I was in construction for 30 + years, I know lots of guys that have their knees,hips,backs FUBAR !
I have never had Medical or Dental coverage.
I have busted my ass for decades,just to pay the bills.
I was offered a job in Vegas running a crew, if I could speak Spanish, Mi no hable mucho Espaniol.
Immigrants were trucked in and We American guys were replaced by guys from Mexico who would do the job for half the price.
I have got no problem with the Mexican guy's, many of them do fine work and they bust their asses.
They do very good sheetrock and plastering,in particular.
They save their money and sleep 5 or 10 to an apartment in a hood where nobody asks too many questions.
This is not a line of B.S. I'm intimately familiar with the construction biz and it's realities.
They save their money and go back to Mexico and buy a little Ranchero and live the good life.
In the USA, the Mexicans also run Dope (Pot,Meth,Heroin.) and use Mexican restaurants to Launder the $$$ and make more $$$. They are smart,in a crazy kind of way, smart like a fox.
It is no big secret.
If I was a guy in Mexico, I would move to El Norte and start working, save up my cash and go home and buy a ranch.
Good luck to them,to be honest.
But that leaves your average Black or White American in a FUBAR scene.
My point is, Skilled guys could once make a living by learning and maintaining their skills,They could support a family and buy a house. Not any more.
If you can get in a Nepotistic union and live of the Federal teet,you can make some bank, but you are basically 'robbing your neighbors,via taxation for Prevailing no-where but the government wages.
So your paycheck is welfare,not free market.
Skilled workers are Tax Targets.The game is rigged against them now, that is why you can not find them, they are done,finished,finito.