consuming to invest 27

CONSUMING TO INVEST 27

PART TWO

SKILLS

INTRO

Most old timey skills did not rely on expertise of a modern complexity level. Yes, you had years of apprentice training, but it wasn‘t because those skills needed years to master. It was because the master training you needed free labor for years and you needed a skill and you bought that through free labor. And it wasn’t a bad deal. Muscle memory from repetitive tasks made the most dull witted simpleton a master of any task. Nowadays, skills seem more intricate but have been kept as performable by simpletons by making them specialized rather than generalized. Difficult professions on par with medical doctors or engineers are saved for those with much better memories. Not worker drones, and paid accordingly ( although I could say that in many cases, rote memorization sometimes does not accompany originality or logic or out of the box problem solving and reinforces organizational rigidity ). In the near future, when we return to localized economies, the skills we will need to relearn will largely mirror those of the past. Yes, there will be salvage of the landscape littered with a hundred years of ores mined by petroleum extraction ( the previous century was marginally coal powered but largely run on surface ores extracted by muscle-which is why we will never duplicate that century-the easy ores are long gone and salvage is not always the same ) but that phase will be short. Not because the metals will necessarily run out ( although time will tell how much we ship to China as scrap before the collapse ) but because the energy to work that metal are and will.

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So, learning old skills might at first seem quaint and primitive and redundant, but they evolved in the past to make use of renewable resources, or to make full use of muscle power, or both. While thread and needle make nice leather products, a sloppier version of the same can be made of leather sheets and leather cord cut from another scrap, and you use half the tools. And no imported product ( yes, the tools were imported. Tools last a lifetime-consumables need continual trade ). Herbal remedies for headache or blood pressure might not be as effective as modern pharmaceuticals, but they grew locally and could be bartered for-a consideration in a no money economy. These skills are not antiquated but practical on a scale of millennium ( skills derived from petroleum, barely a century of practical use ). Some skills will be immediately applicable. The aforementioned herbal grower and prescriber. Some will need to wait until salvage runs out, such as a wheelwright. Or a bowyer, its usefulness hinging on the viability of gunpowder ( black or smokeless ) manufacture. All need just a few select tools and/or supplies. Manufactured metal used to be dear, and tools were simple and sturdy and practical ( if not fast or easy ). All just need practice more than money to learn.

END

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