SD>Here in the US, it is still quite possible to find a well-paying job that doe
  >not require a degree.  There's a severe shortage of workers to fill all sorts
  >of jobs but it seems many have no work ethic anymore, instead choosing to sit
  >on their ass with government handouts.  I would love to work if I could so I
  >get to sit here, twiddling my thumbs.

Your situation is unfortunate and my heart goes out to you.
Personally I am pretty healthy - I'm 67 but 2 doctors have said that I would
be considered to be in excellent health if I were 20 years younger. I wouldn't
say I work all that hard at it but I do have a lot of habits and hobbies and a
physically harder than average lifestyle that helps keep me in decent shape.

High paying jobs.. Until 2 years ago when I went on full pension I was doing
some work looking after properties for people, mowing lawns and working on
cottage water systems that have to go in and out, Spring and Fall, and I was
getting $35 - $45 /hr for that relatively unskilled work.
My mother has tried to find highschool kids to mow lawns and do yard work and
such when I'm not available and she has trouble finding a 14 year old kid that
will do that. She currently pays $30 to have her lawn cut which takes about
half an hour to do.
There's definitely a lack of work ethic in younger people I think, although
one can't paint them all with the same brush I know. I think many of them are
handed too much money from their parents and must get quite a shock when they
have to go out and work in the real world.

For a while in my misspent youth I got fairly decent at custom painting
motorcycles - necessitated by the high cost and low quality I was finding for
my own bikes - and so, self taught, I started doing it for others as well and
in todays dollars, I was getting about $120 /hr for my time..

But, note, that most of these 'high paying' jobs were all basically self
employment. Without a university degree ralated to a job, working for others
the best offer I got (in today's dollars) was about $95,000 a year but that
was after 6 years of working in a complex field - the offer coming from our
main competitor. (Lab work, product developement and technical sales in the
plastics industry.)

For a while I did some IT type work for individuals and small businesses
rather than a big company. I've written some commercial software but never
made any big money doing those things. I sold Real Estate when I was about 25
years old but didn't like that much either. My first jobs during and just
after school was working in various positions in a grocery store chain, and I
did that job well enough to get special merit raises - the first paid in over
15 years - which also earned me threats from the union.

In the end, most would say I dropped out of society. This all occurred before
the age of 32 and, at that time, I quit working for others, sold my house and
moved into my summer cottage. I've since made most of my money investing
what I had managed to put together - plus that couple of thousand dollars a
year doing some occasional work for others as mentioned above.

(Note.. Day Trading is lots of fun.. until it isn't..)

I think I just finally got fed up with the rat race and decided to get out..

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 * SLMR Rob  * Global Village Idiot
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