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Guest Post - Changing the Script
Changing the Script
By
Joe Withrow
Author of "The Individual is Rising"
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“You never change things by fighting the existing reality. To change something, build a new model that makes the existing model obsolete.” – R. Buckminster Fuller
The unsustainability of the current Pax Americana paradigm has been discussed here at length. We know sovereign U.S. debt is exploding exponentially. We know the true debt figure is actually north of $200 trillion – largely consisting of Social Security and Medicare unfunded liabilities. We know the Federal Reserve has pumped huge amounts of liquidity into the financial system in an effort to pump up asset prices and push down interest rates. We know even a slight up-tick in interest rates would dramatically impede the Treasury’s ability to service the US sovereign debt.
We know the official unemployment and inflation numbers are fudged and the economy has not magically fixed its underlying structural problems, thus there will be no ‘growing our way out’ of this mess. We know roughly fifty percent of the U.S. population is dependent upon government benefits in some capacity and we know 10,000 people will be turning 65 every single day for the next decade. And we know that which is unsustainable will one day cease to exist.
But we also know dying paradigms have an uncanny way of hanging around for a lot longer than we think possible.
Upon waking up to the demise of Pax Americana, the tendency is to react with anger. Throw the bums out! Route the globalists! Rebel against the New World Order! Let's collapse the system!
When the state of constant anger becomes unsustainable a feeling of hopelessness and depression kicks in. Everything is corrupt! The police state is omniscient – they monitor everything! There is nothing but injustice everywhere! Society is going to collapse any day now!
The tendency then is to switch back over to anger after the depression has run for a while and the cycle becomes self-perpetuating. The anger says “We need to change it now!” while the depression says “There’s nothing I can do!”
Our anger and depression are both stuck within the current paradigm; we perceive the wall to be higher than what it is thus we make no effort to peek over the top.
There are only two ways out of the anger-depression cycle: (1) re-assimilate back into the matrix or (2) change the script.
Re-assimilation becomes extremely difficult once one has peeked down into the rabbit-hole. Conversely, changing the script becomes surprisingly simple once one takes the time to rise up and peek over the wall.
There are plenty of articles out there discussing all the ills of the current System, and there are equally as many articles explaining why we should be afraid of collapse.
There are also all manner of articles and ideas floating around out there promoting one utopian macro solution after another. Can any of these solutions work? Maybe, but I rather doubt it.
The human race is rather amusing in that, generally speaking, much of it seems to desire conflict, struggle, and competition for its own sake. Some people seem to have a natural desire to play the ruler and boss others around. Some have a natural desire to play the victim and be bossed around. Some seem to wish constant illness upon themselves and they revel in sympathy. Some seem to be chronic gamblers who get a thrill out of risking it all and subsequently hitting rock bottom. Some seem to lack empathy altogether and they enjoy harming others. Some seem to feel the need to play the hero and seek to improve every nook and cranny of the world. Some just want to be free to live their life as they see fit.
It is that last segment of the population that seems to get the short stick throughout all of history. There's always some collective boondoggle demanding their support. Holy wars, witch hunts, manifest destinies, wars for democracy, wars to end all wars, new deals, great societies, wars against poverty, wars against drugs, wars against terror, you name it. There’s always something deemed more important than laissez faire.
Too often the frustrated response is to fight the entrenched System. We can see extreme examples of this by looking back at the many violent revolutions which have taken place throughout history where subjugated people rose up to overthrow their ruling class. Many of these revolutions were in the name of freedom or equality and, when successful, the revolutionaries went to work setting up their own governments supposedly based on their espoused principles.
In some cases the new government soon became more oppressive than the old government – just with new insiders doing the oppressing. In other cases the new government was more respectful of liberty in its infancy. But even these ‘better’ governments eventually became corrupt, bloated, and hostile to liberty over time. The historical record clearly shows that fighting the System is not a long-term solution because it is always grounded in the current paradigm; the fighting is motivated by an intense desire to force change and make the System better or more efficient or more equitable or what have you.
A big part of the problem is people think of government as a service organization. This is what we are taught in our history textbooks and civics classes in the ‘public’ educational system and it is reinforced by news media and popular opinion once we reach adulthood.
But government is not in the service business, it is in the government business. Sure government provides some services. It delivers the mail, maintains the roads, and provides some semblance of legal and defense services that most people would consider to be necessary societal functions. But government doesn’t exist to do these things - arguably every one of these services could be done better and at a lower cost by local communities and private organizations. Government maintains a monopoly on these services only because it must do so in order to keep the masses docile in order to stay in business.
Government, it turns out, is unbridled self-serving force and coercion. That is the government business and that is why all governments, even when originally harmless, are eventually co-opted by sociopaths seeking to use the force of government for their own gains. Mao was correct about one thing: political power does grow out of the barrel of a gun. Even the ‘good’ services provided by government in the current paradigm require coerced taxation with the implied threat of force. Just ask Wesley Snipes if you don’t believe taxation implies force.
Einstein advised “We cannot solve our problems with the same level of thinking that created them”. Yet that’s mostly what I see happening today on many levels.
On the national level, the Tea Party and Occupy Wall Street movements personified anger fighting the System. One side raged against government and demanded more liberty. The other side raged against Wall Street and multi-nationals and demanded more equality. Both movements sought to collectively force change upon the System. While both of these movements have since been co-opted by established interests, the underlying sentiments still linger throughout the population.
On the local level, it looks like every community in the U.S. is spearheading an ‘economic development’ campaign. While the idea may be admirable, these campaigns all seem to be grounded within the current paradigm: they seek more. More tax revenue, more federal grants, more state grants, more population growth, more stimulus, more demand, more consumption, more everything. But more is backwards looking. More worked from roughly 1980 to 2008. It’s time has come and gone.
The solution is to change the script; to stop fighting the existing realty and begin creating the future.
Of course, the established order is not interested in change. Change is a threat. Change means more competition. Change means less power and wealth for the insiders. The establishment – governments/central banks/Wall Street/multi-nationals/Big-Agra/Big-Pharma/Big-Insurance/Big-Science/mega non-profits – will fight against change until their dying breath.
Thus the script must be changed at the individual level first. The individual must lead society, not the other way around.
The neat thing about this is there is no singular rigid model; no one cookie cutter solution. There is a basic regulatory framework rooted in common law (do not aggress upon others or their property) and contract law (do all you have agreed to do and nothing you have agreed not to do) but within this framework there is a blank canvas awaiting each individual artist.
My personal view is changing the script is simple. Not easy, but simple and intuitive. What follows are my experiences and thoughts on changing the script. What works for me may not work for others, so I share my perspective matter-of-factly with no implied suggestions, implications, or judgments. I am under no illusion of significance and I am well aware of the fact there are many others who have distanced themselves from the System much more so than I have. I offer my perspective only because I believe the sharing of ideas is what enables civilization to thrive.
My wife and I met in corporate America. We found ourselves working in the same department at the same mega-bank in the same metropolitan city. We were married at a downtown chapel in that same city a little over three years later. Our lifestyle was modeled after the mythical American Dream because that is what we had been conditioned to seek
It wasn’t long before we started to see through the deception and we made the decision to change the script. We ended our corporate careers, sold our home, liquidated our government-approved retirement accounts, and moved to a rural property with a little bit of land.

Knowing we will never be completely self-sufficient, our first order of business was to make our small homestead as resilient as possible. We stocked up on a reasonable amount of food, water, and provisions, bought a small solar-compatible battery and several propane tanks to store energy, stacked a cord of firewood, made a few minor repairs to the property, and most importantly stocked the wine cellar. After the initial outlay, maintaining this basic level of resiliency costs very little. We don’t think civilization is coming to an end, we simply think it is our responsibility to be prepared for what comes with the inevitable collapse of the funny money Ponzi as well as any other disaster or emergency that decides to come our way.
We have reduced our consumerism and our consumption of processed foods and we save 75% of our income like clockwork. We spread our savings across several asset classes according to our personal asset allocation model with most of our cash held within a high-cash value life insurance policy structured according to the “Infinite Banking Concept” to allow it to compound outside of the banking system and government-approved accounts. We are actively working to create diverse income streams for our family so we do not have to be slaves to a wage and we plan to plant our first garden this coming spring.
While we still carry health insurance policies in case of major emergency, we have divorced ourselves from every other aspect of the corrupt health care industry. Regular exercise and a healthy diet based mostly on paleo principles have virtually eliminated illness from our household. Natural supplements have told Big-Pharma to take a hike. We have no primary care physician nor do we fall in line to get our flu shot.
My wife gave birth to our first daughter in October... in our dining room. We completely shut out the Big Government/Big Insurance/Big Pharma health care cartel on that one.
We paid cash for midwifery services and received much more care, support, and education than we paid for when it was all said and done. Our daughter was born completely naturally without ever coming in contact with a hospital. There were no unnecessary prenatal tests or medications, no I.V.’s, no monitors, no labor-inducing drugs, no pain killers, and no invasive interventions. Upon her birth directly into her father’s hands, there were no meddlers waiting to rush our daughter off to be poked, prodded, weighed, measured, tested, vaccinated, or placed under a lamp. The only things awaiting her arrival were her mother’s loving embrace and her midwife’s gentle inspection.
The midwife made a 36-hour and then a five-day house visit to check on mother and baby and she answered numerous text messages and phone calls at weird hours during that stretch as well. As a result, mother and baby did not have to leave the comforts of their home for more than two weeks after birth. Three-week and six-week office visits that required no form-filling or waiting-room sitting completed our private contract with our midwife. Despite this, she offered to answer any questions at any time via phone or email going forward. Needless to say, there will not be any pediatricians in our daughter’s future. You just don’t go back to the cartel after such extraordinary health care service.
The wonderful homebirth experience was just the tip of the iceberg of our vision to provide our daughter with a mindful childhood free from the forceful expectations and coerced indoctrination that characterize so many American childhoods. Instead of viewing her as an ignorant child to be molded into society’s likeness, our daughter will be treated as a beautiful individual with innate untapped wisdom that very well may exceed our own.
When the time comes we will cater a home schooling program to her unique personality, skills, and interests. Her education will be as rigid and demanding or as free and creative as she needs it to be. As she grows in maturity, her home school program will become more self-guided and our role will move more towards encouraging her to pursue her own unique talents and passions.
Rather than ignoring financial education and hoping Social Security is still around in the year 2079, we will incorporate sound finance into the home school curriculum. Our daughter will learn the merits of saving, capital formation, and asset allocation at an early age. She will understand that fiat money is an illusion not to be cherished, but at the same time every individual has to make their own way.
We will also help her test her skills in the marketplace should she have such a desire. If she enjoys writing we can help her self-publish a book. If she is a skilled musician we can help her record an album for sale. If she likes baking we can take her to the farmer’s market to sell her goods. Any income derived from these enterprises would help her get real-world personal finance practice as well.
There will be no pressure to go to college upon completion of her home school program. We are capitalizing a small IBC insurance policy which will be given to her when she reaches adulthood to get her started on whatever path she chooses. If she chooses college she can go with no student loans necessary. If it is travel that calls to her she will have the means to begin her journey guilt-free. If her desire is entrepreneurial in nature she has the start-up capital already secured. Given the freedom to discover and pursue her passions at an early age, I suspect she will know what her next step will be well before ‘graduating’.
There is no doubt in my mind this script will enable our daughter to quickly mature into an intelligent, rational, logical, caring, passionate, and skilled adult. I contrast this with my own script that involved twelve consecutive years of public education followed by five consecutive years of higher education at a public university. It took me nearly a decade afterwards to shed the social conditioning and indoctrination and to mature into a free-thinking individual. By then my balance sheet was a wreck, my skills had atrophied, and my philosophical awareness was non-existent. Digging out of the hole of my own lost decade was exhausting.
I can’t help but imagine a world full of independent-minded individuals following the script of their own choice. What if individuals with infinite potential were not automatically plugged into the inner workings of the machine to perpetuate the System? What if more people were not exposed to all of the social conditioning throughout their childhood? What if more people did not get their news from the corporate media? What if more people recognized their true worth and settled for nothing less than following their own path? I can’t help but think such a world would be a much happier, healthier, and wealthier place.
But then I stop myself. For now I only need to concern myself with envisioning a world in which one family successfully writes their own script.
The rest is probably none of my business.
Joe Withrow aka ZH's Joe Galt

For more of Joe’s thoughts on the “Great Reset” and the Infinite Banking Concept please read “The Individual is Rising” which is available at
The book is also available on Amazon in both paperback and Kindle editions.
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You have rare insight into the poison delivery system known as vaccinations. That's where we immediately get captured and compromised by toxic injury that develops a subtle anxiety and blind allegiance to the establishment as a result of our helpless toxic injury state.
Besides protecting your kids from the physical toxic agents of our EU Organized Crime hidden cabal rulers, you wisely shield them from the indoctrination of public schools.
Western "civilized" society is a massive hoax and the many inflated and bogus institutions and paradigms like college knowledge, the police and military, monopoly allopathic medicine, the massive welfare, regulatory and social state and many more deceptions and hoaxes are about to collapse with the devaluation of global fiat currencies.
The future belongs to the low cost producer of goods produced by independent, non-government or anarchy societies run by extremely capable, healthy and courageous individuals using guns, shame and private contracts to interact.
Let the great culling of the masses begin.
see Anarchy by Anonymous for a vision of the future
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vpITUBX0FV4
Great article Cog, the comment section on your contributions have always been in my opinion the best discussion to be had on ZH. I guess the sophistic zombies and shills that have besieged ZH lately are too lazy to read lengthy well written articles.
My wife of 50 years taught me one thing - Worry Works (it is really fear, but "worry" is a nice evasion). We prepare for what we worry about. The danger, and opportunity, is in what we don't worry about. Call it the unforeseen.
How does a person prepare for the unforeseen? Some thoughts:
1) Know that no one can predict the future. Everybody is guessing, including you and me.
2) Keep an open mind about everything. Seek opinion and experience. A closed mind guarantees everlasting ignorance. The danger is that an open mind gathers a lot of trash and trivia along with a (very) few solid ideas.
3) Have a set of priorities and principles to separate: a) the important from the unimportant, b) the practical from the impractical and c) reality from fantasy.
4) Avoid judging things as being good or bad. Most things just are. Facts do not require moral judgement but actions do.
5) Concentrate on things that you can change by yourself. That eliminates most of the things on the news (including ZH). No individual has the power to alter geopolitics or macro economics. fugettaboudit.
6) There is a God, all powerful and ever present. Keep the faith along with the personal freedom and confidence that comes with it. God knows what He is doing whether or not we understand or like it.
What the hell? Just what is one more potentially fatal to many thing hanging over our heads really?
I can look around and see dozens of ways things outside my control have become REAL possibilities for my demise. And for my family.
Yep, anger, then depression, sometimes you hit denial somewhere in there again. The soul crying need to go back to that place where "we" were good guys, the "smart" guys were making the right moves and "elections," educations and hard work could change something.
Then I woke up and realized it is all illusion and I was devasted. Then it hit me that I'm a big girl and if I hope in one hand and sh*t in the other I actually know which fills up first.
It amuses me to NO end that those that know the PTB are lying about so many very important things still accept some of their information at face value. Especially with weather, space and medicine. So glad I have opened my eyes completely, not just part way. Bodes better for my family's future survival.
If government supported academics have declared that "all is safe," and it "will pass more than 3x the distance of the moon," my guess is that there is a decent chance we are fubar and it could very well knock our moon out of orbit, or ourselves.
So it goes. Because we are too busy making the likes of Cheney and Rockefellers rich, we couldn't be expected to spend any fiat/amass debt for protection from space could we? For cripe's sakes, we need that money spent on Federal pensions, Blackwater contracts, Mega-Banks gambling losses and corruption of all stripes. Not to mention killing people and researching the poisoning of our population. Just how the hell COULD we hope to do anything? Shucks, we have much bigger priorities than extinction level events. Pah-shaw, the second coming hasn't happened yet, what is anyone worried about? /sarc
I'm finding the trick to surviving an unprecedented collapse of your world is to only allow so much time to be spent learning more and talking about it, only a small amount of worry, work daily on engaging in mediation (so much harder than it should be), exercise and disaster (any kind) planning.
I'm industrious, hard working, smart, good with both books and my hands, can make things from scratch - from food to clothing to other things I need, I'm in decent shape for an old broad and well stocked in items I think will make my fellow man like me more.
Aside from that, I don't want a collapse/destruction, but dah-uym, without it I cannot even imagine how insane and incomprehensible this world is going to get.
Rock and hard place, no good choices, no good outcomes. Such is life. Nobody should have ever promised you it was fair.
And if it, or another, shoe were to fall, I want you all, well most, to know that you have added to my existence and knowledge. For that I thank you and I hope/wish you all, us all, will be back here on the 27th.
Happy Freakin' New Year!
Interesting but, Kinkade like, way too idyllic new life style which I suspect is provided by using some "stash" from previous one.
Do not get me wrong, wish you no ill, and all power to you and your family, in another words this are type of situations that I would LOVE to be proved wrong.
The reason I am saying this is that after I read a "book publishing" "music creations" and "cookies baking" followed by IBC insurance (whatever that is, and more so is it going to be there when needed ?) as if the good chunk of old ways were brought to more romantic setting.
Some believe in putting life energy into ( what they perceive is a safe) "anchor". That may make one emotionally attached to it, since so much has been invested, and prevent him/her to see oncoming danger and leave. New laws can blossom from no where and really make you permanent to that small paradise, with the feudal price attached of course.
That is why some (me) thinks that being "anchor-free" is rather way to go.
No matter where you go, there you are.
Citizen of Sarajevo in early April of 1992, while Spring is battling with last decimated armies of Winter, to his wife: "I smell some crap is about to happen and there may be some food supply interruption but we do not have to worry, we got our garden and I can not wait to put my heirloom seeds into use..."
"The beginning is near", nice picture.
For the rest, tl;dr. If it's about going off the grid, good for you. If it all hits the fan, I want a good view.
The article briefly mentions IBC but does not explain what it is, how to work it.
Here is an introductory presentation.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=trXqdojFH_Y
I also wonder from the article where the income for these investments comes from, not a lot of
cash flow in galts gulch?
I am a big proponent of IBC. It takes a lot resources, careful planning not to fall into their
commecrial contract traps that consume said resources, and a long time when working from small resources,
but really everything is scaled, it should be as effective to small resource individuals at their scale because
cost structure will be scaled to income,
as it is important to higher income people.
And yet I am compelled to fall into all their traps, home purchase with morgue-age, because I am already
trapped in their dead model and need the tax writeoffs above standard deduction because I am trapped,
circular arguments, try to put federali math into microsoft exel, you get a circular function error, it doesnt
work anywhere but in the beltway obelisk moat.
"The best laid plans of mice and men often go astray." Insurance policies are just contracts or promises or lawsuits for enforcement or false hopes. Healthy exercise, healthy diets, a child, home schooling, the right ideas and the like are hopes expecting to triumph, ignoring luck. Systems depend on hopes by its leaders and its sheeple. The flaw of hope is it replaces doubt, thinking and adapting. Scripts presume knowledge of the future's serendipity.
To govern is to control or limit. In addition to control of you, government wants to control other governments. Control or the power is addictive. As you wish to govern your daughter and yourself, your daughter will desire to govern you and herself. Sheeple crave control by a shepherd. Only a few reject a shepherd. Those few are the diversity provided by Nature from sexual reproduction to redirect the flocks.
The US gov't (among others) and the black hole (aka wall street) are already quit adept at 'changing the script'.
“We cannot solve our problems with the same level of thinking that created them”.
Yet we still think that politicians can solve the problems that they created.
That's the business isn't it? Create the problem and then present yourself as the solution...
Does your daughter have a SSN or birth certificate? Have you had to deal with any of the corporatist goons?
How far you can actualize yourself into the future will help determine your destination. Those who will get "assistance" from government will not need to think long term so they will have that time period reduced. That will cause them to get poorer. Those who think that the sky is falling may see no viable future so they will not make the most of their time an talent so they will have their future wealth reduced.
But the sky is falling and the ship is sinking. I hear many people, including myself, are aware of that fact but few are taking effecive actions to change the course of the sinking ship. I hope that your lifeboat works out for you.
Joe, thanks for writing your story. Many readers will parse every word and question specific points and miss the big picture. You broke away and created your own enviornment and for that I applaud you. I too left the mainstream in 1990 and bought a small farm. Mrs. Stengel and I carved out a great life that included 3 boys who learned how to survive without depending on .gov. Figuring out the financial part of the equation after the move requires imagination, due diligence, and hard work. A bold move such as yours provides rewards that will only be dreams for the timid. I hope you develope a network of folks who share your big picture. You, and Cog always give me pause for thought while I'm livin' the dream in China.
It is wonderful to see you in the threads Casey. Thanks for stopping by and sharing your perspective. ;-0
Casey, thanks very much for the words of encouragement. You are right, it is the big picture that drives us and we trust the pieces of the puzzle will fall into place as we go. My regards to you and the Mrs. out there in the Orient - an great adventure I am sure!
Idealism is an admirable trait but beware it's adversary, reality, which will often shows up at the most inopportune time to spoil the party., For example, in spite of all your efforts, your perfect daughter may grow up with ideas that clash with your own views, ideas that you may find unacceptible. Then what?
Ahh, dreaded reality!
Despite my idealist tendencies, I'm not on a mission to save the world. My daughter, as a free-thinking adult, very well may come to different conclusions than I have and I will love her all the same. In fact, very few family members and friends share my philosophy but I find them pleasant nonetheless.
It's only the corporate media perpetuated left/right paradigm that says you must hate anyone with different views.
I think you think that house in the woods of yours is made of wood on a solid foundation but it isn't, it's made of glass, it's built on sand, and you may be in for some surprizes that life will throw at you. Just a friendly observation.
Refreshing response - thank you! A difference of opinion is a beautiful thing. If one can get past their own beliefs, one might actually learn a thing.. or two.
It is only when we feel, or have been conditioned to feel, we must 'own' our beliefs do we feel threatened by others. Most of my 'problems' are created in my mind by my mind and can be solved by letting go of the need to own these damned 'beliefs'.
I am not the best thing since slice bread. Once I accept the possibility others may actually have equal or better ideas than I, and this is OK, I can move on to actually benefiting myself and others with my contributions as they mesh with, and are improved by, others. It is to my masters benefit, not mine, that I compete with your beliefs.
My worst enemy is my false and inflated ego which consistently leverages me against myself and I.
It comes around to attachment. Many build themselves up on attaching to certain beliefs. Challenging those ideas upsets people primarily because it shakes the very foundation they've built themselves upon. It's definitely uncomfortable to be challenged, but like you said about that damn ego, if we can detach from it and stay open to the fact that we do not know everything.. learning happens.
Typical "new person" conversation today.
"So....what do you do?"
No value is found in the person, just in what s/he does and thus, by extension, what they can purchase with the proceeds derived from what they 'do'.
"Well, I'm a mindless consumer. And you?"
"So....what do you do?"
Sorry, that's classified. Can't talk about it.
My stock answer is " as little as possible".
This compulsive doing that we are conditioned to believe is an attribute, is almost entirely, a form of distraction. It does suit emperialistic/capitalistic mindsets, but just a mild logic exercise reveals these paradigms to be flawed and short lived ( relatively speaking). The distraction of doing allows one to avoid the true reality in which we find ourselves. We are, after all, human beings. Not human doings.
Get back to me on that when your daughter turns 16 Bro.
CD,HH,and Joe Galt I have been following your posts (websites) for some years now HH and CD both have inspired me to buy some land and start small scale farming in my spare time. I would like to do more, one issue none seem to talk about is how do you make $$$$ after you unplug from a good job. Fuel, seeds, hay, parts, cows, water etc etc all are expensive. Are any of you working part time jobs? living off investments? do your websites and books bring in enough? or a combo of all of these things.....Dont want to pry just wondering how to do this when your income goes away...... Thank you for any wisdom you may impart....
Ah yes, the "How do we pay the taxes on Tara?" question.
On a continuing basis Mrs. Cog and I are approaching this from two points of view.
1) Reduce as much as possible our need for 'money'. Get out of debt and drastically reduce our need for 'money' by simplifying our lifestyle. We pretty much have eliminated debt and are still working on simplifying our lifestyle.
2) Produce as much as we can by our own hands and minds. Barter what we produce for what we need or sell what we produce for that ever elusive 'money'. This means we must make much of what we need and use our own labor rather than hiring others.
For example, even though we purchased all the components needed to build a (small for now) solar panel (PV) system for our home I conducted extensive research on how to install it and did all the work myself. Look for an article in the next month or two on our website about that entire experience.
With that experience behind me I now have something else of great value I can sell, barter or trade with others. Knowledge and experience is extremely valuable when you don't have it and you want/need it.
A Ha!!! Hippies! I knew it.
Nah. But we hear all the hippies can be found way over in the Republic of Floyd.
Did you solve your pumping problem?
We did and that too will be a subject for a future article on our website once I have installed it.
Ultimately a backup up to the backup plan, particularly a fail safe last chance do-or-die back up plan, should be (much) lower tech than what you are backing up.
We didn't want a situation where the back up generators were located in the sub basement of the nuclear power plant in an earthquake/tsunami zone......if you know what I mean.
Nice job on the panel. Also a big fan of barter and trade systems. They prompt people to produce rather than only consume.
se
self sufficiency and bartering especially when it comes to food, shelter and land accomplish a world of overlapping goals. They not only create new (actually old but tested and true) systems that work, they take you out of the poisonous in more ways than one. That journey makes you healthier and stronger and wiser. They are incredibly efficient methods and remove a lot of the thieves and con men and where's my cut men. I'd rather give nature her cut (thank you wasps, no thank you elected wasps) than un-nature. Finally, they actually do help defeat the bad guys for there's one less sucker
looking forward to your panel post CD
I look forward to writing it. It will most likely be spread out over several posts rather than just one.
More than just technical knowledge was learned on this particular journey. Several times I got in way over my head and each time this happened I pulled back and, assured in the knowledge I would eventually prevail, I took my time to learn all I needed in order to do it right the first time.
The problem was me. I didn't know what I didn't know, but I thought I did know. Turns out I knew just enough to be a danger to myself. Thankfully I pushed aside my huge ego and hit the books several times along the way to right the listing ship.
I was, and am, quite proficient in AC systems and dumb as a door bell about high amperage DC systems. Add to that the fact PV systems are an entire sub specialty of their own and my ignorance showed.
I too worked a day job. Farming for me was a sideline benefit. The goal was always to suppliment regular income with farming. Since we couldn't legally sell milk, our cow was an expense that we chose to keep because I liked getting up before the sun to begin the day milking. I would carry the belly tank back to the house as the sky was showing colors that many never see. I was at that moment the richest man in the world.
The $$ question is a tough one largely because of the fiat monetary system and graduated taxation. It’s very difficult to save $$ when your earnings are taxed away and then your savings are inflated away.
This will be different for each individual but my answer is to stick with the job until you have built other income sources that can help replace at least a portion of your wages. In the meantime I think you have to save at least 50% of your income and spread that out over several asset classes.
As for what those income sources should be: it’s hard to say. For small scale farming I have taken an interest in a guy named Joel Salatin lately and I have his books on my reading list. The Salatin family was successful in building a thriving business out of a small family farm based on non-industrial practices despite only selling to community-based individuals and restaurants. Check him out for some ideas in that arena.
Growing things is valuable and rewarding for its own sake. One may not get financially rich from it, but propagating and growing things has taught me that there is magic in the world, if one looks for it. Properly plant and nurture a seed or twig, and you will get a beautiful plant or tree. It will live its own life, grow, bloom, and wither. It will remind you that we are all connected, but we also live our own, unique, solitary lives. Time is short, make of it what you will. There is much chance and luck in living out our fated existences. Note the seasons, and enjoy each one. They will cycle around again, but only in limited numbers before our time is done. It is too easy to forget all these things, but digging in the dirt and nurturing the plants is an easy way to be reminded of it all.
Salatin does great work and like CD has a great voice
I work a day job.
mrs_horseman is a stay at home horse wife.
Throw out your television and you will be amazed at how much time you and the family have in a day.
can i throw out the people on tv?
"A big part of the problem is people think of government as a service organization."
I'm not so sure about that. I have seen many faces and types of gov, and my impression was that wherever people requested and required gov to be a service org, gov somewhat complied. Imho it's a matter of expectations paired with responses
There was once a little man in India that faced the full might of a whole global empire, and expected it to face itself, and it's inconsistencies and lies. That empire ruled the seas and routinely crushed it's enemies, and yet, the little man won. Because his expectations moved millions to action and even more to... think about it
But you need a positive view, something to offer. Like "you are this way, but I want you to be that way"
So perhaps, just perhaps, people are not thinking enough of gov as a service org? Not expecting more from the naughty child? Not providing the correct responses and incentives?
The little man stood firm. That was...enough
Just a thought to "changing script"
Haven’t voters been lining up in droves expecting more services from .gov for decades now?
That is not what Ghordius says, Joe.
Unless I'm misinterpreting it (and you), what Ghordius said can be interpreted two ways:
"But you need a positive view, something to offer. Like "you are this way, but I want you to be that way"
When I read that, I read coercion...instead of perhaps the way he meant it and you read it, as in: "I feel you are bordering on being slaves and are too dependent on .gov. I want all of you to be less so."...that would be accurate & positive in my world view but maybe not for all listeners who may be insulted and tune me out.
"So perhaps, just perhaps, people are not thinking enough of gov as a service org?"
I don't, I've always thought of it (and them) as mostly inept and easily corruptible. Cynical on my part? True enough and I readily admit it but I do have mountains of evidence...lol.
"Not expecting more from the naughty child? Not providing the correct responses and incentives?"
There are very few things a large central government is good at...or even needed for...and I'm pretty sure something as inept and corruptible as that doesn't need to be responding to every whim, fancy or pleading or incentivizing people to do this or that, thats how we wind up with tickets for jaywalking or seatbelt laws or people "being strangeled to death" for selling loosies, isn't it?
And just why are people (who can) fleeing the cities? Isn't it to escape the burdensome lifestyle they themselves asked for and/or allowed? Its my understanding that the safety and security of law enforcement, hospitals and pizza!!! are only minutes away, its what they asked for, isn't it? ;-)
Lest anyone misunderstand, none of the above is directed at you or Ghordius personally but words (and their intent) do matter and should be explained carefully.
I see local gov potentially responsive but as the layers of the onion grow.....
Kudos sir on the family reformation. Like other dissenters the shackles become familiar and freedom the great unknown. I am seeking a similar result, still in the corporate zoo but debt free and creating a lifestyle that can be sustained at a lesser income. Finding a woman that can be brought about to understand what is reality and recognizing the fascade that hides it is another feat. Your story is inspirational.
Thank you for the kind words. We still have a ways to go as well but we are getting better at embracing the obstacles as a means for growth. As for finding a woman that can see the façade for what it is… that’s a tough one. Madison Avenue is quite skilled at its craft.