Homestead mailing list

[Clansgian AT wmconnect.com]

> IF the system got them through the voc training instead of the stupid 
> little 
> workshops (aka creating jobs for county gold bricks), then they'd get off 
> the merry-go-round!
> 

The workshops you refer to are indeed dismal.  But I have to ask if an 
impoverished person (or any person) is owed the opportunity for professional 
training?  I know you are not addressing the question from that angle.  
Rather if 
that person earned the income that good voc training would give them, the 
expense 
would be returned to society in having someone off the dole and into the 
skilled workforce.  

That seems to only be addressing half question.  We don't need, can't use, 
half a million radiology technicians and paralegals and such.  And we DO need 
people to man convenience stores and clean rooms.  But in the end all we are 
doing is trying to make the poor person a good consumerist.  That, says I, is 
what the problem is to begin with.

It is possible to live very well very cheaply.  Most of us on this list have 
done that at some time in our lives and many of us make it a conscious 
lifestyle choice.

To the reminder of 'do you know how much rent is in this or that location?'  
my response would be "Don't live there."

To the reminder of how much this or that food item costs my response would be 
"Don't eat that."

The clothes, don't wear that.
The car, don't drive that, or anything if you can manage it (and some can).
Daycare?  Don't work where you children are unwelcome.

What I mean is that we should be tearing down the consumerist mindset, not 
reinforcing it.