# From our cumulative professions, could the SDMB keep (a prosperous) society going? **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [November 29, 2005, 11:37am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/from-our-cumulative-professions-could-the-sdmb-keep-a-prosperous-society-going/333192 "2005-11-29T11:37:36Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Uncommon\_Sense](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/u/f9ae1b/32.png) [@Uncommon\_Sense](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Uncommon_Sense)\ **Post date:** [November 29, 2005, 3:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/from-our-cumulative-professions-could-the-sdmb-keep-a-prosperous-society-going/333192/21 "2005-11-29T15:33:25Z")
If you can find someone to keep the power plant going, I’ll do the electrical work. And any other misc. construction type stuff. ---
**Author:** ![Stark\_Raven\_Mad](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/f9ae1b/32.png) [@Stark\_Raven\_Mad](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Stark_Raven_Mad)\ **Post date:** [November 29, 2005, 3:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/from-our-cumulative-professions-could-the-sdmb-keep-a-prosperous-society-going/333192/22 "2005-11-29T15:35:57Z")
> [@Anaamika](#): > > Sorry about the duplicate post, but it occurs to me - we wouldn’t need the lawyers at all, would we? Shoot 'em! Bah. We’d talk you out of it in but a few minutes. And _then_ send you a bill for the entire hour. _-Stark, who is not actually a lawyer yet._ ---
**Author:** ![silenus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/silenus/32/166_2.png) [@silenus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/silenus)\ **Post date:** [November 29, 2005, 3:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/from-our-cumulative-professions-could-the-sdmb-keep-a-prosperous-society-going/333192/23 "2005-11-29T15:36:06Z")
Somebody did a listing of Doper occupations recently. It seems we have a fair distribution of skills here. Maybe not all professionally, but we have some gifted amateurs. There are a few of us who are proficient homebrewers, so getting bombed will always be an option in the New World Order! 😃 ---
**Author:** ![Dunderman](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/ecb155/32.png) [@Dunderman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dunderman)\ **Post date:** [November 29, 2005, 3:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/from-our-cumulative-professions-could-the-sdmb-keep-a-prosperous-society-going/333192/24 "2005-11-29T15:46:43Z")
> [@John Carter of Mars](#): > > Now, about the dancing girls…? I can’t dance and I’m not a girl, but I’m willing to do my part. ---
**Author:** ![Jonathan\_Chance](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jonathan_chance/32/701_2.png) [@Jonathan\_Chance](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jonathan_Chance)\ **Post date:** [November 29, 2005, 3:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/from-our-cumulative-professions-could-the-sdmb-keep-a-prosperous-society-going/333192/25 "2005-11-29T15:49:13Z")
> [@John Carter of Mars](#): > > Piece 'o cake. I’ve spent a lifetime in farming and livestock production. I’m looking through my window at a pasture full of cattle and horses even as we speak, and managed a large hog farm for several years. > > Now, about the dancing girls…? And suddenly he’s all lefty and controlling the means of production! ---
**Author:** ![What\_Exit](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/what_exit/32/10652_2.png) [@What\_Exit](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/What_Exit)\ **Post date:** [November 29, 2005, 3:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/from-our-cumulative-professions-could-the-sdmb-keep-a-prosperous-society-going/333192/26 "2005-11-29T15:52:36Z")
> [@John Carter of Mars](#): > > Piece 'o cake. I’ve spent a lifetime in farming and livestock production. I’m looking through my window at a pasture full of cattle and horses even as we speak, and managed a large hog farm for several years. > > Now, about the dancing girls…? Sounds like you will be in charge of riding herd over and training a bunch of philosophers, kids and English Majors that don’t have any other immediate skills. Good luck, I think you will have the hardest job. I enjoy tinkering and building and I would rather do the repair and the building then the running of a power plant, but I was Navy certified to run steam powered Turbo Generators to produce electricity and I might be able to run the boilers but this wasn’t in my training. What we will ideally need is to build our new society around a Nuclear power plant. A single plant would supply energy for our numbers with great ease and far less work than a coal or oil plant. Of course this only buys us 20-30 years to restart Civilization but it beats having no power. I forgot, one of my skills is a vast Sci-Fi knowledge, I could at least present many reasoned approaches to keep the tech going. I believe we would have a very large pool for this skill. I know we have Doctors available. A Judiciary headed Bricker and Campion should be fairly balanced and fair minded. I am sure we can round it out with a few more. I think we have enough techs to run power plants and set up manufacturing. We will need so pilots for scouting missions and lots of truck drivers to gather up supplies and machine tools. NJ is a pretty good local; we have access to a Nuke plant and a lot of refine fuel oil and gasoline. Good Ports and plenty of industry left. We have plenty of farming left as the garden state and lots of water. Where else do we have a good Oil supply and a nuke plant? We might want milder winters. I would stay out of hurricane and earthquake zones. Minor bonus with NJ, at some point we could approach the ruins of the Statue of Liberty and shout loudly: > [@](#): > > YOU MANIACS. YOU BLEW IT UP. DAMN YOU. GOD DAMN YOU ALL TO HELL. Jim ---
**Author:** ![What\_Exit](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/what_exit/32/10652_2.png) [@What\_Exit](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/What_Exit)\ **Post date:** [November 29, 2005, 3:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/from-our-cumulative-professions-could-the-sdmb-keep-a-prosperous-society-going/333192/27 "2005-11-29T15:54:03Z")
> [@silenus](#): > > Somebody did a listing of Doper occupations recently. It seems we have a fair distribution of skills here. Maybe not all professionally, but we have some gifted amateurs. > > There are a few of us who are proficient homebrewers, so getting bombed will always be an option in the New World Order! 😃 You keep us in beer and we will keep you in electricity and tech. Jim ---
**Author:** ![Malacandra](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/45deac/32.png) [@Malacandra](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Malacandra)\ **Post date:** [November 29, 2005, 3:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/from-our-cumulative-professions-could-the-sdmb-keep-a-prosperous-society-going/333192/28 "2005-11-29T15:59:33Z")
> [@Anaamika](#): > > …Ew. Sounds gross, doesn’t it? > The only thing I’d need is for someone else to grow the wheat or grain or whatever. I’m not much of a farmer. > > I also have a HUGE repository of good stories to tell children. Mostly about Indian culture, but I would think at that point we wouldn’t care. And I’m really good at taking care of children, and to be honest, if you’re going to repopulate the earth, you need all the women you can get, right? We can get by with a few men (lucky guys) but we’ll need lots of different women. > > And **John Carter** , I volunteer to be one of the dancing girls. 😃 1. This is definitely one time when I should have used the fussily-grammatical “borrow from” and not the idiomatic “borrow off”. :eek: 2a) Do it. The _Ramayana_ is cool. And I read (a version of) _Sohrab and Rustum_ when I was barely six so I can attest to the value of non-English cultural referents, even if it’s a sad story. 2b) Nope, you’ll need genetic diversity and a balance of providers to child-bearers, or you’ll be stuck starving in a cold cave for millennia. 1. Aside to **John Carter** , I recommend you take her up on it. ---
**Author:** ![blondebear](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/blondebear/32/1022_2.png) [@blondebear](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/blondebear)\ **Post date:** [November 29, 2005, 4:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/from-our-cumulative-professions-could-the-sdmb-keep-a-prosperous-society-going/333192/29 "2005-11-29T16:18:14Z")
I don’t know how much value my knowledge of telecommunications would be, but I’ll be happy to do clerical/manual labor in service to the community. The one thing I WILL NOT do is attend any weekend **BBQ’s**! 😃 ---
**Author:** ![krisolov](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/krisolov/32/3724_2.png) [@krisolov](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/krisolov)\ **Post date:** [November 29, 2005, 4:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/from-our-cumulative-professions-could-the-sdmb-keep-a-prosperous-society-going/333192/30 "2005-11-29T16:28:10Z")
well, I’d have to dig out my reference materials, but I built roads and bridges while in the army. I could certainly contribute some knowledge there. I build telecom sites now, and am a fair hand at brewing beer too. So hopefully I have enough to keep me from weeding vegetable gardens all day… ---
**Author:** ![What\_Exit](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/what_exit/32/10652_2.png) [@What\_Exit](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/What_Exit)\ **Post date:** [November 29, 2005, 4:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/from-our-cumulative-professions-could-the-sdmb-keep-a-prosperous-society-going/333192/31 "2005-11-29T16:29:01Z")
> [@blondebear](#): > > I don’t know how much value my knowledge of telecommunications would be, but I’ll be happy to do clerical/manual labor in service to the community. The one thing I WILL NOT do is attend any weekend **BBQ’s**! 😃 Could you help keep a cell phone cell up and running? This would be a huge aid. ---
**Author:** ![Mr.Goob](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/c77e96/32.png) [@Mr.Goob](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mr.Goob)\ **Post date:** [November 29, 2005, 4:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/from-our-cumulative-professions-could-the-sdmb-keep-a-prosperous-society-going/333192/32 "2005-11-29T16:46:40Z")
I can be the #2 to **John Carter** , I worked on a cattle farm for years. I can maybe beat up an old tractor enough to keep it running. If I have electric, I’m a machinist by trade and a pretty good carpenter. If it’s got an engine I can drive it, bulldozers and the like to build earthworks to defend from the ravaging mutants. ---
**Author:** ![Trunk](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/87869e/32.png) [@Trunk](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Trunk)\ **Post date:** [November 29, 2005, 4:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/from-our-cumulative-professions-could-the-sdmb-keep-a-prosperous-society-going/333192/33 "2005-11-29T16:54:56Z")
About the only society I’d trust the SDMB to keep going was one the you played online and traded gold for hit points or whatever the fuck it is they do. ---
**Author:** ![Anaamika](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/5f9b8f/32.png) [@Anaamika](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Anaamika)\ **Post date:** [November 29, 2005, 4:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/from-our-cumulative-professions-could-the-sdmb-keep-a-prosperous-society-going/333192/34 "2005-11-29T16:56:45Z")
> [@Stark Raven Mad](#): > > Bah. We’d talk you out of it in but a few minutes. > > And _then_ send you a bill for the entire hour. > _-Stark, who is not actually a lawyer yet._ And what shall I pay you with? Money’s not important anymore, is it? Goods and services? But \*\*jrfranchi \*\* makes a good point, we could use a judiciary committee. And \*\*Bricker \*\* would probably be way too fair, not even accepting bribes. _grumble grumble_ ---
**Author:** ![Rebo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/rebo/32/13005_2.png) [@Rebo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rebo)\ **Post date:** [November 29, 2005, 5:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/from-our-cumulative-professions-could-the-sdmb-keep-a-prosperous-society-going/333192/35 "2005-11-29T17:09:21Z")
I’m a designer of mechanical type stuff. I can cook pretty well. That’s about it. ---
**Author:** ![Stark\_Raven\_Mad](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/f9ae1b/32.png) [@Stark\_Raven\_Mad](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Stark_Raven_Mad)\ **Post date:** [November 29, 2005, 5:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/from-our-cumulative-professions-could-the-sdmb-keep-a-prosperous-society-going/333192/36 "2005-11-29T17:14:37Z")
> [@Anaamika](#): > > And what shall I pay you with? Money’s not important anymore, is it? Goods and services? I imagine we’ll have to barter and trade for essentials, and for a while, at least until the worst of the looting and destruction is over and we’re organized enough to agree on a currency (bottle caps?). ---
**Author:** ![SnakesCatLady](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/4af34b/32.png) [@SnakesCatLady](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SnakesCatLady)\ **Post date:** [November 29, 2005, 5:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/from-our-cumulative-professions-could-the-sdmb-keep-a-prosperous-society-going/333192/37 "2005-11-29T17:18:21Z")
I could assist **Vetbridge** in taking care of the animals. I know how to garden. I can sew, and have a basic knowledge of weaving. I make good pottery. I have no kids, but Mr. SCL is a nurse - can I keep him? I also have lots of books to add to the communal library - my vote is **Sampiro** for librarian. ---
**Author:** ![Anaamika](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/5f9b8f/32.png) [@Anaamika](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Anaamika)\ **Post date:** [November 29, 2005, 5:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/from-our-cumulative-professions-could-the-sdmb-keep-a-prosperous-society-going/333192/38 "2005-11-29T17:22:30Z")
> [@Stark Raven Mad](#): > > I imagine we’ll have to barter and trade for essentials, and for a while, at least until the worst of the looting and destruction is over and we’re organized enough to agree on a currency (bottle caps?). No way! Leaves, of course - they’re on all the trees. ---
**Author:** ![MLS](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/919ad9/32.png) [@MLS](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MLS)\ **Post date:** [November 29, 2005, 5:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/from-our-cumulative-professions-could-the-sdmb-keep-a-prosperous-society-going/333192/39 "2005-11-29T17:25:50Z")
Will we need programmers or project managers? Systems analysts? Regardless, you can add me to the bakers and cooks list. I can also care for small groups of children, and can teach – basic skills to youngsters, literature, history, grammar, programming, web design to the older ones. I don’t suppose there will be much use for crochet or tatting, will there? ---
**Author:** ![Misnomer](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/misnomer/32/14897_2.png) [@Misnomer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Misnomer)\ **Post date:** [November 29, 2005, 5:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/from-our-cumulative-professions-could-the-sdmb-keep-a-prosperous-society-going/333192/40 "2005-11-29T17:28:04Z")
Well, I’m a technical writer, so I can write the instructions for everyone else. 😃 I’m also a singer and pianist, so I can provide some background music for the dancing girls! > [@jrfranchi](#): > > a bunch of philosophers, kids and **English Majors** that don’t have any other immediate skills. (bolding mine) Bite me. 😃 😉 [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/from-our-cumulative-professions-could-the-sdmb-keep-a-prosperous-society-going/333192.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/from-our-cumulative-professions-could-the-sdmb-keep-a-prosperous-society-going/333192.md?page=3)