Well... Doesn't somebody have to work the brick pits?

I think the issue is that we haven't yet demonstrated that real, actual equal opportunity won't lead to entire graduating classes of engineers and scientists - we still have the situation where "well Billy had to move schools 13 times because his family kept getting evicted, so while he might have been smart it's the brick pits for him, just look at his grades."

> Doesn't somebody have to work the brick pits?

Probably not. Whenever wages go up enough, companies find ways to automate manual jobs.

On Market St in SF, I just walked by a cafe featuring a robot barista. Doesn't somebody have to make my latte? Turns out the answer is no.

Probably because a human barista can't make enough to pay rent and eat...

Or most people wouldn't want a latte at all if the prices were high enough to support "living wages"

Well LBC (the company the made the vast majority of the bricks in the uk) took to importing a new set of workers from a different poor country every generation.

Which is why my home town has the one of the highest diversity's in the world compared to its population.

I wouldn't want apprenticeships to be a funnel for low achievers, but the concrete focus on skill would be a lot more appealing to many of my "low achiever" peers back when I was in school than most of the courses they were required to take.

The few "shop" classes we had were usually the ones where they actually got decent grades.

Well in the UK when I left school you needed 4-5 decent O levels to get on an apprenticeship i.e. the same entry requirements for a nursing career or entry level in a Bank.