It seems as if every week there is another news report about someone getting into trouble for trying to be self reliant. Farmers having their pig herd slaughtered because they were not an approved breed, gardens being ripped up because they are against HOA rules, homes being condemned because they are considered unsafe simply because they are not hooked to the grid. At times it feels like there is an all out war on self reliance. Rather than give examples of this phenominon, there are examples everywhere, we are going to look at the rationale behind why self reliance is considered so strange. This post is not intended to be political in any way. If it winds up being so I promise I will pick on both sides equally.
I know this sounds like a wild, pie in the sky, or even a conspiracy theorist question, but seriously what if being self sustainable became illegal? Does this seem far fetched to you? It really isn't that far off base. In fact there are many areas where being selfish sustainable is very difficult, if not due to laws then due to social pressures.
Why would being self reliant be frowned upon?
I really have to stretch my thinking in order to understand the rationale behind those who want everyone dependent on the system, but after you get to the point where you do understand it makes a distorted sort of sense. We are going to look at a few of the reasons homesteaders and preppers are considered so weird.
Big Business
If you owned your own business would you ever get to the point where you decide that you have enough consumers? A point at which you are making enough profit and no longer wish to expand? You might just get to a point where you only wanted to maintain your level of business, as a small business owner that can be an option. For small and micro businesses there comes a point at which it would be difficult to service additional clients without expansion of workforce. Many professionals in the medical field will do this. Doctors will regularly refuse to accept new patients. Most other businesses are constantly looking for new clients.
Clients and customers have a constant ebb and flow. The number of customers you have will be constantly changing. You may lose one here and gain two there.
Businesses that have stockholders are not only interested in their profits, they are also interested in keeping their stock prices high. This added pressure calls for increased expansion.
Now let us say that we have a big business. Hundreds or even thousands of employees, scattered around the world. We have stockholders as well. If we post a lower than normal earnings report, our stock price goes down. That means it will be more difficult for our company to borrow money. I want to make something clear here. We did not have a loss, we only had lower profits that we projected. We have a decent product or service, we advertise, heck we may even have celebrity endorsements. Somehow though we are not gaining enough new customers to keep our profits growing at the level our stockholders expect. What are we going to do? Enter our friends in government. If what we make is something that a person can make themselves, let's have some regulations passed that deems homemade items unsafe. Yeah that is where we will start. That will discourage people from making their own and from buying any from someone other than a recognized brand.
As soon as we get these homemade versions deemed unsafe, we will start an "informational" campaign on how our product is the safest. We will get bloggers who are easily bought to tout our product and make homemade versions socially unacceptable. Everyone who is anyone buys our brand product.
We will let it go on like this for a while. We don't want to appear too aggressive in the public eye. But this will help us for a while and with a certain percentage of the population.
Look at Monsanto, this company is massive. They had 14.3 Billion in sales in 2014. As concern over GMOs continue to increase so has their strangle hold on their areas of power. What other company will go to extremes of collecting samples from farmers and having them tested to see if their patented genes show up in the competitions produce? There is a massive problem with that. Pollen cannot be contained. Corn is primarily pollinated by the wind. Anywhere pollen lands from a GMO strand cross pollination will occur. Those genes will show up. They are using nature to sue those who refuse to use their products.
The Government
Governments are started for several reasons. Most were started to consolidate power, some were to provide stability to an area, in the United States the government was set up originally to ensure freedoms were not infringed.
At one time the federal government actually encouraged self reliance. This was especially true during both world wars. Resources were tight and the government was actively involved with encouraging self reliance.
Sadly this is no longer the case. In many areas and instances the government is actively discouraging self reliance. I would go so far as to say that in some ways the US government is a little schizophrenic when it comes to self reliance. There are a few agencies that are actively promoting short term self reliance, agencies like the CDC and FEMA. But even they don't agree on how much self reliance is necessary.
The sad truth is most if not all of our politicians are owned by someone. These owners include companies and special interest groups. There has been a growing awareness of GMO genetically modified organisms and people have decided they would like to know if any of these foods are showing up in their diets. Several states have tried to pass laws requiring labeling of foods containing GMOs. At every turn there seem to be politicians that are fighting our right to information. If it stopped there I would be okay, we can dig for the information we want, but it doesn't. It appears that most in government are actively involved in withholding information from people.
Even the programs that appear to be promoting self sustainability have strings attached. If you want to take advantage of tax credits for home-based solar power systems you should be aware that there are requirements that these systems be grid tied. There are several more examples.
Every time you add a layer of government, you add laws and regulations.
Governments do not want people to be self reliant for several reasons. First is decreased tax revenue. It is very difficult to tax something that a person makes or raises themselves. Exterior trade makes taxation easy. By having to purchase everything from an organized business there is a paper trail that can be followed, so taxes are naturally collected at the point of sale. If you buy something from a neighbor, unless it is something that has to be registered, there is no way to collect taxes on that transaction.
The second reason governments do not want people to be self reliant is control. If a person or community is self sustainable there isn't much this side of violence that will make that person or group follow the predesignated path that government wishes.
Society
Society is a strange beast. Social programming occurs every day. Almost everything is acceptable in the name of diversity and tolerance, but don't be found guilty of moving against the desired direction.
Right now we have a perfect example of this. The Confederate flag has effectively been banned from all public places and many businesses because of a prejudicial past. It is there, not for everyone, but there are those who used the St Andrews Cross in the name of racism.
The hypocrisy of this move is made clear by the fact that you cannot purchase confederate flag items through Amazon but there are several Ku Klux Klan items available. Really?!?
The strange thing about society is that it will embrace anything in the name of tolerance except anything that requires personal responsibility.
Think about it, if you want to see just how far tolerance will go, just make a stand and believe that something is wrong. You will find out quickly that standing for something will make the tolerant people hate you.
That is enough of my rant.
Just look around. Anything to do with self reliance is ridiculed on every turn. Municipalities and HOAs make it very difficult. There are some areas that are very difficult to do anything that improves your self sustainability. Gardens, solar panels, water catchment, and even wells are becoming illegal in many areas. If you aren't dependent on the system, you can't live there. They will condemn your property.
There have been rumors of anti food hoarding laws, but as of yet I have not been able to prove them to actually exist, but civil forfeiture is a real concern. Have we gotten to the point where self sustainability is so foreign that people would feel justified in taking what you have worked so hard to provide for your family? Sadly, I think we have.
I would like to hear your thoughts on this subject. Let me know either in the comments or on the forum.
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You can like The Rural Economist on Facebook follow on The Rural Economist on Gplus. We now have a YouTube channel and we cover all sorts of things. Hop on over and check them out, oh and don't forget to subscribe. I have just joined Instagram if you would like you can follow us HERE. We will be sharing several things over the next year, I hope to see you there.
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