Homestead mailing list

[Marie McHarry <mmcharry AT gmail.com>]

On Sun, Jul 19, 2009 at 11:12 AM, <Clansgian AT wmconnect.com> wrote:
> Heard that [if cap&trade passes Microsoft will move overseas].  But it's 
> even stickier than that.  Several outfits are
> threatening to launch feasible operating systems (such as Google's Chrome)
> next year which bypass MicroSoft completely and which will be completely 
> free
> and open source.

And, of course, there's Linux. I wonder if open source systems aren't
the future of computing? I read somewhere (Washington Monthly, I think
-- check washingtonmonthly.com) that one of the best medical software
programs in an open source first developed by the VA.

> I anticipate that Obama is going to be successful in getting most of his
> 'druthers passed, and this includes Cap and Trade.

Bills are being passed. It will be interesting to see what's actually
in them and how they work out.


> Our problem, says I, is that the economic (and social) paradigm has
> shifted.  This shift was inevitable and is irrespective of who's in office 
> and what
> their policies are.  What appears to be gloom and doom is simply our
> collective inability or reluctance to shift with the shifting times.  That 
> is, if
> we expect to get and keep an industrial job (or cubicle dwelling, paper
> shifting, job tossing about bags of air), put away enough money for a
> comfortable retirement at 55, make money "investing" or in flipping houses 
> .... then
> times indeed are going to be hard.  We're never going back to that.

I agree. It will be interesting to see how the way will open (as the
Quakers say), if it does. As I have confessed here before, my day job
is being a state worker. I've finally reached the stage of being
totally unable to take anything I do seriously. This has created
certain difficulties at work, but I am now working half time and
feeling better than I have in years.


>
> Soon or late we must adapt to the changing economic reality, and I mean
> changing for good (in both senses as in "forever" and "to our benefit"),  
> Those
> of us who have always lived in remote areas, close to the bone, and by our
> own wits are already 85% of the way there.

I agree. In the meantime, I see huge McMansions being built while
excellent housing (but older) all over the place has been abandoned.
To the good, I see a whole lot more of my neighbors here in the
country raising chickens and having large gardens.
>
> I don't mean by this that everyone must become organic farmers or
> homesteaders, although a lot more poeple will have to and in fact want to 
> considering
> the alternatives.  It's just that I think the new city life will be very
> different than it is now and the suburban and exurban life will just about
> disappear altogether.

It won't happen overnight or without pain, but I think the suburbs --
at least the most distant ones -- will turn into abandoned slums. Lots
more people will have gardens and will figure out how to live within
cycling distance of work, or will telecommute. The thing about massive
change is that hardly anyone sees ahead of time just how it will look.
Climate will certainly play a big part. Population growth will also
play a big part.

Marie