My father and I were talking the other day regarding my post on never being unemployed (which, by the way, he didn’t read — he just skimmed the summary).

“Beth, are you sure that freelance copywriters will always be needed? Do you think there will come a time when people don’t need you to write content anymore?” Papa asked.

I gave this some thought. I think the answer is a definitive “No.” As long as people communicate, they will always need copy and people to write it. Advertising won’t go away. Marketing won’t go away. PR won’t go away. People will always need to find a way to tell other people about new developments, products and services, new features. When I flew to Chicago to speak at a conference on Friday of last week, a bag was attached to my hotel room door. This blurry picture shows the 21 slick, sexy brochures that were in that bag. And those were just the companies that paid the big bucks to get advance publicity to this group of attendees. EACH booth in this giant conference was going to have slick brochures, fact sheets and lots more. And someone has to write all those words.

Now, if the world as we know it comes to an end, and we’re suddenly left without power, communications, printing capabilities, etc, I would imagine that my writing opportunities would be greatly diminished. But that would be the least of our problems.

I think of copywriters the same way I think of housekeepers. People hate cleaning their own houses, but when they hire a housekeeping team, they do housekeeping for a living, so they don’t mind cleaning other people’s houses. People hate doing their own newsletters, and I’ve chosen to do it as a living. Thus it’s easier to ask me to do newsletters and let them get on with things about their job that they enjoy.

So, Pop, I think I’ll always be able to find work, thus avoiding living in your basement.