[fibermoney]

> A fiber splicer is a $5,000+ piece of equipment.

Nah. A fusion splicer costs $900. You can train a monkey to splice fiber. I give you exhibit A: me, the monkey.

I had no previous formal training in fiber optics nor splicing before I got my first fusion splicer. I read the instructions and I started splicing.

[Red_Leaves_Flyy]

Like most manual construction jobs, they can be done by anyone, with training. The hard, expensive, time consuming, and difficult part is finding people that give enough of a fuck to do a decent job consistently without constant direct supervision. Once you've got good entry level staff then you need to train them. Most people don't go into construction to be a teacher, so that's a whole other problem to solve.

Likewise, all else being equal, I'd flip burgers over any construction job. I've met far too many broken people that were ate up and spit out by construction companies in their forties to spend the rest of their lives on Medicaid and disability to risk my future working ability for a temporary, seasonal, small pay bump.