Is A Blue Collar Stigma Crippling America? | EP320 | Dr. Phil Podcast
ฝัง
- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 4 ก.พ. 2025
- There is a serious threat to the future of this country, one that could threaten every aspect of America’s infrastructure, leaving families and businesses helpless. Many blue-collar professionals say there is a stigma keeping young adults from rolling up their sleeves and replacing the men and women who are aging out, creating a crippling labor shortage. First Dr. Phil speaks with 22-year-old Mikey, who says he quit his job as an electrician because it made him miserable. He says his generation has easier ways to make a living. Plus, Ari, is an owner of a successful law firm, and says to be successful, young adults should be pushed to get advanced degrees, not be plumbers and coal miners. The debate heats up when Dr. Phil introduces Texas Master Plumber, Roger Wakefield, and, Jamison, a co-owner of multiple construction companies who both say the stigma towards blue collar workers is real. Find out what happens when Dr. Phil surprises, Lucy, a 20 year old, who has gone viral online for her refusal to work a 9-5 job mantra with a trip to get her hands dirty with Master Plumber, Roger Wakefield. Lastly, Dr. Phil speaks with Lisa who says when her husband sadly passed away, many felt she couldn't run their ranch by herself, boy did she prove the doubters wrong.
Thank you to our sponsors:
Lumen: Visit lumen.me/DRPHIL to get 20% off your Lumen
Cozy Earth: Visit CozyEarth.com/... and use code PHIL for up to 40% off
Preserve Gold: Visit: preservegold.c... Get a FREE precious metals guide that contains essential information on how to help protect your accounts. Text “DRPHIL” to 50505 to claim this exclusive offer from Preserve Gold today.
Experience a side of Dr. Phil McGraw you may have been missing as he provides critical information on some of the most important issues we face today. McGraw delves into the minds of the most exciting and accomplished people. From celebrities to ordinary people in extraordinary circumstances, to the world’s leading experts, every guest and topic is provocative, informative, and relevant.
drphilpodcast.com
Dr. Phil McGraw, one of the most well-known and trusted mental health professionals in the world, is the host of daytime TV’s top-rated program, Dr. Phil. This trailblazing and award-winning platform continues to provide the most comprehensive forum on mental health issues in the history of television. Dr. McGraw’s unique ability to take complicated and technical information and make it accessible and understandable to the general public has distinguished him both among viewers and within his profession.
Follow for more Dr. Phil & The Dr. Phil Podcast:
Dr. Phil Show - / @drphil
Podcast - www.drphilpodc...
YT - / @drphilpodcast
Spotify - open.spotify.c...
Apple Podcasts - search.itunes....
I am that 3% that works with agriculture 20 years old and I agree with you 100% Dr.Phil, I feel like I’m going to have to teach all the kids that went to college to party how work.
I’m a proud wife mom and daughter of blue collar workers. They make good money if you're willing to put in the muscle.
I am so glad my dad taught me how to work on cars, do basic electric, plumbing, and construction. It has been a gift that has helped me through life.
I worked in factory for 18 years and have been driving a semi for five years. Made damn good money at both, and I’m happy, not necessarily because I love my jobs but because these jobs support my family and built a future for me. I’ve done so well that my money manager has told me to retire at 55.
How many college grads with useless degrees and a mountain of debt can say that?
Keep the stigma going, I'm doing well because of it.
Trades are amazing. I was planning all throughout high school to become a nuclear engineer. Did the cost-benefit analysis and realized trades are more prosperous, but that's not what kept me. After the first 5 years, it actually became enjoyable. Knowing that, as a welder I am a responsible part of building a better world. Even if I don't get to see it, my children and their children will get to live it. That's more worth it to me now than anything else. I mean the pay is still amazing.
They think they'll be wealthy influencers. Delusions of grandeur.
The trades still don’t pay nearly enough. We get treated like second class citizens, and most jobs offer little to no benefits.
The solution is very simple. Trades jobs suck. If you want people to do the job, you have to pay more, so that people have a reason to tolerate doing a job that is difficult, stressful, filthy, and thankless. Pay!
The solution is very simple. Trades jobs suck. If you want people to do the job, you have to pay more, so that people have a reason to tolerate doing a job that is difficult, stressful, filthy, and thankless. Pay!
Not true!! If you a lazy trades worker,
You won’t get paid much.
Good workers get paid more.
Way more!!!
I have coworkers, in the trades, that’s make half what I do.
Cause they are lazy.
If you are not wealthy working trades! IT’s cause you’re not a good worker.
Period.
@@metalted6128 wealthy?😂 My husband has been a union tradesman for 33 years now and he is the highest paid. Companies have fought over his salary on who is going to get him and we are far from rich. He gets paid over scale. You beat the hell outta your body. His shoulder hurts EVERY SINGLE DAY! Its horrible!
It's not the stigma... It's the pay and zero benefits. (Non union)
Bingo.
@@DaOriginalMurdah make sure you get in a union. Benefits are great!
My dad told us get into the trades. He was a welder. Too retired at 55. We had a good life. Never went without.
Work is work, it's not something that needs to be cared about, unless there underpaying you. Evey job is equally as boring and unfullfilling as the next, doesn't matter where you work. Different place same shit.
People always think that a college degree means more studying and more work and that one should be compensated more than a blue collar worker because of that degree. What those people don’t realize, is just how much studying, training, learning and knowledge goes into the trades. Not to mention the cost of tools and that is steep. Often times, the learning, studying, and training is continuous throughout your career, because things in the trades are always changing. Personally, I think these should be some of the highest paying jobs out there, on par with white collar jobs. But it’s not the case. The pay for trade jobs needs to increase drastically in order to fill those jobs. What doesn’t need to increase drastically is the pay for mindless jobs like pouring coffee at a Dunkin’ Donuts, or asking if they want just the sandwich or the meal at McDonald’s.
Vocational studies in high school are so important because they help you develop a backup plan for a university degree in case the university degree doesn't help you out career-wise. So, if you are a schoolteacher during the school year, you can work a summer-only job as a blue-collar employee on a ranch or a plumber for a private employer. There is no shame in that because you get the benefit of working with animals and people and making a living that is more than what you make as a schoolteacher during the year, which is also an enriching career.
Doctor Phil we need for our parental alienation happening in Colorado. I have not seen my son in 6 years....can not fight family court, lies, DV, I am so missing my son. He needs my help. They have him on psychotropic drugs, he is failing school. Just turned 12. His father cut all of his family out his life. He leaves him at home to do photography all time.....help please
I work in the steel industry. We build the structural part of buildings and hire welders. We have a hell of a time hiring people. Most of them are either not competent welders, don't want to work that hard and do 40 hours for the week, expect things to be handed to them, expect to make their own hours, the list goes on. We hired 39 people in 2024 and 15 are still here. There are various reasons on why everyone else isn't still working for us. Most of the reasons are what I listed. A couple went to jail. We have great benefits that can compete with the industry. It is a lot of the younger crowd that just can't seem to handle working.
As the wife of a union tradesman let me tell you that it sucks for him and myself. Beating the hell out of his body for 33 years isn't worth any amount of money. Right rotator cuff tendonitis that hurts daily, knee and back pain. Also where you live, once it's built up, you have to move to another state to go where the work is. Once a state is built up, there is no money making general repairs. Now we have moved to another state and for the past 10 years he has to work away from home he only comes home weekends. He had missed out on my daughters preteen and teen years. It is AWFUL. I don't care what anyone says. He is retiring next year because his body can't take it anymore.
That brat kid is so clueless. So entitled and not willing to do anything to make this country better.
Who the heck? If the people who built this country said that, then our country wouldn't be here.
'We the people' need a personal buy-in to our country again.
My dad was BC worker.
He was a very smart man, but sitting behind a desk every day wasn't for him.
We have to start making decisions based on whats good for this country or were ALL screwed.
...and we have to
re-establish trust in government or nobody's gonna ever gonna buy in.
Gosh i just love Roger 😊
My mom only went up to 8th grade. She is currently 86 years old, healthy & strong. She is only one in our family, we got more! Stat doesn't fit my family 😅
My ex husband was a steam fitter for over 40 years and did very well now my grandsons and son in law are following in his footsteps it’s hard work but pays very well and great retirement
So glad, Dr Phil shared everything about Trump and the border crisis !! It makes a difference and shows the truth to people who might not see otherwise... Thank you !
College vs non-college stats are useless because it mixes non-qualified income with trades; trade vs collage show a better picture; most college grads struggle to make a living and have less job security; trade brings a better formation of character and stability because it's one step at a time.
The love of my job isn’t the work I do!!
It’s the life my job gives me and my family!!!
Is why I love my job.
And yes it’s blue color.
Steel toe work boots.
Hot sweaty, dirty.
I change my clothes before I leave work, most days.
I love my job, because of what my job gives me!!!
Our American kids can’t get a trade job here in NY. I’m not sure how other states are but we are flooded with people that don’t even speak English. I don’t know what my grandkids are gonna do because they’re like me, like to work with their hands.
We used to live in NJ. Moved out 10 years ago because literally they were tapped out of work. Everything was built up already. My husband is a union tradesman for 33 years now. Retiring next year. He had friends in the same trade and there were so many sitting on the list at the union. One of his friends said I'm gonna get another job and sit on the list and see how long it is before they call me. It was 10 YEARS 😅😅
If you are creative or athletic, a trade is usually a great choice for young men.
Never thought about that but it definitely makes sense.
Only in States where Unions are holding hostage & extorting the Taxpayers.
It’s not a stigma. It’s real. I worked just as long to get the experience to be an electrician as an accountant spends at college. He gets paid way more every time. Why?
The answer is simple. Democrats aren’t importing illegals to do accounting work. They’re importing them to do the hard jobs. And I hate to break it to you, quality has plummeted and it shows.
If we had the attitude my generation has even back then society wouldn’t have had a strong foundation of hard and committed workers who sacrificed their time, energy and bodies to give us the lives we have today. Not everyone is privileged to live off daddy or mommy’s money or to be wed to a rich husband. We work to live and it can have benefits like social interaction, trade experience and exercise!
Young people thinking that they are going to hurt any less if they sit at a desk all day every day is funny because no matter how you live your life you will always have aches and pains as you get older. Honestly I think a blue collar worker is much better looking than a soft handed keyboard warrior of college graduate. When you do physical labor you build muscles and don’t have to go to the gym to do it. I have only ever dated blue collar workers because their job experiences build really good personalities and the fact that a lot of the younger generation can’t hack it says more about them than anything else.
His guests put down blue collar workers for millions of people to see.
Thanks for making the world think all plumbers unclog toilets. You’re scaring them away, not helping the business. I’ve been plumbing for 27 years and I might unclog a bowl once a years. I do new work or renovations. I really think that was the wrong thing to show
There's a lot of assumptions in this video ... I was a counselor for 13 years, and now I'm a Union Electrician. 😂 I make more money, have better benefits, health insurance, and 2 Pensions.Dr. Phil is RIGHT...$$$ and most people in trades retire earlier than others (before retirement age)
Yea but it needs to be union. Which most aren't in the US
I think he’s a liar. Exactly Dr. Phil, he’d make decent money if he knew what he was doing
She's too pretty? Oh hell, no she is not too pretty at all
I bought my first house at 22.
This is a long one…I am a blue collar worker, have been my whole life. I started in HVAC at 19, and I have been doing it for 12 years. Here is what I can say about it as honestly as I can. Is there a need, sure there is. Is there money in it? Depends on what you consider good money to be. Personally, I don’t think all of the hard, back breaking work in extreme conditions (attics in excess of 130*F on an average summer day) and brutal cold in the winter, breathing in fiberglass, asbestos and any other occupational hazards is worth what the trade pays. Here’s why I say this, if you’re good and I mean good, maybe you’ll get a job with a company making $35-$40/hr. That will come of course after a minimum of 5 years making about $20/hr or less. I started out at $12/hr in 2013z. Sounds good, but it really isn’t. $35/hr is only about 70k a year before taxes. With the amount of knowledge one needs to have and tools that cost many thousands of dollars, it’s not worth it. Not when somebody can work in an office answering telephones making the same amount of money with a fraction of the skill set. You see, the only wages that have really gone up have been minimum wage, and of course white collar jobs. The blue collar trade jobs have barely gone up in pay, yet the workload and skill set is still the same. If I could do it all over again, I would have done something else that doesn’t require destroying your body for a paycheck and one that’s not even that good. For most blue collar tradesman, it is a lifetime of barely getting by and being underpaid and under appreciated by those you perform the necessary service for. It’s not a good feeling to know that no matter how many thousands of hours you put into training, or how much you spend on tools that you’ll go to work every single day, break your ass and brain and make at best half of what somebody does working at home in their pajamas behind a computer screen in their 4,000 sq ft house. And for any of you wondering, I live in NY. Try paying your bills every month on an HVAC salary and tell me what’s left over to save at the end of the year. It won’t be much if anything at all. Unlike the young kid on this program that doesn’t want to work at all, I am not that way nor are most tradesman. That said, work and work hard you will in the trades. Lots of time will be put in, often times more than 40hrs. You’re playing catch up week in and week out, unless you marry somebody with a white collar job. But relying on your wife to make up what you can’t isn’t what any man should do. If the trades were paid the amount they deserve to be paid, maybe I wouldn’t feel like this but I think any skilled tradesman out there that reads this will agree that they are worth far more than what they get paid, and as a result of poor compensation most would rather be doing something else.
....in my state, all the trades make over $ 45 an hour sweets. Plus we have better benefits, health-care, and pensions. I can make my own money (Union Electrician/female), I don't need to marry a man
@anz4690 but you seem to be confusing that most of these people are talking about non union which most of the country is. Non union pays low wages and provides zero benefits... they never seem to mention that.
I think he’s a liar. Exactly Dr. Phil, he’d make decent money if he knew what he was doing