Most Valuable White Collar Profession in T2K

[Raellus]

These are careers that traditionally require at least a bachelor's degree from a four-year university. Farmers, strictly-speaking, do not, but there are four-year Ag programs here in the US, at least, so I'm including them on the list. There's another poll for careers that don't require Uni degrees (i.e trades).

Please share your reasoning in the comments.

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[swaghauler]

I'd pull boilermaker from the vocational list and put farmer there. Farming IS technical, but not quite chemist or engineer technical.

The only issue being that it will skew the results of that poll. The other option is too just admit that farming is tops in importance and delete it from both polls.

[Milano]

I am going with Farmer/Rancher. As a Rancher, we know a bit about everything. Mechanics, Farming, Construction, Veterinary Medicine (which helps 2 legged patients also), Small arms, Tracking, Meteorology, just to name a few NECISSARY skills. Just my opinion, but I look forward to others thoughts.

EDIT ... I was writing my answer as Swag was doing his! Coincidental? 6th sense? Either way, Raellus, you do with as you would like with the poll. I would agree though to an extent. Farming is years of, experience and trial and error learning more than say a traditional college Education.

[Raellus]

@Milano and Swag: I agree with your points re Farmer. I included it in this poll, in part, to make sure Medical Doctor didn't run away with it, and because I think Farmer would dominate the Trades poll if it were included there. I don't think I can edit the polls to remove, Farmer though, so we'll have to see how it plays out in this one.

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[Vespers War]

From listening to multiple sources within the ag industry, farmers are going to be highly variable in usefulness. There are some that spend time figuring out soil fertility, irrigation and drainage rates, ways to combine crops on fields to increase yields and reduce weed and parasite incidence, and otherwise act as good stewards of the land.

Then there are those that just follow the instructions from seed and pesticide companies and farm-by-number. They'd be much less valuable without the massive chemical infrastructure they depend on to tell them what to do.

[CDAT]

Here I am going for MD, on the other one I was one of those who went for Farmer. Yes you can get your degree in Ag, but that does not make you a farmer if you ask me. When you get the dirt on you hands and under your nails now you can call yourself a farmer. I worked on farms (Potato mostly) as a kid, also some on the orchards (Apple and Cherry with a bit of Pears), my father and grand father were farmers, none of us have a degree in Ag (father and myself have degrees in other things, grand father had a 2nd grade education). My niece is going for her degree in Ag, so she can be an Ag teacher in high school. So I am not saying that there is not a lot of skill involved, but I do not see it as a white collar profession. MD on the other hand, very much so, and I am not sure which of the two I would say is the most important, but one for blue, other for white.

[Enfield]

Originally Posted by CDAT

Here I am going for MD, on the other one I was one of those who went for Farmer. Yes you can get your degree in Ag, but that does not make you a farmer if you ask me. When you get the dirt on you hands and under your nails now you can call yourself a farmer. I worked on farms (Potato mostly) as a kid, also some on the orchards (Apple and Cherry with a bit of Pears), my father and grand father were farmers, none of us have a degree in Ag (father and myself have degrees in other things, grand father had a 2nd grade education). My niece is going for her degree in Ag, so she can be an Ag teacher in high school. So I am not saying that there is not a lot of skill involved, but I do not see it as a white collar profession. MD on the other hand, very much so, and I am not sure which of the two I would say is the most important, but one for blue, other for white.

Agriculturalist is a white collar profession. Farmer is skilled labour.

I'd like to change my answer to farmer...

[swaghauler]

I know why Farmer is here, but it really is a "blue-collar" profession. We need three of these professions equally to rebuild... The Doctor, The Chemist, and The Engineer. In a "salvage economy," the Engineer and Chemist become important for rebuilding and resetting manufacturing. The Doctor is obvious.

[pmulcahy11b]

How about Auto Technician? (Not Mechanic, but Technician.) He might be able to get some of those trucks and cars working that were immobilized by EMP. He might also be able to fix some electrical devices that were also damaged by EMP. (Probably couldn't fix something like a computer, though.)