Louis, I've been watching your videos since I was 14-15 years old and you were one of my biggest inspirations starting up. Just want you to know and I think I speak for all repair techs when I say this, you are incredibly appreciated. People like you have paved the way for people like me. Without your advocacy for the right-to-repair movement we'd be in a much shittier position right now. So thank you.
If I control the money, I care not who you elect. Printing of currency ensures this. It will be recycled and reset, but until that happens, the middle and lower classes will suffer. It's called a depression for a reason. On a lighter note, repairs should increase relative to new purchases in a given downturn.
Louis, Talk to me if you can take used broken electronic things & change into a bigger wall screen version at a Bali price. Have you ever been to Bali? Leave your gmail .
Man...I started making a video earlier today about how depressing it is that our industry is dying, and why I'm being forced to move on. I gave up a few minutes in because it became such a fucking bummer to talk about. Growing up poor as fuck, wanting to make money without having to take advantage of people, starting my entire business making crumbs on stupid ass repairs, and using those crumbs to start a business inside of a fucking Subway. Then turning that into being able to provide for my struggling parents while creating a life for myself that I sometimes feel like has to be a fever dream. This is a story I'm sure thousands of us in this industry can share because the bar of entry used to be so low. But now that bar is a fucking barbed wire fence 40 feet tall. It makes me think, if I were entering the industry today, what would I do? And the answer is, nothing. I'd be fucked. I'd prob be providing IT support for some douchebags company that's contributing to the downfall of society. Now I'm ranting. Thanks for making this video.
Bro... As a Construction worker, a constructual engineer in rebar and steel, I F'ing FEEL you. DIYS has Been dying since the younger generation REFUSED to wear a toolbelt with me. 31 years old, and 10 years of my life working for douchebags to get nothing out of it either. The only way your gonna see change is if WE were the Gov. So sick of dealing with people telling you "no"
Sad thing is, this is becoming the norm almost in any industry - I mean, basically the whole idea of apprenticeship is gone. You are supposed to show up at internship and already have some experience. Most of the ladders have bottom rungs removed
If you are anywhere on either coast, but particularly the East Coast, and can pass a background investigation (not "check," _investigation_ ), then look in to Maritime Machinist, Maritime Welder, Maritime Electrician. So many retired/fired under the COVID Mandate that employers are at only about 30 percent capacity. Of course, that means you may have to get the latest and greatest shot, to keep the job. But, it currently pays 3x Union scale at about $120/hour, and it's a traditional Apprentice, Journeyman, Master Union job with transferable skills needed around the world.
Nobody wants to teach since they fear you'll bail the second you learn and get paid more somewhere else. This is what happens when the dollar has no value and you can't buy loyalty by giving out raises as people deserve them. Repealing minimum wage would decrease the cost of goods and employ millions of people. It would keep people busy doing little things and everyone would be happier.
@@beulahboi Oh woops, looks like the boot companies paid off politicians and trademark lawyers. Now, just to get the schematics for a single bootstrap costs thousands of dollars. What?! You say you can't afford it? You're just being lazy! Oh, and don't try designing your own! The lawsuit we serve you with will ruin you!
Exactly. It would've been even worse if it wasn't for people like Louis. Let's hope the next 10 years, now thst some traction is established, will result in a step forward rather than backward.
@@YTHandlesWereAMistake we can hope all we want but the sad reality is we are faced against a Trillion dollar company that is greedy & slowly I believe it will only get worse.
@@YTHandlesWereAMistake Hope wont do a thing. Politicians on both sides are in the pockets of these companies. The only solution is creating a parallel economy by supporting companies like Framework.
There has been videos of him not wanting to share which suppliers he uses for chips & parts because of the exact fear someone will use same supplier and make it harder for him to source stocks.
The worst part, in my opinion, is that these "rungs" are being removed maliciously. It's not happening as a secondary effect of...some other thing. Companies are specifically targeting these rungs, to secure and extend their own level of control. If the point of contention were regarding something that they owned, fine. But it's not. The crux of the issue is something they _sold._ They no longer own the product. The buyer now owns the product. So, who should have the control? Obviously, the one who owns the product. This is like the railroad monopolies of the 19th century, all over again. And when that was going on, the government put a stop to it. Well, where is the government now? In the companies pocket; that's where.
The government solved the symptoms before but never fixed things like lobbying that allow companies to worm their way back into control. If we want to prevent this they have to be prevented from using money to remove democracy.
@@eddardgreybeard Same with the whole "always-online" DRM concept. It's basically borderline-theft. Even _if_ they were "kind" enough to let you own the thing you bought, all they need to do is shut down the servers to that thing and suddenly it's no longer accessible anymore. Not without some enterprising modder or software engineer recreating a spoofed version of those servers and providing documentation/tools for the average user to hook it into the game. And even then, it can only recover so much as these always-online servers invariably retain more and more content remotely that doesn't get downloaded to the host device, so once the connection to those servers is gone, so too is that content. And that's a best-case scenario - there are already countless games that run almost entirely remotely, with very little actually downloaded onto your device, so there's simply no means to restore it once it's gone without the developer willingly disseminating the game's data. And they almost never do that. Why would they when they can either make you pay extra for the same content later on via a re-release and/or push you to buy the new thing they want you to buy in place of the old thing they took away? They're always just looking for more ways to make you pay for less - up to and including making you pay for absolutely nothing, eventually. If it's borderline-theft now, it would be _actual_ theft later if they had their way.
@@Armameteus There's also talk that the way a lot of dlc actually works is it was already on the physical copy, but when you buy it you're actually purchasing the licensing to unlock it from the disc you already own.
We all fell for the grift that the economy wasn't one big heist. Turns out it was. Don't ask questions about who the owners are, the particularity of them. Asking such questions is very dangerous.
What I can really, and truly appreciate about Louis is the fact that he’s not simply bitching and moaning about higher expenses for himself. He has what he needs for a successful business. He’s actually bummed out that the path he took is no longer possible for anyone to follow afterwards. He actually gives a shit about others and not just being a selfish little prick from another company that we can name.
Sucks to suck. Get up off your ass and find a different path, the opportunities for making a living and being successful are staggering in this day and age.
It's not just electronics repair. The lower rungs are being removed everywhere. As a kid, my pediatrician practiced medicine from an addition to his house. I haven't seen that in decades.
Manufacturing has been offshored for over 40 years now. IT market is decimated by offshoring, with all but programming and the most senior jobs largely offshored/H1B at many large corporations. Accounting market is starting to see offshoring of lower level jobs. They are actively getting into the auditing market. And that is without considering automation and software that streamline the jobs. What jobs are there for people anymore? And when we invent them, how long before they are offshored? In the past a new technology came out and Americans had at least a decade before the offshore companies caught up, now it is a couple of years at best. ETA: Just to be clear I specifically didn't mention any countries as the problem isn't where the job is going but the political and corporate policies that send the jobs overseas.
@@Teampeglegwell without jobs we can all be free to be artists now like me! Except I'm still an entrepreneur and in debt even with a second career doing environmental consulting. Yay...
The lower rungs just don't exist in pretty much ANY industry anymore. I don't know how anybody is supposed to make something of themselves when they aren't even allowed to start.
you'll have to work 5x as hard and get 50x luckier than the past few generations to get half what they did. Maybe less. I remember complaining about how hard it was just to land a job these days, and some boomer called me lazy and told me it should take a solid week of effort to get a job. Because that used to work. It took 1.5 years of solid effort to get a full time job
@@jacobmansfield-go9fz You need to learn to lie better. If you're brand new in an industry applying for your first job, your resume better show 5 years experience. Say you have experience you don't and certs you don't. No hiring manager has a clue about the positions they hire for.. Just a check list.
Wish i knew this after I graduated from highschool, literally every "entry level" job that i looked at wanted 5-10 years work experience for a job that is going to give me on the job training all the while paying minimum wage
@@jacobmansfield-go9fz unfortunately being a deceptive bastard is how you land decent jobs now. If they like you and think you'll work out, you just need to be able to do the job at that point.
What you're describing is happening everywhere in all industries. The people who climbed the ladder got halfway up and reached back not to help, but saw the rungs off so no one could follow them. It's sad.
@@Henry-sv3wv You definitely don't know much about nature. Hyena can and do gang up on and kill lions, especially when they're alone. Might be time for us Hyenas at the bottom of the ladder to go hunting.
@@Henry-sv3wv Yeah, sometimes it's the hyenas killing the lion. But we are not lions or hyenas. People do NOT have to act this way. Your so called nature is called greed and narcissism. Don't give a sh@t about anybody but yourself. If I can't have it, no one else can either. I have mine, screw you, I don't want to share and I want to be the only one. It's always funny to read about how new industries began. Everyone sharing ideas and helping each other. As time goes on, the money goes to their heads, egos get bruised, and finally the attitude of dog-eat-dog comes into play. That's human nature. It's a lot different than lion killing hyena.
Exactly, and to add insult to injury and really rub salt in our wounds they saw the rungs off and than blame everyone for "being too lazy" to climb the ladder! When in reality it doesnt matter how hard you climb, there are no rungs to grab onto anymore!
@@Henry-sv3wv nature included countless species that work together and share resources Pick one animal that represents who you'd like you get away with being, as if that justifies being a horrible person.
Your advocacy for the right to repair and Casey Muratori's "30 million line problem" both left a massive impression on me. I've been directing myself towards a career that'll give me the resources and skills to eventually start my own business that manufactures modular devices with well documented components. It's not about the money. It's the experience. It's exhausting. The software is all bloated overengineered garbage that wants to spy on you and nickel and dime you death. The hardware is all flimsy monolithic crap that's designed to break even worse when you try repair it and is outdated a year after it's released.
Casey Muratori is awesome. My boss is trying to solve the 30 million line problem with an approach I can best describe as Terry Davis meets Howard Hughes. If you think this would be a cool thing to work on and get paid to contribute to, and are qualified to work on it, gitlab.futo.org/eron/public/-/wikis/FUBS email me - louis@rossmanngroup.com This is totally unrelated to the topic of the video but pinning just incase there are some other programming geniuses out there watching this video. You never know, I've found 3 already just from comments section...
Look, the idea of right to repair is a commendable one, but I live and work in Silly Con Valley and let me explain the reality of the situation. This is NOT a problem of corporations, it's a problem with consumers. If you buy something that cannot be repaired, you're an idiot. Stop buying crap you KNOW cannot be repaired, and boycott corporations that make it difficult or impossible to repair. Boycott them. The only reason people buy Apple products is MARKETING, they are terrible machines, they are substandard. I'm an engineer in Silicon Valley, it's ONLY MARKETING that gets DUMB consumers to buy them. Stop defending idiots. They bought this crap, f them.
@@rossmanngroup Was literally talking about Terry Davis when visiting my parents just a couple hours ago. Guy is legendary in his own right and an absolute genius.
Nah, it isn’t “self serving” to recognize how privileged/honored/lucky you have been in your career, your honesty about how brutal things have become for the everyday person whether it be R2R or your walks around NYC is why we commend you for your work. This video and your channel will be an essential record in capturing the economic anxieties of our time.
Literally hits every point of how our economic ecosystem is polluted: consumers are screwed with limited options for (simple) repairs and are squeezed for blood, entrepreneurial spirits hoping to breakthrough in their passion, interests, or even the thing they KNOW they can be successful in are crushed from the business and/or forced to join the bloodsuckers, and those in-between are just walking a tight rope to not fall into either side. It’s madness, and I appreciate you for breaking it down from your own perspective.
It's takes a very wise, humble, and mature person to look at themselves objectively and see how they got to where they are. Alot of ppl would just say "I worked my ass off" without acknowledging any favorable circumstances they benefitted from
They've literally made knowledge irrelevant by taking away the means of turning that knowledge into something practical and useful. It's like knowing you need a hammer to drive in a nail but not being allowed to touch any blunt object to do it. What a nightmare.
Blame the boomers for this practice. They take everything away from us and expect us to do the work for them anyways, and now we have THEIR children doing the same thing to us again. What a joke.
0:55 ur the first person besides me i’ve heard of noticing let alone being bothered youtube took the “oldest to newest” away they rly don’t want ppl to have repertoires they just want viewers looking at the latest as it publishes :/
I'm one of your farmer subscribers and even though your computer repair content really doesn't apply to me, it is appreciated. Everything that you have said about the economic conditions for starting up is completely true. It is incredibly hard to start out, I don't really care what you want to do. Everything is so expensive and hard to get. If I didn't inherit my farm ground, there is no way I can see that I could have made it work. It really sucks for a lot of people.
All done on purpose. The idiots with the money around the world just want to control everything. Even here in the UK, all the medium and small businesses are being hit for six with no help. My own business went down during the worldwide scam as I simply could not compete and break even.
As a farmer then in the USA how are yourselves and your counterparts doing these days vs UK farmers seem to be regulated up to the eyeballs and barely making enough money to survive much less thrive.
@@thomas.parnell7365 I personally am ok. We don't have a lot of regulations in the U.S. that I personally have to deal with. In fact, we could probably use a little more in some ways. My biggest problems are that water is getting scarce in my area and being wasted by municipalities. Another problem is extremely high land and machinery prices. I am fortunate that my land is inherited and I only have one machinery payment left. Many are not so fortunate as they are very indebted and are probably not breaking even. You can't really rely completely on agriculture in this country. You need an outside source of passive or semi passive income. It's a rich man's game now. Gone are the days of the small family farm. Big conglomerates and investors are buying stuff up and smaller operators are being pushed out. If you don't inherit a place free and clear, don't bother. Go get a better job in town.
My current job/skills were handed down to me from my father and his friend. No way I could have bought a house in the time I did without them. Going at it on my own, I likely would never have been able to.
The first rung has fallen off of the retail and food service ladders as well. It's almost all managers now, no entry level jobs unless you know somebody, and the money is garbage for what companies are expecting. The manager rung will fall off at some point soon, it will all be corporate level overseeing machines... It will have to end somewhere, but history shows these things always end with violence.
@@enb3810 I just realized by reading your comment that I did exactly that. I was promoted to a manager with a 2 dollar raise and 2000% more bs to deal with. That's the reason I left that job, it was not worth it. And my boss was shocked when I handed in my resignation and even told me ," That sucks we had high hopes for you." Well those hopes were definitely not seated within reality. That job was a dead end and would not afford me the life I wanted. Told him that before leaving. Left before my two weeks were up because nothing was keeping me there and there was no incentive to stay for the remainder.
@@enb3810 My company has been trying to promote me for ages, almost to the point of firing me because I do not want to accept a promotion. The irony is if I would have accepted that promotion I would have quit a long time ago. The amount of stress that I have seen the managers in my job go through is ridiculous for what they get paid for. I'm in the process of leaving my job anyway for a more independent career that does not require me to have a boss.
Yes, that's certainly what the Elites _are_ planning on. Back in 2008, when Obama was facing the collapse, the rulebook said, "Use corporate mercenaries to operate armed drones, those drones to secure and threaten the families of the military (summoned to live on-base in response to supposed threats), the military to compel civilian Sheriffs, Sheriffs to secure families of Police, police to maintain stability in such cities as are deemed necessary, see list in Appendix." For real, I've seen it. It leaked to a certain famous site for Leaks, and the government confirmed it's the real deal by filing suit to get it removed on grounds that it *_wasn't false._*
Thank you for having the self-awareness to know that people now have it harder than you did. So many older folks have a boomer mentality where they refuse to think that anything has changed and that somehow we're all just lazy- which is infuriating to listen to when you just don't have the options.
My stepdad would definitely have said boomer mentality, he got his first job during the 60/70's (idk remember when he was hired) when you could just walk up to a random factory here in Sweden and instantly get hired (he got hired to assemble basic lamps together).
The same boomers that squat in their leadership positions because they can just kick a can down the road and enjoy driving to their country club in their landrover with heated seats.... Lazy.... hmmmm
sure, the issue is both sides feel disrespected. Boomer feels like younger people dismiss the things they've done in the world to get to the point. Younger generation feels that Boomers don't give them enough credit for taking what Boomers did and furthering it along. Its basically like a married couple who talk at each other instead of to each other.
Louis, By raising the barrier to entry into the repair market Big Tech has covered their bases. They are in effect saying "You may have the RIGHT to repair BUT good luck trying".
Samsungs 2300-page patent document and patent infringement claims against third party suppliers will seal the deal. By the time the patents expire, the products will be useless and too expensive to set up third party manufacturing for what then will be an obsolete product bricked by the vendor.
It's like this for every trade... Tree work, Carpentry, Tech, Auto... Costs go up, quality goes down, and for the younger guys like myself, the entry price into any field is higher every year. Then these old heads that got into their niche for nothing like to do the bootstrap speech. Like really? You know how many step you gotta go through to even open shop now? LLC or DBA, Office or Virtual Mail Box, Insurance & Bonding, Tax Prep Prep, ein number, account with state tax auth, business bank account...and that's before you even get to the tools, equipment, machines, materials, etc. Although you should have exp, and some of the tools when you start. But the paper work will suck up more time as you go on...and compliance costs keep rising as well. Oh, and licenses...legit, the rungs haven't fallen off...the last guy pulled up the ladder! 😆 Then they'll complain about the taxes for the welfare beast they are equally responsible for creating.
License and Compliance! What happened to, " . . . the Right to Pursuit of Happiness"? Remembering that in the vernacular of the Time, "Pursuit" was _work._ I think a _lot of people_ were not *taught that.*
I knew some old guys that did fiber optics businesses in the early 90s and out of nowhere the state said you now have to be certified, etc etc etc, they ended up doing other businesses
@@rickspalding3047 I splice fiber... I have a few training courses that were required... but it usnt needed. I have showed many tards how to run a splicer. Im sure they are living kick ass lives now!
@@guguigugu but in the end they will still do everything they can to not hire graduates even dealing with visa for older workers as they don't want to invest in the future
"How much have we accomplished" - More than you could know. You stemmed the tide, you slowed the progress of the people trying to kill repair shops. You didn't make forward progress, but you robbed them of their tremendous momentum in the wrong direction. Don't give up, don't quit, the world needs you.
Big tech companies don't want right to repair, because it prevents them from selling the latest and greatest gadget to people who would just repair their old gadget.
My biggest pet peeve are the folks that pull up the ladder behind them. In this case, you've been trying to hold on to the ladder with both hands and it is crumbling on its own. You are good people Louis.
People in their prime earning years in the 60s and 70s had a bigger share of GDP going to wages than any other time in US history. Then they got old and made sure to keep wages stagnant while productivity grew.
@@benjaminhenderson5025 To what? To 100 mln deaths of communism gave us in XX century? You are like naive teenage girl "just move past capitalism!". Bro capitalism is what lifted literally billions of people out of poverty globally. Or at least say move to what. Yea it has bad parts and we can certainly try to enhance it.
@@benjaminhenderson5025 I don't think this system is capitalism anymore. Competition is a key tenet of capitalism, and preventing others from competing is what the bigger players keep doing.
Until Louis said that YT removed the Oldest to Newest sort feature, I honestly have been going around assuming that it was individual creators disabling it on their channels. I’ve been on this platform since 2012, and noticed it disappeared a while back, but don’t remember any media coverage. Thanks for informing me Louis!
You have to set it to "all comments" it uses the "relevant comments" to hide comments it doesn't like, hence why you see only half of the stated comments, IE if it says 20 comments you only see 5
My theory is that TH-cam wants to constrain people's viewing habits towards the newest content because it is the most monetized. You could also imagine that keeping all these videos persistently available to view for free costs a lot. I wouldn't be surprised if they begin deleting old videos that don't meet a monthly view quota. Getting rid of methods to find those videos would make it easy for them to do that and face less backlash. Demand for viewing content has plateaued while demand for uploading content only increases, especially now that we have AI generated content undercutting the value of content in terms of the effort it takes to create it. To remain profitable TH-cam can: -Charge money to upload -Shepherd viewership to the most profitable content -Reduce overhead by deleting low profit content
so to be exact when they changed it, it was when they did the new ui (with all the more bubbler ui stuff) it was the same time they separated the videos tab into videos, live streams/vods and shorts looking at a post on reddit it looks like it was late 2022 they did it Nov 02 '22 was the date (dd/mm/yyyy = 22/11/2022), (mm/dd/yyyy = 11/22/2022) that is 117 days days ago (with 19/03/2023 being the ending date)
It's so nice to hear a take from someone who's "made it", but doesn't talk down to people and has a realistic view of what the average person is facing. The opposite of what alot of people might hear from baby boomers in their average day.
Just remember, every time one of apples victims calls for repair & its impossible or too ridiculously overpriced to bother, remind them not to buy any Apple products, to feel the pain & remember Apple did it to them intentionally. These companies will continue their shenanigans as long as people keep buying it.
I've been realizing this is happening to nearly everything. I'm 28 and everything feels like you need to work twice as hard to get half back. Everything is being gate kept on top of everything being more expensive. I'm extremely lucky to be where I am, but I see other people around my age who want to work hard but are exhausted cause the goal post keeps moving. Idk how my younger siblings will make it on their own in the future. I left everything and everyone I knew in California to be able to get a home and be more secure. But, even where I live now it's more expensive and jobs don't pay more than when moved here. Crime has gone up all around me and I feel it's just going to get worse. Something's gotta give.
im almost 30 and my story is the exact same I've worked hard and took all of the typical advice, saved money to the point of excessive and missing out on things, invested safely in index funds 401k, now I feel like I need to put off the idea of marriage or kids when when I don't want to left my family and moved from CA as well, I really worry about the future and leadership in our country, things are changing faster and faster and it doesn't feel for the better.
Boomers have exploited and leeched off the economy to the point its all rotten to the core. Now because they wasted, outsourced, and utterly ruined all their life savings, they want to leech off the younger generation. Cant even afford a fucking house. Cant even get a fucking job no matter what. Meanwhile you see some old fuck who bought a house for $50k in modern day US dollars(adjusted for inflation/purcashing power parity), shit talking people who have to pay $2k a month for rent while every social service promised to the last generation went bankrupt, while being taxed the shit out of to pay for the social security of the same generation who ran the country to the ground.
You need to get out of the big cities. There's crime everywhere but I live in a 7000-person town and if I leave my door unlocked I don't have to worry about anyone else coming by and trying to open it.
The sad thing is that, 100 years ago, each town had a repair shop of some kind both keeping repair skills alive, saving money for the townspeople and reducing pressure on the environment. Now that we are in an electronic age, people think that is all too hard - but it could be exactly the same today ... except that job, skillset and savings are being stolen from the people by BIG TECH.
@@如來-c3l that is what you believe but the industry does not find that a necessity, users are not expected to service their equipment because manufacturing cost has gone down so much & with jobs being outsourced.
@airthrowDBT SMT components are easy to access if you have a microscope, knowledge on microsoldering (and experience) and a FX-951 or a TS100. Hot airstation necessary for removing microchips (basically anything that has pads attached to motherboard with no visible way to desolder them)
@airthrowDBT As technology become miniaturized people SHOULD be expected to service their own equipment to some degree. See, this is contradictory. you had fridges and other appliances with schematic on them where you can order parts, so people can fix their stuff. The same stuff they are ordering is the same part we replace/put on a circuit board, but instead of using a normal iron or screwdriver, you have to take those components off. Cheapest setups aren't even that expensive to decent paying jobs (college students excluded), so when we say normal people shouldnt be expected to do this we're just contradicting the whole ownership and RTR argument. if nobody is repairing stuff except the professionals, why bother to have them on public? the professionals can just have agreements with manufacturers. that is literally the argument lobbiests are using right now. and winning.
The bottom rungs aren't gone. They just don't lead upward. They're just what you land on when your higher rung breaks. If you're lucky. The alternative is "splat". And it isn't just computer repair, it's everything, and it's been spreading for 50 years.
The current ladder: You can work for minimum wage living in your car, OR go to school and start out with $100k in student loan debt living paycheck to paycheck for a couple decades. A reckoning is coming.
Yea, we are withdrawing. $20 an hour for a bullshit job. No thanks. Most people agree. Thats why both partys dint stop immigration... legal, illegal,dont matter, same effect. Some cheap foreigner will do it for half the wage. Until we stop that, we can never get a fair wage. You gotta have a skill or advanced training in this day and age... some people self teach... but thats a rare bird these days. I just hope it all grinds to a halt. The real crisis will hit once these states start defaulting on pensions and the benefits they promised these boomers. "But I payed in!" is all they say. Yea, and the people you voted for spent it. We dont have it. No new workers and it all collapses. Its close guys.
Lord Willima Reese -Mogg co wrote a book with James Dale Davidson Great Reckoning around 1992. Also must read book THE SQUEEZE 1980. Every idea spot on 40 years later.
@@whirled_peas I don't think societal collapse will be triggered by financial factors - Modern Monetary Theory (money printing) has shown to be more robust than libertarians/goldbugs have hoped. The unavoidable trigger will be food running out due to the exhaustion of both naturally fertile soils and phosphorus for fertilizer production. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Peak_phosphorus
The dude is able to perfectly sync edits to have teleporting cats without anything else appearing to move, so this being in his domain may not be as crazy as it sounds. (Or maybe this is crazy talk, and the cats actually do teleport in front of the camera?)
You are a great spokesperson. "Right to repair" is not only in the computer field but in farming and automotive. What they've done with their soulless corporate greed is made a rope ladder and pulled it up to their crows nest and given every solid citizen the finger, higher prices , and planned obsolescence. Your candor is so refreshing
Louis, this is absolutely everything. The road to being a person who can support themselves by one's own labor without some company as a middle-man is getting narrower and narrower.
I was trying to start a repair business like you did 10 years ago. My repairs were apple phones. My repairs were good and everything worked and as soon as I gave it back to the customer and they connected to a mobile service Apple would, unknown to me at the time, DISABLE the customers device because the repair wasn't authentic either by no longer charging or just disable signal (based on repair). The worst part is they made it look like the independent repairs fault. At first I thought I fucked something up and refunded the first, then it happened again...and again. It essentially destroyed what little business I had as word got out that I was "ruining people's devices" and eventually I saw the writing on the wall and gave up. I'm glad you were successful despite the hurdles. I also loved the sort by old. Kinda sucks because it makes it harder to go back and watch older videos of a youtuber you just discovered which also hurts their views.
TH-cam has only made bad decisions since Google bought them. Everything they've touched with the exception of 60fps videos has been made worse, removal of useful features, censors, subscriptions not working (so they can promote their shitty dopamine drip algorithm).
After seeing my creative, hard working, brother do his best to hustle at work and find novel ways of increasing his value as a worker....and still struggling, I've all but given up on being anything but an Amazon or Walmart drone. The lack of control is almost worse than the financial hardship
Find some side hustles. Off the books, if possible. Yard and garden, small deliveries, selling stuff on Craigslist, training dogs, whatever you can get. If I was young I’d be looking to buy land with a group of like-minded people, get some trailers, growing some food, making beer and wine, etc.
It isn't even just the repair industry that has this growing "keep out newcomers" issue. Almost (& eventually) every industry is trying to move in that direction. Those at the top want to kill any chance for competition.
Don't EVER feel that what you do is futile. You have helped educate thousands, spread vital information about R2R, and given voice to the ones coming behind you!
Dont waste your breath, he WANTS to be miserable. He WANTS to complain. Face facts: he ENJOYS complaining and whining. When you see someone do something incessantly, every day, and every opportunity... it's because they like it.
No, a habit is a habit, it doesn't mean people enjoy it, but that they are not under enough pressure to change. If tomorrow you ask, " Where is Louis's business today? " Just think back to this video, where he roasts how bad Apple devices are, and how much - we the consumers - are being ripped off by purchasing them; and how little everyone paid attention to his words. Also, without us buying said devices, where is the revenue for his business to exist ?
@@Dre2Dee2 Two things can be true. You’ve grown more annoyed by his manner than by the issue he keeps raising. Stop watching the videos and then maybe what he’s talking about (which has gotten worse as he’s talked about it) will go away. The “enlightened contrarian” shit is only useful as long as you have him to play off of so I imagine you’ll continue watching.
This is the type of sheer honesty from an entrepreneur that is so rare it earns one respect. Many people, upon reaching a modicum of success, delusionally think if they lost it all, they could get it back again the same way. The world is constantly changing and if we do not change with it, we will just suffer in delusional ignorance until the suffering hits us hard enough. Thanks for the 'rant', Louis.
It gets worse than this. Their ultimate goal is surely have you rent almost everything so they can have a guaranteed revenue stream. Or as Klaus and frends put it, 'you will own nothing, and you will be happy'.
I'm probably 10 years younger than Louis and I find myself in the same situation, I don't do repairs for a living, it's more of a passion thing and helping out friends in need, but It's certainly harder today to find spare parts and do actual work because companies are locking their technology in silos that only they have access. I came to the conclusion that the only way around it is to get pieces of tech that encourage or at least are not so scared of users thinkering with their product. Seeing Louis fight so hard for right to repair was energizing, it gave hope, it gave strength. Then seeing how much of it failed, seeing the system consuming what Luis fought for through blatant corruption and sometimes willful incompetence (the NY thing) was heartbreaking. I didn't expect the US to do any better, but damn. You're a good soul, Louis. In the end you will know that you fought for what was right, love you and your work.
This is definitely sad but true moment. I started my computer repair business in my area in 2014 and didn't focus on laptop and mobile repairs because, as you said, it was essentially impossible for somebody to start when they don't have savings or the credit score. I hope you and the rest of us are able to get right to repair moving in the right direction.
I like the attitude to not throw away slightly defect screens but instead offer them to customers at a discount, who don't have a lot of money. That is a really decent attitude and pretty sure customers do appreciate it.
Your right the ladder has been pulled out from people and its not just repair.. as an electrician who qualified only a few years ago i have now closed my business as the over regulation, gate keeping and such has gotten so bad that i could never keep up with all the things they demand to keep qualified for a broad range of works and that ment i was loosing jobs due to bureaucracy. So given i was slowly going to endup in the red no matter how fast i try and keep up i had to give up before the company whent into debt. Every time you make progress they come out and shaft you... i give an example.. i use to fit smoke alarms.. then one day they say you can't fit smoke alarms any more unless you take this new course and pay the money. Corrupt ladder pulling & gate-keeping.
The hardest part about "you will own nothing and be happy" is realizing it is true but that I am not a part of the "you". There are plenty of people who will never care about any of this and will just indebt themselves to buy a newer crappier device.
In the old days you worked your way up inside the company....today they hire the top tier guy for 2-3 yrs from another company then he leaves with stock options loads of money and on to another company....why? In most companies that are large they dont want honest people seeing the scam that takes place...they want insiders who will keep quiet and play the game.
In the old days they didn't have 100500 available resumes at a click of a mouse button, you know? You're assuming companies, CEO and HR departments were more human and honest "back then", but they weren't, they're just lazy and they didn't have the tools yet. Now they have them. Next piece would be decided by the outcome of "AI revolution", can we save our jobs or will the middle ranks be taken by de facto memory archives leaving only upper ranks you can be only born into and lower ranks with de facto labor camp living conditions?
This system can't keep running forever. Its got to break sometime as no one will be dedicated enough to fix the issues at hand. What has our species done.
@Rich Smith the funny part is that those "rules" are broken all the time, the game is literally how many rules you can break before you are caught and how worth it can you make it *cough* wristslap *cough* Train derailments *cough* boy there must be something in the air and water to be making me cough like that.
You really hit on something that's been on my mind as a recent college grad. Everywhere I look for jobs it feels like there is no such thing as a true "entry level" job anymore. Those that are labeled as such, aren't really: they want 3-5 years experience only to be paid like garbage. It feels like you have to be able to infiltrate higher because those that DID make it in before us are gatekeeping like crazy. I'm gonna persevere, but dang is it hard. Something really did change while I was in school over the last four years; I was taught to play a different game in school frfr. Anyway, thanks for giving voice to issues like this, Louis. Hearing it from someone like you is honestly motivating in a way.
Someone I know told me his grandfather was working as an apprentice mechanic and saved some money and brought his Mrs an engagement ring and then when he was an actual mechanic he saved some more money and took his now wife to look at houses and ask which one she wanted and put a 30% down payment on it and got a mortgage based on 2X his salary. He calculated to do the same thing now would require an income of £160,000 a year. I don't know of anyone who makes even close to that. We're being exterminated. There is no future.
What’s wild is the average house in the US is around $500k. A standard down payment is 20% if you don’t want to have a MASSIVE monthly payment… That comes out to be $100,000 out of pocket for a 20% down payment. Who the actual fuck is supposed to be able to do that? My brother and his wife make good money and can’t even save like that. A 20% down payment used to be like $20k-$30k. I’m single and 28 and am looking at manufactured homes because they’re so much cheaper but even that is going to be close to $200k when it’s all said and done. I make $38k a year with a college degree, so despite me doing everything “right” I’m still questioning whether I can even afford a fucking trailer despite being a grown ass nearly-30 year old man. I don’t even have college debt because I worked to get academic scholarships. I did everything I possibly could to ensure this wouldn’t be impossible and it still feels like it wasn’t enough.
@@foodconnoisseur9321 Yet Boomers worked fewer hours, had much more spending power and a better quality of life than young people now. They had it easy and pulled that ladder up as soon as they could.
@@alienvomitsex The only thing that makes me smile about boomers is how they don't understand relationship psychology, so they have many many more childish arguments with their partner and half of them now are either idiots who eat and breathe meaningless politics or eat and breathe spiritual narcissism.
it's funny that I was having this conversation with a friend just the other day. We looked at what our grandparents had, where they started, what they did and where they ended up. We then did the same thing for our parents and ourselves before trying to guestimate what it would be like for our kids when they finish school. The long and short of it is that you used to be able to start with almost nothing and make something of yourself via hard work whereas nowadays it's a lot harder and many of the pathways either don't exist or have the entry bar elevated so high that you need qualifications, years of training and cash in the bank to begin at the "entry" level. As an example, my friend's grandfather was an actual refugee. one of the ones who fled real people trying to kill him as opposed to the modern version he constantly complains about. He started with nothing but clothing and a big ass knife scar on his back. his first job was gardening. Not the modern type with all the equipment but the old type with manual tools and an old petrol mower he bought and repaired from the dump. From there he saved up his cash and went into repairing cars back in the day when a simple toolbox could solve most of your problems. He eventually rented a house and used its shed as a shop, expanding from that inst an actual shop and finally paid staff. unfortunately, as cars got newer and more complex it became harder to do the simple things he started with and he is now looking at the introduction of electric vehicles and more onboard software. He once said that all you had to be in the past to fix a car was "an idiot with a screwdriver" now you need to be a mechanic, an electrical engineer, a computer programmer and have a hundred specialised tools.
I put myself through college while working full time and supporting myself doing equipment repairs. When I got done I discovered that to get the management jobs I was qualified for you had to do unpaid internships first. This didn't work for me. I'd been supporting myself for a decade, and I couldn't really take a different job _for no pay_ to check a box on my resume. I'm convinced it's a filter to weed out people who don't have family money. How dare you think you can just join management through hard work and ability? I even heard the owner of the company I was with at the time say "Who does he think he is? He doesn't have any money!" (He'd asked everyone for suggestions on how to improve the company, and I had offered some ideas about how to track costs vs. the revenues they produced ... that wasn't the level of suggestion he was after.)
I'm in school learning to be an Auto Technician. My instructors always say mechanics aren't just mechanics. They're mechanics, electricians, welders, plumbers, computer nerds and cleaners. At this point I've crawled all over both hybrid and gas cars. I fully agree with them.
@@Crash_Knight You forgot machinist and field engineer. Once something has been in the end-user's hands for a while, it's no longer exactly as it was built. Mechanics often come up with fixes for the weak points of the original design when things start breaking. (My 2002 Silverado had an AC line that dripped condensation on the distributor. Mechanics were putting a short length of foam pipe insulation on them long before the service bulletin told them to.)
@@AcmeRacing Lets be honest, we could name every trade and occupation and probably still be forgetting something lmao. Air bags and radiator caps turn you into a safety advisor, putting tools and bottles of fluids in your trunk turns you into a pro tetris player, and I'm sure I could figure out some vague excuse to call myself a physiotherapist. But you're absolutely right about field engineer. The amount of janky on the spot fixes I'm gonna have to come up with is something I'm looking forward to.
I did the same as Louis in HVAC repair. I started with nothing. You could get available cheap universal repair parts that work with many brands to do the repair. Nowadays, all manus use proprietary, solid state parts that you can only get from thier dealer to repair their brands. You can't start up like we did, from a small home garage and a mini-truck
It's happening in my industry. All of the people who started from the bottom have removed the bottom altogether (going to a "gig' economy/casual model) and ensuring that people at their level now go straight in from university. Now, the prices are up, the service and quality down, but it also ensures that the avenue these individuals took is long gone. They call it "churn" - No one is going to be at these jobs long (at the bottom or top) and as such it's about as getting as much out of the business as fast as possible before moving on. Seems like that's sort of the logic everywhere at the moment.
I think this is also true for e.g. Car Mechanics - heck, everyone with basic set of tools could repair a car on a driveway. Now you need a PC and a horrendously expensive set of CAR SPECIFIC (sometimes it's not even Manufacturer specific, but model specific) diagnostic tools
Driving around in an old pick-up with a portable welder, making gates, grates and fixin stuff, trade skills with a cutomer and get your roof fixed, plumbing or 3d print work and a couple bucks now and then. Thanks Louis.
Went from working for $350 a week under the table as a parts guy at a motorcycle repair shop. To running the shop in a year. 3 years later I started my business in my back yard in the cold. To an apartment with an rv parking garage down stairs to a 3,500 sqft shop that's so big I rent out a bay that pays my mortgage in 6 years. Keep going brother. The juice is worth the squeeze
Sadly, a lot of western nations are mimicking the loicense central shithole UK, so you wouldn't be able to drive around in an old pick up with a portable welder any more without a 'loicense' everywhere soon.
It's getting worse, but we're better off with you than we'd have been without you fighting for us. This goes well beyond third party repair as far as those rungs disappearing. If things keep going down this road, I suspect third party repair will take a sharp turn back upward, as nobody will be able to afford new stuff even when it's available. The whole depression era concept of “Make it do or do without” will come back when people have no other choice.
From what I hear we're already starting to see this in automotive. Read an article that the average age of cars on the road is climbing, which I suspect is because increasingly people can't afford new cars and are deliberately choosing older and more repairable cars.
I once watched a documentary about a huge company (dont remember which exactly) that went bankrupt and someone in the comments said the company didnt have any junior staff, basically most employees being managers who did nothing and they couldnt afford new employees, otherwise they would have to fire the managers. Meaning they spent huge amounts of money to people who made the situation worse since they were the ones controlling and rejecting junior staffs' ideas. I think we have a similar case here. . . Lets fire the managers 😜
This is like most companies. While it's true that sometimes economics or just unforeseen events overrule whatever was planned, most other times it's management's fault. Because everything is the management's responsibility to fix and the only things they cannot change is the management itself. Which means, it's the only thing that cannot be fixed. Assuming the investors give no shits and just wants an asset to store their money in. Which used to not be the case and still a valuable business venture to actively manage a company. Except that you need like 500 million to start and need to give a shit about anything after you have that much.
Dude, I started in the electronics repair business in 1987. I started my own "at home" shop in my parent's basement fixing pro-audio and some TV stuff. I worked for 5 years taking part-time work as well, in a VERY small town, barely affording room and board, until they kicked me out. I had to drop everything and move to the Big City where I lived in shared accommodations and had to store all my shop equipment (what little I had). Eventually I was getting lots of high paying work in the film industry, left that and became a paramedic...next thing 35 years has passed and I barely do any bench work having only a scope, dmm, function generator, soldering iron. I have NO IDEA how ANYONE could make a living doing this stuff, especially given the changes in, integration, manufacturing and the technologies themselves. Then there are the absolute lack of resources like when Philips sold off ECG which was a GREAT semiconductor parts cross reference catalog!!! And to top it all off, if I tried to get work with any "tech repair shops", they'll only pay minimum wage despite all I've gained in experience and knowledge in 35 years in MULTIPLE industries as well. Big corporations have totally F'd EVERYONE!!! They want to put EVERYONE OUT OF WORK, so we are all forced to buy their Shaydt when our stuff breaks, so they can keep us ADDICTED!!!! It's F'n SICK!!!!!
Blah blah blah. You sound just like the blacksmith, farrier, saddler, and wagon/buggy maker when the internal combustion engine, 'iron horse or mule' and automobile were developed. BTW I also was an EMT/Paramedic and electronics hobbyist who taught himself how to repair and build PCs back when that was still a thing, which I did on my free time for extra money. I also lived the transition from having to turn away business from so many people wanting their computer fixed, upgraded, home or SOHO network setup, to nobody willing to pay even $100 when they can just go buy a new one. I replaced some of that income with data recovery for a while but even that is rare now, thanks to "the cloud" (and cheap external drives). So what? What are you proposing to stop it, prohibit companies from introducing newer technology? Form a "politburo" to set how fast technology can be improved or advanced? Prohibit consumers from buying a new computer but once in every 10 years? If all your skills and knowledge over 35 years cannot secure a good paying position, there are three possible explanations: location (i..e. you have to move to where those jobs are, they don't come to you), those skills are now largely obsolete, or there are a LOT more people who have those skills and knowledge than you seem to think (i.e. you're not as special as you may like to believe).
@@deeder001 yadi yadi yadi. big f'n deal. So you like to tell people to shut up cuz it's progress. There is a difference between pulling the band-aid off quickly to allow the wound to heal and dealing with the emotional damage done. Progress is technological advancement / improved interfacing / new processes. What isn't "progress" is human greed forcing folks to bend to their whims because they think that they "own" the progress. Apple is trying to "secure" their products by making it only them capable of servicing them, which isn't even servicing but more like "oh, it's broke? buy a new one" Our society has been bombarded with this garbage for decades now. The reason it's not on your mind is you aren't dealing with the garbage being generated. Where exactly does that piece of sh@t go when it's not useful anymore? Oh yeah, shipped off to 3rd world sh!tholes. We are real good at moving the problem around without dealing with it. Oh, and you missed #4 reason for not getting paid well, the companies being approached/working for are scumbags who don't pay. "Just be happy you have a job", right?
@@deeder001 You are a perfect encapsulation of why the west is collapsing. Progress at any cost, al long as at least one person is getting rich it doesn't matter how many others starve.
I love how this translates to the entirety of the workforce, especially the professionalized workforce. Like in animation. There are barely any junior positions open, so the only way to get in is to apply hard and intern harder during your last year of college. Meanwhile, most of the open jobs are asking for 3-5 years of professional experience. Where are you going to find any of that if none of the junior positions open up?
Dude, keep doing what you're doing. It's not politicians and self promoters that'll birth the better society we all dream of. It's passionate, righteous folk from across the diverse niches of endeavor who'll collectively bring it to pass. Stay strong.
I’m glad you mentioned that the rungs being removed is intentional. Before that I was thinking that this happens in every industry. In the 1920s you could build a car just as good as Mercedes or Cadillac in your shed, of course not anymore. But if anything it has become easier to build the best car in the world from 1920 in your shed.
This is so true. I have someone I know who wants to add RAM to his laptop - a super easy task. He looks at the laptop - he needs a T5 Torx screwdriver - what? Why not a regular Phillips? OK, that's annoying but I'll get it. But then I see there's an actual tutorial on a repair website - just to replace the RAM. _A tutorial for replacing RAM._ Apparently there are plastic hinges on the back cover that can now easily break. And there's a special cover for the RAM that needs to be pried off. Why? In the old days you needed one basic screwdriver and the back cover just popped off with the RAM readily accessible. The only way I believe this is saving the company money is if it is convincing people who don't understand technology to buy new devices because their device "feels slow" to them.
The major companies all exhausted every option they could to ethically increase profits. They drove their business model as lean as it could possibly go but the shareholders still demanded growth. So the companies have been tiptoeing into unethical and anti-consumer practices. It's a game of chicken. How far can they go before it all blows up? Can the administrators keep the backlash from coming until after they retire? But eventually it will collapse and we'll all be on the hook for it, while the upper class make off with everything.
I’ve been a stockholder of various companies for decades. I never demanded a thing. Stop blaming “stockholders”, please. The guys who get to make demands are mostly investment bankers and fund managers and those types. They have power because they make the actual decisions on buying and selling for many stockholders. Some just buy and sell, but some actually do make demands. At least most of the demands are intended to increase returns, and that’s as they ought to be. The problem are the demands not based on returns, or are just not good ideas. Just like with healthcare, the people buying the products (in this case the stock, in healthcare the services) are no longer the big decision makers. It’s no longer a market. And, then there’s the way government policies make employee relations something everyone wants to avoid. EVERYONE! Even you! Don’t believe me? Think about it. Do you choose the store with the high price high service or the warehouse or the online store with the lowest price? If a company is going to decide whether to automate a function, they have to calculate all the costs and overhead of an employee. As a guy who sold products intended to increase productivity, it’s easy because the government has made you a really bad deal. To hire you, the employer has to deal with all sorts of taxes, fees, and regulations. If they can instead buy a machine to make the existing employees more productive, they will do it, and there’s no job for you.
Let's not kid ourselves. They could do this in an honest manner with transparency, but they won't, and shareholders and the stakeholders that matter no longer care as long as number go up.
Honestly, if the major companies took all the money they spend on entire departments that exist to try and make repair as difficult as possible, plan obsolescence and wall garden their products, and used HALF of that money on innovating new shit, they would instantly increase their profits further without breaking a sweat.
This is 100% true. Just a few years ago Used to be able to go on ebay and buy basically any Component in china.nowdays those same components are ghosts of the old internet. I have many projects laying around that only need a single 50 cent part,but you can not find anywhere that sells them,so you MUST use doners.. all these tech companies love to preach about being green and saving the earth,but that only applies to you and NOT them,cause they have no problem whatsoever with forcing you to toss something in the garbage over a simple 25 cent part.
Profit over protection of the environment. The whole green schtick is a ruse to get even more money out of you through taxation, and forced obsolescence of the otherwise fine products you already own because they're no longer considered 'green'.
Not only are the lower rungs drastically reduced, employers are far lest willing to grow their own talent from the bottom up. They expect to go out and got/have gotten the training for the role they're applying for on their own dime. Then, once hired, they can expect to never move up without further going out and getting training for a higher role. I will admit I will never own an Apple product(, built after 1995, jaded from experiences in HS with the G3.) I also don't use Windows. I've been using Linux as my primary OS since 2012, although I do still have a Win7 laptop used to program ham radios, and am looking at potential buying a new laptop for the same purpose, although it will never be my main system.
Companies don't want having to invest into a worker only for them to pick up their stuff and go to another place for better wage. And workers don't want to be stuck in binding contract without raises. An impasse.
You should see what's happening in the trades. Shops stop offering apprentice jobs to save money then complain non stop about lack of skilled workers. Now they either import workers from cheap countries or they convince the government to subsidize all their training.
I used to do electronics repair. Nothing is designed so it can be repaired anymore. This is not an accident. They do not want the products to last more than 5 years. No sales to a guy who has a reliable product which is still working 10 years after he bought it after all.
Been experiencing this since I got out of college in 2008 and it's been worse with time. I just didn't have the experience or drive at the time and now that I do, it's just not feeling worth the immense debt and insecure future. I hate that companies and government policy want us to be sheep, but we are nearly forced to unless we get extremely lucky.
One of the most depressing things I encountered while doing IT was that people, by that I mean the customers, did not value service, and were insulted when asked for payment. I would take the wrath because Apple would sell a poorly designed product. Some parts were impossible to find or obscenely expensive. Using a used part was risky, if something went wrong, they would blame you. I doubt I would do computer repair again. I'm not saying never, but I would prefer not to do it again.
Same. I hate customer service. I generally don't even like people. On the surface, sure, they're fine. But as soon as you get to know them, you learn they're either dumb, narcissistic, or both. It's just better to keep the circle of people I know tiny.
I'm an independent JD mechanic and I and people like me are finding it harder and harder to get parts every day. I'm in this profession because authorized services are lacking the skills or personnel to do repairs on the machines they sell to customers. The product is good but extremely complicated, and getting skilled workers takes 10+ years in the field. Dealership instead of working with us for the good of customers rather eliminate us with the inability to purchase parts... Losing customers in the process. We are living in an upside-down society and I'm not sure how far we are going to make it as all the skills acquired over the generations will die out in the next 20 years at this rate.
This is something I've been vaguely wondering about. It seems like the only work left is either hyperspecialized or jobs that just barely can't be automated. What's the average person to do?
Companies pushed my Dad out of consumer electronic service back in the 90's, couldn't get manuals, couldn't get the calibration software, couldn't get parts. Survived a few years into 2000's doing horrible paid warranty work swapping boards for warranty companies, I bailed thankfully.
Anymore I feel like similar stuff is happening across the board. Not just in repair but in other lines of work, maybe not restrictions or next to impossible to get stuff, but stuff from above out of our control. I feel like this is a warning sign that it's going to be even more increasingly harder to pull yourself out of a rut if you end up there or even start there say from a family situation.
@@Coldbird1337 That’s how it’s gonna end anyway because as the populace loses its ability to properly support itself collapse will follow because the populace won’t have the money to prop up our current corrupt system.
When I finished university with a degree in IT, I was up against people with 3+ years in the uindustry for entry level jobs. After a while of being rejected i started studying certs to get me a leg up. After getting my A+ certification and starting on my Net+ cert, i went to a group interview. There were over 300 other people there. In a group of 10, every one else had between 5 and 10 years experiance, A+,Net+, Sec+, CCNA, etc. For a job paying LESS than a supermarket. Now I teach English in Korea. And they are complaining about shortages of people in IT
After more than a decade as a programmer I've grown completely disillusioned with IT. The pressure is insane with unrealistic deadlines, constant crunch-time, and trash-code that gets pushed out because there's no time to do any kind of serious testing. And with the recent wave of layoffs, there's an awful lot of us out there, all competing for the few remaining jobs that haven't been outsourced.
@@chaoscarl8414 May I ask something? Apparently there are very few people who know stuff about programming and at the same time understand some kind of other technical subject that needs to be implemented. Is there some sort of workaround for this or is for example railway software being made by people who have never seen a switch. btw. I'm not in the industry. The professional side of programming started to look unappealing during high-school and I didn't push it further.
What is it with literally every single person I ever hear talk about their careers that they go into IT? Like I don’t understand why everyone feels like programming is the way to go? Did Obama really brainwash everyone?
@@chaoscarl8414 I'm in college right now doing CS, a year and a half to go. I've was thinking of switching anyway but do you think that's a good idea? Especially with GPT making everyone suddenly realize how much progress has already been made with AI
I love this kind of content. You really describe a problem we have in a great way, that's easy to understand and sums up a lot of issues in a concise way. Your definitely smarter than the average new Yorker lol
I definitely feel like a "manager of myself" instead of someone on the bottom rung. Supervisor has visited my campus maybe 3 times in the last 6 months. I go weeks without direction. My emails asking for supplies and about problems that need addressed at a management level go unanswered. No absolute policies, procedures, or directives. At this point I'd be happy for someone to just tell me exactly what to do but they won't. I can't both do the peon work and be analyzing the situation, especially when they won't let me have control over purchasing. I don't know what the end game is - there has to be some insider reason for them to act this way but I just don't get it. Management owns absolutely none of the issues but just shits on the bottom rung people when they get complaints.
@Wumi24 more like: "when the company gets bigger it gets richer and when that happens we all get richer, right? Oh you want a raise? Yeesh buddy, i may be the owner but i have a responsibility to make sure we are not paying too much, we dont want to stifle growth right? We all gotta make sacrifices."
Being a person born in the 80's, I feel ya. It's a major reason I watch your videos, keep up the good work! I may have a degree in Industrial Automation, but my happy place is fixing things for others. We need more people like you!
It is sad. My Dad was an HVAC contractor. He cud fix just about anything. There's something freeing about being able to fix and build your own things. But the world is becoming more and more like a prison.
It's like this with basically every single industry out there now. Constantly increasing centralization into a couple mega companies, only hiring people who already have experience, complete lack of entry level jobs to get said experience in a field, increasing costs and hoops for trying to start your own thing. Historically, when young people find they have no prospects for living a good life, that is when society collapses. This is the point we're at now, and I'm fairly confident that the next decade will involve a lot of institutions failing and violent upheavals.
Yup, it's already started... many young people don't want to start families because it's too damn expensive. I mean our government is trying to force more kids on the population with their change in abortion laws but what they aren't getting is that young people WOULD want to be productive members of society if there was more opportunities and health care, daycare etc wasn't taking your entire paycheck... rent too.
@@agravery223 man, maybe if one person could support a family with a full-time job, there wouldn't be a need for daycare. There's got to be something we could do to bring up the least amount of money anybody can legally be paid. If only...
Props to you for making it as far as you have. I was involved in three PC repair shops between 2001 and 2017, and even with customers lining up out the door and great profit margins, it never really felt like we ever "got ahead" enough to really be able to take off beyond opening an additional store. I didn't handle the management side of things in terms of finances, just did the parts ordering and fixes. But knowing the people handling the finances were being honest with the money and seeing just how little cushion it provided was disheartening to say the least. Sure, customers were happy and things were repaired, but heaven forbid we raise our prices 15% to cover hiring more help or paying rent on a new building. Those loyal customers were all of a sudden not so loyal. Anyways, long story short, PC repair business sucks and I'm glad I got out while I still had time to salvage an IT career out of it.
Louis, your net impact on society is extremely positive and you have many years more to add to it. Don't get too discouraged on your journey; remain the anchor you are and know you have an army of supporters behind you. Thank you for sharing your journey and keep fighting the good fight!
I was extremely fortunate that a manager took a chance on me to get my foot in the door in the IT space without any prior experience (only worked at a grocery store beforehand but I had gotten a couple certs on the side and did lots of reading to build up my knowledge) and was eventually able to make a living wage and later get promoted. Literally every other job I applied to wanted experience, even for an entry-level help desk position
I somewhat-recently started a career in machining. It's like this there, too. The place I came the closest to working was going to pay 12$ an hour to do work unsafely, and I was willing to take it because literally nowhere else would hire me. A manager took a chance on me, too, and I got a nicer position where I get paid more and don't have to stick my hand in the machines while they're running, but I'm bitter about it because where I am is a rung BELOW what I'm actually trained for. This is so painfully easy that I spend half the day playing on my phone. They weren't taking a risk AT ALL, but I don't have x+3 years in the industry so apparently I'm only qualified to be a fucking porter as far as most people are concerned. By the way, before 2030, this industry is going to start shrinking multiple percentage points a year because people will retire out so frequently.
I worked at a grocery store in produce for 2 years, including management experience. Eventually I had to change jobs, so I applied to wal mart. I had all my experience in my resume and they hired me on the spot, no interview, with a dollar an hour above everyone else in my department. Its not exactly the same, but it shows how much even crap places like wal mart focus on experience.
Same here. Thought I was going to rot in retail forever. I'm still very much at entry level, but I'm able to afford to live, while working in an environment that isn't stressful. I have some friends who are struggling, and it just sucks that I don't have the means to help. I literally just got lucky while brute forcing apps on Linked In.
Pulling yourself up by your own bootstraps is literally impossible, they're beneath you, the term was made to mock people who told others to do impossible tasks. Everyone needs help with something.
@@ButWhyMe... If there's a better alternative you got tucked away in there, we'd love to hear it. I'm not married to capitalism, but it seems pragmatically better than the alternatives.
@@pinip_f_werty1382 social democracy or socialism are 2 better alternatives to capitalism just off the top of my head. Profits over people is morally wrong and evidently doesnt work.
I had tried briefly at one point to get into the repair industry (at least partially inspired by you) and yeah, the things you mention are exactly why it was only briefly.
doesn't apply here, technicians didn't kick the ladder down. the manufacturing industry did by optimizing their process (and milking money from service, by hiring immigrants). Us techs can't do jack s*%t about manufacturers kicking it down.
god bless your work this last decade. You inspired me to always make money on the side when i was 13 years old. i just turned 24, 10 years later im just as depressed as you are. i was just on the first rungs of the ladder after high school, after i took the risk and quit my full time job to get the company started. those long nights. day after day after day. Covid and the right to repair made things tough for me. For us. Electronic repair i can’t keep up with anymore. Auto part market in the same boat. No as bad… but following in its foot steps. I can’t afford one of those fancy computers for new cars and i don’t think i ever will. Stay the course you savages… we’ll find a way. we always have.
Yeah I used to do this as a hobby. Not possible anymore. Really appreciate you calling this out. This is where "grindset" makes me angry. It isn't possible anymore.
I think of all the people out there who just gave up along the way because hard work is almost disincentivized these days. Louis, you are a rare breed. Glad you found a modicum of success doing what you do. You've told us how some nights you questioned yourself why you kept going, because of the craziness of it all. But I'm glad you did, hope you are even happier in the future.
It's easier than ever to do this stuff thanks to TH-cam and the internet. Tutorials are all over the place and cheap tools are everywhere. I bought a hot air/solder rework station for $80 on Amazon and that's one of the most expensive tools I own. The problem is not people doing hard work; it's more likely to be people not trying in the first place. Younger people are generally so sucked into trash platforms like Tik Tok and Instagram that they don't know how to break free and watch a 20-minute video showing how to take apart a laptop.
Destruction of community and our ability for collective action seems to be one of the primary objectives of the folks calling the shots these days. Wait… That’s kind of always been true. “Keep fighting the good fight Louis!” If you don’t, who will? ❤
This country is not like the rest of the world. There will always be a fight. The only question is, can we still fix this with the pen, or will it resort to the sword?
@@manictiger What fight are you talking about? More confused boomers milling about the Capitol? France is historically more prone to civil unrest than we are. Time to wake up and smell the Technocracy. You are standing at the epicenter.
The age of people throwing around terms like "community" and "collective action" as if they ever reflected anything more than their insipid political ambitions is over. This pretentious shit has gotten us nowhere at best, mass graves at worst.
I didnt even know about the concept of "right to repair" before I found your channel. It opened my eyes to the ways corporations force planned obsolescence and increase e-waste.
How much worse would it be without Louis's efforts. So many don't realise just how far we have already gone down this rabbit hole of throw away everything, how much it has changed in a single lifetime.
I think you are underestimating the skill and ingenuity of people who want to do work like this. I have a friend who's been doing crazy repairs for years now and he doesn't have even a fraction of the tools you have at your disposal.
Back in 2014 I started watching your videos, I was 12. Every single dime I've made I credit to your videos, I'm 20 now and run a kinda successful business in Houston working for multiple shops doing microsoldering. It's tough in the middle run of the pack out here especially when I'd love to grow quicker, but I love this job and wouldn't trade it for the world! It's still possible to get started there have been a few guys that have shown me the ropes in the local market, you just have to be very lucky and willing to put up with an impossible amount of bs
Houston here. Would love to know the name of your company so I can bring you some business whenever I need something done. I’m trying to switch to only supporting local businesses. If you could drop me a message or something, that’d be awesome.
I think this kind of basic repair is important for a lot of reasons. When I was a kid, you could upgrade your computer, you learned a lot by messing around with components. It basically put me on a path to what I do now. I can do basic repairs at home, I don't always need to take things to a repair shop because I am generally capable, but it's hard to do repairs if the companies make their products essentially irreparable with toolsets that don't cost thousands of dollars, or as you say, not providing the parts we need to individuals or small businesses in smaller batches. If it's truly impossible to make a product that is repairable I may understand, but that's not what's going on here. So even though I'm not in business I definitely want my products to be fixable.
Hey, Louis. Don’t feel too bad. It’s like this in literally every industry in America. In every industry, there’s already a business that’s serving the bottom dollar people. The only way to compete is to get seriously skilled and have some crazy angle to hit the industry at, a shit ton of hard work and luck. On the employee side of things, for some reason businesses refuse to offer training. They want someone to walk in with 5 years of experience so they can hit the ground running. It’s so weird.
Louis, the way you treat people and the way you run your business incorporates principles that are universal to all aspects of life, not just repairing electronics. Your story is inspirational for any aspiring business owner, or at least for any young man like me, trying to become the best person I can be.
I was pretty surprised when someone like Wranglerstar of all people made a video talking about how, no; kids certainly do not have things easier these days. Making your way in any kind of industry is harder than ever because of things like this. Millenials, Gen Z, they have a point when they're saying work sucks these days. Their prospects for the future are non-existent when all they can get with a higher-education degree is still just a dead-end job at retail or fast food. When someone like that, who owns a homestead, rebuilt pretty much his own life from scratch can straight up tell you that yes, life is actually much harder for the average young person to get anywhere on their own backs with, and that pulling yourself by your own bootstraps is no longer possible, society has messed up in a big way somewhere along the line. Not that a lot of us weren't aware of it already, but there's a lot of waking up to do when it comes to the differences between the society Boomers grew up in versus a massive and ever growing demographic that are not just ready, but overqualified to work, and have nowhere to go.
Louis, I've been watching your videos since I was 14-15 years old and you were one of my biggest inspirations starting up. Just want you to know and I think I speak for all repair techs when I say this, you are incredibly appreciated. People like you have paved the way for people like me. Without your advocacy for the right-to-repair movement we'd be in a much shittier position right now. So thank you.
Thank you, that means a lot coming from people that are considerably more talented than I am! Thank you so much, I really appreciate it.
If I control the money, I care not who you elect. Printing of currency ensures this. It will be recycled and reset, but until that happens, the middle and lower classes will suffer. It's called a depression for a reason. On a lighter note, repairs should increase relative to new purchases in a given downturn.
Steampunk laptops and smartphones. The next big things...
Louis, Talk to me if you can take used broken electronic things & change into a bigger wall screen version at a Bali price.
Have you ever been to Bali?
Leave your gmail .
Right to repair is in itself a violation of individual rights
You can’t have a right to force somebody to give you the product or terms you desire
Man...I started making a video earlier today about how depressing it is that our industry is dying, and why I'm being forced to move on. I gave up a few minutes in because it became such a fucking bummer to talk about. Growing up poor as fuck, wanting to make money without having to take advantage of people, starting my entire business making crumbs on stupid ass repairs, and using those crumbs to start a business inside of a fucking Subway. Then turning that into being able to provide for my struggling parents while creating a life for myself that I sometimes feel like has to be a fever dream. This is a story I'm sure thousands of us in this industry can share because the bar of entry used to be so low. But now that bar is a fucking barbed wire fence 40 feet tall. It makes me think, if I were entering the industry today, what would I do? And the answer is, nothing. I'd be fucked. I'd prob be providing IT support for some douchebags company that's contributing to the downfall of society. Now I'm ranting. Thanks for making this video.
Good rant, well said.
Glad I decided repairing tiny stuff was too much of a pain in the ass for me years ago after fixing some friends phones.. sorry that the industry sux
Lol democrats voted for this.
Damn
Bro... As a Construction worker, a constructual engineer in rebar and steel, I F'ing FEEL you. DIYS has Been dying since the younger generation REFUSED to wear a toolbelt with me. 31 years old, and 10 years of my life working for douchebags to get nothing out of it either. The only way your gonna see change is if WE were the Gov. So sick of dealing with people telling you "no"
Sad thing is, this is becoming the norm almost in any industry - I mean, basically the whole idea of apprenticeship is gone. You are supposed to show up at internship and already have some experience. Most of the ladders have bottom rungs removed
I don't know what the truth is, but I hear that here in a America, the older skilled labour guys and the youngest generation don't get along well
yeup, welcome to late stage capitalism.
If you are anywhere on either coast, but particularly the East Coast, and can pass a background investigation (not "check," _investigation_ ), then look in to Maritime Machinist, Maritime Welder, Maritime Electrician. So many retired/fired under the COVID Mandate that employers are at only about 30 percent capacity. Of course, that means you may have to get the latest and greatest shot, to keep the job. But, it currently pays 3x Union scale at about $120/hour, and it's a traditional Apprentice, Journeyman, Master Union job with transferable skills needed around the world.
Nobody wants to teach since they fear you'll bail the second you learn and get paid more somewhere else. This is what happens when the dollar has no value and you can't buy loyalty by giving out raises as people deserve them. Repealing minimum wage would decrease the cost of goods and employ millions of people. It would keep people busy doing little things and everyone would be happier.
@@Coldbird1337 Late-stage corporatism*.
It's difficult to pull yourself up by your own bootstraps when they don't manufacture bootstraps anymore.
be self-taught to make bootstraps, but good luck finding the materials
@@ErrantObserver Let the peasants finance boot straps at 29.99% interest for 6 years!
@@beulahboi Oh woops, looks like the boot companies paid off politicians and trademark lawyers. Now, just to get the schematics for a single bootstrap costs thousands of dollars. What?! You say you can't afford it? You're just being lazy! Oh, and don't try designing your own! The lawsuit we serve you with will ruin you!
Pull yourself up by your bootstraps, means to try to do something impossible. You try lifting yourself by your shoes, you'll fall on your ass.
Need boot straps? Send me specs like lenght, width, and mounting points. I got tools and material. I'll even make buckles if you want it real fancy.
Just remember, you've made it easier, others have made it harder. You're still adding plenty of value and advocating for much more.
Exactly. It would've been even worse if it wasn't for people like Louis.
Let's hope the next 10 years, now thst some traction is established, will result in a step forward rather than backward.
@@YTHandlesWereAMistake we can hope all we want but the sad reality is we are faced against a Trillion dollar company that is greedy & slowly I believe it will only get worse.
@@YTHandlesWereAMistake Hope wont do a thing. Politicians on both sides are in the pockets of these companies. The only solution is creating a parallel economy by supporting companies like Framework.
@@YTHandlesWereAMistake In 10 years if he keeps messing with New York they will Gary Webb him
There has been videos of him not wanting to share which suppliers he uses for chips & parts because of the exact fear someone will use same supplier and make it harder for him to source stocks.
The worst part, in my opinion, is that these "rungs" are being removed maliciously. It's not happening as a secondary effect of...some other thing. Companies are specifically targeting these rungs, to secure and extend their own level of control. If the point of contention were regarding something that they owned, fine. But it's not. The crux of the issue is something they _sold._ They no longer own the product. The buyer now owns the product. So, who should have the control? Obviously, the one who owns the product. This is like the railroad monopolies of the 19th century, all over again. And when that was going on, the government put a stop to it. Well, where is the government now? In the companies pocket; that's where.
The government solved the symptoms before but never fixed things like lobbying that allow companies to worm their way back into control. If we want to prevent this they have to be prevented from using money to remove democracy.
This is also the video game companies trying to destroy GameStop and the used market.
@@eddardgreybeard Same with the whole "always-online" DRM concept. It's basically borderline-theft.
Even _if_ they were "kind" enough to let you own the thing you bought, all they need to do is shut down the servers to that thing and suddenly it's no longer accessible anymore. Not without some enterprising modder or software engineer recreating a spoofed version of those servers and providing documentation/tools for the average user to hook it into the game. And even then, it can only recover so much as these always-online servers invariably retain more and more content remotely that doesn't get downloaded to the host device, so once the connection to those servers is gone, so too is that content. And that's a best-case scenario - there are already countless games that run almost entirely remotely, with very little actually downloaded onto your device, so there's simply no means to restore it once it's gone without the developer willingly disseminating the game's data.
And they almost never do that. Why would they when they can either make you pay extra for the same content later on via a re-release and/or push you to buy the new thing they want you to buy in place of the old thing they took away?
They're always just looking for more ways to make you pay for less - up to and including making you pay for absolutely nothing, eventually. If it's borderline-theft now, it would be _actual_ theft later if they had their way.
@@Armameteus
There's also talk that the way a lot of dlc actually works is it was already on the physical copy, but when you buy it you're actually purchasing the licensing to unlock it from the disc you already own.
We all fell for the grift that the economy wasn't one big heist. Turns out it was. Don't ask questions about who the owners are, the particularity of them. Asking such questions is very dangerous.
What I can really, and truly appreciate about Louis is the fact that he’s not simply bitching and moaning about higher expenses for himself. He has what he needs for a successful business.
He’s actually bummed out that the path he took is no longer possible for anyone to follow afterwards. He actually gives a shit about others and not just being a selfish little prick from another company that we can name.
Shows you he’s good at what he does. People who are scared of competition pull the ladder up.
@@IL_Bgentyl i thought they set it on fire and moved on to tossing a rope to whomever they think they can take advantage of
@@Coldbird1337 Nah, they give you a step ladder and convince you that you could definitely make it if you just jumped a bit higher.
Yep.
Sucks to suck. Get up off your ass and find a different path, the opportunities for making a living and being successful are staggering in this day and age.
It's not just electronics repair. The lower rungs are being removed everywhere.
As a kid, my pediatrician practiced medicine from an addition to his house. I haven't seen that in decades.
Manufacturing has been offshored for over 40 years now. IT market is decimated by offshoring, with all but programming and the most senior jobs largely offshored/H1B at many large corporations. Accounting market is starting to see offshoring of lower level jobs. They are actively getting into the auditing market. And that is without considering automation and software that streamline the jobs.
What jobs are there for people anymore? And when we invent them, how long before they are offshored? In the past a new technology came out and Americans had at least a decade before the offshore companies caught up, now it is a couple of years at best.
ETA: Just to be clear I specifically didn't mention any countries as the problem isn't where the job is going but the political and corporate policies that send the jobs overseas.
@@Teampeglegwell without jobs we can all be free to be artists now like me!
Except I'm still an entrepreneur and in debt even with a second career doing environmental consulting. Yay...
A dentist at a small town I grew up as a small child and went to highschool in is the only house practitioner I can think of still doing that.
@@Teampegleg yeps, half the jobs went to China. The other half Indians came and took ‘em. Not blaming either. This is because of your politicians.
Same with software engineering.
You used to be able to straight up show that you can code and you didnt even need a degree to get into it.
The lower rungs just don't exist in pretty much ANY industry anymore. I don't know how anybody is supposed to make something of themselves when they aren't even allowed to start.
you'll have to work 5x as hard and get 50x luckier than the past few generations to get half what they did. Maybe less. I remember complaining about how hard it was just to land a job these days, and some boomer called me lazy and told me it should take a solid week of effort to get a job. Because that used to work. It took 1.5 years of solid effort to get a full time job
@@jacobmansfield-go9fz You need to learn to lie better.
If you're brand new in an industry applying for your first job, your resume better show 5 years experience. Say you have experience you don't and certs you don't.
No hiring manager has a clue about the positions they hire for.. Just a check list.
@@alexlaw1892 i don't see how that could get me anywhere but fired. that gets you past the hiring manager but not the first interview
Wish i knew this after I graduated from highschool, literally every "entry level" job that i looked at wanted 5-10 years work experience for a job that is going to give me on the job training all the while paying minimum wage
@@jacobmansfield-go9fz unfortunately being a deceptive bastard is how you land decent jobs now. If they like you and think you'll work out, you just need to be able to do the job at that point.
What you're describing is happening everywhere in all industries. The people who climbed the ladder got halfway up and reached back not to help, but saw the rungs off so no one could follow them. It's sad.
>It's sad
well, it's nature. lion kills hyena ...
@@Henry-sv3wv You definitely don't know much about nature. Hyena can and do gang up on and kill lions, especially when they're alone. Might be time for us Hyenas at the bottom of the ladder to go hunting.
@@Henry-sv3wv Yeah, sometimes it's the hyenas killing the lion. But we are not lions or hyenas. People do NOT have to act this way. Your so called nature is called greed and narcissism. Don't give a sh@t about anybody but yourself. If I can't have it, no one else can either. I have mine, screw you, I don't want to share and I want to be the only one. It's always funny to read about how new industries began. Everyone sharing ideas and helping each other. As time goes on, the money goes to their heads, egos get bruised, and finally the attitude of dog-eat-dog comes into play. That's human nature. It's a lot different than lion killing hyena.
Exactly, and to add insult to injury and really rub salt in our wounds they saw the rungs off and than blame everyone for "being too lazy" to climb the ladder! When in reality it doesnt matter how hard you climb, there are no rungs to grab onto anymore!
@@Henry-sv3wv nature included countless species that work together and share resources
Pick one animal that represents who you'd like you get away with being, as if that justifies being a horrible person.
Your advocacy for the right to repair and Casey Muratori's "30 million line problem" both left a massive impression on me. I've been directing myself towards a career that'll give me the resources and skills to eventually start my own business that manufactures modular devices with well documented components.
It's not about the money. It's the experience. It's exhausting. The software is all bloated overengineered garbage that wants to spy on you and nickel and dime you death. The hardware is all flimsy monolithic crap that's designed to break even worse when you try repair it and is outdated a year after it's released.
Casey Muratori is awesome. My boss is trying to solve the 30 million line problem with an approach I can best describe as Terry Davis meets Howard Hughes. If you think this would be a cool thing to work on and get paid to contribute to, and are qualified to work on it, gitlab.futo.org/eron/public/-/wikis/FUBS email me - louis@rossmanngroup.com
This is totally unrelated to the topic of the video but pinning just incase there are some other programming geniuses out there watching this video. You never know, I've found 3 already just from comments section...
Look, the idea of right to repair is a commendable one, but I live and work in Silly Con Valley and let me explain the reality of the situation.
This is NOT a problem of corporations, it's a problem with consumers.
If you buy something that cannot be repaired, you're an idiot.
Stop buying crap you KNOW cannot be repaired, and boycott corporations that make it difficult or impossible to repair. Boycott them.
The only reason people buy Apple products is MARKETING, they are terrible machines, they are substandard. I'm an engineer in Silicon Valley, it's ONLY MARKETING that gets DUMB consumers to buy them. Stop defending idiots. They bought this crap, f them.
It seems like it's not a coincidence that I watch people like Louis Rossmann, Casey Muratori and Jonathan Blow :)
@@rossmanngroup Was literally talking about Terry Davis when visiting my parents just a couple hours ago. Guy is legendary in his own right and an absolute genius.
I wish you good luck with your business
Nah, it isn’t “self serving” to recognize how privileged/honored/lucky you have been in your career, your honesty about how brutal things have become for the everyday person whether it be R2R or your walks around NYC is why we commend you for your work. This video and your channel will be an essential record in capturing the economic anxieties of our time.
Literally hits every point of how our economic ecosystem is polluted: consumers are screwed with limited options for (simple) repairs and are squeezed for blood, entrepreneurial spirits hoping to breakthrough in their passion, interests, or even the thing they KNOW they can be successful in are crushed from the business and/or forced to join the bloodsuckers, and those in-between are just walking a tight rope to not fall into either side. It’s madness, and I appreciate you for breaking it down from your own perspective.
It's takes a very wise, humble, and mature person to look at themselves objectively and see how they got to where they are. Alot of ppl would just say "I worked my ass off" without acknowledging any favorable circumstances they benefitted from
They've literally made knowledge irrelevant by taking away the means of turning that knowledge into something practical and useful. It's like knowing you need a hammer to drive in a nail but not being allowed to touch any blunt object to do it. What a nightmare.
To them, your knowledge is dangerous.
Blame the boomers for this practice. They take everything away from us and expect us to do the work for them anyways, and now we have THEIR children doing the same thing to us again. What a joke.
and ppl are still iSheep
0:55 ur the first person besides me i’ve heard of noticing let alone being bothered youtube took the “oldest to newest” away
they rly don’t want ppl to have repertoires they just want viewers looking at the latest as it publishes :/
ps love a good rant
this shit is not okay and a world full of ppl refusing to talk abt it will never heal
It's fucking annoying. I loved that feature.
Great channels with large backcatalogs you don't always know the video title you want, but you might know the era/year etc. Miss that feature.
@@rossmanngroup Truth! It's fun to see how far comments go back beside.
_"Nothing exists except an endless present in which the Party is always right."_ ― George Orwell
I'm one of your farmer subscribers and even though your computer repair content really doesn't apply to me, it is appreciated. Everything that you have said about the economic conditions for starting up is completely true. It is incredibly hard to start out, I don't really care what you want to do. Everything is so expensive and hard to get. If I didn't inherit my farm ground, there is no way I can see that I could have made it work. It really sucks for a lot of people.
All done on purpose. The idiots with the money around the world just want to control everything. Even here in the UK, all the medium and small businesses are being hit for six with no help. My own business went down during the worldwide scam as I simply could not compete and break even.
As a farmer then in the USA how are yourselves and your counterparts doing these days vs UK farmers seem to be regulated up to the eyeballs and barely making enough money to survive much less thrive.
@@thomas.parnell7365 I personally am ok. We don't have a lot of regulations in the U.S. that I personally have to deal with. In fact, we could probably use a little more in some ways. My biggest problems are that water is getting scarce in my area and being wasted by municipalities. Another problem is extremely high land and machinery prices. I am fortunate that my land is inherited and I only have one machinery payment left. Many are not so fortunate as they are very indebted and are probably not breaking even. You can't really rely completely on agriculture in this country. You need an outside source of passive or semi passive income. It's a rich man's game now. Gone are the days of the small family farm. Big conglomerates and investors are buying stuff up and smaller operators are being pushed out. If you don't inherit a place free and clear, don't bother. Go get a better job in town.
My current job/skills were handed down to me from my father and his friend. No way I could have bought a house in the time I did without them. Going at it on my own, I likely would never have been able to.
Have you tried to repair your John Deere lately? It’s as repair restricted as any other computerized device.
Louis is the epitome of the American Dream. Unfortunately, how he got there is no longer available.
Fake and gay, you can do it anywhere. Regardless America's glory days are in the past
That's why its dream. Phrase "You have to be asleep to believe it" is being made more and more true.
@@wumi2419 Ahh, my man George. Still imparting wisdom.
The American dream was always a scam to 99% of people.
The American dream has morphed into a dystopian nightmare ruled by mega corporations.
The first rung has fallen off of the retail and food service ladders as well. It's almost all managers now, no entry level jobs unless you know somebody, and the money is garbage for what companies are expecting. The manager rung will fall off at some point soon, it will all be corporate level overseeing machines... It will have to end somewhere, but history shows these things always end with violence.
I've had a few companies ask me to be a manager... Like no.
I'm not gonna take a $1/hr raise for 300% more bullshit lmao.
@@enb3810 I just realized by reading your comment that I did exactly that. I was promoted to a manager with a 2 dollar raise and 2000% more bs to deal with. That's the reason I left that job, it was not worth it. And my boss was shocked when I handed in my resignation and even told me ," That sucks we had high hopes for you." Well those hopes were definitely not seated within reality. That job was a dead end and would not afford me the life I wanted. Told him that before leaving. Left before my two weeks were up because nothing was keeping me there and there was no incentive to stay for the remainder.
@@enb3810 My company has been trying to promote me for ages, almost to the point of firing me because I do not want to accept a promotion. The irony is if I would have accepted that promotion I would have quit a long time ago. The amount of stress that I have seen the managers in my job go through is ridiculous for what they get paid for. I'm in the process of leaving my job anyway for a more independent career that does not require me to have a boss.
@@Rob.N. I hear that.
Yes, that's certainly what the Elites _are_ planning on. Back in 2008, when Obama was facing the collapse, the rulebook said, "Use corporate mercenaries to operate armed drones, those drones to secure and threaten the families of the military (summoned to live on-base in response to supposed threats), the military to compel civilian Sheriffs, Sheriffs to secure families of Police, police to maintain stability in such cities as are deemed necessary, see list in Appendix." For real, I've seen it. It leaked to a certain famous site for Leaks, and the government confirmed it's the real deal by filing suit to get it removed on grounds that it *_wasn't false._*
Thank you for having the self-awareness to know that people now have it harder than you did. So many older folks have a boomer mentality where they refuse to think that anything has changed and that somehow we're all just lazy- which is infuriating to listen to when you just don't have the options.
My boomer Mother is similar to this. “It’s not 1962 anymore, Mom.” I tell her that all the time.
My stepdad would definitely have said boomer mentality, he got his first job during the 60/70's (idk remember when he was hired) when you could just walk up to
a random factory here in Sweden and instantly get hired (he got hired to assemble basic lamps together).
The same boomers that squat in their leadership positions because they can just kick a can down the road and enjoy driving to their country club in their landrover with heated seats.... Lazy.... hmmmm
sure, the issue is both sides feel disrespected. Boomer feels like younger people dismiss the things they've done in the world to get to the point. Younger generation feels that Boomers don't give them enough credit for taking what Boomers did and furthering it along. Its basically like a married couple who talk at each other instead of to each other.
Louis, By raising the barrier to entry into the repair market Big Tech has covered their bases. They are in effect saying "You may have the RIGHT to repair BUT good luck trying".
Samsungs 2300-page patent document and patent infringement claims against third party suppliers will seal the deal. By the time the patents expire, the products will be useless and too expensive to set up third party manufacturing for what then will be an obsolete product bricked by the vendor.
EXACTLY!
It's like this for every trade...
Tree work, Carpentry, Tech, Auto...
Costs go up, quality goes down, and for the younger guys like myself, the entry price into any field is higher every year.
Then these old heads that got into their niche for nothing like to do the bootstrap speech. Like really? You know how many step you gotta go through to even open shop now?
LLC or DBA, Office or Virtual Mail Box, Insurance & Bonding, Tax Prep Prep, ein number, account with state tax auth, business bank account...and that's before you even get to the tools, equipment, machines, materials, etc.
Although you should have exp, and some of the tools when you start. But the paper work will suck up more time as you go on...and compliance costs keep rising as well.
Oh, and licenses...legit, the rungs haven't fallen off...the last guy pulled up the ladder! 😆
Then they'll complain about the taxes for the welfare beast they are equally responsible for creating.
License and Compliance!
What happened to, " . . . the Right to Pursuit of Happiness"? Remembering that in the vernacular of the Time, "Pursuit" was _work._ I think a _lot of people_ were not *taught that.*
I knew some old guys that did fiber optics businesses in the early 90s and out of nowhere the state said you now have to be certified, etc etc etc, they ended up doing other businesses
@@rickspalding3047 I splice fiber... I have a few training courses that were required... but it usnt needed. I have showed many tards how to run a splicer. Im sure they are living kick ass lives now!
youre supposed to go into massive debt before even earning a single dollar, and pay it back for decades after. keeps you docile and pliable.
@@guguigugu but in the end they will still do everything they can to not hire graduates even dealing with visa for older workers as they don't want to invest in the future
"How much have we accomplished" - More than you could know. You stemmed the tide, you slowed the progress of the people trying to kill repair shops. You didn't make forward progress, but you robbed them of their tremendous momentum in the wrong direction. Don't give up, don't quit, the world needs you.
Big tech companies don't want right to repair, because it prevents them from selling the latest and greatest gadget to people who would just repair their old gadget.
The trick is to just have fewer gadgets.
@@aygwm and learn to respect how it's used. A lot of the younger generation are going back to flip phone to escape social media.
@@Coldbird1337 Smart phones are very expensive for youngsters.
@@aygwm that makes zero sense
They don't like right to repair because it defeats planed obsolescence and generally defeats subscription services.
My biggest pet peeve are the folks that pull up the ladder behind them. In this case, you've been trying to hold on to the ladder with both hands and it is crumbling on its own. You are good people Louis.
I don't even look at the ladder anymore. There's nothing up there, only steps to climb. And you climb them by stepping on others. PASS
People in their prime earning years in the 60s and 70s had a bigger share of GDP going to wages than any other time in US history. Then they got old and made sure to keep wages stagnant while productivity grew.
More like those above Luis on the ladder, are pouring acid on the lower rungs, while Luis is trying not to get splashed in the spot he's in.
Yeah. Thank you boomers.
@@kellymoses8566 Assholes exist in every generation. Good people too. Making it a boomers vs. zoomers thing is a naïf generalization.
The black pill is brutal and real
Entry level: 10 years experience required
The skill required: Only existed for 2 years
@@Dowlphin the solution is to move past capitalism.
We're looking for someone 23-27 years of age with 30 years experience. Pay: $30,000 a year.
@@benjaminhenderson5025 To what? To 100 mln deaths of communism gave us in XX century? You are like naive teenage girl "just move past capitalism!". Bro capitalism is what lifted literally billions of people out of poverty globally. Or at least say move to what. Yea it has bad parts and we can certainly try to enhance it.
@@benjaminhenderson5025 I don't think this system is capitalism anymore. Competition is a key tenet of capitalism, and preventing others from competing is what the bigger players keep doing.
Until Louis said that YT removed the Oldest to Newest sort feature, I honestly have been going around assuming that it was individual creators disabling it on their channels.
I’ve been on this platform since 2012, and noticed it disappeared a while back, but don’t remember any media coverage. Thanks for informing me Louis!
You have to set it to "all comments" it uses the "relevant comments" to hide comments it doesn't like, hence why you see only half of the stated comments, IE if it says 20 comments you only see 5
Now they want you to scroll endlessly while it loads more videos. Louis could put the really old videos in a playlist (if he hasn't alrady).
@@jamesdeegan7365 OP wasn't talking about comments.
My theory is that TH-cam wants to constrain people's viewing habits towards the newest content because it is the most monetized. You could also imagine that keeping all these videos persistently available to view for free costs a lot. I wouldn't be surprised if they begin deleting old videos that don't meet a monthly view quota. Getting rid of methods to find those videos would make it easy for them to do that and face less backlash.
Demand for viewing content has plateaued while demand for uploading content only increases, especially now that we have AI generated content undercutting the value of content in terms of the effort it takes to create it. To remain profitable TH-cam can:
-Charge money to upload
-Shepherd viewership to the most profitable content
-Reduce overhead by deleting low profit content
so to be exact when they changed it, it was when they did the new ui (with all the more bubbler ui stuff) it was the same time they separated the videos tab into videos, live streams/vods and shorts
looking at a post on reddit it looks like it was late 2022 they did it
Nov 02 '22 was the date (dd/mm/yyyy = 22/11/2022), (mm/dd/yyyy = 11/22/2022)
that is 117 days days ago (with 19/03/2023 being the ending date)
It's so nice to hear a take from someone who's "made it", but doesn't talk down to people and has a realistic view of what the average person is facing. The opposite of what alot of people might hear from baby boomers in their average day.
Amen!
Just remember, every time one of apples victims calls for repair & its impossible or too ridiculously overpriced to bother, remind them not to buy any Apple products, to feel the pain & remember Apple did it to them intentionally. These companies will continue their shenanigans as long as people keep buying it.
I've been realizing this is happening to nearly everything. I'm 28 and everything feels like you need to work twice as hard to get half back. Everything is being gate kept on top of everything being more expensive. I'm extremely lucky to be where I am, but I see other people around my age who want to work hard but are exhausted cause the goal post keeps moving. Idk how my younger siblings will make it on their own in the future. I left everything and everyone I knew in California to be able to get a home and be more secure. But, even where I live now it's more expensive and jobs don't pay more than when moved here. Crime has gone up all around me and I feel it's just going to get worse. Something's gotta give.
im almost 30 and my story is the exact same
I've worked hard and took all of the typical advice, saved money to the point of excessive and missing out on things, invested safely in index funds 401k, now I feel like I need to put off the idea of marriage or kids when when I don't want to
left my family and moved from CA as well, I really worry about the future and leadership in our country, things are changing faster and faster and it doesn't feel for the better.
Boomers have exploited and leeched off the economy to the point its all rotten to the core.
Now because they wasted, outsourced, and utterly ruined all their life savings, they want to leech off the younger generation.
Cant even afford a fucking house. Cant even get a fucking job no matter what.
Meanwhile you see some old fuck who bought a house for $50k in modern day US dollars(adjusted for inflation/purcashing power parity), shit talking people who have to pay $2k a month for rent while every social service promised to the last generation went bankrupt, while being taxed the shit out of to pay for the social security of the same generation who ran the country to the ground.
This is the path to civil war or WW3. People wont take it anymore
You need to get out of the big cities. There's crime everywhere but I live in a 7000-person town and if I leave my door unlocked I don't have to worry about anyone else coming by and trying to open it.
27, same thing here. Our generation got screwed all the way over.
The sad thing is that, 100 years ago, each town had a repair shop of some kind both keeping repair skills alive, saving money for the townspeople and reducing pressure on the environment. Now that we are in an electronic age, people think that is all too hard - but it could be exactly the same today ... except that job, skillset and savings are being stolen from the people by BIG TECH.
@airthrowDBTthings should be made to last and to be repaired. Technology should be accessible to young, old and be made to be understandable to all.
Maybe repair goes underground (club members only)... I pay For Louis tokens... Mr. Rossman then takes my tokens and repairs my device 💁🏻♂️
@@如來-c3l that is what you believe but the industry does not find that a necessity, users are not expected to service their equipment because manufacturing cost has gone down so much & with jobs being outsourced.
@airthrowDBT SMT components are easy to access if you have a microscope, knowledge on microsoldering (and experience) and a FX-951 or a TS100. Hot airstation necessary for removing microchips (basically anything that has pads attached to motherboard with no visible way to desolder them)
@airthrowDBT As technology become miniaturized people SHOULD be expected to service their own equipment to some degree.
See, this is contradictory.
you had fridges and other appliances with schematic on them where you can order parts, so people can fix their stuff.
The same stuff they are ordering is the same part we replace/put on a circuit board, but instead of using a normal iron or screwdriver, you have to take those components off.
Cheapest setups aren't even that expensive to decent paying jobs (college students excluded), so when we say normal people shouldnt be expected to do this we're just contradicting the whole ownership and RTR argument.
if nobody is repairing stuff except the professionals, why bother to have them on public? the professionals can just have agreements with manufacturers.
that is literally the argument lobbiests are using right now.
and winning.
The bottom rungs aren't gone. They just don't lead upward. They're just what you land on when your higher rung breaks. If you're lucky. The alternative is "splat". And it isn't just computer repair, it's everything, and it's been spreading for 50 years.
It is the rungs in the middle are disappearing
a hamster wheel at the bottom
@@Khunark The wheel needs assembly, but you can only build it on breaks. By the way, it's needed for your work.
The current ladder: You can work for minimum wage living in your car, OR go to school and start out with $100k in student loan debt living paycheck to paycheck for a couple decades.
A reckoning is coming.
Too bad that reckoning will likely come in the form of complete societal collapse
Yea, we are withdrawing. $20 an hour for a bullshit job. No thanks. Most people agree. Thats why both partys dint stop immigration... legal, illegal,dont matter, same effect. Some cheap foreigner will do it for half the wage. Until we stop that, we can never get a fair wage. You gotta have a skill or advanced training in this day and age... some people self teach... but thats a rare bird these days.
I just hope it all grinds to a halt. The real crisis will hit once these states start defaulting on pensions and the benefits they promised these boomers. "But I payed in!" is all they say. Yea, and the people you voted for spent it. We dont have it. No new workers and it all collapses. Its close guys.
@@FylixAerou some yes
Lord Willima Reese -Mogg co wrote a book with James Dale Davidson Great Reckoning around 1992. Also must read book THE SQUEEZE 1980. Every idea spot on 40 years later.
@@whirled_peas I don't think societal collapse will be triggered by financial factors - Modern Monetary Theory (money printing) has shown to be more robust than libertarians/goldbugs have hoped. The unavoidable trigger will be food running out due to the exhaustion of both naturally fertile soils and phosphorus for fertilizer production. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Peak_phosphorus
That's a fancy green screen. You even put effort into making it look interactive like a real room.
Can you imagine if you had a headset? Immersive experience _in his shop!_
Shhh. Of course vtuber Louis can walk into his background image. As long as he doesn't crank up the jiggle physics on his pecs all's good.
The dude is able to perfectly sync edits to have teleporting cats without anything else appearing to move, so this being in his domain may not be as crazy as it sounds. (Or maybe this is crazy talk, and the cats actually do teleport in front of the camera?)
And it's 270 degrees around too!
You are a great spokesperson. "Right to repair" is not only in the computer field but in farming and automotive. What they've done with their soulless corporate greed is made a rope ladder and pulled it up to their crows nest and given every solid citizen the finger, higher prices , and planned obsolescence. Your candor is so refreshing
Louis, this is absolutely everything. The road to being a person who can support themselves by one's own labor without some company as a middle-man is getting narrower and narrower.
Faster & faster
@@1439315 Accelerationism?
I was trying to start a repair business like you did 10 years ago. My repairs were apple phones. My repairs were good and everything worked and as soon as I gave it back to the customer and they connected to a mobile service Apple would, unknown to me at the time, DISABLE the customers device because the repair wasn't authentic either by no longer charging or just disable signal (based on repair). The worst part is they made it look like the independent repairs fault. At first I thought I fucked something up and refunded the first, then it happened again...and again. It essentially destroyed what little business I had as word got out that I was "ruining people's devices" and eventually I saw the writing on the wall and gave up. I'm glad you were successful despite the hurdles.
I also loved the sort by old. Kinda sucks because it makes it harder to go back and watch older videos of a youtuber you just discovered which also hurts their views.
TH-cam has only made bad decisions since Google bought them. Everything they've touched with the exception of 60fps videos has been made worse, removal of useful features, censors, subscriptions not working (so they can promote their shitty dopamine drip algorithm).
After seeing my creative, hard working, brother do his best to hustle at work and find novel ways of increasing his value as a worker....and still struggling, I've all but given up on being anything but an Amazon or Walmart drone.
The lack of control is almost worse than the financial hardship
Find some side hustles. Off the books, if possible. Yard and garden, small deliveries, selling stuff on Craigslist, training dogs, whatever you can get.
If I was young I’d be looking to buy land with a group of like-minded people, get some trailers, growing some food, making beer and wine, etc.
@Shadow Stalin For thr record, I have no negative opinions about Jewish folks
It isn't even just the repair industry that has this growing "keep out newcomers" issue. Almost (& eventually) every industry is trying to move in that direction. Those at the top want to kill any chance for competition.
Don't EVER feel that what you do is futile. You have helped educate thousands, spread vital information about R2R, and given voice to the ones coming behind you!
Dont waste your breath, he WANTS to be miserable. He WANTS to complain. Face facts: he ENJOYS complaining and whining. When you see someone do something incessantly, every day, and every opportunity... it's because they like it.
@@Dre2Dee2 What the fuck are you on about. What you just said says infinitely more about your garbage mentality than Rossmann's.
No, a habit is a habit, it doesn't mean people enjoy it, but that they are not under enough pressure to change. If tomorrow you ask, " Where is Louis's business today? " Just think back to this video, where he roasts how bad Apple devices are, and how much - we the consumers - are being ripped off by purchasing them; and how little everyone paid attention to his words. Also, without us buying said devices, where is the revenue for his business to exist ?
@@ibanobum I think he has said at some point that he'd be happy going out of business if it meant apple no longer had such garbage policies
@@Dre2Dee2 Two things can be true. You’ve grown more annoyed by his manner than by the issue he keeps raising. Stop watching the videos and then maybe what he’s talking about (which has gotten worse as he’s talked about it) will go away. The “enlightened contrarian” shit is only useful as long as you have him to play off of so I imagine you’ll continue watching.
This is the type of sheer honesty from an entrepreneur that is so rare it earns one respect. Many people, upon reaching a modicum of success, delusionally think if they lost it all, they could get it back again the same way. The world is constantly changing and if we do not change with it, we will just suffer in delusional ignorance until the suffering hits us hard enough. Thanks for the 'rant', Louis.
It gets worse than this. Their ultimate goal is surely have you rent almost everything so they can have a guaranteed revenue stream. Or as Klaus and frends put it, 'you will own nothing, and you will be happy'.
Literally this.
Yup. It's pretty obvious out in my rural area an automobile will be only for the rich in about 10 years.
I'm probably 10 years younger than Louis and I find myself in the same situation, I don't do repairs for a living, it's more of a passion thing and helping out friends in need, but It's certainly harder today to find spare parts and do actual work because companies are locking their technology in silos that only they have access. I came to the conclusion that the only way around it is to get pieces of tech that encourage or at least are not so scared of users thinkering with their product.
Seeing Louis fight so hard for right to repair was energizing, it gave hope, it gave strength. Then seeing how much of it failed, seeing the system consuming what Luis fought for through blatant corruption and sometimes willful incompetence (the NY thing) was heartbreaking. I didn't expect the US to do any better, but damn.
You're a good soul, Louis. In the end you will know that you fought for what was right, love you and your work.
This is definitely sad but true moment. I started my computer repair business in my area in 2014 and didn't focus on laptop and mobile repairs because, as you said, it was essentially impossible for somebody to start when they don't have savings or the credit score. I hope you and the rest of us are able to get right to repair moving in the right direction.
I like the attitude to not throw away slightly defect screens but instead offer them to customers at a discount, who don't have a lot of money. That is a really decent attitude and pretty sure customers do appreciate it.
Not easy to do this in a Sovietic republic like USA
Your right the ladder has been pulled out from people and its not just repair.. as an electrician who qualified only a few years ago i have now closed my business as the over regulation, gate keeping and such has gotten so bad that i could never keep up with all the things they demand to keep qualified for a broad range of works and that ment i was loosing jobs due to bureaucracy. So given i was slowly going to endup in the red no matter how fast i try and keep up i had to give up before the company whent into debt. Every time you make progress they come out and shaft you... i give an example.. i use to fit smoke alarms.. then one day they say you can't fit smoke alarms any more unless you take this new course and pay the money. Corrupt ladder pulling & gate-keeping.
The hardest part about "you will own nothing and be happy" is realizing it is true but that I am not a part of the "you". There are plenty of people who will never care about any of this and will just indebt themselves to buy a newer crappier device.
In the old days you worked your way up inside the company....today they hire the top tier guy for 2-3 yrs from another company then he leaves with stock options loads of money and on to another company....why? In most companies that are large they dont want honest people seeing the scam that takes place...they want insiders who will keep quiet and play the game.
That's what is being taught in business schools today, unfortunately.
In the old days they didn't have 100500 available resumes at a click of a mouse button, you know? You're assuming companies, CEO and HR departments were more human and honest "back then", but they weren't, they're just lazy and they didn't have the tools yet. Now they have them. Next piece would be decided by the outcome of "AI revolution", can we save our jobs or will the middle ranks be taken by de facto memory archives leaving only upper ranks you can be only born into and lower ranks with de facto labor camp living conditions?
This system can't keep running forever. Its got to break sometime as no one will be dedicated enough to fix the issues at hand.
What has our species done.
@richsmith9638Are you seriously complaining about corporate regulations you fucking ghoul?
@Rich Smith the funny part is that those "rules" are broken all the time, the game is literally how many rules you can break before you are caught and how worth it can you make it *cough* wristslap *cough* Train derailments *cough* boy there must be something in the air and water to be making me cough like that.
You really hit on something that's been on my mind as a recent college grad. Everywhere I look for jobs it feels like there is no such thing as a true "entry level" job anymore. Those that are labeled as such, aren't really: they want 3-5 years experience only to be paid like garbage. It feels like you have to be able to infiltrate higher because those that DID make it in before us are gatekeeping like crazy. I'm gonna persevere, but dang is it hard. Something really did change while I was in school over the last four years; I was taught to play a different game in school frfr.
Anyway, thanks for giving voice to issues like this, Louis. Hearing it from someone like you is honestly motivating in a way.
I'm a recent college grad as well and I feel its hard to do but we have to push on, I'm pursuing certifications
Why hire a recent college grad for $60k, when you can offshore the job and get two to three employees often with claims of 3-5 years of experience.
Did you watch the video? Seems like you didn't.
@@kni9ght best of luck to you chief! Fly high.
Yeah definitely don't say the "frfr" shit out loud. I'd throw your resume in the garbage the second you walk out.
Someone I know told me his grandfather was working as an apprentice mechanic and saved some money and brought his Mrs an engagement ring and then when he was an actual mechanic he saved some more money and took his now wife to look at houses and ask which one she wanted and put a 30% down payment on it and got a mortgage based on 2X his salary. He calculated to do the same thing now would require an income of £160,000 a year. I don't know of anyone who makes even close to that.
We're being exterminated. There is no future.
What’s wild is the average house in the US is around $500k. A standard down payment is 20% if you don’t want to have a MASSIVE monthly payment… That comes out to be $100,000 out of pocket for a 20% down payment. Who the actual fuck is supposed to be able to do that? My brother and his wife make good money and can’t even save like that. A 20% down payment used to be like $20k-$30k.
I’m single and 28 and am looking at manufactured homes because they’re so much cheaper but even that is going to be close to $200k when it’s all said and done. I make $38k a year with a college degree, so despite me doing everything “right” I’m still questioning whether I can even afford a fucking trailer despite being a grown ass nearly-30 year old man. I don’t even have college debt because I worked to get academic scholarships. I did everything I possibly could to ensure this wouldn’t be impossible and it still feels like it wasn’t enough.
2030
@@foodconnoisseur9321 Yet Boomers worked fewer hours, had much more spending power and a better quality of life than young people now. They had it easy and pulled that ladder up as soon as they could.
@@foodconnoisseur9321 true but nowadays you can work full time and hardly afford the necessities.
@@alienvomitsex The only thing that makes me smile about boomers is how they don't understand relationship psychology, so they have many many more childish arguments with their partner and half of them now are either idiots who eat and breathe meaningless politics or eat and breathe spiritual narcissism.
it's funny that I was having this conversation with a friend just the other day. We looked at what our grandparents had, where they started, what they did and where they ended up. We then did the same thing for our parents and ourselves before trying to guestimate what it would be like for our kids when they finish school. The long and short of it is that you used to be able to start with almost nothing and make something of yourself via hard work whereas nowadays it's a lot harder and many of the pathways either don't exist or have the entry bar elevated so high that you need qualifications, years of training and cash in the bank to begin at the "entry" level.
As an example, my friend's grandfather was an actual refugee. one of the ones who fled real people trying to kill him as opposed to the modern version he constantly complains about. He started with nothing but clothing and a big ass knife scar on his back. his first job was gardening. Not the modern type with all the equipment but the old type with manual tools and an old petrol mower he bought and repaired from the dump. From there he saved up his cash and went into repairing cars back in the day when a simple toolbox could solve most of your problems. He eventually rented a house and used its shed as a shop, expanding from that inst an actual shop and finally paid staff. unfortunately, as cars got newer and more complex it became harder to do the simple things he started with and he is now looking at the introduction of electric vehicles and more onboard software. He once said that all you had to be in the past to fix a car was "an idiot with a screwdriver" now you need to be a mechanic, an electrical engineer, a computer programmer and have a hundred specialised tools.
I put myself through college while working full time and supporting myself doing equipment repairs. When I got done I discovered that to get the management jobs I was qualified for you had to do unpaid internships first. This didn't work for me. I'd been supporting myself for a decade, and I couldn't really take a different job _for no pay_ to check a box on my resume. I'm convinced it's a filter to weed out people who don't have family money. How dare you think you can just join management through hard work and ability? I even heard the owner of the company I was with at the time say "Who does he think he is? He doesn't have any money!" (He'd asked everyone for suggestions on how to improve the company, and I had offered some ideas about how to track costs vs. the revenues they produced ... that wasn't the level of suggestion he was after.)
I'm in school learning to be an Auto Technician. My instructors always say mechanics aren't just mechanics.
They're mechanics, electricians, welders, plumbers, computer nerds and cleaners.
At this point I've crawled all over both hybrid and gas cars. I fully agree with them.
@@Crash_Knight You forgot machinist and field engineer. Once something has been in the end-user's hands for a while, it's no longer exactly as it was built. Mechanics often come up with fixes for the weak points of the original design when things start breaking. (My 2002 Silverado had an AC line that dripped condensation on the distributor. Mechanics were putting a short length of foam pipe insulation on them long before the service bulletin told them to.)
@@AcmeRacing Lets be honest, we could name every trade and occupation and probably still be forgetting something lmao.
Air bags and radiator caps turn you into a safety advisor, putting tools and bottles of fluids in your trunk turns you into a pro tetris player, and I'm sure I could figure out some vague excuse to call myself a physiotherapist.
But you're absolutely right about field engineer. The amount of janky on the spot fixes I'm gonna have to come up with is something I'm looking forward to.
I did the same as Louis in HVAC repair. I started with nothing. You could get available cheap universal repair parts that work with many brands to do the repair. Nowadays, all manus use proprietary, solid state parts that you can only get from thier dealer to repair their brands. You can't start up like we did, from a small home garage and a mini-truck
It's happening in my industry. All of the people who started from the bottom have removed the bottom altogether (going to a "gig' economy/casual model) and ensuring that people at their level now go straight in from university. Now, the prices are up, the service and quality down, but it also ensures that the avenue these individuals took is long gone. They call it "churn" - No one is going to be at these jobs long (at the bottom or top) and as such it's about as getting as much out of the business as fast as possible before moving on. Seems like that's sort of the logic everywhere at the moment.
I think this is also true for e.g. Car Mechanics - heck, everyone with basic set of tools could repair a car on a driveway. Now you need a PC and a horrendously expensive set of CAR SPECIFIC (sometimes it's not even Manufacturer specific, but model specific) diagnostic tools
Driving around in an old pick-up with a portable welder, making gates, grates and fixin stuff, trade skills with a cutomer and get your roof fixed, plumbing or 3d print work and a couple bucks now and then. Thanks Louis.
Went from working for $350 a week under the table as a parts guy at a motorcycle repair shop. To running the shop in a year. 3 years later I started my business in my back yard in the cold. To an apartment with an rv parking garage down stairs to a 3,500 sqft shop that's so big I rent out a bay that pays my mortgage in 6 years. Keep going brother. The juice is worth the squeeze
Sadly, a lot of western nations are mimicking the loicense central shithole UK, so you wouldn't be able to drive around in an old pick up with a portable welder any more without a 'loicense' everywhere soon.
Uncertified tradeswork can get you in trouble mighty quick where I'm from.
Keep kicking ass sir!
@@elimgarak1127sounds like you need to move.
It's getting worse, but we're better off with you than we'd have been without you fighting for us. This goes well beyond third party repair as far as those rungs disappearing. If things keep going down this road, I suspect third party repair will take a sharp turn back upward, as nobody will be able to afford new stuff even when it's available. The whole depression era concept of “Make it do or do without” will come back when people have no other choice.
From what I hear we're already starting to see this in automotive. Read an article that the average age of cars on the road is climbing, which I suspect is because increasingly people can't afford new cars and are deliberately choosing older and more repairable cars.
I once watched a documentary about a huge company (dont remember which exactly) that went bankrupt and someone in the comments said the company didnt have any junior staff, basically most employees being managers who did nothing and they couldnt afford new employees, otherwise they would have to fire the managers. Meaning they spent huge amounts of money to people who made the situation worse since they were the ones controlling and rejecting junior staffs' ideas. I think we have a similar case here. . . Lets fire the managers 😜
I seen that problem myself. Its sad.
Sounds like Twitter before Elon bought it.
@@Dennis0824 And all Elon did was make it worse.
This is like most companies. While it's true that sometimes economics or just unforeseen events overrule whatever was planned, most other times it's management's fault.
Because everything is the management's responsibility to fix and the only things they cannot change is the management itself. Which means, it's the only thing that cannot be fixed.
Assuming the investors give no shits and just wants an asset to store their money in. Which used to not be the case and still a valuable business venture to actively manage a company. Except that you need like 500 million to start and need to give a shit about anything after you have that much.
Greedy pseudo intellectual idiots.
Happens everytime.
Dude, I started in the electronics repair business in 1987. I started my own "at home" shop in my parent's basement fixing pro-audio and some TV stuff. I worked for 5 years taking part-time work as well, in a VERY small town, barely affording room and board, until they kicked me out. I had to drop everything and move to the Big City where I lived in shared accommodations and had to store all my shop equipment (what little I had). Eventually I was getting lots of high paying work in the film industry, left that and became a paramedic...next thing 35 years has passed and I barely do any bench work having only a scope, dmm, function generator, soldering iron. I have NO IDEA how ANYONE could make a living doing this stuff, especially given the changes in, integration, manufacturing and the technologies themselves. Then there are the absolute lack of resources like when Philips sold off ECG which was a GREAT semiconductor parts cross reference catalog!!! And to top it all off, if I tried to get work with any "tech repair shops", they'll only pay minimum wage despite all I've gained in experience and knowledge in 35 years in MULTIPLE industries as well. Big corporations have totally F'd EVERYONE!!! They want to put EVERYONE OUT OF WORK, so we are all forced to buy their Shaydt when our stuff breaks, so they can keep us ADDICTED!!!! It's F'n SICK!!!!!
Blah blah blah. You sound just like the blacksmith, farrier, saddler, and wagon/buggy maker when the internal combustion engine, 'iron horse or mule' and automobile were developed. BTW I also was an EMT/Paramedic and electronics hobbyist who taught himself how to repair and build PCs back when that was still a thing, which I did on my free time for extra money. I also lived the transition from having to turn away business from so many people wanting their computer fixed, upgraded, home or SOHO network setup, to nobody willing to pay even $100 when they can just go buy a new one. I replaced some of that income with data recovery for a while but even that is rare now, thanks to "the cloud" (and cheap external drives). So what? What are you proposing to stop it, prohibit companies from introducing newer technology? Form a "politburo" to set how fast technology can be improved or advanced? Prohibit consumers from buying a new computer but once in every 10 years? If all your skills and knowledge over 35 years cannot secure a good paying position, there are three possible explanations: location (i..e. you have to move to where those jobs are, they don't come to you), those skills are now largely obsolete, or there are a LOT more people who have those skills and knowledge than you seem to think (i.e. you're not as special as you may like to believe).
@@deeder001 th-cam.com/video/7Pq-S557XQU/w-d-xo.html ??
@@deeder001 yadi yadi yadi. big f'n deal. So you like to tell people to shut up cuz it's progress. There is a difference between pulling the band-aid off quickly to allow the wound to heal and dealing with the emotional damage done. Progress is technological advancement / improved interfacing / new processes. What isn't "progress" is human greed forcing folks to bend to their whims because they think that they "own" the progress. Apple is trying to "secure" their products by making it only them capable of servicing them, which isn't even servicing but more like "oh, it's broke? buy a new one" Our society has been bombarded with this garbage for decades now. The reason it's not on your mind is you aren't dealing with the garbage being generated. Where exactly does that piece of sh@t go when it's not useful anymore? Oh yeah, shipped off to 3rd world sh!tholes. We are real good at moving the problem around without dealing with it. Oh, and you missed #4 reason for not getting paid well, the companies being approached/working for are scumbags who don't pay. "Just be happy you have a job", right?
It's not the same fixing QAM and ATSC3 as colorburst crystals, but there could be a thing in there, getting the OTA and OTT to blend.
@@deeder001 You are a perfect encapsulation of why the west is collapsing. Progress at any cost, al long as at least one person is getting rich it doesn't matter how many others starve.
I love how this translates to the entirety of the workforce, especially the professionalized workforce. Like in animation. There are barely any junior positions open, so the only way to get in is to apply hard and intern harder during your last year of college. Meanwhile, most of the open jobs are asking for 3-5 years of professional experience. Where are you going to find any of that if none of the junior positions open up?
animation you have to do that yourself start a youtube channel or something animating whatever comes to your mind God blessJ
Dude, keep doing what you're doing. It's not politicians and self promoters that'll birth the better society we all dream of. It's passionate, righteous folk from across the diverse niches of endeavor who'll collectively bring it to pass. Stay strong.
I’m glad you mentioned that the rungs being removed is intentional. Before that I was thinking that this happens in every industry. In the 1920s you could build a car just as good as Mercedes or Cadillac in your shed, of course not anymore. But if anything it has become easier to build the best car in the world from 1920 in your shed.
This is so true. I have someone I know who wants to add RAM to his laptop - a super easy task. He looks at the laptop - he needs a T5 Torx screwdriver - what? Why not a regular Phillips? OK, that's annoying but I'll get it. But then I see there's an actual tutorial on a repair website - just to replace the RAM. _A tutorial for replacing RAM._ Apparently there are plastic hinges on the back cover that can now easily break. And there's a special cover for the RAM that needs to be pried off. Why? In the old days you needed one basic screwdriver and the back cover just popped off with the RAM readily accessible. The only way I believe this is saving the company money is if it is convincing people who don't understand technology to buy new devices because their device "feels slow" to them.
Normalizing unethical extortion to make profits. Sad world. No wonder people are giving up.
The major companies all exhausted every option they could to ethically increase profits. They drove their business model as lean as it could possibly go but the shareholders still demanded growth. So the companies have been tiptoeing into unethical and anti-consumer practices. It's a game of chicken. How far can they go before it all blows up? Can the administrators keep the backlash from coming until after they retire? But eventually it will collapse and we'll all be on the hook for it, while the upper class make off with everything.
Will we, though….?
I’ve been a stockholder of various companies for decades. I never demanded a thing. Stop blaming “stockholders”, please. The guys who get to make demands are mostly investment bankers and fund managers and those types. They have power because they make the actual decisions on buying and selling for many stockholders. Some just buy and sell, but some actually do make demands.
At least most of the demands are intended to increase returns, and that’s as they ought to be. The problem are the demands not based on returns, or are just not good ideas. Just like with healthcare, the people buying the products (in this case the stock, in healthcare the services) are no longer the big decision makers. It’s no longer a market.
And, then there’s the way government policies make employee relations something everyone wants to avoid. EVERYONE! Even you!
Don’t believe me? Think about it. Do you choose the store with the high price high service or the warehouse or the online store with the lowest price? If a company is going to decide whether to automate a function, they have to calculate all the costs and overhead of an employee. As a guy who sold products intended to increase productivity, it’s easy because the government has made you a really bad deal. To hire you, the employer has to deal with all sorts of taxes, fees, and regulations. If they can instead buy a machine to make the existing employees more productive, they will do it, and there’s no job for you.
Gotta love the Free (for all) Enterprise system we have !!
Let's not kid ourselves. They could do this in an honest manner with transparency, but they won't, and shareholders and the stakeholders that matter no longer care as long as number go up.
Honestly, if the major companies took all the money they spend on entire departments that exist to try and make repair as difficult as possible, plan obsolescence and wall garden their products, and used HALF of that money on innovating new shit, they would instantly increase their profits further without breaking a sweat.
This is 100% true. Just a few years ago Used to be able to go on ebay and buy basically any Component in china.nowdays those same components are ghosts of the old internet.
I have many projects laying around that only need a single 50 cent part,but you can not find anywhere that sells them,so you MUST use doners..
all these tech companies love to preach about being green and saving the earth,but that only applies to you and NOT them,cause they have no problem whatsoever with forcing you to toss something in the garbage over a simple 25 cent part.
The e-recycling world was captured by parasitic standards orgs like R2. Can't sell 'donor' machines from unis and munis, it's ridiculous.
Profit over protection of the environment. The whole green schtick is a ruse to get even more money out of you through taxation, and forced obsolescence of the otherwise fine products you already own because they're no longer considered 'green'.
I completely agree, the "Oldest to Newest" sorting feature was a good one and I was super annoyed when they go rid of it as I used to use it often!
Not only are the lower rungs drastically reduced, employers are far lest willing to grow their own talent from the bottom up. They expect to go out and got/have gotten the training for the role they're applying for on their own dime. Then, once hired, they can expect to never move up without further going out and getting training for a higher role.
I will admit I will never own an Apple product(, built after 1995, jaded from experiences in HS with the G3.) I also don't use Windows. I've been using Linux as my primary OS since 2012, although I do still have a Win7 laptop used to program ham radios, and am looking at potential buying a new laptop for the same purpose, although it will never be my main system.
Use virtual machine and USB passtrhough, no need to buy another pc.
@@nxtktube The Op said his machine isn't powerful enough to run a VM.
Companies don't want having to invest into a worker only for them to pick up their stuff and go to another place for better wage.
And workers don't want to be stuck in binding contract without raises. An impasse.
You should see what's happening in the trades. Shops stop offering apprentice jobs to save money then complain non stop about lack of skilled workers. Now they either import workers from cheap countries or they convince the government to subsidize all their training.
I want to switch to linux. It is time
I used to do electronics repair.
Nothing is designed so it can be repaired anymore.
This is not an accident. They do not want the products to last more than 5 years.
No sales to a guy who has a reliable product which is still working 10 years after he bought it after all.
Been experiencing this since I got out of college in 2008 and it's been worse with time. I just didn't have the experience or drive at the time and now that I do, it's just not feeling worth the immense debt and insecure future. I hate that companies and government policy want us to be sheep, but we are nearly forced to unless we get extremely lucky.
Bad lighting: obvious green screen
Good lighting: convincing green screen
Louis lighting: real video that somehow looks green screened
One of the most depressing things I encountered while doing IT was that people, by that I mean the customers, did not value service, and were insulted when asked for payment. I would take the wrath because Apple would sell a poorly designed product. Some parts were impossible to find or obscenely expensive. Using a used part was risky, if something went wrong, they would blame you. I doubt I would do computer repair again. I'm not saying never, but I would prefer not to do it again.
Same. I hate customer service. I generally don't even like people. On the surface, sure, they're fine. But as soon as you get to know them, you learn they're either dumb, narcissistic, or both. It's just better to keep the circle of people I know tiny.
I'm an independent JD mechanic and I and people like me are finding it harder and harder to get parts every day. I'm in this profession because authorized services are lacking the skills or personnel to do repairs on the machines they sell to customers. The product is good but extremely complicated, and getting skilled workers takes 10+ years in the field. Dealership instead of working with us for the good of customers rather eliminate us with the inability to purchase parts... Losing customers in the process. We are living in an upside-down society and I'm not sure how far we are going to make it as all the skills acquired over the generations will die out in the next 20 years at this rate.
This is something I've been vaguely wondering about. It seems like the only work left is either hyperspecialized or jobs that just barely can't be automated.
What's the average person to do?
@@SpinningSideKick9000 You can keep struggling through and hope that things get better (I doubt) or jump the boat...
Companies pushed my Dad out of consumer electronic service back in the 90's, couldn't get manuals, couldn't get the calibration software, couldn't get parts. Survived a few years into 2000's doing horrible paid warranty work swapping boards for warranty companies, I bailed thankfully.
Anymore I feel like similar stuff is happening across the board. Not just in repair but in other lines of work, maybe not restrictions or next to impossible to get stuff, but stuff from above out of our control. I feel like this is a warning sign that it's going to be even more increasingly harder to pull yourself out of a rut if you end up there or even start there say from a family situation.
feels, I feel like this is an issue most politicians don't want to address because they know it would end with them not being rich anymore.
Everyone in the developed world is getting over run by everyone from the third world in all areas.
@@Coldbird1337 That’s how it’s gonna end anyway because as the populace loses its ability to properly support itself collapse will follow because the populace won’t have the money to prop up our current corrupt system.
When I finished university with a degree in IT, I was up against people with 3+ years in the uindustry for entry level jobs. After a while of being rejected i started studying certs to get me a leg up. After getting my A+ certification and starting on my Net+ cert, i went to a group interview. There were over 300 other people there. In a group of 10, every one else had between 5 and 10 years experiance, A+,Net+, Sec+, CCNA, etc. For a job paying LESS than a supermarket. Now I teach English in Korea. And they are complaining about shortages of people in IT
After more than a decade as a programmer I've grown completely disillusioned with IT. The pressure is insane with unrealistic deadlines, constant crunch-time, and trash-code that gets pushed out because there's no time to do any kind of serious testing. And with the recent wave of layoffs, there's an awful lot of us out there, all competing for the few remaining jobs that haven't been outsourced.
@@chaoscarl8414 May I ask something? Apparently there are very few people who know stuff about programming and at the same time understand some kind of other technical subject that needs to be implemented. Is there some sort of workaround for this or is for example railway software being made by people who have never seen a switch.
btw. I'm not in the industry. The professional side of programming started to look unappealing during high-school and I didn't push it further.
Once you learn a programming on a platform. Next year, they change a lot on the platform. You have relearn or reprogram everything.
What is it with literally every single person I ever hear talk about their careers that they go into IT? Like I don’t understand why everyone feels like programming is the way to go? Did Obama really brainwash everyone?
@@chaoscarl8414 I'm in college right now doing CS, a year and a half to go. I've was thinking of switching anyway but do you think that's a good idea? Especially with GPT making everyone suddenly realize how much progress has already been made with AI
I love this kind of content. You really describe a problem we have in a great way, that's easy to understand and sums up a lot of issues in a concise way. Your definitely smarter than the average new Yorker lol
I definitely feel like a "manager of myself" instead of someone on the bottom rung. Supervisor has visited my campus maybe 3 times in the last 6 months. I go weeks without direction. My emails asking for supplies and about problems that need addressed at a management level go unanswered. No absolute policies, procedures, or directives. At this point I'd be happy for someone to just tell me exactly what to do but they won't. I can't both do the peon work and be analyzing the situation, especially when they won't let me have control over purchasing. I don't know what the end game is - there has to be some insider reason for them to act this way but I just don't get it. Management owns absolutely none of the issues but just shits on the bottom rung people when they get complaints.
Because that's how it worked in the past "your achievements are mine, your failures are your own problem" and people want to keep that going.
@@Coldbird1337 my favorite is "my profits" but "our losses" in respect to companies.
@Wumi24 more like: "when the company gets bigger it gets richer and when that happens we all get richer, right? Oh you want a raise? Yeesh buddy, i may be the owner but i have a responsibility to make sure we are not paying too much, we dont want to stifle growth right? We all gotta make sacrifices."
@@Coldbird1337 "in another note:have you seen my new yacht?:D"
Ooh, defs a chance to red team your boss's boss.
Being a person born in the 80's, I feel ya. It's a major reason I watch your videos, keep up the good work! I may have a degree in Industrial Automation, but my happy place is fixing things for others. We need more people like you!
It is sad. My Dad was an HVAC contractor. He cud fix just about anything. There's something freeing about being able to fix and build your own things. But the world is becoming more and more like a prison.
Yeah, intro to single "Reality" Show I genuinely appreciated and liked - American Restoration and now LOVE chinese channel "Grandpa Amu".
I love your prosocial attitude Louis. Never give up, we need people like you fighting the good fight and speaking the truth.
It's like this with basically every single industry out there now. Constantly increasing centralization into a couple mega companies, only hiring people who already have experience, complete lack of entry level jobs to get said experience in a field, increasing costs and hoops for trying to start your own thing.
Historically, when young people find they have no prospects for living a good life, that is when society collapses. This is the point we're at now, and I'm fairly confident that the next decade will involve a lot of institutions failing and violent upheavals.
Whats the point let it die
Yup, it's already started... many young people don't want to start families because it's too damn expensive.
I mean our government is trying to force more kids on the population with their change in abortion laws but what they aren't getting is that young people WOULD want to be productive members of society if there was more opportunities and health care, daycare etc wasn't taking your entire paycheck... rent too.
@@agravery223 man, maybe if one person could support a family with a full-time job, there wouldn't be a need for daycare. There's got to be something we could do to bring up the least amount of money anybody can legally be paid. If only...
I hope so
Props to you for making it as far as you have. I was involved in three PC repair shops between 2001 and 2017, and even with customers lining up out the door and great profit margins, it never really felt like we ever "got ahead" enough to really be able to take off beyond opening an additional store. I didn't handle the management side of things in terms of finances, just did the parts ordering and fixes. But knowing the people handling the finances were being honest with the money and seeing just how little cushion it provided was disheartening to say the least. Sure, customers were happy and things were repaired, but heaven forbid we raise our prices 15% to cover hiring more help or paying rent on a new building. Those loyal customers were all of a sudden not so loyal. Anyways, long story short, PC repair business sucks and I'm glad I got out while I still had time to salvage an IT career out of it.
Louis, your net impact on society is extremely positive and you have many years more to add to it. Don't get too discouraged on your journey; remain the anchor you are and know you have an army of supporters behind you. Thank you for sharing your journey and keep fighting the good fight!
I was extremely fortunate that a manager took a chance on me to get my foot in the door in the IT space without any prior experience (only worked at a grocery store beforehand but I had gotten a couple certs on the side and did lots of reading to build up my knowledge) and was eventually able to make a living wage and later get promoted. Literally every other job I applied to wanted experience, even for an entry-level help desk position
I somewhat-recently started a career in machining. It's like this there, too. The place I came the closest to working was going to pay 12$ an hour to do work unsafely, and I was willing to take it because literally nowhere else would hire me. A manager took a chance on me, too, and I got a nicer position where I get paid more and don't have to stick my hand in the machines while they're running, but I'm bitter about it because where I am is a rung BELOW what I'm actually trained for. This is so painfully easy that I spend half the day playing on my phone. They weren't taking a risk AT ALL, but I don't have x+3 years in the industry so apparently I'm only qualified to be a fucking porter as far as most people are concerned.
By the way, before 2030, this industry is going to start shrinking multiple percentage points a year because people will retire out so frequently.
I worked at a grocery store in produce for 2 years, including management experience. Eventually I had to change jobs, so I applied to wal mart. I had all my experience in my resume and they hired me on the spot, no interview, with a dollar an hour above everyone else in my department.
Its not exactly the same, but it shows how much even crap places like wal mart focus on experience.
What certs did you get prior to landing the job? I'm trying to get into IT myself and haven't had much luck
Same here. Thought I was going to rot in retail forever. I'm still very much at entry level, but I'm able to afford to live, while working in an environment that isn't stressful. I have some friends who are struggling, and it just sucks that I don't have the means to help. I literally just got lucky while brute forcing apps on Linked In.
Pulling yourself up by your own bootstraps is literally impossible, they're beneath you, the term was made to mock people who told others to do impossible tasks. Everyone needs help with something.
Yep. Capitalism and neoliberalism sucks m8.
@@ButWhyMe... If there's a better alternative you got tucked away in there, we'd love to hear it. I'm not married to capitalism, but it seems pragmatically better than the alternatives.
@@pinip_f_werty1382 it isn't though, especially not in the long term
@@iceink What do you suggest as an alternative? Central planning?
@@pinip_f_werty1382 social democracy or socialism are 2 better alternatives to capitalism just off the top of my head. Profits over people is morally wrong and evidently doesnt work.
I had tried briefly at one point to get into the repair industry (at least partially inspired by you) and yeah, the things you mention are exactly why it was only briefly.
The oldest trick in the book; make everyone else build the ladder for you, climb it to the top and then kick it down so no one else can follow
Can’t cheat the game
doesn't apply here, technicians didn't kick the ladder down. the manufacturing industry did by optimizing their process (and milking money from service, by hiring immigrants). Us techs can't do jack s*%t about manufacturers kicking it down.
@KopaZ i think he meant the giant corps not the technicians. The corps are at the tippy top after all
god bless your work this last decade. You inspired me to always make money on the side when i was 13 years old. i just turned 24, 10 years later im just as depressed as you are. i was just on the first rungs of the ladder after high school, after i took the risk and quit my full time job to get the company started. those long nights. day after day after day. Covid and the right to repair made things tough for me. For us. Electronic repair i can’t keep up with anymore. Auto part market in the same boat. No as bad… but following in its foot steps. I can’t afford one of those fancy computers for new cars and i don’t think i ever will. Stay the course you savages… we’ll find a way. we always have.
Yeah I used to do this as a hobby. Not possible anymore. Really appreciate you calling this out. This is where "grindset" makes me angry. It isn't possible anymore.
I think of all the people out there who just gave up along the way because hard work is almost disincentivized these days. Louis, you are a rare breed. Glad you found a modicum of success doing what you do. You've told us how some nights you questioned yourself why you kept going, because of the craziness of it all. But I'm glad you did, hope you are even happier in the future.
It's easier than ever to do this stuff thanks to TH-cam and the internet. Tutorials are all over the place and cheap tools are everywhere. I bought a hot air/solder rework station for $80 on Amazon and that's one of the most expensive tools I own. The problem is not people doing hard work; it's more likely to be people not trying in the first place. Younger people are generally so sucked into trash platforms like Tik Tok and Instagram that they don't know how to break free and watch a 20-minute video showing how to take apart a laptop.
Destruction of community and our ability for collective action seems to be one of the primary objectives of the folks calling the shots these days. Wait… That’s kind of always been true. “Keep fighting the good fight Louis!” If you don’t, who will? ❤
This country is not like the rest of the world. There will always be a fight. The only question is, can we still fix this with the pen, or will it resort to the sword?
@@manictiger What fight are you talking about? More confused boomers milling about the Capitol? France is historically more prone to civil unrest than we are. Time to wake up and smell the Technocracy. You are standing at the epicenter.
The age of people throwing around terms like "community" and "collective action" as if they ever reflected anything more than their insipid political ambitions is over. This pretentious shit has gotten us nowhere at best, mass graves at worst.
@@pearz420Eh, I wouldn't give up on that.
@@pearz420 lol you think a community only exists in a political sphere? 😂
I didnt even know about the concept of "right to repair" before I found your channel. It opened my eyes to the ways corporations force planned obsolescence and increase e-waste.
How much worse would it be without Louis's efforts. So many don't realise just how far we have already gone down this rabbit hole of throw away everything, how much it has changed in a single lifetime.
This is happening with almost all household appliances. I was unable to get a very expensive Microwave repaired which was just 2 years old.
I think you are underestimating the skill and ingenuity of people who want to do work like this. I have a friend who's been doing crazy repairs for years now and he doesn't have even a fraction of the tools you have at your disposal.
oldest to newest was such a good way to find older creator content. I miss it so much
First rungs are disappearing at an alarming rate and it's driving people into unreliable and exploitative gig jobs.
Thousands of us appreciate all the effort you putting into the industry. It's not going unnoticed.
Back in 2014 I started watching your videos, I was 12. Every single dime I've made I credit to your videos, I'm 20 now and run a kinda successful business in Houston working for multiple shops doing microsoldering. It's tough in the middle run of the pack out here especially when I'd love to grow quicker, but I love this job and wouldn't trade it for the world! It's still possible to get started there have been a few guys that have shown me the ropes in the local market, you just have to be very lucky and willing to put up with an impossible amount of bs
Houston here. Would love to know the name of your company so I can bring you some business whenever I need something done. I’m trying to switch to only supporting local businesses. If you could drop me a message or something, that’d be awesome.
The ability to remember the names of these screens is insanely impressive
I think this kind of basic repair is important for a lot of reasons. When I was a kid, you could upgrade your computer, you learned a lot by messing around with components. It basically put me on a path to what I do now. I can do basic repairs at home, I don't always need to take things to a repair shop because I am generally capable, but it's hard to do repairs if the companies make their products essentially irreparable with toolsets that don't cost thousands of dollars, or as you say, not providing the parts we need to individuals or small businesses in smaller batches. If it's truly impossible to make a product that is repairable I may understand, but that's not what's going on here. So even though I'm not in business I definitely want my products to be fixable.
You at least want to be able to boot into a virtual screen in VR if your screen broke.
Hey, Louis. Don’t feel too bad. It’s like this in literally every industry in America. In every industry, there’s already a business that’s serving the bottom dollar people. The only way to compete is to get seriously skilled and have some crazy angle to hit the industry at, a shit ton of hard work and luck.
On the employee side of things, for some reason businesses refuse to offer training. They want someone to walk in with 5 years of experience so they can hit the ground running. It’s so weird.
Louis, the way you treat people and the way you run your business incorporates principles that are universal to all aspects of life, not just repairing electronics. Your story is inspirational for any aspiring business owner, or at least for any young man like me, trying to become the best person I can be.
I was pretty surprised when someone like Wranglerstar of all people made a video talking about how, no; kids certainly do not have things easier these days. Making your way in any kind of industry is harder than ever because of things like this. Millenials, Gen Z, they have a point when they're saying work sucks these days. Their prospects for the future are non-existent when all they can get with a higher-education degree is still just a dead-end job at retail or fast food.
When someone like that, who owns a homestead, rebuilt pretty much his own life from scratch can straight up tell you that yes, life is actually much harder for the average young person to get anywhere on their own backs with, and that pulling yourself by your own bootstraps is no longer possible, society has messed up in a big way somewhere along the line. Not that a lot of us weren't aware of it already, but there's a lot of waking up to do when it comes to the differences between the society Boomers grew up in versus a massive and ever growing demographic that are not just ready, but overqualified to work, and have nowhere to go.