[mox1]

I would say it's not that "young workers aren't interested in being machinists" it's more of "Society has not incentivized young workers enough to want to become machinists."

It's probably a combination of things (high schools telling every student they need to go to college, wages too low to attract new talent, other things?), but there is a low chance in my mind that 16-25 year olds are not interested in working with their hands.

The DIY / Hobbyist community has never been larger or more available. High school robotics is bigger than ever, 3D-printing and related things are very popular....

[consteval]

At the same time high schools have cut a lot of this stuff out of their curriculum. I mean, no more woodshop, no more metal work. And it's not like these kids can go home and work on their car. Cars these days are too complex for that.

[dylan604]

The whole period of time forcing the idea that everyone must go to college has come home to roost. At the same time trade schools were panned while also filled with scam schools. Some people just do not need/want the full rounded education nor the expense of it all.

[WalterBright]

The worthless college degrees are the "gee, math is hard" ones.

At Caltech, you could get a soft degree, but you still had to pass 3 years of math, 2 years of physics, and 1 year of chemistry. There weren't any "weeder" versions of them, either.

P.S. I could work the quantum mechanics problems, but was uncomfortable because I didn't understand QM. Years later I learned that nobody understands QM, they just know the math works :-)