Real-world vs. phantom wealth AND Soap-making book

Link to post by Charles Hugh Smith

I am not going to quote extensively from CHS's post but I will discuss it.

Mr. Smith observes that the education industry and the propaganda it spews are marketing products that are not useful to other parts of the economy. While this has been an issue ever since I was in college, i.e. Liberal Arts majors who were sure they could apply for the CEO position immediately after graduating, it has grown at an exponential rate to where it is the rule rather than the exception.

The current economy needs electricians and line-men and engineers other-than-software. It needs people in manufacturing and people to drive bulldozers and pour concrete. The economy needs nursing assistants and RNs and NPs and PAs and MDs. The economy needs truck drivers and diesel mechanics and tire changers and bridge-builders.

The education industry is spewing out "Influencers" and fashionistas and personal-trainers and perpetually-offendeds. It is pushing a body of knowledge (microaggressions) with a shelf-life measured in months so the graduates have no "knowledge" a year after graduation.

Whereas every mid-sized town (100k) used to have a crew of men who could pick up and put a locomotive back on the tracks using nothing more than railroad-ties, wedges, mauls, ropes and grease, men with those skills no longer exist.

Instead we have countless people of ambiguous gender aspiring to fame and fortune by showing others the RIGHT way to pluck their eyebrows.

We have Twits and Tocs trying to prove the old adage about a million monkeys with a million typewriters.

The ravages of rust, rot and depreciation are making the trestle that holds up our civilization ever-more rickety. The eyebrow designers cannot exist without that trestle.

Doing a favor for a neighbor

Speaking of practical skills:

One of my neighbors is a woman who attends exercise classes with the ever-wise and beautiful Mrs ERJ.

She is also an author. In chatting with her, I found out that she is an author AND she writes about useful skills like soap-making.

She sent me a courtesy copy of one of her books and I found it to be very well organized and illustrated. The content was researched and comprehensive.

For instance, she has an entire chapter titled Chelating Agents, what they are, why you might want to use recipes that include them and what some common chelating materials are.

Spoiler: Chelating agents bind with the elements in hard-water that turn soap to insoluble scum. Elements like calcium, iron, magnesium and so on. If you have hard water you want recipes with chelating agents in them.

The author takes pains to explain why various ingredients are included in recipes. She spends a lot of time on trouble-shooting things like grainy soap and color drift and what fragrances will be durable.

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As a parting thought, the author is aware that most people are probably going to access the book electronically and reference from their device (smartphone or tablet) while making the recipes. She advises that the user access the book on Adobe Acrobat reader to maintain the fidelity of her formatting .

Consider buying her book(s) if you ever wanted to give soap-making a whirl or if you have grandkid who might be interested in the craft. She is not on Amazon and relies entirely on word-of-mouth for marketing.