chillspike (1000+ posts) Wed Oct-12-11 06:06 AM
Response to Original message
25. The problem is you are dependent on others for a livelihood
That is the problem with the world today. Our dependency needs to be shifted off of others, off of employers and back on the earth, the true provider of resources. Then you will discover the life of abundance you are seeking. I highly recommend reading "a different kind of luxury". It is the first step in taking back our independence and autonomy from others.
Okay, let me understand...you want autonomy but you want the government to take care of you. Yeah, that'll work.
But let me ask you: How do you pay for things you can't "get from the land"? How will you pay for internet? Cell phone & cell phone service? How about clothes, toilet paper, soap (okay you guys probably wouldn't buy this). Even if you want to live off grid, it's very expensive to buy & set up. Since none of you have any money you 're not going to have the finances to do this. How about financing? Well, you have to have good credit and show that you have the resources to pay your monthly payment. As a general rule banks don't barter for eggs, wool and goat's milk. So do you do without a refrigerator? Electricity? Even if you imagine an idyllic life with candles & oil lamps (things that also need to be replaced & cost money), how will you charge your cell phone? Use your computer? I supposed you could sponge off friends, neighbors, family but all that requires transportation from point A to point B. There's no bus service in the country so you'll have to have a car, most likely a truck. Hay & feed have to be hauled. Egg layers have to have a certain amount of protein to be healthy enough to lay eggs.
When you first start out of your perfect little life you're going to be spending quite a bit of money just getting started. There's buying the land (even if you think the government should just give it to you, shouldn't you pay the native Americans that it was originally stolen from? If the land doesn't have a house or a barn you're going to need one. You'll also need fencing (this is more expensive than the coop & barn). You'll have to add amendments to the soil & cover crops & seeds. Depending on where you live or how much food you're going to need you might need a green house. Young chicks, ducklings, goslings, kids, lambs, calves all require warmth to grow and thrive. You're going to lose about 10% of your livestock & they'll have to be replaced. It's inevitable that you're going to have a disaster of some kind. It took me years to get enough hens to make a profit on eggs, and it's small. One year I lost 70 birds because I revamped one of the outbuildings across the pond so I'd have a larger chicken coop. A couple of roving dogs, in a matter of hours when I was in town and my dogs were inside, killed them. Didn't even eat them, just left dead bodies everywhere. It was devastating and I'm still rebuilding.
Farming is hard work and considering you're going to have needs and wants that you won't be able to get from your piece of paradise (no one has managed to grow an iPhone yet) you're going to have to work very, very hard for a few years to turn a profit to pay for those things. How do you guys plan to pay for that? Damned if my tax dollars will. My husband has a job off the farm while I'm working to make it profitable enough so that when he's ready to retire we'll have some extra income. It's very slow going. I seriously had no idea how hard it was going to be. I love it now but I'd never done anything like this and was completely lost at first. Think about it DUmmie.
Cindie
