Reply #31: I take it you haven't seen what plumbers make

[jmowreader]

Skilled tradesmen--plumbers, carpenters and the like--have a very good standard of living because the things they do are things people either can't or won't do on their own, and they'll pay big bucks not to.

On that fucking Flip This House fansite I saw this house a "professional house flipper" did. First, it wasn't all that. It was nice, but a lot of houses are nice. But a PROFESSIONAL house flipper? As in "this is all you do, flip houses?" Flipping over 100 friggin' houses in just a few years--I never heard the term before Bush was installed in 2001, and now people are doing it full-time?

If it was me, and if we could confine the collapse just to the house flippers, I'd say we just let the shit crash. Them, the day traders, the instant-approval credit card issuers, Diebold and all the other people who push shit up past all reasonable levels. Unfortunately, that won't happen: the house flippers and day traders are gonna collapse the whole damn economy and everyone's going to be living in a van down by the river.