A List of Over 500 Sustainable Future Jobs and Viable Occupations in an Energy Scarce Future.
Some already exist, others might never. We’ll see…
1) Organic Farming
Seasonal fruits
Vegetables
Nuts from nut trees
Fiddleheads
Native mushrooms
Maple and birch syrups, others?
Chickens/eggs
Butter, cream, milk, cheeses, cottage cheese, yogurt
Ice cream (solar powerd freezer)
Pies of all kinds; dessert pies, cabbage pies, meat pies, etc
Meats: bacon, sausage, pork, lamb, turkey, goat, chicken, beef, rabbit, goat, venison
Seafoods
Seaweeds
Various flour and grains mixtures
Whole grains
Honey
Salt
Herbs of all kinds
Peaches
Seeds
Vegetable oils
Vinegar
Apple juice and cider
Apples
Baked goods of all kinds (baked in a solar oven)
Jams and Jellies
Sauces
Mixes
Mustards
Berries of all kinds
Pre-order bulk foods with neighbors
Whole foods all from Maine.
Value added products made in Maine with a preference for local Maine ingredients.
Pine (tree) nuts
Organic farming supplies store
Manufacture and sales of composters
Manufacture matches
Manufacture small dairy equipment
Wood products of all kinds
Wooden clothes hangers and clothespins
Fences and fenceposts
Sales and installation of solar panels
Veterinarian
Leather crafts
Making woodstoves
Making wood pellets for wood pellet stoves
Making wood pellet woodstoves
Manufacture, sales and installation of backyard wind turbines out of car alternators, or cheaper DIY kits for sale
Cut rate car repairs
‘Tweaking’ existing cars for more MPG
Local pet food manufacture
Electric car maintenance and battery reconditioning and maintenance
Local candlemaking
Local soapmaking
Manufacture snow shoes
Manufacturing of leather bindings for farm horses
Belt making
The manufacturing and sales of electric neighborhood vehicles, cars
and trucks
Local production of beer, wine and/or hard liquor
Sell scooters and small motorcycles for commuting to work
Delivery of local milk and eggs in an electric vehicle
Pizza, meat and/or dessert pie deliveries to neighbors by electric
vehicles
Farmers’ Market organizer and manager
A local ‘supermarket’ that is a covered, consignment local farmers’
market
Local sheep farm
Local fish farm
A local fishing cooperative
Local cattle farm
Local dairy farm
Local grains grinding and selling facilities
Local bakery or pizza joint using solar ovens
Locally run and controlled, solar powered community radio station
Solar powered radio setups
Local chocolates manufacturing and sales, better yet, use local
substitutes for chocolate
Local bicycle sales/repair (and manufacturing?)
Blacksmithing
Manufacture and sell hand fans and cooling devices of all types, including solar powered, heat convection and manually-operated fans
Manufacture and sell simple well and basement pumps
Make hunting knives
Manufacture snow sleds and skis
Manufacture crossbows and bolts for them
Manufacture gunpowder
Ammo reloading service
Sell used car parts
Car painter who specializes in inexpensively painting any vehicle white to reduce or replace power-robbing air conditioner usage in our future of hotter summers
Roof replacement contractors applying fire-resistant, snow-dumpingmetal roofing to replace combustible and polluting asphalt shingles
Xericulture – low water gardening experts
Permaculture authors and teachers
Raised bed garden design and utilization
Hoop greenhouse construction and use
Rain catchment and drip irrigation system design, sales and installation, also books on it
Below ground drip irrigation experts and system installers (these systems consume only 10% as much water as above ground crop irrigation systems, thereby saving 90% of the water)
Books and classes showing dozens of ways to help any vehicle get better gas mileage (since the poor and newly-poor will be stuck with legacy gas-hog cars, trucks and SUVs for many years)
Any business that somehow substitutes for today’s insurance companies, because they will become uneconomic and will mostly disappear in the future
Run a local time bank to exchange labor in the coming cashless economy
Alternative medicine
Bodyguard or security guard for the wealthy
Share-cropper for the wealthy
Serf for the wealthy
Servant for the wealthy
Build underground (basement) homes that will be safe from big storms and that will be cooler in the summer, and that will require much less energy to heat them in the winter.
Geodesic dome home builder because they are so much stronger than a conventional frame home.
Manufacture small emergency, underground storm shelters for sale and installation
Manufacture bug-proof (screened), animal and storm-resistant garden enclosures and greenhouses with lexan or other materials, instead of glass
Electric or electronic animal warning systems for gardens or chicken coops
Small voltage converters to power computers, and other small devices to use with solar power systems
Manufacture and/or sell mosquito-proof materials such as screening for homes and gardens
Manufacture Lexan covers for PV panels to make them hail-resistant
Make window storm covers out of local materials
Install custom cut foam panels inside windows for very effective winter insulation
Lexan covers for solar panels to protect them from large hail.
Contractors who make homes more storm-resistant
Contractors who make homes much more energy-efficient
Manufacture and installation of severe-storm shutters
Tiny home kits for starter homes
Kits to quickly convert small sheds to home spaces
Manufacture and sales of solar ovens and parabolic solar cookers
Teach how to make an inexpensive solar cooker
Offer cooking classes for solar ovens
A farmers market bakery business based upon using solar ovens to bake bread, pies and/or other baked goods
Natural and organic-based pesticides
Make and sell high quality compost
Sell seaweeds
Seed collecting and selling
Collect honey to sell at Farmer’s markets
Collect and sell maple and birch or other syrup at Farmer’s markets
Electric car recharging station
Sell fruit trees
Plant orchards for others
Sell veggie crops at farmers markets
Sell heritage food seeds
Manufacture and sell high quality manual farm implements
Honey Bees rental, hummingbirds or other pollinating business
Sell hand pollinating equipment for backyard farmers because the bees are mostly gone
Local toothpick manufacturing
Beekeeping classes and books
Beekeeping for honey sales
Commercial electric car charging station (gas station) for Electric Cars with several different chargers for different cars
Manufacture, install and/or run coin and credit card operated public charging stations for Electric Cars
Manufacturing and sales of modular backyard solar ‘gas stations’ for homeowners’ electric cars
Run an organization to lead a non-profit Re-Localization effort in your community
Natural (alive) anti-garden pest-killer creatures, raising, renting and/or selling them
Become an AmeriCorps member
Join the new federal Civilian Climate Corps (after it comes into
existence) to do projects to fight Climate Change
Work for the huge Railroad Rebuilding Act (after it comes into existence) to rebuild America’s railroads, big and small
Needed Books
a) Book – Edible wild foods of Maine
b) Book – How to reduce the size of your home for energy efficiency and
lower your property taxes
c) Book – How to build a very thick-walled, energy efficient one-room cabin
d) Book – How to build and use an outside solar wall heater to heat your
home.
Manufacture and install external solar convection wall heaters for free winter home heat
Run a community library of do-it-yourself and self-help books, tapes and CDs
Tasty cooking classes using basic and nutritious foods – rice,
potatoes, bread, onions, carrots, etc
Cooking classes over the Internet – edible wild foods of Maine organic gardening consultant
Consultant to visit landowners/homeowners and point out their edible wild foods of Maine
Book – How to grow wild foods for their seeds
Book – The Most Nutritious Foods to Grow in Maine
How to raise fruit trees in Maine
Sell vitamins
Class - How to prepare and cook wild foods of Maine for delicious and nutritious meals
Book or class- How to legally survey and subdivide your land to sell the pieces to people needing affordable housing.
Book – How anyone can build minimal, affordable housing
Book – How to super-insulate your home
Book – How to reduce your home size to reduce your taxes
Book – How to build your own (simple) home
Book – How to build your own basic and simple electric car using homemade contactors
Local manufacture of electric car contactors
Do it yourself local road and infrastructure repairs
Book - How to construct your own corduroy, granite and cobblestone roadways
How to quickly and easily convert your car or (4-cycle) motorcycle, moped or scooter to run on natural gas
Book - How to turn your motor scooter into a small, enclosed and very economical all weather car
How to convert your gasoline truck to run on wood gas
Run a Local-Products-Only (consignment everything?) and used stuff retail store in your community
Run a local consignment business using Craig’s List, Uncle Henry’s
and/or ebay
Books – Alternative lighting systems for your home, skylights, batteries, hand crank and pedal powered, solar PV and solar hot water, thermopile on woodstove, hot water with woodstove, wind-powered, wave-powered, river current powered, micro-hydroelectric and/or tidal-powered and LED lighting.
Run a neighborhood electric company providing power to several of your neighbors (for barter?)
Run a grid-tied solar farm to make money from the power company
Run a Junkyard to get recycled stuff for people to buy
Be a tools sharpener, reconditioner and recycler using solar or wind or hand or leg-powered sharpening equipment
Run a small equipment and small engine repair and electric motor substitution business
Production and sales of high quality manual gardening tools
Run a rotary mower conversion from gas to electric business
Manufacture paint made from organic compounds only
Run an Alternative Energy ‘Green’ supplies store
Run a vet-tech/holistic medicine clinic or visits for sick pets
Run a discount LED lights website business
Create and sell simple Do-it-yourself manuals of any kind
Make and sell medicine substitutes made from local herbs and
materials (after the crash)
Mechanic
Carpenter
Seamstress
Garden Tilling service
Manual tools rental business
Sell books electronically over the Internet
Set up local communication networks on the Internet and community
web sites or using bulletin board software
Adult ed classes for teaching basic, practical crafts, and
money-saving skills
Teach supermarket coupon clipping
Teach successful hunting techniques
Teach successful fishing techniques
Build specially designed sailboats for fishing or cargo shipping
Offer hot air balloon rides, using homemade hydrogen as the fuel
Make hydrogen for sale as a vehicle fuel
Woodstove manufacturing, sales and installation
Woodcutting
Small retail business counselor specializing in teaching how to run a business during lean times
Set up a low-rent small business ‘hatchery’ for new small businesses to operate out of (cheapest office space around)
Classes on how to set up and run non-profit ‘stores’ using ‘local’ currencies, such as barter
Local grocery co-op
Local Hardware Store with recycled materials
Run a membership-supported co-op tools loaning business
Make and rent or sell a small, hand-cranked and a small electric cement mixer
Manufacture cement locally
Manufacture hand washboards and wringers out of mostly local materials
Book – How to install an organic backyard or lawn garden (Victory
Garden)
Sell hand-pushed lawnmowers
Sell electric lawnmowers and other electric or manual yard equipment after the ban on gasoline-engine powered equipment goes into
effect
Install or teach how to Do-It-Yourself drip irrigation and rainwater cistern systems
Book on simple and inexpensive drip irrigation systems (saves 90%
of the water usually lost to evaporation)
Collect dandelion greens, mushrooms, fiddleheads, pine nuts and
other wild crops to eat or sell at farmers markets
Local food stores that sell ONLY locally produced foods and baked goods, not huge supermarkets
Manually-operated well pump manufacturing and sales, both shallow
and deep well types
Manufacture a solar powered soldering iron
Clothing repair and patching services
Manufacturing work gloves
Knit sweaters, mittens and scarves
Teach a class on how to make your own (cheap) hand-operated well
pump (India-style)
Consultant to show how to improve your present solar PV setup output
Manufacture high gain TV antennas locally
A sunny day welding, brazing and soldering repair business that is solar-powered
Manufacture outhouses or rental toilets
Local taxi service using an electric car
Local car pooling using an electric car
Local milk and eggs delivery using an electric car
Local bus service using an electric bus
Local services using an electric pickup truck
Manufacture and/or sell small electric cars: Zap, Sunnev, etc
Booklet or Class – How to make a food cooker using almost any parabolic surface, such as a dish-type TV antenna
Book – Maine edible wild foods
Book - How to add an electric motor to your bicycle
Sell electric motor kits for bicycles
Install electric motors on bicycles
Sell electric-assist bicycles
Sell electric trucks
A self-contained, totally solar-powered car that needs little or no outside recharging
A totally solar-powered hot foods stand for fairs, etc (Common
Ground Fair?)
Promote local events, fairs or circuses and/or local-talent-based events and celebrations
Local Saturday nite dance hall operator, or other inexpensive ways for local people to socialize and meet each other after the crash
Local musicians and bands
Nutrition counselor for lean times, including vitamin and herb sales
Grow an herb garden and sell them at Farmer’s markets
Run a Farmers’ Market / Flea Market
Community entertainment organizer featuring local talent only
Affordable local Spirits, Beer and Wine production
Events Organizer for local events
Internet-based entertainment businesses
Games for computer users
Manufacture old-fashioned board games for after TV is gone
Community TV station on cable or streamed over the Internet
Private Dump Operator with selling of recycled/rebuilt stuff
De-construction Contractor/Carpenters who will downsize homes for
owners to reduce their property taxes and their winter heating bills
Farm laborers
Chemical Engineer – Invent a strong, long-lasting, organic-based
asphalt substitute for roadbeds
Recyclers (of anything and everything, especially tools and mechanical things)
Considering future pollution, dust and dirt -- Sales and installation of whole house or single room air filters, using HEPA certified filters
Broom making and sales
Herb growing and sales
Growing and selling all kinds of teas
Have rose bushes and do local perfume manufacturing
Recycle Computers and all kinds of other electronics
Yard and Garage Sale commercial operation in a large covered building
Small-scale gold mining
Open a small, locally-grown market and hardware store right in suburbia before the suburbs must be abandoned
Home Recyclers who tear down abandoned suburban homes to recover the building materials for re-use or sale
Gun sales and repairs
Commercial Building Recyclers who tear down abandoned shopping malls and other commercial buildings to recover the materials for reuse or sale
Commercial companies that specialize in quick disaster recovery (hired by insurance companies?)
Windshield repair business
Affordable building contractors building minimal housing that is affordable
Do-it-yourself plans for building minimal, affordable housing
Book – How to rent a room to a “boarder” (like people did in the past)
Book - How to create and rent an apartment in your basement
Book – How to run a one-bedroom bed & breakfast in your home
Used home building materials sellers
Manufacture and sell solar and heat-powered fans
Make very small wind power units to sell and install on homes for a minimal electricity supply for them
Manufacture, sales and installation of cobbled together wind turbines and towers of all types and sizes
Manufacture and sales of microhydroelectric generators and supplies
Housing contractors specializing in building low income housing
Affordable alternative medicine practitioners
Run a free clinic for basic medical services
Local banks, informal banks, time banks, private safe deposit box providers outside of banks, private PO Boxes rental , secure space rental
Insurance sales, insurance will only be affordable by the very wealthy because of violent weather (and flood insurance won’t exist in the future)
Security guard for the compounds of very wealthy people
Run a security company that services the rich
Gardeners and sharecroppers (serfs) to feed the very wealthy, and
survive themselves
Run a ‘bartering store’, or other business where people can work or
barter for food items, instead of a paycheck (local currency)
Run a co-op grocery store
Run a co-op savings and loan
Run a used furniture store
Run a used clothing store
Beer, wine and whiskey making books, kits and accessories for individuals to make their own
Organic gardening consultants of all kinds
Foaming or covering the outside of homes services to save them from burning when a forest fire is approaching
Cleaning up and detoxifying customers’ poisoned front lawn soils so they can be used for food gardens
Outside non-toxic foaming of homes to much better winterize them in only minutes
Handyman, general fix-it guys and gals of all kinds
Local mechanics who specialize in keeping older cars running
Sell home foam insulation panels that are made from organic materials
Manufacture, sell and/or install thick, heavily insulated siding panels to be applied over existing home siding to better insulate homes.
Invention, manufacturing and sales of new organic-based home building materials that are healthier and better deal with Climate Change
Consultant for advice on how to convert a commute to a telecommute
Sell electricity to neighbors from solar panels, windpower or microhydroelectric setups, or, better yet, trade it for food
Basic sailboat manufacturing for fishermen, businesses, transport
and recreation
Small sailboat building instructions (for future inexpensive, no-gasoline recreation)
Sailing instructions
Sailboat sales local business or thru a website
Heat pump manufacturers, sales and installers
A class Teaching Food Preservation Techniques such as sand boxes, root cellars, canning, drying and perhaps freezing foods
Solar oven manufacturing and cooking classes and recipe books
Manufacturing and/or sales of solar powered refrigerators and other innovative food-cooling devices
Book – How to turn your home into a greenhouse. Hint – Think porch conversion to a greenhouse, inside/outside window boxes and/or skylights
Energy efficiency consultants
Dump mining and formerly closed landfill openings
Sell Biogas recovered from landfills
Run a dump ‘store’ at the local municipal dump
Plans for and/or sales of cheap, basic electric cars, bicycles and
motorcycles
Run a commercial composting business, deliver it using an electric truck
Run an affordable bicycle store – make them
Discount and used goods stores of all kinds
Conversions of gasoline-powered small garden equipment to electric motors
Conversion and/or manufacturing of solar powered tractors
Sales of recycled house materials
Bicycle manufacturers, mechanics and recyclers, especially inexpensive, basic coaster bicycles
Security officers of all kinds
Manufacture shotguns and ammo for them
Mass Transit jobs of all kinds
Train system jobs of all kinds
Car and bicycling pooling system administrators and coordinators
Online instructors or run or teach in a vocational school of all practical skills
Electric car dealerships and repairs
Shotgun, rifle, ammo and reloading services and sales
Trade and sell .22 ammo
Book – Cooking Maine wild game
Book – Backyard chicken ranching for food
Book – Backyard rabbit raising for food
Teach or do small scale gold mining
Custom reloading services for hunters
Tree services, from trimming to removal
Land clearing services for new gardens
Loam and organic fertilizer sales
Sell farm and garden fertilizer made from ocean materials
Make food items from seaweed
Invent home-scale ocean-powered energy systems
Service: Copying family photo albums to CDs before disasters
Manufacture and sell gardening tools of all kinds, especially high quality hand tools for gardening
Permaculture and other gardening techniques Classes and Books
Composting devices of all kinds
Composting toilets
Worm bins and worms
Cistern supplies
Manufacturing and sales of super-efficient home appliances
Florescent, halogen and LED light bulb sales
Cutting and selling firewood
Getting solar installer credentials
Electricians of all kinds, including solar, windpower and microhydroelectric power
Do it Yourself information providers of all kinds, Internet and books
Medium and large farm implement manufacturers and sellers
Garden tilling services
Farm animals veterinarian
Books - Do it yourself pet care
Snow plowing/snow blowing services, occasional, but heavy duty snow clearing services
Flood control consultants and specialists
Basement patching and pumping out specialists
Instant water heater dealers and installers
Solar water heating sales, installation and do-it-yourself books
Solar hot air heating manufacturers, salespeople and installers
Fire and other disaster recovery services
Contractors who specialize in passive solar home design and building
Small Cabin builders, cabin kits and plus do-it-yourself books and CDs
Community Cabin-Raising teams for small, affordable housing
(Smaller homes, better and more sustainable idea than Habitat for Humanity that builds big, conventional-size homes)
Local Home insulating teams
Well drillers, well reconditioners, well cleanouts and well deepeners
Well pump installers
Chemical Engineers (For the changeover to organic-based plastics,
etc.)
Anything that will improve the gas mileage in peoples’ already-owned vehicles
Anything to improve, make less expensive or make solar electricity
easier to implement
Make any item sturdy with quality that is not planned obscesence
Book - Do it Yourself info on how to increase gas mileage in existing vehicles
Run a gasoline to electric car conversion company
Electric vehicle-related manufacturing and aftermarket jobs of all kinds
Tiny home designers and builders (extrapolated from the Tiny Homes and the Small Homes movements that are on the Internet)
Extreme Heat Abatement Teams
Drip irrigation sales and installations
Local video and movie-making companies for a local movie theatre
Develop and sell a cheaper way to air condition or cool a home or a single room.
Contractors who will build a ‘people cooling room’ in any home
Fire recovery services or recyclers for burned homes
Basement dewatering, patching and waterproofing services company (to deal with the heavier rains in the near future)
Some vegetarian restaurants might have a chance of survival
Sell a survival food easy storage system that keeps everything organized
Sell survival foods
Manufacture of weather-resistant greenhouses for food production (For increasingly commonplace future hard rain, hailstorms and other violent weather)
Inexpensive emergency home ‘lifeboats’ for newly flood-prone areas
Run a shared local community water system from one well
Car restorers/detailers/sellers of older, high mpg cars like the original little Geo Metro, the Ford Fiesta and Festiva, etc
Any business with any economical way to make current vehicles, and especially SUVs, get much better mpg
An ‘economical driving techniques’ one-day class to teach people how to drive to conserve and get much better gas mileage with their current vehicle
A Victory Garden class
A class on how to build an underground home that is both weather and disaster-resistant
Windowbox food growing class, especially for use during the winters
Class on container growing of food
How to make solar ‘window radiators’ for free winter heating
A local cottage industry making solar cooking ovens
A local cottage industry making solar panels from individual solar cells
Electric car building cooperative for a community (electric bus, ambulance or firetruck)
Basic, minimal electric car manufacturing and sales (inexpensive3-wheelers)
Blacksmiths
Veterinarians
The manufacturing of solar heat and electricity panels and related equipment
Electric Bicycle Conversion/Production, sales and maintenance services
Small solar panel production kit for electric bicycle recharging
Small solar panel sales for minimal electricity system kits for homes
House Movers (especially for along the coasts with rising sea level)
A class on Inexpensive Kitchen and Bathroom Upgrading
A class on how to build and use an outhouse
A class on how to build and utilize a composting toilet
A class on how to make and use a composter
Basic computing classes
How to make a cool room in your basement for a hotter climate
Invent a device to keep your home’s deck (floor) attached to its foundation when violent storms hit, and the rest of the house gets blown away
A class on multi-disaster preparation
A class on survival food storage (now recommended by Public Service ads on TV) because the gov’t isn’t going to help you
Local newsletters and newspapers, using online delivery
Provide very local Internet access
Set up a local ‘town internet’
Cheap, local website design services
Manufacture small wind turbines out of car alternators
Underground Home Builders and Salespeople
A community ‘barter-master’ ombudsman: a conflict-resolution
specialist to reduce local conflict
Local constable
Storm/Disaster Recovery services for homes
Religious Leader
Commune Leader
Commune Defender
Everything horses, oxen and mules
Managers of property of the very rich
Private armies for rich warlords
Politicians
Home and Self Defense training
Working for public transport, bus or light rail
Anything and everything associated with Organic Farming
Water desalination equipment, sales, installers and engineers for
both large and home scale systems
Heat pump installation and servicing
A store like the non-electric Lehman’s – Live like the Amish!
Solar-powered minimal LED lighting systems for homes
Rainwater gathering systems for automatic watering of gardens (with shutoffs, diversions, etc)
Water filtration systems of all types, especially low-tech solutions
Manufacture and sell insulated window and doorway curtains with Velcro strips to seal them to keep homes warmer in the winter while using less energy
Hardware stores
Vocational training or schools
Electric lawn mowers and electric yard tools manufacture
Manufacturing all kinds of manual yard tools
A local battery exchange and repair store for the batteries in electric cars, generators, lawn mowers, etc
Home distillers for ethanol production from any organic detritus
Small scale local vinyards for wine sales
Air conditioner and swamp cooler sales
Community garden managers
Co-op share farming
Community shared agriculture
Community gardens
Any solar-powered home appliances
Home tubular skylights and installation of them (For free interior
daytime home or office lighting)
Ice cream shop (solar powered)
Selling local farm products door-to-door in electric vehicle
Fish farming in tanks on land
Local doctors, nurse practitioners and midwives
‘Penny’ candy made from local food sources, sugared candies the same, maple syrup products
Maple Syrup production
Local rail transportation systems
National rail transportation systems
Tool rental companies will thrive as Do-it-yourself becomes necessary in the future
Manufacture solar ovens
Manufacture and use solar welding equipment
Make Scythes
Manufacture single shot rifles and/or muskets
Make snowshovels
Make sturdy fabrics for workclothes, and make workclothes
Knitting
Weaving
Make knitting yarn
Looming of practical items; rugs, blankets, ponchos, etc
Papermaking and ink and quills
Make quilts
Knit mittens, hats and scarves
Make shoes and boots
Make knotted rag rugs
Grow hay for other’s horses
Distill whiskey from fruits
Pick and sell wild berries, mushrooms, dandelion greens, rose hips
Grow a garden
Make sourdough bread
Stone grind wheat and other grains
Make rolled oats
Collect maple syrup, birch syrup and other tree syrups
A tool repair business
A tool sharpening business
Make external solar wall heaters
Make frying pan solar cookers
Make sun-dried bricks from mud for construction jobs
Make knives
Blacksmithing
Make belts, hats and other leather goods
Make woven baskets and other woven products
Make basic high quality furniture
Grow pepper and dry salt
Make spice mixes to put on food
Make toothbrushes out of local materials
Make and sell mosquito headnets
Reload ammo
Make solar wall heaters
Make gunpowder
Make paint and cheap brushes
Make candles and candleholders
501) Make breadboxes
502) Manufacture herbs and medicines based on 20th century science
503) Sell used guns
504) Make 100% wooden washboards
505) Manufacture sundials
506) Make pickles and pickle relishes
507) Make handmade ice cream w/o rock salt, using solar power . Get a
small solar-powered refrigerator for the ice cream
508) Make rowboats
509) Make sailboats
510) Make cheap cosmetics, hand creams and perfumes
511) Make hunting knives (collect files at yard sales)
512) Make a still to make whiskey
513) Make wine
514) Make small scale biofuels
515) Collect French fry oil
516) Modify others’ vehicles to run on French fry oil
517) Manufacture clothes wringers
518) Manufacture metal washboards
519) Used clothing store
520) Food smokers
521) BBQs that use wood for fuel
522) Single burner camping stoves that use twigs
523) Tents and sleeping bags
524) Sell small gas scooters, plus electric scooters
525) Small scale hydro or ocean energy projects – maybe
526) Small creek turbines
527) Welding service
529) Grow and sell tobacco
530) Catch fish locally with a fishing rod and sell them quickly
532) Grow/grind grains of all kinds
533) Tools sharpening service
534) Tools rental business (barter)
535) Build root cellars
536) Set up raised bed gardens for others
537) Local handyman
538) Develop small plots of land (2 acres each) to sell to land seekers
Bad Ideas – Jobs and Career Fields with Probably No Future
1. Travel agent
2. Ethanol from corn
3. Big Rig long distance Trucking
4. Auto dealer/salesman
5. Working for any of the ‘big box’ stores
6. Delivery services of any kind, except local by bicycle or electric vehicle
7. Employment with UPS or other long distance shipping companies
8. Maritime shipping
9. Crop dusting
10. Corporate white collar jobs
11. Tractor sales and service, and other large farm machinery
12. Expensive website design companies
13. Taxi driver (unless he has an electric car)
14. Restaurant business
15. Supermarket employee
16. Consumer electronics store employee
17. Computer store employee
18. Fancy clothing stores employee
19. Any large-scale business will go under
20. We won’t need many software programmers
21. Power plant engineer
22. Insurance agent
23. Art galleries
24. Anything associated with the ephemeral “Hydrogen Economy”
25. Very few biofuel opportunities
27. Organized sports if it is based on high tech equipment
Any big sports organizations - people won’t be able to get to the stadiums
28. Any ‘high tech’ job
29. The educational bureaucracy at any level , other than home schooling
30. Anything associated with the airlines
31. Most state and federal jobs
32. Overpriced tourist-oriented gift shops
33. Tourism of all types (high gas prices will kill Maine tourism)
34. Hiking businesses (too many mosquito-borne diseases and bugs in the
future, plus too hot)
35. Eco-tourism will disappear except for safaris for the very rich
36. River rafting companies - gone
37. Wilderness guides – little work
38. Local and Ocean commercial fishing – not enough time at sea or fish to make a living
39. Any boating business, except maybe pedaling, rowing, paddling or luxury yachts
40. Car customizing shops
41. Major brand motorcycle repair shops
42. Gasoline and diesel tractor sales
43. A used Hummer car lot
44. Running a gas station
45. Most slow food restaurants will evaporate, while a few fast food
restaurants will struggle to survive for a while longer
46. Artisan bakeries and pizzarrias, unless solar ovens are used and their prices can be kept reasonable
47. Wilderness guides and river rafting companies
48. RV campgrounds
49. Bed & Breakfasts, motels and hotels
50. Selling SUVs, big trucks or any other gas guzzler vehicles will be out of business
51. Selling anything to the public that is new and completely unnecessary will stop
52. Most of the cheap Chinese goods sold today will leave the market
53. The selling of most luxury items for the middle class will stop, only to the rich
No more kitchen makeover companies
54. High end beauty products will capitulate: very expensive designer shampoos, cosmetics, perfumes, etc - gone
55. Stores selling diamond rings and other expensive jewelry - gone
56. Mid-level restaurant chains; Olive Garden, 99, Dennys, etc - gone
57. All of the All-You-Can-Eat restaurants will disappear
58. Shopping Malls will empty and crumble
59. Steak Houses will fade as meat becomes too expensive for most
60. Maple Syrup and honey will skyrocket in price
61. Beekeeping won’t be a viable career soon
62. Cable and Satellite TV businesses will lower their prices, but still will not make it
63. There are many alternative telephone companies - most of them will disappear in the future
64. Colleges and Universities will have very few students, so the numbers of such institutions will shrink by at least 90%
65. Supermarkets will evaporate, and only small, local goods markets
will survive
66. Wal-Mart, Target, Lowes, Home Depot, Sears, Macy’s, Borders Books,
etc - all gone / Amazon.com will stay in business
67. Snowmobile and ATV dealers will become extinct
68. Stores selling gasoline engine powered yard and garden equipment will no longer be allowed to sell them – out of business
69. Yard work and landscaping companies will fade as people can no longer afford them
70. The major motorcycle companies will downsize radically, or disappear
71. Detroit will finally make small cars and make less money, or they’ll be out of business
72. The home health care industry will boom for a while, then fade to black
73. HMO’s will disappear as a phony money-grubbing relic of the late 20th century
74. Home delivery services of all kinds are unnecessary luxuries that will eventually evaporate
75. Balloon bouquets will finally go bust
76. Wine bars are doomed, beer pubs will survive as a popular place to
commiserate
77. Water bars are stupid, unnecessary, a crime against humanity and are doomed
78. Starbucks will be an early casualty. Their outrageous prices and stupid yuppie appeal will be their demise
79. TV will continue to be the leading propaganda tool of choice for gov’ts
80. Ski shops are stupidly expensive and will pay the price with bankruptcy The same goes for upscale bicycle shops
81. The ‘Upscale’ camping stores, Eddie Bauer, LL Bean, etc will radically downsize or simply go out of business
82. Ice climbing gear will become passé and simply too expensive
83. Sea Cruises for the masses will switch over to only the very rich on much smaller, fancier and slower cruise ships
84. High tech medical centers will have few customers – the doctors will finally get what they deserve – less money, and then their young, trophy wives will torture them endlessly demanding they bring home more bacon
85. Furniture stores will have to finally give good deals to the public, or go out of business (bet on the latter)
86. Most appliance stores will go out of business
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The assumption behind this list is that the present American economy is going to collapse soon due to Peak Oil, Climate Change, Unsustainable Debt and the Falling U.S. Dollar .
Hope you find this list useful.
