What's the most important job done in the country?

[Purple]

I'd go for the people who purify and pump drinking water followed by delivery drivers (who stock the shops), followed by the people who keep the sewers in order, followed by the bin men.

Everyone else we could do without for a week or two without society breaking down.
Sewage workers are much more important than doctors or nurses in keeping us healthy.

 

[Berni]

Sewage workers are much more important than doctors

Have you told your wife that?

 

[Purple]

Have you told your wife that?

She'd agree

 

[Vanilla]

Or you could argue, researchers- into biofuels, renewable energies, vaccines etc The list goes on. Maybe not of an immediate importance but for the next generations.

 

[Pique318]

Naples managed for a year without binmen....not that I'd like to have lived there during that period (or at all actually!).

 

[aonfocaleile]

I'd go for the people who purify and pump drinking water

Glad to see Purple thinks that the most important job carried out is one done by public servants! Maybe you're coming round to our way of thinking Purp!

Seriously though, the most basic services are usually the most important - provision of clean water, waste collection and wastewater/sewage treatment. Also emergency healthcare.

 

[Sue Ellen]

Its debatable. I certainly wouldn't like being in intensive care without a nurse there to look after me.

 

[Purple]

Its debatable. I certainly wouldn't like being in intensive care without a nurse there to look after me.

I agree but that won't impact on very many people. No water to drink or food in the shops for a few days and society would break down.

 

[Ron Burgundy]

I agree but that won't impact on very many people. No water to drink or food in the shops for a few days and society would break down.

So the farmers are important then, food doesn't appear by magic in the shops.

Even when a lot of people in this country think that farmers are needed

 

[colin79ie]

The most important job in this country is done by the people who crew all the ships that bring goods into the country. Without them, you would have no machinery to make anything, no chemicals to treat the water, no medicines, no cars, no tractors, no building materials, virtually nothing really. The list is endless. And it seems to be a largely forgotten industry and somewhat taken for granted.

 

[Graham_07]

Naples managed for a year without binmen....not that I'd like to have lived there during that period (or at all actually!).

I can't say that you'd notice the difference in Naples whether they were working or not. It must be the filthiest city I've ever been to in Europe.

 

[mathepac]

The most important job in this country is done by the people who crew all the ships that bring goods into the country...

Its rather ironic then that our little island nation has no indigenous shipping companies - we have one or two with "Irish" in their names but they are Maltese, Cypriot or Panamanian, staffed almost exclusively by Eastern Europeans.

How about that for strategic decision-making?

 

[corkgal]

Can't pump much water without electricity, so ESB workers?

 

[colin79ie]

This would also require ships.

Can anyone name something connected with runnning the country that doesn't require a ship at some stage. (For curiosity)

 

[Sherman]

the most important job in this country is done by the people who crew all the ships that bring goods into the country. Without them, you would have no machinery to make anything, no chemicals to treat the water, no medicines, no cars, no tractors, no building materials, virtually nothing really. The list is endless. And it seems to be a largely forgotten industry and somewhat taken for granted.

+1. We could very easily live without farmers but would not last long without reliable links to the outside world.

 

[Ancutza]

+1. We could very easily live without farmers but would not last long without reliable links to the outside world

Can't be bothered to write a long and involved refutation (if that's the word) of this statement but it is, in any considered argument , closely related to the male reproductive organs.

 

[mathepac]

... closely related to the male reproductive organs.

Gentiles?

 

[Sherman]

Can't be bothered to write a long and involved refutation (if that's the word) of this statement but it is, in any considered argument , closely related to the male reproductive organs.

Ah go on!

 

[Ancutza]

Gentiles?

Nearly there! I can just see thousands of celtic tiger-ite apartment dwellers eating out of their window boxes.

Without food producers we'd be.....well starving.

 

[Caveat]

I think it's yer man who sells the cut price out of date beer and keeps the pub open really late...

Oh sorry - I thought it was the most important job down in the country.