The tool-belt generation is getting rich, and AI can’t lay a glove on them
Trades are booming while AI panic spreads. A SpaceX welder’s $28/hr job turned into $880K stock. Electricians building data centers earn up to $260K debt-free. The FAA hired 2,000+ gamers as $144K controllers. No degree needed, just paid apprenticeships.
🤯 WOW! A welder took a $28-an-hour SpaceX job in 2015 and got paid partly in stock. After June’s IPO, his stake hit about $880,000. Data center electricians are earning up to $260,000, and the FAA hired 2,000-plus video gamers for six-figure control tower jobs. No degrees anywhere in that sentence.
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I love this. In 2015, Juan Hernandez took a $28-an-hour welding job at a company he’d never heard of. It paid him partly in stock, the same way it paid its engineers. The company was SpaceX. After June’s IPO, his shares hit about $880,000. (He welds for Blue Origin now. Fair’s fair.)
While everybody’s panicking about AI taking jobs, the folks who work with their hands are having their best decade in 50 years. No debt. Six-figure incomes. And you can’t outsource a conduit bend to a chatbot.
⚡ Talk about current events
AI is minting blue-collar money. Every data center the tech giants build needs an army of electricians, and there aren’t enough. Mike Rowe points to three young Texas electricians clearing $260,000 a year with zero college debt.
That’s the top of the range, so let’s keep it honest.
Journeymen on big projects average around $120,000, and one Wyoming crew hit $190,000 with per diem. First-year apprentices start near $50,000. The catch? The biggest checks travel. You chase the projects, sometimes living out of a fifth wheel.
Not the tool type? The FAA hired 2,000-plus video gamers to train as air traffic controllers. Median pay: $144,580. Only about 25% of current controllers have a college degree. All those hours on the sticks finally count as a résumé.
🧰 Want in? Trade up
Here’s the playbook for you, your kid or that grandkid glued to a screen.
- Skip the debt, earn while you learn. Search Apprenticeship.gov for paid electrician, plumber and HVAC apprenticeships near you. You’re paid from day one.
- Gamer in the family under 31? The FAA academy in Oklahoma City is the door. Search “FAA air traffic controller hiring” at FAA.gov.
- Ask about stock. Juan’s real lesson: A $28-an-hour job with equity beat plenty of desk jobs without it.
Wall Street even has a name for these kids: the tool-belt generation. Trade school enrollment jumped 16% in a single year, the biggest spike since the feds started counting. First generation in decades getting rich without a lecture hall.
AI can write a poem. It cannot wire a panel. You might say the trades are welding, er, wielding all the power.
Speaking of power: Those data centers cutting the big checks? On Friday, I’ll show you why they’re also quietly driving up your electric bill and what to do about it.
🎯 Send this to someone who thinks their kid’s gaming habit or toolbox are dead ends. Both just became career paths.
📱 Text-worthy: Told you the trades are hot. A SpaceX welder’s $28/hr job turned into $880K in the IPO, data center electricians are making up to $260K and the FAA hired 2,000+ gamers for $144K air traffic jobs. No degrees required. Paid apprenticeships: apprenticeship.gov.