Originally Posted by beng1

I am a union inside lineman. I could go to work any day for union wages anywhere in the USA. The total package of wages and benefits of a union outside lineman is $60 to over $100 depending on which union hall you work out of.
I went to school for tool&die and worked for The Warren Company, steel fabricating shop in the 1980s before going BACK into the electrical trade. Went to school for welding, jewelry-making and worked with a charter member of the American Horological Association, Edmund Lada, repairing mechanical wrist-watches. Took four years of art classes from the famous water-color painter Jean Stull learning lost-wax casting and silver soldering etc.. And built this little 17-foot tall barn from scratch with hand-tools, not power tools, in summer of 2019 with wood from local Amish sawmills. Rebuilt my first automobile engine when I was 18, father was a British motorcycle dealer and have rebuilt British motorcycle engines etc.. Just put a new clutch in my Toyota in my driveway, also a timing belt, water pump etc.. I have forgotten how to do more with my hands than anyone else on this forum will ever learn to do.

Also, if you call a plumber, they will charge you eighty bucks or more just to drive to your house, all transportation and other overhead is always part of the cost of doing business.

Nothing though is more valuable than doing what you want to , when you want to. To me, or any really sane or educated person, that is priceless, and that is what I have been lucky enough to do most of my life. That and a few other things you do not have the capacity to understand makes me the wealthiest man on earth, and I would not trade what I have for any amount of cash.