[Rick V]

I make my way as a mechanic, and a few decades ago we were payed not only for what we did but for what we knew, things have changed. Case and point, one dealership I worked at gave us all a $.50 raise, then lowered the labor rate and then charged more hours to the customer for set pricing like services and such. We would lose an average of $25 a job. Until the greed (in my industry) stops you will be seeing a lot more guys leaving the field and fewer going into it. There is also, in my state, a serous shortage of state inspectors due to the restraints they put on to acquire the licensing, and the fact that inspectors are now getting sued by people who get into accidents, 4 months after the annual inspection was preformed. Until crap like this is addressed, the gap between competent tradesmen and the hacks is going to widen. I will be glad for the day when I can say I used to be a mechanic. ( I don't like the lofty title of Technician, I am a mechanic, I don't care what the papers and patches say)