A plumber needs like 4 years training and much coursework and exams to qualify as plumber.

It's the same thing if you want to be an electrician. 5 years minimum of work before you can even sit for the test. The stupid part of this is you can only work for like $13-$20 an hour for those 5 years. It's a huge barrier to those wanting to make a career change.

Tons of careers are like this. When in reality, you could job shadow someone doing this for 6 months and have 90% of the knowledge you need. if you want to become a school counselor, you need to 6 semesters or coursework in program. Which is insane, as you could literally cover everything they need to know in 1 semester of coursework.

Exactly. If I'm a plumber, I probably wouldn't even call you back to replace a faucet, that's not worth the time spent driving to your house.

It's not just pipes. Actually, it's all ball bearings nowadays.

Nice post - I could see an electrician needing much more strict training as a mistake could cause a fire or blow a house up - but with a plumber - what happens with a mistake? the small leak becomes a slightly bigger one? Really?

Actual plumber - you spend 4 months repairing stuff - don't you know 90% of what you need to know after that?

More like you have raw sewage waist deep in you basement or a house filled with Natural Gas and an explosion since it is plumbers that run gas lines in homes and businesses.

How often does this happen? Once in 10 years?

Plumbers should be licensed to handle different problems. Teachers aren't licensed to teach every subject. There should be a general plumber license, then you could add expertise permits on top of that, such as commercial, electrical, gas, etc.

Raw sewage backup and gas leaks? Often. I bet there is at least one of each every single day in this country.

This is too complicated, next you’ll tell me that people in cities make more money than rural folk while doing the same job and this almost entirely offsets the massive cost of living that we always must hear about them enduring.

There are different people you could hire. Guys that can repair a simple faucet are called Handymen. They might only be $50/hour. But they aren't a licensed. plumber.

But for the plumber running new water lines I want the smart guy, 10+ years of work/experience/learning. He also will know what jobs require a permit to be pulled ahead of time. I also know I need to pay more for experience and quality work. You get what you pay for.

Obviously you have the slightest clue about plumbing and what accompanies it. Its more then unclogging toilets and hooking up facets. You realize your water heater is a bomb that could blow up your whole house if not correctly hooked up and maintained? There's a reason licensed plumbers make 6 figures. Good look sizing and running your own gas lines.

Like any trade job, they are not hard. Any bottom quartile person can do it. That's why high school dropouts do trade jobs. Then they try to tell those of us with PhDs and advanced degrees that we are stupid and they are the smart ones. Well, I can do anything a plumber, mechanic, or any trade job can do, but they couldn't do one second of my day job. Even if they spent a full year shadowing me they don't posses the math knowledge to do it. I've also rebuilt a car engine. It blew a head gasket so I took it apart, put it back together and good as new. Trade jobs are a joke. Literally anyone can do them. They take zero skill and zero intelligence.

Plumbers are a great trade. Years of study and apprenticeship are required to do things right. The plumbers I know and have taught do excellent work.

You sir are a Troll and a Moron!

You continue to show your ignorance. You've been told by many that you are wrong about this. Take your uninformed opinion and call it a day on this thread.

How long does it take to get a license in the ancient art of cupping? Anyone ever have this type of medicine before?

Well, saying trade jobs take zero skill is a bit harsh (and wrong). Doesn't mean that most people couldn't acquire the skill, but a skilled tradesman/tradeswoman can still do what they do better than those who have not taken the time to become skilled. There are tons of tricks of the trade that skilled tradespeople know so that they can and will do the job better and faster than those who don't do it every day.

I had a team refinish my bathroom, and they did it in 2 days. Yes, I could have rented a wet saw to do the floor and watched some DIY videos to figure out how to do some things, but they did it better and faster than I could have...certainly better than I would have in my first crack at it.

I know a plumber who had to do a big job for a hospital. It involved getting under the building which was crawling with cockroaches. He gets my respect.

It's a racket. A plumber in Mexico or Kenya or the Philippines would not charge you $15 an hour.