The helpless generation

[Parts]

In general the US has become soft easy and cheap imports and the looking down upon manual labor has done much it hasten the problems we face now.  Today most people strive to work in offices pushing papers back and forth while few want to make or do anything with their lives.  There are some but not many.  Fifty years ago a skilled workman was a noble profession now it's looked at as dirty.  We as a people have lost track and I say that for most of western culture.  So many people have no idea how to do the simplest manual labor and the people who are the experts at it are slowly dieing of old age as people would rather have cheep imports than fix quality items.  I see this more and more everyday in my business very few want to go into trades or have the skills required to.  On top if that it's looked down upon by people in my area.   Without people to do the dirty work society would fall apart no matter how much paper you push at it.  It has begun already fewer and fewer people going into vocational jobs in fifty years no one will know how to fix or make anything and that will be the end of us    

Sorry for the rant but it's on my nerves along with  Sam Adams and klonopin

[punkdrew]

I got a real sense of this when the word "want" started cropping up in ads so much. "I want this feature," "I want that feature," "I want, I want, I want." I buy and use based primarily on need. I do indulge at times, but I try to not be profligate. It seems to me that because there is so much to be had--clothing, music, technology--people are not only conditioned to want new things, but that they deserve them and should have them as a matter of course. Rather like that scene in Huxley's BRAVE NEW WORLD, where the babies in their incubators are constantly exposed to such phrases as "I like my new clothes" and "New things are best."

This culture is in for one fucking HELL of a shock. IMO.

[Pyraxis]

Interesting. I'm not old enough to have seen a trend in ads, but I do often get baffled by the materialistic scramble. I have to talk myself into buying things - I'm "owed" a new monitor (meaning I told myself to get one) to help with freelance graphics work - the color correction on my laptop is pathetic - but it's been months and I can't even bring myself to shop for it.

[Johnny]

hey you old fart obsolete dinosaur stop picking on the helpless or would that be hopeless.

I also worked on my other house back in the subdivision, two of my neighbor wanted to know if they could help with my next project so they could learn something about home repair. There was no explaining it to them that it didn't work like on TV and 30 minutes later all done.

the guy across the street was middle aged and clueless anyone could do something without being trained.

I gutted my bathroom, put in a shower stall, tiled it and he couldn't believe anyone could do such a thing without being taught how to do it.
That when I brough home a banged up 1994 camaro and told him I was going to put the engine and trans in my Buick he said he didn't know i was a mechanic, beyond his comprehension somebody could rebuild an engine and make a camaro engine fit in a buick and rewire the whole car.
 They sold the car in canada with a 305 small block chevy, so a small block chevy engine is a bolt in after fighting with the people at Buick to get me motor mount brackets for a canadian car.

A 24 inch wide dishwasher will fit in an 18 inch wide hole, check out car jack stand under cast iron sink, I put in a stainless steel sink after using a car floor jack to get that thing down on the floor

real estate lady said my 1950's wall oven and cheap ass cooktop where making the kitchen look dated, so I made a new stove fit.

bathroom was real pretty, funny thing was while looking for a house in vermont one place had the exact same colors, it was oh shit another yuk bathroom to overhaul, the people refused my bid on it and the bank took the house even though I offered them what they paid 1 year before

notice dual toilet paper holders

[Callaway]

How did you get the old tub out and the new tub in?

[Johnny]

How did you get the old tub out and the new tub in?

cast iron is no match for a sledge hammer, new ones are steel and light

[Johnny]

[Johnny]

had to tear out the closet and build a shower first or i would smell worse than a truck driver

[jman]

I offered to install my parents new garbage disposer for them, but my dad got a friend from work who is experienced to do it

[Johnny]

[Johnny]

I offered to install my parents new garbage disposer for them, but my dad got a friend from work who is experienced to do it

If your parents are the types that can't figure stuff out on their own, they think it's impossable for people without experiance to do things.

The challange is not reading directions first, than if all else fails wimp out and look at the pictures in the direction book and hope you don't actually have to read the thing.

[Peter]

My mum gets really worried about things going wrong, so she'll hire people to do very simple jobs, just for the reassurance that it's being done by people who know what they're doing, and who'll fix it if there's a problem.  Often she declines my help because she's scared that I'll mess something up, even though I have a pretty good track record of doing jobs about the place.

[Johnny]

The woman who bought my house wanted to know who put in the hot water heater a few weeks after she moved in.

I put the shower heads up nice and high first of all and drilled out the no flow crap so they produced some serious water flow, she probably was annoyed she ran out of hot water in minutes and thought something was wrong with the hot water heater which was new. The area has serious water pressure so it's easy as hell to blow threw a tank of hot water with the shower on full blast.

nice having a shower & tub in case you are ever busted up and unable to safely use the shower in the tub.

[Johnny]

My mum gets really worried about things going wrong, so she'll hire people to do very simple jobs, just for the reassurance that it's being done by people who know what they're doing, and who'll fix it if there's a problem.  Often she declines my help because she's scared that I'll mess something up, even though I have a pretty good track record of doing jobs about the place.

That is the way to learn, do things and hopefully know your limits. There is also the why die with somethings trying to do stuff without the right equipment, always take into consideration the risk factor. i learned that the hard way trying to save money cutting down tree's, got nailed in the hip when a large branch went the wrong way and was like near dead for a week.

[Parts]

Nice work Johnny   good to know not everyone is helpless though I knew you were not.  You know what it's like in Ct though everyone seems unable to do the simplest things