I'm not sure how you imagine the process of getting into one of these no-degree businesses goes. You don't just "start doing it." First, you need tools and transportation. Then you need to know what the hell you're doing. Then, probably, some certifications. And now you have to find people to pay you in a highly competitive market full of scammers who make it even harder to sell services.

The usual path is to work for someone else until you have the skills and tools and certs to strike out on your own. That someone is not going to hire you if it looks like you won't stick around as soon as a better option comes along. And no bank will give a startup loan to someone who's never done it before.

People make great money doing these things because they've done all this for years and built up the tools and skills and certifications and referral network to make it. You don't start charging $200/hour any more than you start out in SV making $1m/year.

so now we are starting to get somewhere. It seems you think the bottlenecks are similar to the ones I flagged such as knowledge, discovery and certification.

If you know a way to find the people starting that aren't charging 200/hr, please let me know because I want to hire them.

You can always try putting out an ad on Craigslist: "Need someone to fix my car (or landscape your yard or prune your tree, whichever thing you're trying to get done) for $X/hr. No experience or certification or warranty of any kind required, if you get hurt I guess I'm paying your medical bills, if you've never done this before now's your chance to muddle through and find out how on my dime, and if you ruin my property well then it sucks to be me."

What point are you trying to make in relation to the cost of labor and barriers to entry?

You might have a point that everyone is so rich these days that they are willing to pay $200 an hour for a reputable plumber to unclog their toilet rather than take the risk it with a $50 plumber without 500 yelp reviews.

This would certainly explain the trouble young people seem to be having starting plumbing businesses and introducing some well needed competition.

I think this would fall under the discovery or triangulation problem.

What point are you trying to make by saying "send anyone who will bill me less than $200/hr my way"?

Literally zero people are stopping you from trading arbitrary sums of money to arbitrary people with zero experience and convincing them to wield a power tool at whatever problem you have with your property.

Yes, you need to find people willing to try. Yes, some of those people might see liability problems or find the entire arrangement sketchy and wonder what con you're trying to pull on them.

But I guarantee if you keep looking you'll find somebody with lower critical thinking skills who is game for whatever you suggest and could use $X/hr for whatever X is greater than minimum wage that you specify.

Depending on the state or country you live in and the task you want performed, it might be illegal for them to do the job without a license (plumbing comes to mind), but at least some of the job types you talked about do not strictly require licensing to perform publicly anywhere that I am aware of.

Mostly I guess I am trying to uncover what your unspoken expectations are about the unskilled labor you are after. Most people give a damn about what happens if they pay somebody to improve their property in some fashion and they ruin it instead. That's what insurance and bonding is for. Most people don't want to be on the hook for hundreds of thousands in medical bills if an uninsured worker injures themselves on your land.

Insurance, workman's comp, bonding, licensing, and trade school education all cost money that normally contributes to the $120-$200/hr rates you're talking about. These are also "only on the clock for the few hours some client needs something" rates for the person in question and not "guaranteed 40 hours a week working on an employer's schedule" rates, so should not be compared directly against the hourly rate of an office worker.

If that's all you're trying to point out, then I agree and think that goes without saying. I'm not denigrating skilled labor. I think more people should go into it because it's a lucrative and high demand career.

In addition to what you said, it is also true that the cost of skilled labor is quite high relative to historic benchmarks.

Kye seems to think that smart and hard-working young people can't enter these fields due to various barriers, and I want to explore what those barriers are.

Do you have any thoughts to bring on the topic. Kye seems to think established companies are limiting training to drive up prices.

I tend to agree, but think there is more. I agree because my wife tried to break into being an electrician union because it starts at 100k salary per year, but ran into issues with limited spots used to drive up prices

I'm more inclined to think it is discovery is a big part of the problem for people trying to start small business. If you aren't a national chain or in the first 2 pages of yelp, you will have trouble finding customers, even if you are smart and talented.

Do you have anything to add in good faith?