Rural Economies

Can You Live Outside Society?

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While I doubt that it is possible to truly live outside of society in America today, I think it is an interesting subject to explore. To explore living outside of society is to gain a greater understanding of the self and to try to see what the rural life must truly be like. I do not think this essay fully answers that question, but I think it is a place to start with some thought. This essay is based in part of my thoughts gained by meeting a small-scale farmer in Schoharie County.

The first thing that comes to mind when thinking about living outside of society is the neccessity of land and money to purchase that land. To own your own land, would give you a little piece of the world where you can excerise at least some soverignity over. And if it’s rural and large enough, and you cultivate that land the right way you can turn it into a life beyond society. It is possible through family connections or some kind of donation to gain land without money, but for most of us, we must work for land.

Cooking Dinner

That brings up interesting moral questions: how to make that money, before you quit society? Do you go an immoral, but legal route to gaining money quickly or do you give up a high-profit lifestyle for working a less profitable job, but doing the right thing before gaining that farm? I can not claim to answer that question for you, but it would seem if you are trying to escape an intolerable society it would seem that any means possible might be okay. Then again, you are simply making things worst if you take that attitude.

Second, what land do you purchase? Something that’s very far away from a city, or something near enough that even though you live outside society, you can still participate as you want. Do you get land that’s easily farmable, or do you find land that is more affordable or farther away from the evils of civilzation that you are trying to escape? I would think if your trying to an individual who wants to live outside of society, you would need to have good land that you can grow and produce most if not all of what you need, once you finally quit society. Still, so much of modern society is centered around modern technology, that it is nearly impossible to live completely outside of society as we know it today.

There are many conviences that we rely on in modern society. Corporate agriculture produces food for us cheaply and tastefully, our buildings contain many industrial materials like sheetrock and aluminum roofing, our lifestyle is surrounded by automobiles and power equipment. Few who repudiate society and choose a rural life are willing to give up their truck, their tractor, or their chainsaw. Are you willing to give them up to be more free and more outside of society as we know it today? Yet to live with such items means your dependent on outside sources and influences, such as the need to go beyond yourself to purchase fuel and parts for such machinary.

Colors

At one level, things might be changing to make the individual more indepedent of the oil economy, yet be able to participate in it’s benifits. In the far away future, the farm and it’s equipment will be able to be powered by solar and wind energy, burning hydrogen in their engines. Already, you can see farms that use solar powered electric fences, where a solar cell on a fence post collects electricity that is relased from a capicter when an animal touches the fence. Certainly, this technology requires an outside purchase, as you can’t grow silcon nor steel to make this fence, but instead are reliant on it’s existance.

Maybe the future is promising for a free rural life, but not without still many connections to society as we know it. Thoreau never really escaped the society of his era, and it seems even more impossible today. We rely on technology to such a high degree, that we have to accept it in running our household, our homestead, or farmβ€”you actually end up living in society. At best we can choose to live a partially isolated life in rural America, but we are tied to all that makes urban society so evil. People in rural Montana still have to live under government, obey laws, act a certain way. The moral of the story is you live inside society so you have to embrace it in one way or another. Be it living on a farm or in an apartment, your just as much part of a community, though the prior does afford a greater freedom of action.

The III%ers I have been follow on social media … πŸ”«πŸŒ³ 🐷🚜 🌲

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I follow a handful of three percenters on various social media accounts. One has an off-grid pig farm in Idaho, the other started a farm in North Carolina after leaving New York so he wouldn’t have to register his AR-15 or limit the accessories he could own.

I give these guys a lot of respect for standing up for their beliefs but I’m also skeptical about the IIIer movement’s embrace of law enforcement and the military. I think dictatorial government is the problem not the solution.

I also don’t look that highly on the constitution, which is just a bunch of words on paper that can just as easily as bedding in the barnyard. Shredding waste paper is a great low cost alternative to straw and its very absorbent but not as durable. Good for pigs and keeping waste out of landfills.

While I get that law enforcement and the military have a job to do I don’t hold them up in high regard or as a noble profession fighting against evil. They’re government workers, they do it for a paycheck, healthcare benefits and a pension. They’re as necessary as farmers, road workers, DMV clerks, and grocery store stockers but they’re not some exalted demigod.

I don’t necessarily believe that government is always a force for good or justice, I can be downright skeptical at times. I don’t see any reason to celebrate the police force or the military that are paid to sometimes implement the unjust and unwise policies. These civil servants have a job to do but I hardly call government work a noble cause. Public safety is important but so is farming, auto repair or even news reporting.

Like the IIIers, I like my guns too, they’re a lot of fun to shoot. I wish I owned more but they’re are too many costs, regulations and not enough places to shoot near where I live. Those AR-15 with large capacity magazines look like a blast to shoot, handguns are great for carrying for personal protection. Hunting is hard work and a definite skill of patience but my hats off to all that get it done and have a successful harvest to put healthy, delicious and nutrious food on table for their the family.

It is true that 3 percent of the population is very politically active and can and do make change. It’s good to be part of the group and be heard. I totally support that the IIIers are advocating for their second amendment rights. Rural folk need guns, they’re an essential tool on the farm and in the backcountry. I think it’s good they’re advocating for to be left alone on their own land. For lower taxes that better reflect what they can afford to sustain for their lifestyle.

Government is only as good as the people it employs. The constitution and laws and regulations that implement it is great but it’s only as good the people who enforce it. We need an involved public who speaks up and demands their rights, that forces the politicians to be responsible and accountable to the people. Be part of the three percent who is active and demand change.

A public that elects and demands that elected officials appoint responsible judges that will uphold our rights and give meaning to the words written in the constitution by politicians and elites nearly 250 years ago today. Rights are lost by silence and consent, it’s important that people be heard whether they’re pig farmers in Idaho or gun toating rednecks in North Carolina.

NPR

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As Lumber Prices Climb, Some Mill Their Own : NPR

The price of lumber has more than doubled over the past year, and economists warn that things might stay this way for a while. That's why people like Hans Dow are getting crafty.

"I was like, well, I want a sawmill. I can make a lot of stuff with it. I also need to learn how to weld ...," Dow says as he hefts a 9-foot log onto the deck of his hand-built sawmill. It sits in the corner of his South Anchorage, Alaska, backyard.

Dow spent the winter in his garage building this sawmill from scratch. He collected the scrap metal and the machinery parts from all over the city. He says his brother urged him to take on the project.

It seems like low-cost sawmills are proliferating all around lately. I think some of it's cheaper equipment imported from China and just the growing cost of lumber from mills, especially on farms and off-grid homesteads where they often have a lot of trees to chop down.

Rare disasters, the natural interest rate and monetary policy | NEP-DGE Blog

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Rare disasters, the natural interest rate and monetary policy | NEP-DGE Blog

I mentioned several times on this blog that demographic aging is a source of declining interest rates. Now add climate change to the mix. As it looks like declining fertility may also come from climate change, the two shocks may reinforce each other in reducing interest rates. After a decade or two with interest rates kept low by policy, they may not be increasing that much once we get back to “normalȁ times.

NPR

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Even In Crisis Times, There Is A Push To Wire Rural America : NPR

As the COVID-19 crisis took hold and schools in Lockhart, Texas, had to close and shift to remote learning, the school district quickly conducted a needs assessment.

They found that half of their 6,000 students have no high-speed Internet at home. And despite being a short drive south of Austin, a third of all the students and staff live in "dead zones," where Internet and cell service aren't even available.

None of this was surprising to Mark Estrada, superintendent at the Lockhart Independent School District.

"Students who have been historically underserved just continue to have that fate as technology becomes a bigger part of educational practices," Estrada says.

Shots – Health News : NPR

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To Ease Rural Isolation, Volunteers Connect The Generations : Shots – Health News : NPR

According to a recent poll by NPR, the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation and the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health, Bogema is one of about 2.5 million rural residents (about 7% of the total rural population) who say they have no friends or family nearby to rely on. An additional 14 million (about 39%) say they only have a few people. Like Bogema, many feel isolated.

McGregor, Minn., is one of 18 communities in north-eastern part of the state that is participating in a program that addresses loneliness and social isolation by connecting the young with the old.

People in rural areas report "feeling lonely or left out," says Carrie Henning-Smith, the deputy director of the University of Minnesota Rural Health Research Center and one of the authors of a recent study on rural isolation, despite the fact that rural communities often have stronger social networks than urban ones. She notes that many communities have become more socially isolated in recent years as rural economies have declined and young people moved away.

For me, I doubt living in a small town would be socially isolating -- I think there are a lot of interesting folk who live in small towns -- but it's just finding work that pays decently, lets me live the live-style I desire. While I don't need a lot of fancy toys, a lot of things that you need for a good rural life are pretty expensive.

The Rise of the Rural Creative Class – CityLab – Pocket

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The Rise of the Rural Creative Class – CityLab – Pocket

A series of studies from Tim Wojan and his colleagues at the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Economic Research Service documents the drivers of rural innovation. Their findings draw on a variety of data sets, including a large-scale survey that compares innovation in urban and rural areas called the Rural Establishment Innovation Survey (REIS).

This is based on some 11,000 business establishments with at least five paid employees in tradable industries—that is, sectors that produce goods and services that are or could be traded internationally—in rural (or non-metro) and urban (metro) areas. The survey divides businesses into three main groups. Roughly 30 percent of firms are substantive innovators, launching new products and services, making data-driven decisions, and creating intellectual property worth protecting; another 33 percent are nominal innovators who engage in more incremental improvement of their products and processes; and 38 percent show little or no evidence of innovation, so are considered to be non-innovators.