There are problems in paradise, folks. Here we are, more comfortable, more entertained, more healthy than any people anywhere, anytime. But how do we keep all of this marvellous world of ours going? I am speaking of the plumbing, the heating, the electricity.. and the servicing thereof.

My 'furnace guy' is so busy he is scheduling visits for next fall. He is busy all the time, and he is extremely competent, and wastes no time. I understand he is taking no new customers. The situation is the same with appliance repairmen, plumbers and carpenters and all the other 'tradesmen' we have taken for granted.

Honestly, I can't understand why a young person would not look at the trades as a way to make a living. They should notice that all of us customers are perfectly willing to wait, often hours, for the guy to turn up, and we NEVER COMPLAIN, not if we have any brains, we don't. Yet, the status thing for todays' kids seems to be (I may be wrong here) to go to University and get something 'in computers.'

Anyway, this is a problem felt outside the Yukon as well. Federal Reserve Bank of Dallas President Richard Fisher noted that "Throughout this nation and especially in the state of Texas ... (companies are) suffering from a shortage of skilled and semi-skilled labor," he told the Texas Lyceum, an economic think-tank, at its annual meeting.