Idled Housing Workers

Financial Crisis Fall-Out

One of the things people are realizing, in the wake of Wall Street's melt-down, is that today's economy has far too many people who good at designing exotic financial instruments, and not enough who are good at actually making things. Real, live, concrete things -- as opposed to complicated pieces of paper that may or may not have any value.

So it's ironic -- and sad -- that one of the industries bearing the brunt of the financial fallout is the housing construction business, and all the skilled contractors (carpenters, electricians, plumbers, etc.) that it employs.

Personally, I'd rather see an out-of-work financial type learn how to be a carpenter, than see a carpenter go back to school to become, say, a financial planner.