Homestead mailing list

[clhw AT infoave.net (clhw)]

I am tutoring students at a local community college. One of my newest
studentsk with whom I'm helping on math, mentioned his difficulty in
getting the program which is funding his study to pay for a graphing
calculator which the professor says is necessary for the course.

The more common programs pay for books and I wondered aloud if the
calculator could be purchased at the school book store. The students (62
years old) mentioned that he is using this program because his former job
was closed down due to the industry moving overseas. It is through some
government program that people who have lost their employment due to the
industry moving that his re-training (in HVAC systems) is being funded.

He is the first person I've met who knew for a fact, and had government
support to the idea, that his textile industry (formerly employed by
Greenwood Mills, a local cotton plant) position moved overseas. I've heard
a lot of denial to the effect that such an idea was an Internet concoction,
or conspiracy theory. Here is proof that it's real.

I told the student I was delighted that he is being retrained. Why HVAC?
His hope is to take SS retirement soon (I didn't have time to ask if his
company retirement program still existed), move onto his 30-foot sailboot
which will be moored near Wilmington, NC, and live there, repairing HVAC
systems for other boats and businesses in harbors servicing such boats. He
wondered if I knew of anyone doing such.

Well, I gave examples of people I know who are living a more nomadic
lifestyle and picking up odd jobs or helping people with their skills and
experience. Don, you were one example I gave him, and I pointed him to your
web site to read about your travels and work. He looked at a few pictures
of the old tractors but we were out of time....

It's either my age or there really is a slow, steady increase in the
numbers of people, often past "retirement age" who are eking out additional
income from a nomadic lifestyle and hugely enjoying doing it.

>I don't need to read an article to find the truth of the matter, I just
>look around... It is really, really hard for me to view this country as
>"an economic powerhouse and largely self sufficient".  Wow.
>
>Almost all of our raw materials at work (polymers, waxes, etc) are made
>overseas...waxes from China, polymers from France, Canada, etc.,
>pigments from Finland, etc. (Yeah Finland!!)
>The point is, of the things that are literally made in the USA, much of
>the raw materials are from elsewhere...The paper you write on might have
>come from trees in Finland, for example.
>
>I'm looking around my desk..
>
>My digital camera and its case were made in China
>mousepad        China
>heart monitor   China
>telephone       China
>decorative copper smudge pots   Pakistan
>Chapstick       Virginia, but made from petroleum waxes from elsewhere
>Boston stapler, made in China
>ceramic candle holder           China
>Halogen desk lamp       China
>Scissors        China
>Deskpad Calendar        USA
>
>My clothing:
>shoes   China
>sweatshirt      Bangladesh
>Jeans   USA, denim produced here, but cotton grown elsewhere..
>
>Look around and determine the truth of your reality..
>
>Bev, who just spend over 30 minutes looking at stuff..now off to the
>optical shop to pick up my glasses frames which had to be shipped in
>from somewhere else, too.