I came across this article over at Zerohedge yesterday and it got me contemplating the ramifications off and on all day.
A Nation of Truckers
Oh how the country has changed in the last 36 years. We were a nation of farmers, secretaries, and machine operators in 1978. The family farmer was still the backbone in the Northern Plains and Midwest. The internet didn’t exist, so letters needed to be typed, copies made, mail distributed, dictation taken, and coffee brewed. So every business was loaded with secretaries. The country still manufactured goods here in 1978. We sold them domestically and internationally. Globalization and NAFTA hadn’t become the buzz words of Ivy League educated MBA’s yet.
Go read the article it is pretty short but the entire point of the article can be summed up if you compare the two graphics.
Most common jobs by each state in 1978....
Most common jobs by each state in 2014....
Not only has farmer dwindled to only two states while truck driver took over in about 32 or more (I didn't count each one) which is scary in and of itself but how with our aging population can Primary School Teacher be at the top in at least six states?
We have digressed from a nation of producers to a Nation of warehouse merchandise shifters and grade school teachers.
Honestly if you really think about it this is the stuff disasters are made of. Several issues spring to mind if you think on this situation not the least of which is the number of actual producers I mentioned earlier.
For one if we had a sudden Black Swan event the majority of our workforce would more than likely be on the road somewhere. Think about that a minute especially if your survival plans may include a possible bug out scenario. In a sudden collapse situation the majority of our workforce would already be on the road and for all intents suddenly refugees. Perhaps enough of these truck drivers are local only types so maybe they wouldn't be refugees long but that still leaves a number of long haul refugees to think about. In fact I may have to rethink a few things about indigent travelers and their effects on the countryside.
Another aspect is of course the death of Farmer as a job. Setting aside the fact that I still believe small farms and local agriculture is the real key to a post collapse recovery think how much harder the transition is going to be now? Farm land has not been reduced as much as farmers so therefore we have less farmers farming larger acreage. No one disagrees with this but it also means the knowledge base and land units needed are simply not there. One of our first missions will be getting the workforce back to the land before small farming can even begin to take up the slack.
In a sense the entire problem with today's society can be seen from these two simple pics. Our population has expanded and grown while the producers have indeed shrunk. A situation that is ripe to be exploited and aggravated by any continued collapse. Ina way this information maybe a game changer for many of us if we consider the ramifications.
Keep Prepping Everyone!!!!
Very interesting post. I live in a state that was once a largely manufacturing economy. With most manufacturing moved out of the country, there isn't much in terms of good employment. My husband is a truck driver and hates it. It is a highly regulated profession which is struggling to keep workers (drivers). I mean, who wants a job where you're not allowed to have heat at night in winter, or ac at night during summer (aka no idling laws). Who wants to have to account for every waking minute of the day? Who wants to work 70 hour weeks with no overtime. Who wants to be gone from home for weeks at a time with a dispatcher on a power trip who "punishes" the driver for not wanting to take every load (because he or she wants to go home). Now they want to put cameras in the trucks to monitor drivers' every waking (and sleeping) minute. We've gotten numerous pay cuts over the years and each new job offers lower pay than the one before. Fortunately we don't have much in the way of bills or we'd never make it. A number of drivers have noticed that the trucking industry seems to spend a lot of time simply shuffling goods from one warehouse to another, and there the stuff sits. Tax write-offs for big business under the guise of a thriving economy?
ReplyDeleteLeigh - That makes sense. I have yet to find a job that wasn't more a pain int he ass from over regulation and such than it needed to be and trucking would be ripe for even more of that BS than other jobs I imagine. I have a lot of sympathy for the truckers although I will admit when one pulls out and cuts me off so he can pass another truck going 1/2 a mile slower per hour than he was and it takes him 20 minutes to get out of my way I start yelling some real colorful language :)
DeleteProducers are now greatly outnumbered by Looters. This can and will not last. Lets face it the United States is bankrupt, both financially and morally. Our beloved Constitution is treated as toilet paper by the very people who have sworn to serve and protect it. Atlas Shrugged is now a non-fiction book.
ReplyDeleteCarl in the UP
Carl - Indeed my friend, indeed.
DeleteAlaska has little manufacturing, and imports the vast majority of its good & foodstuffs. But with only one highway, the roads around the major cities will clog within minutes. "Hunkering in place" is the plan of most, here.
ReplyDeleteThe only good news to come from all this is that any looters would be met with a buzzsaw field of fire from all the residents who are here, and heavily armed.
RP - See I figured that with those conditions truck driver would dominate in Alaska as well. The school teach being the highest really confuses me.
DeleteThis is actually a terrifying graphic, Preppy. I wonder if there were numbers that went along with it. What it says about us as a nation is pretty sad.
ReplyDeleteTB - I didn't see any thing else. I followed the link to it's source but never found a base source after that. Hell for all I know they could have made it all up :)
DeleteI only know of one trucker who lives in CA. My friends and family are not into trucking at all. Even if your chart says MN has lots of truckers. I call this BS.
ReplyDeleteRob - Well I imagine you may not notice them as they are gone a lot. I know several around here that you wouldn't know they were truck drivers unless someone told ya. They are gone all week but seem to leave their trucks somewhere else not like the old days when they parked em at home.
DeleteIt is almost as if there was a war without bombs and our industry was destroyed. Somehow I missed a great war somewhere along the way and our country was destroyed while nobody cared. Damn, I feel like I am writing a Beatles song or something.
ReplyDeleteAnyway, try farming without chemicals and without a plow, that is kind of where things are here if the chemical industry falters for the government financed farms.
Sf - Ya the old closed factories all over really depress me. Along with all the variety of products that seemed to fit needs better overall.
DeleteSo does no till require the chemicals? I guess it would to keep the weeds down wouldn't it? Now days they just roundup and drill the seeds don't they?
Yep, chemical fertilizer, chemical weed killer, GMO seeds makes everything dependent on someone else. They can't legally save seeds so there better be a supply line in place. I saw a plow and disc in use about 12 years ago or so but that was the end of it.
DeleteSf - Well I know a lot of the land owners with acreage in CRP still plow and disc for their food plots that's about the only time I see that being done now. Occasionally one of my neighbors will go out and plow one of the large fields but I am assuming it is turn under a cover crop.
DeleteActually I think the number one job in each state would be welfare recipient if they ever defined welfare as a career choice which many do choose. Trucking doesn't surprise me as I was employed by the transportation industry until retirement. We were known mainly as an air express company but moved even more by ground than air as time went on. I do think that manufacturing will be coming back as many companies are finding that making their products overseas is no cheaper than making them here. More are finding that quality control is a disaster in their foreign facilities and shipping adds to costs. What really needs more attention is clamping down on H1B vistas...maybe charge $10-20,000 dollar fee for each vista and find out quickly if "tech" really needs those employees.
ReplyDeleteIndy - LOL you are prolly right about the welfare, especially if you count all the make work government jobs created just to supply jobs to specific groups as welfare too.
DeleteYou have a valid point about the quality control. I saw that when I worked at the warehouse. Almost anything done over seas was done wrong.
This reminded me of the quote on grain rasing on a small scale
ReplyDelete"All you farmers farming 500acres and barely making it. I can make it possible for you to farm 1000 acres and get rich." The farmers accepted this as faith, not understanding that for every 500 acre farmer who went on to a 1000 acres, some other farmer had to go work at something else. Now when the 1000 acre farmers find they aren't doing a whole lot better than when they farmed 500, the technological answer is to farm 2000 acres" - Gene Logsdon
Farms get bigger, less people benefit from them, the rich get richer. Same old same old, the world wars were the only things that broke the cycles over here.
Kev - I certainly remember that quote and he is correct. The only thing keeping large farmers going here I think are large USDA ag subsidies but I guess we are going to see what happens when that runs it's course.
DeleteAnd when I say that it broke the cycle it was only for so long, farms are increasing in size again and pushing the smaller farmer out. Profits become smaller meaning a much bigger scale to survive.
DeleteWell, it is easy to see that this Country is goin to hell in a hurry. My lifestyle( hunter , farmer) will never change. Until they find a way to make THAT illegal! Then I bug out. Civilization doesn't seem so civilized anymore...
ReplyDelete