Baby, won’t you fix my car?

America, get your hands dirty!

The iconoclasts sheltered at Blaska Stately Manor admire those who stand athwart history and yell “Stop!” William F. Buckley famously declared he would rather be governed by the first 2,000 people in the Manhattan telephone directory than by the Harvard University faculty. Moving off-campus a 42-ton boulder accused of racism, as the University of Wisconsin did two years ago, is so crazy only tenured faculty would defend it.

In the wake of October 7, the Woke racism endemic in higher education now targets Jews, who are regarded as oppressors; Palestinians as victims. Which only vivifies WI Assembly Speaker Robin Vos in his holy crusade to defund the state universities of their $32 million diversity, equity, and inclusion racket. Because DEI fuels grievance and recrimination. Also, in Blaska’s jaundiced view, does not teach auto mechanics.

You don’t see “From the river to the sea” marches at Madison Technical College, do you? They’ve banished no boulders nor decommissioned any alumni at Blackhawk Tech, have they?

Put plainly, America needs auto mechanics who can fix Blaska’s personal conveyance, not grievance studies majors who couldn’t find the fuel cap from the tailpipe. Triple A towed it to the dealer across town Saturday 10-28-23 and there it sits, useless — like much of higher education. The service rep could not have been more apologetic. The little car has an appointment with a mechanic … in December. 

“This is not the way we want to do business,” the service rep pleaded. It’s manpower (in the non-gender specific sense). The lack there of. “It’s been this way ever since the Covid pandemic,” he explained. Five mechanics retired and the dealership can’t back fill them. “We’ve never seen anything like this.”

The dealership fishes for auto mechanics at Madison Area Technical College but “nobody is biting.” 

It’s the same in all the trades

Headlining the WI State Journal today: “Lack of workers drags down housing industry.” Associated General Contractors Association reports that 80% of firms can not find enough qualified workers. Auto repair shops across America could use 258,000 new hires annually, but just 48,000 people graduate from training programs each year, according to the TechForce Foundation.  

The average auto repair took more than 17 days to complete last year, up from 10.3 days in 2019. The backlog risks becoming a drag on the U.S. economy as higher repair costs prompt consumers to cut back spending elsewhere, or simply not having a working car curtails their mobility and productivity. A swath of service industries are facing labor shortages, from home construction to restaurants, appliance repair to trucking. 

— “Why it’s impossible to get your car repaired.”

Some of the auto shop’s later hires come and go as they please, the service rep told me. “There’s a ‘So what?’ attitude. ‘What are you going to do, fire me?’ They’d just as soon take money from the government. That’s not the way I was brought up.”

Blaska’s Bottom Line: Nor Blaska either. We’re studying auto mechanics at You Tube technical college and cheering on Robin Vos and the Wisconsin technical college system.

Should DEI stand for ‘Drivetrain, Engine, Ignition‘?