Plumbers have become the career talisman in the age of artificial intelligence, as many question the value of a degree, especially with the burden of student debt. One woman told me that, among middle-class parents in her neck of the woods, the topic has begun to replace the conversation about house prices as their kids approach university age and they weigh the value of higher education against working in a skilled trade. A neighbour’s plumber bragged that his brother was a doctor, yet only one of them had three Porsches.