In 1980, if your refrigerator broke, you would call a local repairman. He arrived the same day, fixed it for $50, and knew exactly what he was doing. Today, that man is gone. We are witnessing the extinction of the American Repairman. In his place, there is a 6-week waiting list, a $200 "Service Call" fee, and a technician who is trained to sell, not to fix. In this investigation, we expose the 'College Scam', which removed shop classes from high schools and demonized blue-collar work for a generation. We are tracking the 'Demographic Cliff' that is about to hit the skilled trades, and we reveal how private equity firms are quietly buying up your local HVAC and plumbing companies to turn them into sales machines. From the 'Parts Cannon' diagnostic method to the proprietary software locks that gatekeeper the industry, this is the story of how we forgot how to fix things.
