Mike Rowe Is on a Mission to Reverse the
'Unspeakable Stupidity' of Devaluing Work

I always love to watch his shows, starting with "Dirty Jobs". And the new one, "How America Works" is an excellent look at various US industries. It is interesting to see a number of people doing specialized, skilled jobs who sometimes have college degrees which were clearly a total waste of time and money as far as preparing them for their jobs. One that pops to mind was a late twenties young man running a very odd looking, but powerful "tugboat" which is used to round up floating logs and form them into a raft for transport down the river. It involves driving this high horsepower, nearly round boat around pushing logs, hopping out onto floating logs, spiking in an attach point for a rope, then hopping back in the boat, spinning it in it's own length (perhaps 20 feet) and chasing and pushing more logs, then out onto the wet, rolling floating logs to spike and lash again, and back. And occasionally...heading down below deck into the engine room to repair something. No helpers, and a very busy, just short of frantic, solo job. And he had a journalism degree, which had nothing to do with his clearly considerable skill at this tricky and dangerous job....fighting currents and winds moving the logs the wrong ways until at the end or a day he had a huge raft of logs all tied up and ready to tow to the loading location downriver by a larger boat. There are many other examples of skilled workers, doing challenging jobs, under time pressure to get a job done, in many industries, and often clearly having a lot of satisfaction of a job well done at the end of a day. Young people should watch the show. There are a lot of interesting and challenging jobs out there that have absolutely nothing to do with a college degree, and which pay very well. God bless Mike Rowe.

Row is right. As a veteran IT worker w multiple degrees and IDK how many trainings, I would gladly swap em for a master electrician or plumber license. Turns out tech skill evolves into commodity. They just want the IT. They don't care who codes it. First it was off shoring. Then they imported our 3W replacements. Now AI is bearing in on our jobs to make us expendable. I tell any kid who will listen: look into the trades!

Loved the show "Dirty Jobs". Even with a hi-tech degree I had one out at sea 8 months of the year. It paid the bills to raise my family so I did it. Retired outcome ? 25 years at sea took me to places most people wouldn't think to go. I don't have a bucket list except maybe finishing Schubert's Impromptu's (ALL 4).

Mike Rowe is one if the smartest guys on TV. He’s done more for the skilled trades than anybody.

Truckdrivers are making outrageous $$$ in this day and age.

Anyone who has recently hired a skilled, licensed electrician or plumber knows these jobs pay well. The jobs pay way more than a degree in women's and gender studies ever will.

My son-in-law has a masters in computer systems whatever, book smart for sure. The guy can’t change his lawnmower blade…he takes it to Home Depot for them to do it. My grandson is 13 yrs. old and they won’t let him cut their grass. This kid will have no degree of work ethics one day when he finds he needs it.

I was talking with a friend this evening over dinner. He won't be sending his two brilliant daughters to college at all, just unwilling to pay huge bucks to have their brains washed by Communists....his words. He's a brilliant guy with a razor sharp wit, and just loves "engaging" with leftists and leaving them doubting their convictions. And he has genius strategies to accomplish it. It was a hilarious dinner.