Is your job useful?

Can you continue your present job if we were to see another Depression or other economic collapse?

Me?

I'm a contractor. I have the knowledge and skills to build you a house or other shelter/structure. I have some limited materials on hand. I can't build a home if we can't get materials however.

In my area, we are already seeing the beginnings of the Home and Real Estate slowdown... That means that we have a lot of folks like me that are out of work and looking for odd jobs. Not enough people with $$$ to pay all of us workers right now.

If things get worse, I'll be forced to go into Hunker Down mode (HDM) to keep my family alive.

What about your job in a depression?

 

As an accountant who specializes in small business, I already see most of my clients having hard times. My client base is extremely diverse but business in general is down. The question always remains - are we weathering a storm or has the business model changed and this questions affects every one of my regular clients. The telling thing to me is that my client base is extremely diverse - several manufacturers, lawn and garden equipment dealer, property rental owners, contractors, several electricians and plumbers, auto repair shops, a body shop, a developer, a couple non-profits, a car dealer, a liquor store, a video rental business, a couple business service companies - and they are all suffering to one degree or another. If the small businesses start to close, I lose my customer base.

 

One thing that I see as troublesome is that in the consumer markets, more and more sales are via credit card and fewer are by cash. Sometimes, there is a sound reason for this such as one con my Plumbing/Electical/HVAC contactors who pays all his payables with his Amex cards just for the points. He ends up with a couple hundred thousand in Amex bills due every month which is a big nut to pay if business revenue is down in a given period of time.

I'm also seeing more rejected credit cards and financing apps from customers and many, many more bounced checks.

 

Taxes are the imputus of small business accounting but the value of the information accumulated during the tax accounting process is what can make a big difference to my clients. The ability to accumulate and analyze information so the business can respond is the greatest value I bring to my clients. I have some clients who don't care how many of widgets 1 or widgets 2 they sell. On the other hand, I also have customers who recognize that if Widget 1 sales are up, widget 2 sales are down, maybe it's time reduce production on widget 2 and think about how a new widget 3 might fill a new demand.

Also, knowing exactly the cost of bring a product or service to market or conclusion is the most valuable information I can provide. It allows me to advise my clients om how to maximize their assets. Although tax consequences are always part of the equation, the thorough knowledge of one's business costs and consequences make the difference between viability and closing the doors.

 

I'm in transition from heavy construction management to retired. I can work, and will (if the right opportunity arises) in either design or field construction engineering. Infrastructure will always need green field work and upgrades, all of which are in my bag of tricks. A tremendous amount of backlog exists, and if funding, either direct or injection, is available, the work will happen, depression or not. (If funding, read that as IOUs from the customer entity, cannot be used, we are carrion any way.) However, the retired career appeals to me right now, and is certainly viable.

Life is a ball if you get to pick the music.

 

An example of that information is the cost vs return of adding a new employee.

In a manufacturing environment, it takes approximately 3 months before the first hour of a new employee's labor brings the first dollar into the business.

Figure 40 hr/wk at an Avg of $20.hr for 3 months - the investment is over $10K before that employee starts to show a return.

 

My industry (Oil & Gas ) is a catch-22 in a way. Whenever the rest of the economy is sluggish and down, then my industry is up. And contributing through high energy prices to the general slump. When my friends are having hard times and losing jobs, the jobs in my business are plentiful and high paying.

But I have a hard time feeling any guilt over that. When the economy was growing and healthy in the 80's. (we had the longest period of economic growth since WWll ) in part to cheap and plentiful energy, remember $10 a barrel oil? My business was in the tank. I lost everything I had, was forced to travel from one side of the country to the other seeking work, live in cheap motels if I was lucky, or in my car when I wasn't.

So right now I am enjoying the fruits of a 30 year career of feast and famine, chicken today and feathers tomorrow. But it pains me to see so many who are struggling and going through the trials that I went through in the 80's.

As far as useful or needed, I think even post SHTF, energy will be a critical industry. My Grandfather was an oil driller during WWll. He was 4F due to diabete's so couldn't go fight. During the rationing period when everything from pantyhose to gasoline was rationed he got an exemption because he worked in a critical industry. He got an unlimited gasoline ration card. He would taxi folks to the store and into town on his days off.

I would think that it would be much the same in a dire crises today. Those of us in critical industries, energy, transportation, medical, etc., would be exempted from a lot of any rationing system, for fuel or other necessities.

I might be a good person to know post SHTF!!!!!

 

Up or down, everyone needs electricity and I am one of a few who can keep it running.

 

Not in an economic downturn.....