If I may? How do you make ends meet, Pumeco?  And, I believe, that member Doric is a retired engineer who had an esteemed position at a job that he was employed at for an extensive span of time. Hence a pension. He probably was insulted by the fact that you've referred to someone like himself as an idiot, slave, and muppet. Understandable and quite restrained response on his part, I'd say.

Retired as a gage technician, sorry, not engineer.  Pension, not that good, if it was all I had coming in, I'd be hurting.  30 years with the same company, therefore, 30 and out.  But, not always the gage tech, from turret lathe operator to just about every other machine we had, all phases of inspection except metalurgy.  All together, 44 years of metalworking in it's different areas, and metrology is one of them.  The gage technician was the highest paid hourly position that was not piecework.  About $25/hour when I retired, pieceworkers could make about $5/hour more.  Metalworking was my passion, and precision becomes an obsession.  I feel fortunate I could make a decent living doing what I really loved.  Therefore, one side of my basement is a complete metalworking shop, the other side is woodworking.  Yes, it's a total mess. Doric

The "I" in Doric is Silent.