Mike Rowe Sounds the Alarm on Student Debt vs. Thousands of Unfilled Trade Jobs
“Jim Farley (Ford CEO) told me he’s got 5,000 empty bays at Ford. These are AI-proof six-figure jobs, right? $120,000 a year. He can’t fill them.”
Television personality and work advocate Mike Rowe appeared on Real Time With Bill Maher last night and talked about the explosion of student debt while also sounding the alarm over the inability of companies and government agencies to fill high-paying trade jobs.
There was a political angle to his comments as well, as Rowe pointed out that the DSA is not a working-class movement as much as it is a movement of people who have useless college degrees and are saddled with student loan debt, a point that Victor Davis Hanson has made repeatedly.
Transcript by Overton News:
ROWE: “I don’t know if you saw this, but the stat that got me within the democratic party right now, 59% of Democrats who support socialism have college degrees.”
“40% who support socialism don’t.”
“So this thing that’s being called a ‘worker uprising,’ it’s really not. It’s not.”
“This is happening because a lot of people with a really expensive credential are in the hole in a big way.”
“And they are pissed. And I don’t blame them honestly.”
“You can say what you want about it, but they took our advice, man.”
“They took our advice.”
“We said borrow whatever it takes. Go follow your dream. And then go get your dream job. And that was a bunch of nonsense!”
Watch the clip below:
Mike Rowe completely dismantles the “worker uprising” narrative behind the rise of socialism inside the Democrat Party.
Rowe pointed to one statistic that shatters that narrative: 59% of Democrats who support socialism have college degrees.
He said the reason this movement is… pic.twitter.com/xdlMY5F6Sz
— Overton (@overton_news) August 8, 2026
In this clip, Rowe talks about all of the unfilled jobs.
Transcript by the Vigilant Fox:
ROWE: “Not a week goes by when I don’t get a call from some CEO… elected official… freaking out.”
“They’ve done the math: for every five tradespeople who retire, two come in. It’s been that way for about 12 years now.”
“Jim Farley (Ford CEO) told me he’s got 5,000 empty bays at Ford. These are AI-proof six-figure jobs, right? $120,000 a year. He can’t fill them.”
Watch:
Mike Rowe reveals Ford has 5,000 unfilled mechanic jobs paying $120,000 a year.
No degree required. AI-proof. And Ford still can't fill them.
ROWE: "Not a week goes by when I don’t get a call from some CEO… elected official… freaking out."
"They’ve done the math: for every… pic.twitter.com/o0JF9JSWSB
— The Vigilant Fox 🦊 (@VigilantFox) August 8, 2026
This country desperately needs more plumbers, mechanics, and electricians. Meanwhile, young people are going into debt earning worthless college degrees.
At what point do we actually address this problem?
Featured image via YouTube.
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Comments
“And they are pissed. And I don’t blame them honestly.”
“You can say what you want about it, but they took our advice, man.”
What a bunch of bullshit. The DSA is composed of whiny infants who don’t want to take responsibility for their bad choices and want government to pay for everything. No one told them to take that gender studies degree, That was their choice.
It’s not pay you fair share that should be society’s mantra. It’s take responsibility for the choices you make that should be repeated again and again.
It’s starts at home, our culture, schools ( good luck with that)
College became the cool kids, partying, drinking, occasionally showing up for classes
Who wants to be an adult when you can party for 4 years and get a useless gender degree?
And now they want you to pay for it.
Blame the parents for allowing this
“Blame the parents for allowing this.”
Exactly.
I will never forget what my tough old bird of an Irishman father told me one day.
He stopped me as I was walking out of the house and asked me if I was going to college.
“Uh, yeah, I figured I would.”
“Well, I hope you get a scholarship ause I can’t afford it!”
“Uh, okay.”
I did get a scholarship and did go to college. Paid my own way. Frankly, it was probably a mistake for me to go. I just partied my ass off the entire time. And I did take out student loans…$1500 worth! LOL! And when I left college, I paid that loan off as fast as humanly possible, with my own money.
So, I thank my father for doing this and other things to teach me self-sufficiency. I still laugh at some of the stuff he said to me, but I love him more for his just being honest and open with me.
That, or blame parents who pressure their children endlessly about attending college. “No son of MINE is going to be a grease-monkey…!” <— my mother
Culture Marxism Seminaries have taken over with useless degrees, Barky changed student debt so prices skyrocketed, Seminaries made a fortune, students paid out their butts for nothing but a broken promises.
Because all these jerkoff CEOs spent 15+ years ‘outsourcing’ all those jobs.
They already proved most of them liars – they aren’t even TRYING to actually hire Americans. There aren’t 5000 jobs posted for Ford. There aren’t even 500.
Their ‘unfilled jobs’ sob stories are just trying to get them to open up more H1Bs.
I believe that Mr. Farley is referring to 5000 empty service bays at Ford dealers. Who else is going to take care of all of Mr. Farley‘s recalls?
Exactly. But FoMoCo mat not need them eventually as fewer and fewer people want to buy new vehicles full of electronic trap that fails and requires and electrical engineering technician to fix (or replace nowadays, as nothing is really ‘fixable anymore.)
If any automaker were to produce a low tech vehicle that required minimal maintenance (read no hybrid, just a simple internal combustion engine that will last 200k miles), they would make a fortune. But, alas, none of them will.do that.
The trades? That actually requires work. No way!
The Ford CEO might want to ask WHY mechanics are quitting the trade.
Agree or disagree, this is what they’re saying.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wfiUomEuPYw
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QFMuXefcfJY
My 19-yo daughter got a very nice paying job in a sewing shop since I insisted ALL my kids take sewing lessons. She was hired to work 4 10-hour days. She loved the job, the hours, and was making plans for school in the fall and a social life to meet a nice young man.
three weeks in, they started making her work 12-hr days, plus Fridays for another 10. MANDATORY. But no warning on this until the day before, so making plans became impossible.
After 3 more weeks of this, she was done. She was happy VERY HAPPY to work 40-hr weeks, with some overtime if she wanted it. But she wanted a life.
NONE of her co-workers could complain about the working conditions though – not one of them could speak English. Maybe they are here illegally, maybe not, but the company wants the folks who will work slave hours without complaint.
Sounds like an entrepreneurial opportunity for your daughter!
I’d rather have an older vehicle that can be rebuilt many times over, than buy any car made in the last 3 years.
IMO the biggest mistake some on the center/right make is being dismissive of the concerns of younger generations. Often contemptuous and/or condescending. Success in politics is about addition and if we intentionally demean/disparage folks v listening and offering up workable solutions/alternatives that address their particular issues …its gonna be tough to attract and add more voters to ‘our side’.
It’s fair to point out that some 20 something with $100K+ in student debt with an BA in intersectional studies and an MA focused on the influence of 17th century lesbian latinas on the theater performances of Spanish colonies was economically doomed from the outset. Totes cool.
What’s not cool is to tell some reasonable, hardworking 20 something with a legit STEM degree that can’t get hired in their field that everything is fine b/c the stock market went up again and they should ‘work harder’.
The age of 1st marriage is now 30+. The age of 1st time homebuyer is now 40+. Home prices are up 30% since 2019 (most conservative methodology). Health IN and child care costs have skyrocketed in the past 20 years. When young people delay marriage and 1st home purchase they’re also generally delaying having children.
Sometimes I don’t think the Boomer generation understands how different the economic reality is for younger generations. Stats like home price to income ratio reveal the big difference. Today its approaching 7x when for Boomer generation it was well under the historical average of 5x for a period of 45 years from late ’50s to early ’00s. Add to it the change in breadth of investing v saving for retirement; all those 401K/IRA contributions coming on autopilot every 1st and 15th are driving stock prices higher.
In sum ‘our side’ must honesty address the very real problems faced by the younger generations or risk them falling to the siren song of socialism if the socialists are the only folks even willing to listen to the problems. FWIW relying on some sort of institutional knowledge re socialism/communism so that merely saying X is a socialist is gonna be like a cross to Vampire is very misplaced. People born after 9/11 are now old enough to.serve in Congress in the HoR. People born after the fall of the Berlin Wall are now old enough to serve as President. IOW the younger generations don’t possess the same cultural identity/references we sometimes take for granted so using ‘socialist/commie’ as a magic incantation isn’t gonna cut it, we’re gonna have to listen, debate and provide convincing pro capitalist arguments.
Excellent comment
My son makes 115,000 in Austin Tx and might as well be minimum wage.
Buying a house is out of the question
They might be AI proof but they aren’t robot proof.
FWIW, there should be national service with accurate, mandatory training lessons in American civics and role in World History, including an equivalent GI type bill depending on the length and type of service..
A quibble with that or any other program that seeks to replicate the GI Bill or other benefits exclusive to Veterans is that in creating these parallel programs you automatically have devalued the existing programs for Veterans and indirectly devalued the service/sacrifices made by Veterans to earn those benefits.
I’d prefer to see a more comprehensive change. First accelerate completion K-12 by instituting year round schooling to get graduates at age 16. Turn them loose into the work force. Restrict entering University (not JR College or VoTech) to age 21. (I’d prefer age 25 but that would never pass) Institute a nine month mandatory service period at age 18 (17 with parental permission) comprised of:
1. Ten weeks of Basic Combat Training
2. Six weeks of some sort of skills/functional training
3. Five months of service applying the skills in the field home health aid assistant, clearing brush on Federal land, hospital orderly, planting trees, improving watershed …all sorts of labor intensive jobs with some easy to learn skills
Give them the pay of an E-1 plus 3 hots and a cot and if they excel (top 25%) give them a bonus of a month pay. Everyone gets a tuition voucher for one semester at a JR College/VoTech. This way we build upon the militia, Citizen/Soldier concept, get kids out of Big ED K-12 faster, get them mandatory life experience before they go to University, provide training in something they have some sort of interest in. Lots of soft.skill development.
Just remember: any system not expressly conservative will ultimately end up drifting too far leftward. Political Entropy.
If we are applying your principle to government systems it matters not how conservative the “system” starts. All government programs drift left.
I would use the term Political Darwinism.
I saw Mike Rowe speak at the Washington Convention Center, in 2013 — he is very funny and hugely insightful, with respect to his advocacy for skilled trades and that field’s jobs.