Termyn8or
Posts: 18681
Joined: 11/12/2005
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FR
I thought Nero played the fiddle, but what do I know, it's probably another myth.
I thought I had a job that couldn't be outsourced and reveled in my relative irreplacability, but that caught up to me. What's worse is that I've become so specialised that I have forgotten a bunch of other skills. The electronics that I was doing doesn't pay off anymore. Unfortunately this means eventually it will be a very rare skill to deal with analog, but it must be done sometimes. However I can't wait until eventually and am in the process of severely tightening the belt, and cannibalising what I've gained over the years to just readjust. I might actually sell the house. at the very least it will be rented out and I will take accomodations elsewhere, this will not be to my liking but it can result in positive cash flow. It might also enable me to travel a bit. Maybe there is life out there.
However I am not holding my breath. The economy sucks, the reason I am not getting the work like I used to is people do not have money. Even people with money are playing it closer to the vest. This is not funny, and unfortunately proves the trickle down theory does work, but not in the positive sense.
So I'm hanging pipe (EMT electrical conduit) and I used to be pretty good. Compound bends were my forte' and I did most of it without a measuring tape. There's a trick to it. That part is OK but I seem to have lost my three dimensional visualisation ability. This is not good. This is what happens when you don't do something for near a decade and alot happens, like an illness, and all kinds of other shit. Shit like betrayal and having one's life turned into a bad soap opera. I'm still trying to change the channel.
In over twenty years I haven't really made alot of money, maybe $30K/year, which will keep you in goodies but will not build wealth. If I had the income I had when I was younger I would be about on top of the world now, because I know that fortunes are made in times like these. I simply don't have the means.
Luckily my eyesight is better and at least I can study, but what to study ? The first time around I studied what was almost impossible to understand at the time. Something that few could grasp correctly. I excelled at it but now I am obsolete. And I am 51 years old. Making a new start is not easy when you're over the hill.
I am open to suggestions. I know my limitations and travel for work is out pretty much. It's not the matter of a driver's license or a car or truck, the fact is I have no sense of direction. I am serious. If I was Moses the Jews wouldn't have ever even made their way out of fucking Egypt. Seriously. I got my new job about 6½ years ago and had to test drive there with someone to be able to find the place, which is on a major thoroughfare less than a mile from the highway ramp. I live within walking distance to the other highway ramp. Then, being part time, I went back to my ex-employer temporarily, I had been there on and off for over fifteen years. New job was slow, old job had a backlog, I had left on good terms. I went to work. I GOT LOST ON THE WAY ! And no, they did not move.
Carpentry, I used to do quite a bit. In fact I developed a penchant for finish carpentry, I liked doing it and I did damn good work. Lately what of it I do I make the stupidest mistakes sometimes.
I have to get back into it, back into something. Working at home on the computer might not be for me. First of all if I can work whenever I please my schedule will go to hell. It already has with this working one day a week shit. Maybe I should take a stab at getting back into remodeling, with a crew. I can do almost all of it. Except for a couple of things I can pretty much build you a house.
But even if I was really really great, one of the best (which I am not, I'm not bad but not exceptional), work is slow all over. Housing starts my ass, now they are getting into housing finishes. I've heard of banks demolishing perfectly good houses just because they were a liability. Doesn't happen alot, but it happens.
So I got these machines and I can work with metal. I can't weld though because even though my eyesight is better it is simply not good enough for that (never was). It's not accuity so much as the bright/dark issue. I can cut the fuck outta something though.
We got John here out of work for months and months. We got many more either unemployed or about to be. There is damnear no commerce going on. What are we going to do ? Really. It's going to trickle to everyone. You a new car salesman ? Well you know damnwell they are practically giving cars away. If they cut back production much more then there ae more peole unemployed to buy widgets, then the widget makers will not be buying cars.
People just do ot realize the severity of this problem, especially those not yet affected in any great degree by it. It's coming to you. Unless your net worth is into eight figures and you have most of your money in real gold, not paper gold, it is coming to you. This is no joke. This is not a drill.
And what happens next. What happens when the masses are watching their children starve ? Normally moral people will be forced to do many nasty things. Sure they will get food stamps, but when food prices triple, those stamps won't, and the few left working, their paychecks won't. And food prices will triple on our lifetime. Will our wages ?
No.
We all need to give some serious thought to becoming self sufficient at least to some degree. Stockpiling is not the end all answer either, you can only stockpile so much. I lack many of the answers. I have some answers, but it's also important to have the right questions.
Remember the BIG power outage ? Remember all the cars on the highway not moving ? They didn't break down, they ran out of gas because you couldn't buy gas because the pumps at the gas stations run on electricity. This made for traffic jams and then instead of tooling along others were burning up their precious fuel idling in new parking lots borne out of the highway system. This exaserbated the problem. Whe one person loses utilities and starts burning things for heat, perhaps his house catches fire, and in urban areas perhaps this catches whole neighborhoods on fire. There aren't going to be enough caves to go around, even down in Carlsbad. Anywhere.
Think about it people, this is the future, it just came to some sooner than others.
T^T
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