You may be missing the point of my post. We can debate whether welding is the best trade or not. The point I was making is that if you're 19, and you're weighing your options and setting goals for your life. Then you can go off to college and spend several years and most likely acquire debt doing it. Or you can learn a good trade in a much shorter time frame with little to no debt and hit the road while your young and make some good money. I did it with telecommunications as a contract cable splicer. There are many options and fields that pay as much or more than kids getting out of college. The other point I was making that when you look at the time value of money, the kid that goes the trade route can begin investing his money right away and be way ahead of the guys coming out of college in most cases. Don't get me wrong, I'm not knocking those who want to go to college, but we've got to quit telling our kids all their lives they've got to go to college to be successful.