting and driving for aptitude.
Something else to be concerned about and monitor is the rising importation of foreign tradesmen. It was once thought plumbing, electrical, HVAC were immune from the H1B scourge, but the barrier has been broken.
That’s unfortunate about the trades being infiltrated. It doesn’t help that upon birth the push and ideal for an American is towards the pursuit of a college degree, sometimes rendering the trades not an option.
You are right about the other occupations too, but I battle between having those white collar and clerical occupations derived from Godless universities. I’m all in support for them coming out of a place, and I think joy Pullman wrote about this in the federalist, like classical Lutheran university or college, I think that’s what it’s called. Anyway, always enjoy your writings and hope to support you when things get better for me financially
Yes, Luther Classical College is the future for both academic and trade education.
One reality we must also face is that the trades are even more godless in many ways. The behaviors and tendencies to alcohol, drugs, strippers, and a foul mouth are a concern for a man wanting to find a good wife and live a quiet and decent life.
Yes it is true about the blue collar culture, men are consumed and devoured by their desires and it can bring out the worse in them, I certainly had to navigate and still do through these sharky waters.
I have also run in circles as a classical trained musician with highly and well educated philosophical thinkers, there also is a deficit of virtuous men there too. These men are just more clever at cloaking there degeneration more than the men I work with
This is something American conservatism is still wrestling with. A lot of people by default have the attitude of, "You want to get married and have a family? Stop whining and go work 80+ hours a week and climb the company ladder and have 5 side hustles till you make enough to pay your basic bills." Marriage and children are a basic part of God's created order and the foundation of society, yet they've been relegated to a "reward" of sorts for a select handful of high-performing people who figure out how to outperform the vast majority. At least, that's how a lot of people implicitly talk.
Stable family formation for average folks is vital for the perpetuation of society. This needs to be discussed much more within conservatism before there is nothing left to conserve.
I agree that stable family formation for average people is vital for society. I’m slowly becoming resigned to the fact that what our children (8 of them, teenagers down to a one-year-old) will have to deal with economically will be different from and likely harder than what we dealt with in the early years of our marriage. And my husband and I are Gen X and old Millennial, so we did the whole live-on-nothing-to-pay-off-student-debt thing for the first 13 years of our marriage. I agree that things should certainly change in our culture. I suppose I’m both 1) not optimistic that much will change in the next decade or two in favor of stable family development for most people and 2) if it’s important enough for young people to form families, they will do so, even though it’s hard. I just had a conversation with my oldest about this, and hopefully we’ll keep talking about it.
We must encourage our churches and communities to be and behave local. Employ each other, live nearby each other, be social, don’t hesitate to have a strong in group preference.
God bless your family - a large family is where it starts, especially if you can stay in close proximity to each other when the kids start getting married and having their own families.
Thank you! Yes, the local support is crucial. May God in Christ bless our church families and interactions so we can build and continue this for ourselves and our posterity.
Thank you for continuing to write about this. It's amazing what American Christians will excuse or ignore because"muh capitalism" when in reality it's just the worship of Mammon.
I have become much more sympathetic to the idea of Unions and unionizing because there must be a source of power pushing back against big business and corporate interests.
But unions today are no better than the business owners they purport to fight against. The union bosses are corrupt and become wealthy from the dues paid by the union members. Unions have become money laundering schemes for degenerate politicians that don't care about the people they represent.
Is it possible to organize while promoting Christian virtues, single income households, and rejecting abortion, homosexuality, and open borders?
There can be a place for unions, but I hate the institutionalization of excessive adversarial attitudes in our American locals. The entire system is a trial lawyer's dream. This manifests in fat cat union bosses who come across as licensed mobsters, contracts that coerce unwilling employees to be counted for and taxed by the union, destructive and unchristian behavior during strikes, acting as fundraising arms and direct action mobs for the Democrats, and so on.
This is a consequence of a society unwilling to submit to the Three Estates to govern our lives.
There is probably a happy medium that prevents the recent extortive behavior witnessed during the threatened port strike vs. Mr. Monopoly Man running away with all the loot. Still, it requires a lot of goodwill and Christian charity from all sides.
Practically, it may lie in removing federal and state protection that allows unions to become monopolies. Government employees should not have unions in our social contract. Conversely, unionizing workers should be more straightforward and even allow small groups to compete against each other in the same business—as long as they are not compelling anyone else to fall under their contracts.
Some thought should also be given to penalizing companies that press the nuclear button quickly, such as closing operations and moving them to another jurisdiction as soon as they run into labor problems. Likewise, deliberately avoiding compliance with E-Verify; big consequences!
“Man is not free unless government is limited.” - Ronald Reagan
Just became a licensed air conditioning contractor, still working a day job but would like to employ people someday. In the process of being part of my local LCMS too, hope to be a light there, even though the number of people no less young people is pretty small. Hopefully the young boys we have will want to get into a blue collar job
The trades are great and our son is a commercial refrigeration tech. However, we do also need pastors, attorneys, doctors, teachers etc. We must be self conscious about selecting and driving for aptitude.
Something else to be concerned about and monitor is the rising importation of foreign tradesmen. It was once thought plumbing, electrical, HVAC were immune from the H1B scourge, but the barrier has been broken.
That’s unfortunate about the trades being infiltrated. It doesn’t help that upon birth the push and ideal for an American is towards the pursuit of a college degree, sometimes rendering the trades not an option.
You are right about the other occupations too, but I battle between having those white collar and clerical occupations derived from Godless universities. I’m all in support for them coming out of a place, and I think joy Pullman wrote about this in the federalist, like classical Lutheran university or college, I think that’s what it’s called. Anyway, always enjoy your writings and hope to support you when things get better for me financially
Yes, Luther Classical College is the future for both academic and trade education.
One reality we must also face is that the trades are even more godless in many ways. The behaviors and tendencies to alcohol, drugs, strippers, and a foul mouth are a concern for a man wanting to find a good wife and live a quiet and decent life.
Yes it is true about the blue collar culture, men are consumed and devoured by their desires and it can bring out the worse in them, I certainly had to navigate and still do through these sharky waters.
I have also run in circles as a classical trained musician with highly and well educated philosophical thinkers, there also is a deficit of virtuous men there too. These men are just more clever at cloaking there degeneration more than the men I work with
This is something American conservatism is still wrestling with. A lot of people by default have the attitude of, "You want to get married and have a family? Stop whining and go work 80+ hours a week and climb the company ladder and have 5 side hustles till you make enough to pay your basic bills." Marriage and children are a basic part of God's created order and the foundation of society, yet they've been relegated to a "reward" of sorts for a select handful of high-performing people who figure out how to outperform the vast majority. At least, that's how a lot of people implicitly talk.
Stable family formation for average folks is vital for the perpetuation of society. This needs to be discussed much more within conservatism before there is nothing left to conserve.
I agree that stable family formation for average people is vital for society. I’m slowly becoming resigned to the fact that what our children (8 of them, teenagers down to a one-year-old) will have to deal with economically will be different from and likely harder than what we dealt with in the early years of our marriage. And my husband and I are Gen X and old Millennial, so we did the whole live-on-nothing-to-pay-off-student-debt thing for the first 13 years of our marriage. I agree that things should certainly change in our culture. I suppose I’m both 1) not optimistic that much will change in the next decade or two in favor of stable family development for most people and 2) if it’s important enough for young people to form families, they will do so, even though it’s hard. I just had a conversation with my oldest about this, and hopefully we’ll keep talking about it.
We must encourage our churches and communities to be and behave local. Employ each other, live nearby each other, be social, don’t hesitate to have a strong in group preference.
God bless your family - a large family is where it starts, especially if you can stay in close proximity to each other when the kids start getting married and having their own families.
Thank you! Yes, the local support is crucial. May God in Christ bless our church families and interactions so we can build and continue this for ourselves and our posterity.
Thank you for continuing to write about this. It's amazing what American Christians will excuse or ignore because"muh capitalism" when in reality it's just the worship of Mammon.
I have become much more sympathetic to the idea of Unions and unionizing because there must be a source of power pushing back against big business and corporate interests.
But unions today are no better than the business owners they purport to fight against. The union bosses are corrupt and become wealthy from the dues paid by the union members. Unions have become money laundering schemes for degenerate politicians that don't care about the people they represent.
Is it possible to organize while promoting Christian virtues, single income households, and rejecting abortion, homosexuality, and open borders?
There can be a place for unions, but I hate the institutionalization of excessive adversarial attitudes in our American locals. The entire system is a trial lawyer's dream. This manifests in fat cat union bosses who come across as licensed mobsters, contracts that coerce unwilling employees to be counted for and taxed by the union, destructive and unchristian behavior during strikes, acting as fundraising arms and direct action mobs for the Democrats, and so on.
This is a consequence of a society unwilling to submit to the Three Estates to govern our lives.
There is probably a happy medium that prevents the recent extortive behavior witnessed during the threatened port strike vs. Mr. Monopoly Man running away with all the loot. Still, it requires a lot of goodwill and Christian charity from all sides.
Practically, it may lie in removing federal and state protection that allows unions to become monopolies. Government employees should not have unions in our social contract. Conversely, unionizing workers should be more straightforward and even allow small groups to compete against each other in the same business—as long as they are not compelling anyone else to fall under their contracts.
Some thought should also be given to penalizing companies that press the nuclear button quickly, such as closing operations and moving them to another jurisdiction as soon as they run into labor problems. Likewise, deliberately avoiding compliance with E-Verify; big consequences!
It is not simple, and it would take decades to repair the dumb system we have. It is also understandable though given some of our history. If you want to be radicalized about workers vs bosses, listen to this podcast series, and prepare to be shocked at the depravity: https://podcasts.apple.com/ca/podcast/22-whose-america-ep-1-rough-extraction/id978322714?i=1000578895709
Yes. Agree on all points.
That martyr made podcast was amazing. Highly recommended.