Now, it's meat processors that are shutting down due to COVID 19

Unfortunately The Virginia governor is very power drunk. Bought and paid for by those in the DC suburbs who elected him.

 

if it would be easier for small farmers to operate a dairy and sell directly to the public many of these issues could be solved.

 

And big dairy is terrified that it might persist afterwards. And it's not just dairy.

I'm no kind of infectious disease expert but common sense says that all of this efficiently concentrated labor needs to be discontinued and spread out. People need to care for their own kids and elders and do their own food, haircare and more.

 

Actually they need to expand DC to include parts of Virginia and Maryland.

 

Nice principle, but then you would have people screaming for more government money because they can't work, because they are selling more guns and traumatizing their children. While semi off topic, how about people just fix their own vehicles, appliances, home plumbing/electrical/hvac, fences, roofs, ect... But then you put others out of work. Our society has a fine balance.

 

I'm not sure where you're going with that, so I'm going to have to leave that unaddressed.

I don't think that's off-topic at all. I think everyone should do all of those things, at least up to a point. There will always be jobs too big, a time to call in the pro. But I think many people could do more on their own and current conditions are such that everyone should try to take on a little more. This is in part to reduce contact and also to reduce spending.

Yes, that means taking something off the other guy's plate. The economy is contracting and that isn't likely to change until nobody is catching this virus. If we can't reshape our economy to function correctly while our human capabilities are limited by this bug, then we're really screwed.

I don't want to find out that the economists, bankers and finance pukes have been wasting these months propping up old rules and expectations. This is the buffer to let them re-work stuff to fit a new reality enforced by biology.

 

Nobody's gonna do all that. For starters there's no effing way I'm scampering around on our (steep, west coast contemptuous) roofs.

 

You do not need them as steep down south.

 

Still no dice. And I'll leave the electrical to someone licensed and competent. HVAC, fences: again I'll call in the pros.

(I've had to add bracing to "professionally installed" fence gates, for sure. But I'll pass on wholesale fence install, thanks. Also did a major refurb of the garbage quality heating and return air circuits. But in the main, I like getting pros in: they're knowledgable, fast, what's not to like.)

 

I beg to differ.

I've fixed several of our cars, overhauled the vacuum cleaner, replaced a bearing in the clothes dryer, replaced my kitchen faucet and basement sump pump, added an outdoor electric receptacle, done a permanent air conditioner installation, repaired a split-rail fence, and just this morning took delivery of some galvanized corrugated panels to replace the roof on my chicken coop.

Mind you I've also hired pros to replace my antique load center, install a new kitchen ventilator, overhaul the water softening system and remove a mammoth tree from my yard.

I know my limits.

 

Exactly. And one man's ceiling is another's floor. Pro's doing a hard/tough job will always be needed.

I keep thinking of one of our neighbours, there were getting their roof redone. They needed to remove the existing sheathing. The roofing crew had one HEROIC guy, balancing full 4'x8' sheets above his head, hands gripping the closer edges, crab walking out to the front of the garage, with a foot on either side of the steep sloped roof. He'd get to the front edge, teeter a little, then fling the sheet to the dumpster bin down below in the driveway.

Then crab walk back and get the next one.

 

I just file this stuff under "being handy." It isn't generally worthy of mention any other way.

I'm still dependent on trades and professionals just like the next guy. I'm just willing to try a little more on my own first.

Robert Heinlein said "Specialization is for insects." I took this to heart a long time ago.

 

I always thought it was fascinating that Starship Troopers was on the US Navy Library's "Professional Development reading program."

Interesting dude.

 

We're digging our way thru Tunnel in the Sky.

 

I think it leads to a healthier relationship between trades and customer too. When I've made a decision to hire something out, it's usually after I've learned enough about it to know what's involved, and why I would rather hire it out. I think that's better for both parties than "I have no idea what I'm asking you to do, just do your magic and I'll pay you."

True, some in trades and professions get very used to being treated as magicians (and go in for those "hourly rate double if you watch" kinds of posters). But I think it has a bad long term effect.

I got to thinking about it that one time I took a truck to have brakes bled and they messed with the master cylinder pushrod at the same time, without my asking, which made all the brakes drag, and after straightening that out, I took it next to another shop, where they messed with the rear brake adjusters, again without my asking, and made those drag.

Both "extra" adjustments were unnecessary, but both would tend to make the pedal feel harder, which I think both technicians figured would make me more satisfied with the work given that I had come in for bleeding. Like "doing the job he asked for will make the pedal feel a little harder, so I can tweak something else and make it feel a lot harder, and he'll think it's a great job."

It was striking to me that two different guys in two different shops both seemed to have some thought process like that, and it got me to thinking what it's like to work in a business where you have lots of customers, and they mostly act like it's beneath them to have any clue what you're really doing, but are also mostly super vocal in reviews about their 'satisfaction' or 'dissatisfaction' with the work you did, that they don't care to understand.

And I started to imagine how frustrating it is when a customer dings you unreasonably for work you know you did well but for something else outside your control, and how the converse is also sort of funny but also dispiriting, when the customer gives a good review for work you weren't completely satisfied with, and you end up getting both positive and negative reinforcement coming at you askew from the real quality of your work.

... and I could imagine how, after a while, you might slide into doing strange things that aren't connected to doing the job well, like extra adjustments that sort of give 'more' of the brake feel that properly doing the job would give, just through being kind of trained into it by that skewed customer reinforcement. You might not even notice yourself doing it, certainly not choosing it out of conscious dishonesty.

So from that angle I think it's much better for the customers and the trades to get back closer to the model of an informed customer hiring work out to a tradesperson or professional who isn't viewed as a magician.

 

On This Old House they would often get the homeowners involved in the reno, something straightforward that would bog the pros down. Sweat equity.

 

i have never met a contractor who appreciated any of my knowledge of their field.

 

I've met both kinds. But I try very hard not to be the nightmare "I looked it up on tha internetz and u shud do it this way" kind of customer.