Welcome to the Biden Economy

darko- i don't know what the hvac guys make in the union up here, but i do know electricians are around $42/hr. pretty sure illinois theyre mid 50's, but cost of living is better up here.

problem is the unions suck up here... and a guy with your experience is in extremely high demand for the private sector, mainly because theres so many idiots. you could probably pull $100k/yr without much overtime if any, if you find the right shop. the union rate has a better benefits of course, but also spottier work and youre at the mercy of whatever the hall says. i liked the unions in illinois, i fucking hate them up here.

you could also go on your own up here. theres not a lot of government oversight or fees to run a business, and people crave trustworthy contacts. between the outskirts of milwaukee and madison, there is a ton of small towns that are filled with small shops run by drunks. if you show up half sober and give them honest service, you will have very loyal customers. lots of rich fucks with summer cabins that have nothing but problems because their places freeze every year too.

I haven't lived in the Midwest for close to a decade, so maybe I'm outta touch with things there, but couldn't Darkside just set up his own business in Illinois and clean up? As far as I can tell, people are desperate all over to find anyone reliable to do just about anything that is slightly more complicated than screwing in a light bulb. I imagine making the transition to going independent would be tricky, but it could be fairly easy and very cheap to test the waters by running targeted advertising campaigns on Facebook. I know a couple of handymen/carpenters who have had overwhelming responses to their ads; not the same as what Darkside does, I know, but close enough.

darko- i don't know what the hvac guys make in the union up here, but i do know electricians are around $42/hr. pretty sure illinois theyre mid 50's, but cost of living is better up here.

problem is the unions suck up here... and a guy with your experience is in extremely high demand for the private sector, mainly because theres so many idiots. you could probably pull $100k/yr without much overtime if any, if you find the right shop. the union rate has a better benefits of course, but also spottier work and youre at the mercy of whatever the hall says. i liked the unions in illinois, i fucking hate them up here.

you could also go on your own up here. theres not a lot of government oversight or fees to run a business, and people crave trustworthy contacts. between the outskirts of milwaukee and madison, there is a ton of small towns that are filled with small shops run by drunks. if you show up half sober and give them honest service, you will have very loyal customers. lots of rich fucks with summer cabins that have nothing but problems because their places freeze every year too.

I have a very large gas fireplace that adds nothing but ambiance that I don’t think I’ll turn on all winter.

It’s 50k BTUs of burning money…

Dude no way would I want to own my own company. Fucking nightmare.

My bill went down from the last month...hmmm.

i generally agree. for me the worst part is taking phone calls all day from idiots that never intend to pay you. once you get to a point where you have a front office staff that deals with that crap, it's fine. but takes time to get to 10+ employees.

not to mention all of your 'friends' that expect pro-bono work, but i get that now as it is all the fucking time.

I gladly do some pro bono or at cost work for my close friends. But truth be told it's never a good time really because when I get busy at work I get busy man. Just got done with my 4th straight 12 hour day. Tomorrow looks just as bad. I mean the overtime isn't all bad. I'll be retired in 10 years. Or working part time to keep the psychosis to a minimum.

My bill went down from the last month...hmmm.