dynasim said:
Do you all think that the lack of "hands on" experience has as much to do with the fact that children and teenagers today are totally consumed with organized and supervised activities. Alone time is the only time I have ever learned anything.
<snip>
He paid 600$ to have his water pump changed!
Chris
<curmudgeon mode>
When I was a kid, both wood and metal shop was REQUIRED for all male students, as was enough "mechanical drawing" to allow you to at least know which side of the blueprint to face up. I built model kits, built flying rocket kits (and designed my own), laid out HO slot car tracks with my 150' of pin-and-joiner track. And yes, time by myself figuring things out was invaluable. I tease my wife that I build a better fire than her because I played with fire when I was a kid!
And in point of fact, I did, my mother has no idea how lucky we were, although
usually I played outside in the clear.
And we played games without being organized - we picked up teams and supervised ourselves and worked out the conflicts ourselves. It really wasn't uphill both ways to school, but at least we weren't anesthesied by media, and this horrid nihilism I see so much of these days in the younger types. I see so many act as though there is no hope and nothing really matter. It's a shame.
As to the poor fellow that paid $600 to have his water pump changed, and to our friend here who wrote it up to market forces, I'm not so sure that's the case. Most mechanics I know aren't making anywhere near the wage that would justify that price. So it may be market forces driving these, but it sure isn't the poor slob turning the wrench who gets it. I'm more inclined to think it's high overhead and tax/regulation compliance burden. But that's only an opinion.
As an example, I had an outfit quote me over $600 for rotors and pads on my car - that's all, no rebuilt calipers or anything like that. And I'm thinking, either I'm grossly underpaid or something is screwed up. Not to appear uppity, but I'm a consulting mechanical engineer with almost 20 years experience, a registered professional engineer, and they were going to charge me, at that time, over 6 hours of my charge rate (what my company charges for me, overhad and all).
Needless to say, I did it myself in far less than 6 hours. Without a lift. Using $240 in parts that were better than quoted.
</curmudgeon mode>
Poor Kris Hansen. His thread's been hijacked and his tractor's still busted. And I still wonder if it's related to the loading and that older cracked boss he showed us.
