1/10/2010

Great Depression Ideas

What stock/company/ futures were successful in and after the Great Depression?
Meat packing for one.
I don't eat beef nor pork; therefore I might consider that a sin stock. This does not hold me back from holding on to shares of Diageo in my 401k, so what I am looking for is the Big new tech thing, the revolution of the next Century.

I start small: Recycled water at home. In California we are facing a serious water shortage, so much so that the Moulton Niguel Water Company has full time water police who drive neighborhoods day and night to cit or ticket those residential users watering on off days. I have reduced water usage in my large and not green household with a few cheap and simple tricks.

First one is adapted from trips to Japan whereby the family doesn't consider the bathtub a place to use soap and scrub, rather they scrub down in a basin and the family shares the hot soak tub. O.K. so I could not ever convince my teenagers this was a good idea but I got them to cut down shower time and told them they can soak in a full bathtub as long as they want IF they recycle the used water to the garden. Took a little re-training (but fortunately teens are easier to adapt than our terrible Chihuahua.

All you need is sprinkler tubing long enough to reach and something like a heavy razor which sits on the side of your tub to weigh down the end near your drain. After your bath you walk downstairs or down (as there has to be some height differential for this to work) and suck to start. If you are squeamish, a plastic nose sniffer bulb used for babies will avoid putting mouth to the straw.

A tub can hold between 75 -100 gallons depending on size. This alone plus shorter showers reduced our usage 40% (mind you I have teens who showered long). So do I sell the idea as a package you can buy on the internet? I think for now I am searching the companies that manufacture the tubing to purchase their stock… depending on price per earnings etc...


1. 1/4 IN tubing is manufactured from high-quality, medical grade. Remains strong in the hot sun and flexible in cool temperatures. Can be used as a feeder line from tub to garden. Length should be from your bathtub/shower to extend down.





Images illustrate items which cost less than$ 5.00 at any hardware store