The economic plus side of Covid-19

[Borchester]

I am retired, I don't have a business and because I am over 70 Boris is about to imprison me in my own home for four months

Then you must stop being retired. This is a global emergencies. And I doubt that anyone cares if you are imprisoned in your own home or workshop, just get cracking on the motorbike repairs. I think that we had best recruit Sampanviking to look after the books and establish relations with all the hippy dippy freak communities in the West Country. They may not be much but someone has to raise the spuds and brew the ale.

[papasmurf]

Then you should think about employing them. You are a petrol head and when the world economy collapses under the weight of its own contradictions and Covid 19 ridden snotty handkies the big motorbike  companies will go down with it. And that will allow a small businessman such as yourself to get a foot in the door. But you are not a kid anymore so you will need a few immigrants to do the heavy lifting. And Tommy is a Scot which means he is a born engineer, so you should be able to find work for him as well.

I am retired, I don't have a business and because I am over 70 Boris is about to imprison me in my own home for four months

[Borchester]

Currently from West London to Slough those workshops are housing for immigrants. (Beds in Sheds)

Then you should think about employing them. You are a petrol head and when the world economy collapses under the weight of its own contradictions and Covid 19 ridden snotty handkies the big motorbike  companies will go down with it. And that will allow a small businessman such as yourself to get a foot in the door. But you are not a kid anymore so you will need a few immigrants to do the heavy lifting. And Tommy is a Scot which means he is a born engineer, so you should be able to find work for him as well.

[Thomas]

I'm not sure that is how it will work this time around.

I think far too many of the little guys are so close to the wall anyway that any statutory shutdown is just going to finish them off once and for all.

By the time we come out the other end and people look to restart, so many of these guys will be broke, in debt and totally screwed credit ref wise, so unless the state starts handing out statusless grants, I see little way back for many of these guys.



To be honest, the way I increasingly look at the possibility of restrictions and quarantines etc - to slow the spread, is in effect passing the cost of dealing with the virus from the state, to the man in the street.

have to say i agree with this.

[papasmurf]

About ten years ago we went house hunting and one of the things that struck me was that every other sizeable property outside or even on the outskirts of London had some sort of workshop in the garden.

Currently from West London to Slough those workshops are housing for immigrants. (Beds in Sheds)

[Borchester]

I'm not sure that is how it will work this time around.

I think far too many of the little guys are so close to the wall anyway that any statutory shutdown is just going to finish them off once and for all.

By the time we come out the other end and people look to restart, so many of these guys will be broke, in debt and totally screwed credit ref wise, so unless the state starts handing out statusless grants, I see little way back for many of these guys.



To be honest, the way I increasingly look at the possibility of restrictions and quarantines etc - to slow the spread, is in effect passing the cost of dealing with the virus from the state, to the man in the street.

Dunno.



I am not talking about making megabucks, but earning enough on the side to let the guy running the main job know that if push comes to shove you will fart politely and head for the door. There is a lot to be said for the modern world but that appears to be one of the things that has gone by the board.



The old boy we bought the house from had his own workshop with a lathe, milling machine and forge. I doubt that he spent more than a few hundred pounds on the lot (I stood to a newer lathe when I was serving my time and that was nearly 50 years earlier) so finance was never a problem and he never seemed short of work. But he once made the point that while he could easily compete on price, delivery dates and all the rest, big just liked to talk to big. So, when big is a little smaller, we might once again see the return of garden shed industries.

[Sampanviking]

I'm not sure that is how it will work this time around.

I think far too many of the little guys are so close to the wall anyway that any statutory shutdown is just going to finish them off once and for all.

By the time we come out the other end and people look to restart, so many of these guys will be broke, in debt and totally screwed credit ref wise, so unless the state starts handing out statusless grants, I see little way back for many of these guys.



To be honest, the way I increasingly look at the possibility of restrictions and quarantines etc - to slow the spread, is in effect passing the cost of dealing with the virus from the state, to the man in the street.

[Borchester]

About ten years ago we went house hunting and one of the things that struck me was that every other sizeable property outside or even on the outskirts of London had some sort of workshop in the garden. Some were pretty much home offices but quite a lot were manufacturing odds and ends for the local area and businesses therein. No one appeared to be making telephone numbers but it did enable the owners to be at least half their own men and women.



As companies grew bigger the little fellows got squeezed out. Partly because of the economies of scale but I suspect also because big tends to forget that little exists.



So it has struck me that if the country grinds to a halt, then a lot of big firms are going to break up and the little chap will have a chance once again and we will end up with a revitalised class of yeomen and women entrepreneurs. And that can't be bad.