In article , Robert
Sturgeon wrote:

Steve wrote, "No, its just the workshop has changed, it can
live in a computer, for instance, workshops are alive and
well, they are just different, today's workshop can involved
hooking up a wireless router to a wired LAN that supports
Appletalk, before your time it was thatching a roof"

A wired LAN is an artifact of the symbolic economy. It is a
Good Thing, right now. But if what you need is a new roof,
and there is no longer much demand for wireless routers,
LANs, Appletalk, etc., (as would be the case in a post-SHTF
scenario) then being able to mess with LANs and such, but
not roofs, leaves you out.


There are plenty of roofers and roofing companies in my area. When I
needed a roof replacement several years ago, they did it in a tiny
fraction of the time (and effort) it would have taken me to figure out
how to do it, how to order the materials, how to fix the mistakes I
would inevitably make, how to finish the job.

Should I learn roofing now? Not hardly, as my own roof will likely not
need patching in the decades ahead of me. And I have no desire to make
it a career.

Ditto for welding, horseshoeing, logging, midwifing, and all sorts of
other jobs which some/many think will be up-n-coming career options in
the Post-Industrial Economy. ("You, too, can become a farrier. Just
call 1-800-HOR-SHOE for information on our study at home course!")

I expect that the "symbolic economy," as you call it, will become even
more important after a Big Event (SHTF, TEOTWAWKI, whatever). Wireless
networks, even over radio (and satellites, which will remain largely
unaffected) will be used to trade options and access to things.

Consider the rise of cellphones in Mogadishu after the civil war.

E-Bay and services of that sort will become MORE important, not LESS
important. Think about it. Combine online barter and sales with
jitney-type delivery services and new payment approaches and one has a
vibrant sub-economy.

(And vehicles will still be running. This is separate subject, but
there are many, many options for fueling. NG will not vanish, biofuels
are readily made, and even all-electric vehicles are here....one of my
neighbors has a large photovoltaic installation sufficient to charge up
his fleet of vehicles....a few entrepreneurs like this, mediating
trades via satphones and Mobile WiMax, could do quite well trading the
already-extant supply of tools, materials, and forms of money.)


Look to Hong Kong for one example, to Mogadishu for the other extreme.
Both remain heavily "symbolic."

--Tim May