Do you make anything? Personally, I mean 75/25

Do any of you manufacture anything, at work or at home?

I don't mean, do you manage other people that do either in the US or abroad. I am really wondering how many people on ATS actually work with their hands and make things.

And by things, I mean furniture, clothes, cloth, shoes, hats, rugs, kitchen utensils, toys, electronics, motors, bread, beer, jam, pickles, cheese, wagons, bikes, parts, pianos, fertilizer, shelves, stationary, face cream, soap, bio diesel...

Do you know, personally, first and last name basis, people that make 3 of these things by hand?


I've been thinking that if we look at this report:

www.cnbc.com...

it compares last year with this year and we look at the numbers of US workers in services vs. manufacturing and construction - it's staggering.

20 million (manufacturing / construction) vs 115 million (service)

Now the government doesn't count farming (maybe because it's all migrant workers and illegal? I'm not clear why - it seems it's a valuable resource and important to know - but they don't count - so there you go) but growing food is vital and worthy and probably raises the #s significantly. Of course if the US has big trouble and all the migrant workers leave, we'll actually have to do this farming... hmmm...

Anyway, my question is:

How many ATSers can say (and I'm guessing we'll hear from more survivalist forum people than financial crisis people here) that 75% of what they buy - they buy from less than 3 degrees of separation from the people who MAKE it. As in, you know these people on a first and last name basis who sell you goods and they know the people on a first and last name basis who deliver goods and they are or they know people on first and last name basis who are the manufacturers themselves. And if they need parts or ingredients they know those manufacturers personally.

Then how many have only 25% of what you buy being from exotic lands where you have no connection at all with who made it and who made what it's made out of. Yes, a little risky to have no connection but that's the spice in life and good for international trade and exports and cultural diversity.

OK - back to reality - how many of you don't even know the first and last names off hand of the people who check you out at the Walmart - where everything is made by anonymous people, far away, who care as little about you as you do about them.

How many of you know the names of your servers at McDonalds? The people touching your food behind the servers?


75/25 (75% no less than 3 degrees of separation from the maker 25% exotic goods... it's really a tricky way to live / shop right now, or is it?

I'd love to hear your thoughts






[edit on 9/1/2009 by trusername]

[edit on 9/1/2009 by trusername]

There may be many many of you - I'm just wondering if ATS is full of people who are connected and sociable (this is a social network tool after all). Or is it more people who are shy and independent? And which type do you think is a mirror of US society?

I think this economy is going to see another industrial revolution in the US, if we're lucky, and the way too keep it less toxic is to keep connected with everyone in the chain so that we don't hide the bad stuff (upstream) with NIMBY attitudes that hurt us all in the end.

City dwellers are up the creek without a paddle as most of them can barely cook a frozen TV dinner, let alone boil a pot of water.

Very sad but that's what happens when you rely on someone else to do everything for you.

Skills of every sort have been relegated to the poor, robots and foreign nations.

My firm belief is that if SHTF 60%+ will die due to lack of any skill whatsoever.
What good is a useless person to a group that depends on skills for survival?
Food or bait maybe?

I should start - I just realized:

I'm in San Francisco CA -

I cook, bake, can, preserve, pickle ( sounds funny)

I crochet (badly), felt, sew (badly)

I grow lemons and zucchini and basil (if I get there before the snails)

I can where I am with the supplies I have (but don't yet) gather solar power and make biodiesel

I sometimes write little books and I know the printer personally and he uses hemp paper and soy ink. He personally knows the mill owner back east that makes the paper (they also make the dollar bill paper by the way). But I don't know who makes the ink yet.

I get all of our veggies delivered by local farmers coop, I know the driver but need to go visit the depot and really the farms someday.

I know our butcher and his family, but that's it. Really, I think you shouldn't eat meat if the animal didn't have a name and was well cared for. But that's not where we're at, now.

I don't know anybody who made our clothes, furniture etc.

and that's about it. Not exactly 75%

reply to post by warrenb




I worry about suburb dwellers too -they don't even have market places to get close to the sources. And they'll have to walk so far to bring things back home if tshtf

What do you personally make or bake? can I ask?

I can cook--nothing fancy mind you--but I can make a meal out of practically nothing; I can hunt & fish(although that's not technically 'making' anything); I can sew very poorly; I'm pretty good at making fire; and I can make a shelter if need be.

That's about all I could come up with off the top of my head! I'm very nature-oriented, not so much mechanically inclined though.

I should add in there Do you Fix anything.

But maybe that slips into the "service" side again?

I tend to think of service being less material though. more like marketing and travel and consulting and banking... not mechanics and plumbers... which are tangible jobs and not offshore-able.

reply to post by trusername


I cook,bake,preserve,fish,hunt (bow/gun/snare),make shelters, make fire, first aid certified, blacksmith, distill booze, carpentry, plant identification and not a bad with electrics...I can rig up rows of batteries to run lights and tools/appliances

I also speak several languages, which could come in handy as well





[edit on 1-9-2009 by warrenb]

reply to post by mpriebe81



I think fishing counts, because you're making a meal and you're feeding people, even if only yourself.

Maybe the hidden advantage to the green movement is the revival of the outdoor cred.

Camping was popular and then wasn't and now it's changed its name to outdoor adventure and I think it's becoming popular again with youth and city folk. And with it - the return of the skill set that non city dwellers never lost.

I think Outdoors skills is an economic trend that will be led by the areas away from the cities - and that's good, because they can use it.

reply to post by warrenb




If you had to pick one of your skills you mention here to do to make your living, which would be your first choice?

If you were to choose to make useful widgits (sp?) what would you make?

Would it be seasonal?

reply to post by warrenb




If you had to pick one of your skills you mention here to do to make your living, which would be your first choice?

If you were to choose to make useful widgits (sp?) what would you make?

Would it be seasonal?

reply to post by trusername


Yeah, camping(outdoor adventuring?) does seem to be increasing in popularity. I'm a city kid, so i'm grateful that my dad took us out camping and taught us how to hunt&fish when I was a lil' one.
It's funny, how the skills of an outdoorsman generally don't mean diddly squat in today's society....but tomorrow, you may become one of the most important people in your community because you know how to bring home the bacon so to speak.

Well, lucky me - I can make 18 of the things you've listed. That's only of the things you listed. Must be because I didn't benefit from institutionalized education much and found that life outside the classroom was more interesting.

Now I'm pretty heavily into foraging and utilizing wild plants as replacements for the plants we've "improved" over the centuries. There are no weed crops and weeds seldom fail. Plus, I know the medicinal values of many plants in case of accidents. And because I'm pretty heavily into energy work as well, I figure things will be fine.

I can also do a fair bit of building and fishing. I can swim like nobody's business. I cook only from scratch (including making starters from bread).

I've spent my lifetime learning "useless" things. Must be why no one will hire me... Fourteen months unemployed and counting.

reply to post by trusername


Probably fishing
people need to eat

Hmm...Good thread. s&f.
I'm a chef by trade. So yes I can cook. I garden extensively, only things my family and I can eat mind you, I leave the "pretty" things to the wife. I process (can, pickle, and freeze) most of the fruits of my hobby. If theres a good deal on fresh veggies @ the farmers market I'll buy in bulk and spend a day canning. Same for meat. I repair/tweak/and tune vintage audio/video components and sell them on (insert online auction site here)
I've tailored my enjoyment of hobbies to be profitable, fun, teachable(for my children) and very personally rewarding. If tshtf...yea I have stored, safe, fresh food, on and off site, and if you need that ham radio fixed, well, how bout a side of ham for payment ....grab a fork and come on over, seriously, who doesn't like CANNED HAM!! btw...we'll listen to the radio.

I can make quilts, pottery (without a kiln) and grow some damn fine veggies. I have other minor skills I am working on but those are the most prolific.

But sadly I do not buy my items directly.

reply to post by trusername


I can bake and cook pretty simplistic food, which is good for survival, as I doubt you would have much spices and such to work with.

I can sharpen knives as well, but of course that requires access to a whet stone, and preferable a honing stone to finish the job.

One think i want to learn to start doing is making knives and such. I really want to learn to forge swords as well, but I don't have enough room to do that. Knives can be made in the backyard with the right equipment though.

I also know how to fish, even though I never really catch anything. But that becomes easier as you need to understand the fish in your area, and when they go on a feeding frenzy.

Also I'm going to be starting Emergency Medical courses in the winter.

[edit on 1-9-2009 by Miraj]

I'm an upholsterer. I can sew just about anything and repair lots of stuff. We restored our house built in 1880. It turned out so cool. I have a wood cook stove and make a lot of food from scratch, including grinding my own wheat for bread. I have a milk cow and make yogurt, cheese, buttermilk and butter. We have the most awesome homemade pizza that I bake in my woodstove oven. I can most of our food.

Still, I feel like I'm just beginning to learn the old ways. I have a long ways to go. One of my goals is to get a draft horse and play around with plowing.

I've spread my wings a bit and met some interesting local people. You can do good networking around here if you go to auctions and organic meetings. I need to increase my knowledge of gardening. I'm concerned about our reliance on hybrid seeds. They are highly suspectable to blights. Imagine what would happen to our food supply if we got a bad blight and our food didn't grow?

Anyway, good thread.

I can cook, bake, sorta sew, crochet, quilt, fish, some carpentry, concrete work. I think I could make a shelter if I had to. Have lots of friends with skills too. Don't really know too many of the people where I get stuff but do know quite a few where I could get stuff if needed. Live in semi rural area quickly becoming suburban. Know all the back roads out of there too.

reply to post by Tentickles


pottery and quilts are great! there is plenty of job security in pottery - it breaks so much

as for quilts - it is shocking how much textiles the US transports out of the country - a huge percentage of which was originally donated to charity - then sold by charities to "rags trade agents" for pennies per pound as fundraising. This isn't great for the textile markets in developing countries. But it's really silly because we're just dumping tons (millions of tons) of textiles that we could be reusing and reworking. Quilting being one way.

a lot of clothes get chopped up into mattress stuffing and absorbent pads. such a waste.