

You’re paying with your body, the work can be very dangerous, and it takes a while to ramp up to decent pay. On top of that the pay isn’t always going to be better than a degree (iirc research has concluded that lifetime earnings for trades are behind degrees), ignoring countries with sensible tertiary education options.
Trades are not equivalent. And education is still a significant indicator of political alignment.
Honestly, this is a great example of the empathy gap.
That’s not true, the reason why Taiwan is so far ahead is because of the US and the contributions from LLNL. That’s part of how they’ve been able to force ASML to not sell to China.