Sympathy for the deliberately unemployed? Hardly.

A snap shot, taken today, of just a small portion of a google images search for “truck drivers wanted”

I checked in with a young friend yesterday, just to catch up on how he’s doing and to discuss a last striped bass expedition and the upcoming deer season.

He’s a great young man, raised in Maine and now married with a young son and living in Massachusetts, much to his regret.

So, how’s he doing? Very well. He trained to get his commercial driver’s license last year — no doubt inspired by President, “18-Wheeler” Joe — and, unlike his president, chose to drive vehicles larger than a school bus. He was fired last week from a company that has contracts with the military, due to his refusal to get vaccinated (he’s 28), and immediately landed a new job that pays a straight salary of $72,000 a year, plus benefits, no over-the-road trips required, and 40 hours a week, Monday-Friday only.

Besides his training, and intelligence, my friend really has just two other qualifications: he’s a hard worker and, probably most important (because the trucking companies will train drivers for free), he can pass a drug and alcohol test, at any time. That’s a combination that’s disturbingly hard to find these days.

My friend graduated high school, but couldn’t afford college. Partly with his financial contributions, his wife put herself through nursing school, graduated last year, and also has a good-paying job. Together, this family is enjoying a decent, middle-class life; they’ve come a far way from childhoods of rural Maine poverty.

Sp the opportunity is there.