oxymoron
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People need their pensions for sure and society should look after the elderly but what the hell do you need $48,000 per year for?!!
The biggest year I have ever pulled is $25,000 Australian dollars and live very comfortably. Do we need overseas holidays? Motorhomes? New anything? I mean we all crap on about making and fixing things here and caring for the environment etc. – The only way I know to bring down corrupt morally bankrupt pricks at the top of the trophic pyramid is to not. buy. any. of. their. shit. Which means very literally to not require a great deal of money.
Within reason I guess but if I was getting $48,000 each year – man I would be kicking goals.John Day, I agree that vegetables and eggs etc. produced at home is far more expensive than if you were even working minimum wage jobs to pay for even organic produce. Without the huge energy component in the mix of our lives it would be a much larger chunk of our income/time spent on food being a necessity of our existence. When many years ago Nicole Foss advocated here to gain some control over the necessities of our existence I factored food production too heavily in the mix for what the situation is now. Now it is more about debt minimisation, tight social cohesion with friends, clients etc, then fuel and water etc.
I guess I am saying I have worked out that it is better to earn a dollar right now and set up the infrastructure for survival/thriving as things get tougher rather than purely homestead (which baby boomers had a better shot at funding than we have now (I’m in my early 40’s).Here in Australia potatoes are $2 per kilo (which is a lot of calories) and when you can get $40 per hour gardening or consulting or building and $20 per hour to be a farm hand or dish washer or whatever – you work out over time that a lot of energy is wasted in the garden and that the time for gardening may not be now. Planting nut trees and citrus and Oaks – perhaps, because of the long turn around time but potatoes – no.
We learn a lot from looking back at history and it helps with risk analysis in terms of our life decisions but we best be careful not to dwell and chew up huge hours altruistically gardening or on the net lamenting if we don’t have our financial position first sorted out. Having said all that I still put in at least 10 hours a week in my garden and get very pissed overtime a wallaby or an insect takes my harvest!
My 2 Cents
“Forgive them for they know not what they do” in no way evaluates what they do – there is no judgement.
I guess when shit gets really dark – we have to find some light to turn to – find it where you can and if you can’t – be still and try not to be the author of your thoughts.
The french revolution hinged on debt and scarce food – basically liberal economists deregulating the grain market. Any parallels with the world right now? I mean water is a commodity and unsustainably managed – think Vegas. All this we know but the conditions for shit going cray-cray are quite good. Raul’s post – Unrest in the only growth industry left – sums it up.
Anyone watched Kate Tempest. New voice cracking through hyper normalisation. The track is called Europe is Lost
Things looking more shaky-wakey all the time here in oz.
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2017-02-09/national-debt-helpline-overwhelmed-by-calls/8256508And while I’m on a rant. The way out of consumption (consumerism) is production. i.e. making stuff. Not reconfiguring stuff which is what you do in cities – get raw product like the last wild fish in the world and craft you’re amazing sushi or whatever. I know I sound a bit binary and it is never as simple as that but there is not enough actual action going on and debt is one of the big blocks to getting shit done. I dunno what I’m trying to say but I just built a whole house out of tiles and wood and dirt and straw and windows and electrical conduit and cans of paint etc. that pretty much all came from the dump or the side of the road. The average house in inner Melbourne is now 1.5 million and the debt load on these idiots is astounding. Me and the wife owe 30 thousand and even that is too much but I mean come on people (not you good folk on the forum) stop buying shit and start making shit!!!!
ahhhhhhI still dunno about Der Spiegel – What had happened to this once-proud country? . I thinks it’s called running out of stuff you numb nuts. You only get to be all confident and proud when you are rich and prosperous. Why do so many journalists look through this prism of trying to understand cultural and social changes without thinking about energy and finance. Have any of them read Limits to Growth or did they not get time while on assignment to cover another story about how their heads are up their arses.
Get the hell out of the cities and make yourselves useful. Chop some wood. Build a compost toilet. Help the poor. Grow some vegetables. Be the change. Man
It’s like a jungle sometimes
It makes me wonder how I keep from going under
It’s like a jungle sometimes
It makes me wonder how I keep from going under[Verse 1]
Broken glass everywhere
People pissing on the stairs, you know they just don’t care
I can’t take the smell, can’t take the noise
Got no money to move out, I guess I got no choice
Rats in the front room, roaches in the back
Junkies in the alley with a baseball bat
I tried to get away but I couldn’t get far
’Cause a man with a tow truck repossessed my car[Hook]
Don’t push me, ’cause I’m close to the edge
I’m trying not to lose my head
It’s like a jungle sometimes
It makes me wonder how I keep from going under[Verse 2]
Standing on the front stoop, hanging out the window
Watching all the cars go by, roaring as the breezes blow
Crazy lady, living in a bag
Eating out of garbage pails, used to be a fag hag
Said she’ll dance the tango, skip the light fandango
A Zircon princess seemed to lost her senses
Down at the peep show watching all the creeps
So she can tell her stories to the girls back home
She went to the city and got so so siditty
She had to get a pimp, she couldn’t make it on her own[Hook]
Don’t push me, ’cause I’m close to the edge
I’m trying not to lose my head
It’s like a jungle sometimes
It makes me wonder how I keep from going under[Verse 3]
My brother’s doing bad, stole my mother’s TV
Says she watches too much, it’s just not healthy
All My Children in the daytime, Dallas at night
Can’t even see the game or the Sugar Ray fight
The bill collectors, they ring my phone
And scare my wife when I’m not home
Got a bum education, double-digit inflation
Can’t take the train to the job, there’s a strike at the station
Neon King Kong standing on my back
Can’t stop to turn around, broke my sacroiliac
A mid-range migraine, cancered membrane
Sometimes I think I’m going insane
I swear I might hijack a plane![Hook]
Don’t push me, ’cause I’m close to the edge
I’m trying not to lose my head
It’s like a jungle sometimes
It makes me wonder how I keep from going under[Verse 4]
My son said, Daddy, I don’t wanna go to school
’Cause the teacher’s a jerk, he must think I’m a fool
And all the kids smoke reefer, I think it’d be cheaper
If I just got a job, learned to be a street sweeper
Or dance to the beat, shuffle my feet
Wear a shirt and tie and run with the creeps
’Cause it’s all about money; ain’t a damn thing funny
You got to have a con in this land of milk and honey
They pushed that girl in front of the train
Took her to the doctor, sewed her arm on again
Stabbed that man right in his heart
Gave him a transplant for a brand new start
I can’t walk through the park, ’cause it’s crazy after dark
Keep my hand on my gun, ’cause they got me on the run
I feel like a outlaw, broke my last glass jaw
Hear them say “You want some more?”, living on a see-saw[Hook]
Don’t push me, ’cause I’m close to the edge
I’m trying not to lose my head
It’s like a jungle sometimes
It makes me wonder how I keep from going under[Verse 5]
A child is born with no state of mind
Blind to the ways of mankind
God is smiling on you, but he’s frowning too
Because only God knows what you’ll go through
You’ll grow in the ghetto living second-rate
And your eyes will sing a song called deep hate
The places you play and where you stay
Looks like one great big alleyway
You’ll admire all the number-book takers
Thugs, pimps and pushers and the big money-makers
Driving big cars, spending twenties and tens
And you’ll wanna grow up to be just like them, huh
Smugglers, scramblers, burglars, gamblers
Pickpocket peddlers, even panhandlers
You say “I’m cool, huh, I’m no fool.”
But then you wind up dropping outta high school
Now you’re unemployed, all null and void
Walking ’round like you’re Pretty Boy Floyd
Turned stick-up kid, but look what you done did
Got sent up for a eight-year bid
Now your manhood is took and you’re a Maytag
Spend the next two years as a undercover fag
Being used and abused to serve like hell
‘Til one day you was found hung dead in the cell
It was plain to see that your life was lost
You was cold and your body swung back and forth
But now your eyes sing the sad, sad song
Of how you lived so fast and died so young, so…[Hook]
Don’t push me, ’cause I’m close to the edge
I’m trying not to lose my head
It’s like a jungle sometimes
It makes me wonder how I keep from going underLook Donald is gonna give it his best shot through the eyes with which he sees. He is a human being and a goal-oriented one. In the world of bodies and time and space what else have you got? By the time you get to 70 I imagine you have seen a great many ambivalent points of view and that has to soften your position – I mean just having less time left to be alive is humbling and I reckon the man is more humble than people realise – not that I give a shit. I think he has an ego – he wanted to be President – but if you woke up this morning breathing then so have you – the body being the symbol of individuality. Let us bring power back towards ourselves by taking a little more command over the necessities of our existence bit by bit and then or (hopefully during) bring peace to our mind by remembering that a whole lot of bad shit is going on all the time but what has it got to do with a mind that can simply look – wait and judge not? (well maybe a bit of judging….- who am I kidding a lot of judging).
Thanks for a great post Raul.Dr. Diablo – well argued. I am sick of Spiegel and their take on just about everything – they are a nothing but media slaves seeing the world the way they are told to see it. It’s getting annoying like the whole team needs sacking and replacing with people who know stuff. I am also getting tired of seeing pictures of the KKK in the newspaper over here in OZ to support notions of the evils of retreat from globalisation. I am so glad for your vent and I would go on a big one but I am not much articulate on stuff. But I aint stupid either, unlike most people with jobs in media these days – because we now hire stupid people because the adds selling shit for global markets pay for their stupid jobs!
I’m so irate I’m going outside to water my fruit trees and plant some dope! I’m gunna need it.What is going on with Spiegel? Coming across as in bed with Empire. Like it’s a good thing the middle east is in tatters or something. I have to say maybe they should just stick to finance or maybe writing little pieces on Jazz in Germany or something – I would maybe learn something – I don’t even understand the premise here.
I don’t see any specific reference to her femaleness and fail to see what it has to do with this article. She may not be ‘that bad’ but there seems to be enough questions to warrant investigations. Margaret Thatcher is a great example of females being completely ruthless arseholes and still getting positions of power, but she didn’t try and poke Assange in the eye did she – “Can’t we just drone this guy?” Clinton openly inquired
I think rapier has some interesting angles here but ‘soft’ sort of domination may be a bit of a stretch – think Syria, Vietnam etc..
Let’s make America great again is however a hopeless cause given the context. I think they mean Great like when cars were huge and white people ran the show like the 60’s and 70’s don’t they? Raul is spot on with the whole end of growth thingy – less to go around means more ruthlessness me thinks. Bill Mollison just passed away and barely made the news even though people as notable as Prince Charles are keen students – so permaculture and the like is out- Robots, surveillance and the running out of stuff is in.
PooI know we will have structural change when the dust settles but all land confiscated….? I guess they did it to indigenous cultures the world over but that was a lot of peoples and their power structures versus very few people. I am inclined to agree with Nicole that there will be political and financial upheaval in the event of these sort of controls. Or alternatively it just gets harder and shitter by increments every. single. day.
Banks are like foxes; and netting to protect the chickens (family) is essential. I have noted that during very dry times foxes will even dig deep into dry mud to look for yabbies and they have scat filled with insect skeletons. The point is they do whatever it takes and they are out there in the shadows watching your shit and working out ways to steal and devour it!
I think if you have some land and resource under your own control – such as cash, firewood, food growing etc. and you have any spare time right now – it is worth allowing for arrangement s whereby friends and family can be accommodated. If there is more than one family or interest on site productive work goes up and so does the security of the assets on site. As the trust horizon shrinks it is worth approaching these abstract concepts from a permaculture perspective and treat relationships in a zonal framework. Zone 1 – trusted (family / close friends) is like the veggie garden and the lemon tree – keep it close and interact often. The government – least trust (zone 5) is like the wildlife corridor which has access through the property (rates and taxes) but steered away from important aspects like vegetables that need protection (which in the case of this concept maybe privacy and personal communication for example).
Or am I just trippin’ coz this new article has blown my mind – yet again.My feeling is that we all will have to be increasingly involved in a cashless and digital money world but spread our stores of wealth in numerous ways to have continued freedoms and flexibility. Stores of wood for heating and cooking, food preserved and grown etc. all buffer against exposure to financial shocks. Storing or producing things like honey or dried foods will enable people to have something of value to be exchanged for digital payment that can then be used to participate in those areas of life where digital payment is mandatory and essential like for water bills or council rates payments.
It’s about having options. Some money in the bank is useful for tax too I guess….Another good reason for why I am ramping up my honey production – tradable, non-perishable and one of the few agricultural products that enable you to ride out market price fluctuations. Assholes wanna remove cash then we’ll have to start barter and earn minimum digital money for things like rates and car registration. If they mess with that I am sticking with the push-bike – they make me register that then fuck em I’m walking.
V. Arnold – it’s so weird to watch countless tourists take photos of nature Uluruu, the great barrier reef etc and then look at their photos on their smartphones and then post images to Facebook or instagram or whatever. They barely take the sight in – and don’t get me started on Selfies. Henry David Thoreau would moan
Bend, lube and brace! So true. The expanded version is get used to way less stuff, heaps more hardwork and hardship and be uprooted fairly frequently. Given the amount of foreclosures etc. – what happens to the existing stock of homes when people move out? Derelict and vandalised? And do people just end up renting back their own house or move to some shitty flat or what?
rlmrdl – that book was spot on. Mark Shepard’s Restoration Agriculture is a good look at what can be done to rebuild the endowment – in terms of the messing up of the environment in the US – I have to believe it is really doable in the main. I have 10 acres on ordovician sediments which was strip mined for gold extraction from 1852 till around 1910 and is majorly messed up. I mean seriously. I bought this piece of shit to avoid debt and hoped I wasn’t mad and it turns out nature just needs the tiniest bit of a hand. It is looking surprisingly productive with frogs and the like after only 7 years or so.
It can be done but for the most part it just won’t for a fair while yet. People love their IKEA and KanyeWhat made America great were the endowments bestowed on the populace by nature. Topsoil in many places 6 metres deep, water in abundance, trees forever and among the largest on the planets and then of course at the end of the 1800’s Pennsylvanian Oil.
I get a bit tired of hearing american authors (Stockman) posit that it is a smarts thing resisting on it’s own foundation. Try walking in any direction here in Australia and make carrots grow in our soils – they are mostly over half a billion years old. Debt has tied the hands behind the back but remove the shackles and there is hope with conditions like they have.
