By Daisy Luther
It’s always interesting reading when someone smug and sanctimonious writes a clueless diatribe about another group of people being smug and sanctimonious. So when I saw that an economist for Moody’s and Forbes had written an op-ed calling self-reliant homesteaders “delusional,” I knew I’d be in for some misinformed hilarity.
The article, entitled, “Dear Homesteaders, Self-Reliance Is a Delusion” was published a couple of days ago on the Forbes website. You’ll be forewarned that the article won’t be deep in the first paragraph, when the author presents his claim to knowledge about self-reliant living comes from the fact that he is “a big fan of shows about doomsday preppers, homesteaders, survivalists, generally people who live off the grid.”
And the well-informed opinion of this arbiter of self-reliance?
…there’s a central delusion in these shows that is never far from my mind when I’m watching these shows: off the grid people are not self-reliant, but instead are mooching off of the civil society, government, and safety net the rest of us contribute to…
The people in these shows often describe a very romantic vision of the lives they have chosen the ethos underlying it. They describe themselves as fully self-reliant, and criticize the rest of society as being dependent and lacking in this self-reliance. It is morally superior, the story goes, to provide for yourself, take care of your own needs, and often, be prepared to survive if society collapses.
First, let me segue a little bit and tell you about the author. According to his bio on Economy.com:
Adam Ozimek is an associate director and senior economist in the West Chester office of Moody’s Analytics. Adam covers state and regional economies, as well U.S. labor markets and demographics. Prior to joining Moody’s Analytics, Adam was Senior Economist and Director of Research for Econsult Solutions, an economics consulting company. He received his Ph.D. in economics from Temple University and his bachelor’s degree in economics from West Chester University.
So based on this, I’m going to guess that homesteading and off-grid living aren’t his jam. I mean, he might head down to the Westtown Amish Market there in Pennsylvania, but I’d be willing to place money on that being his closest brush with any real, live, self-reliant homesteaders.
His ill-conceived argument seems to be mostly focused on health care. He is baffled about what will happen if a homesteader becomes ill or gets injured.
” On Live Free Or Die, a man in his mid sixties named Colbert lives in the Georgia swamps alone….I always wonder what will happen if he slips and falls, and can no longer provide for himself. He’ll likely end up receiving hospital treatment paid for with Medicare, and perhaps end up in an assisted living center paid for by Medicare as well.”
Or…
“Another example from Live Free or Die is Tony and Amelia, a couple who live on a simple, off-the-grid homestead in North Carolina. When I watch them I wonder what would happen if one became extremely sick, and simple, off-the-grid home medicine couldn’t treat them. Would they say “we’ve chosen our fate, and now we die by it”, or would they seek treatment in a hospital they couldn’t afford which would be covered by the hospital’s charity care or perhaps Medicaid?”
One thing that Dr. Ozimek is missing is the fact that most homesteaders are tax-paying citizens. Does he think that living on a homestead exempts one from property taxes? Does he suppose that their vehicles don’t have license plates or that their fuel is purchased without the requisite state gasoline tax? Or that maybe they have some special card that lets them buy things like feed without paying sales tax? Perhaps homesteading equipment like tractors and tools and off-grid appliances are likewise purchased without any gain to “society.”
As well, he’s under the assumption, based on his vast body of knowledge gleaned from watching TV, that self-reliant homesteaders don’t make any money or have any insurance. I know homesteaders who are retirees from other jobs who have a fine pension and excellent health insurance. I know others who make a good living with their homesteading endeavors. And there are still others who live simply after working for years to pay cash for their homestead, or families in which one spouse works a full-time job to support the homestead.
But, Ozimek, whose informed point of view comes from only the most extreme of the group featured on for-profit-and-ratings television shows, doesn’t understand that. He continues to espouse the superiority of the non-agrarian lifestyle:
If we all lived “self-reliant” lives like Tony often implores us, spending most of our time on basic agricultural subsistence, then modern hospitals couldn’t exist. It’s only because most of us choose to not live agrarian “self-reliant” lifestyles that this care would be available to Tony, Amelia, and perhaps someday, their children. And what if both of them become too injured to work the land anymore? Would they starve to death, or would they survive off of the social safety net our government provides, like food stamps?
In fairness to Tony, Amelia, and Colbert, perhaps they would refuse the modern medical care and modest safety net in the case of an accident or illness, and would simply choose to die. I don’t think most homesteaders would, but we don’t know.
Yeah, because homesteaders can’t do anything but homestead.
Some people are producers and other people are consumers.
Ozimek thinks that someone with the extensive skills required to live off the grid would be completely unable to find employment and would have no option but to become a welfare recipient should their homesteading endeavor fall apart.
What he’s missing is that his cushy “civilized” lifestyle is completely reliant on the type of people he scorns. He forgets that someone, somewhere is growing his food. Someone, somewhere, is assuring that his energy reaches his home. Someone is ensuring that his plumbing works, someone is repairing his furnace if it breaks, and someone is transporting the goods he purchases to the store, where someone will sell him those goods.
But, that’s what happens when someone is only a consumer and not a producer. They think that producers are somehow less worthy, and that if they couldn’t produce what the consumers consume, they’d be totally out of options.
The cool thing about self-reliant homesteaders is that we aren’t one-trick ponies. We can produce all sorts of things and provide all kinds of services. It’s called “having skills.”
Most self-reliant homesteaders aren’t reality TV stars.
Since his entire argument is based on the tv programs he watches, the author doesn’t understand what self-reliance means to those of us who aren’t reality television stars.
It means:
- We provide a lot of our own food because we prefer to know where it comes from.
- We raise our own meat because we object to the way factory-farmed animals are treated.
- We use our own sources of power because maybe we’re green at heart or maybe we just prefer not to be tied into the “smart” grid.
- We learn to make our own products for cleaning, bathing, and making life pleasant because we don’t want to bring chemical toxins into our homes.
- We’d rather skip the middle man and spend our time actually making the things that most people work for hours to purchase from someone else who made them.
- We are far less likely to spend time at the doctor’s office because a) we aren’t huge fans of pharmaceuticals, b) we can take care of small things ourselves, and c) our healthier lifestyle means we tend to be less likely to be ill. (Although this isn’t always the case – even self-reliant homesteaders can get sick. And when we do, we use our insurance or we pay for it with savings. Just like everyone else.)
- We don’t need as much money because we just don’t need as much stuff.
But to someone who buys all of their food and other goods from the store and gets all of their medicine from the pharmacy, it can be difficult to understand the satisfaction that comes from evading those places.
But, safety…
Of course, if self-reliant homesteaders pass all of the Forbes columnist’s other tests, he can still dismiss their achievements by going full-blown statist.
Yet even if one refuses help and care, however, they still benefit from the modern civil society thanks to the private property protections, rule of law, and military that provide them with safety and security.
Many off-the-grid folks like to fantasize that their personal fire arms collection and self-defense skills are actually why they are safe. But how far would this take them in a society without the rule of law, an effective government, and law enforcement? The homesteader who is confident their security is in their own hands should go live off-the-grid in Syria and find out how far self-protection takes them.
And it’s not just police and a military that keep homesteaders safe. It’s also widespread prosperity. In the developed world, a basic education is available to all, and most people who want a job can find one. Living in a prosperous, modern economy means that homesteaders can take a good bit of their own safety from violence for granted and roving bandits are not likely to take their homes from them.
So, by the mere fact of our existence in this country, according to Ozimek, none of us are self-reliant. It boggles the mind that this fellow successfully wrote and defended a doctoral thesis.
This is how reliant people justify their reliance.
I guess what it boils down to is that this is what helps Ozimek and people like him justify living their lives without any practical skills. If things did go sideways in a long-term kind of way, who is going to be better off: a person who can claim a Ph.D. in economics or someone who can actually produce food?
The fact is, the less we require from society, the less power that society has over us. Our lifestyles give us some distance from the hustle and the bustle. We don’t have to make as much money because we don’t live in the consumer matrix that engulfs so much of society. We are content to live simply instead of hustling from one non-productive activity to another.
Most of us don’t eschew all the benefits of living in a modern society. It doesn’t have to be all or nothing. Having a corporate job doesn’t preclude growing your own tomatoes any more than having a herd of goats precludes having health insurance.
There is a joy in making a meal that came entirely from your own backyard that these people will never get to experience, and having spent many years in the corporate world, I can tell you which provides the most satisfaction for me.
In this society where nearly everyone is digitally connected 24 hours a day, it’s nice to step away from all that and break the addiction to constant stimulation. It’s nice to not always be trading the hours in your day for the things that someone else made while you were working on something that, if we’re being honest, is kind of pointless in the grand scheme of survival.
If Dr. Ozimek wants to talk about delusions and superiority, he could find all the inspiration he needs by taking a look in the mirror.
This rocket scientist doesn’t realize that those of us with skills will be the ones NOT needing as many scarce resources when a natural disaster or other emergency occurs.
This PhD will be working on a farm was a barely fed laborer if he survives long enough after a real SHTF event. His Piled Higher and Deeper degree is useless in those situations. His hungry family that survives will be right there with him. The Government, that survives won’t care about him.
Great article Daisy!
Obviously, the writer of the Forbes article is clueless on this subject.
I think the biggest flaw was your main point: He didn’t have real-life experience. He didn’t “know” homesteaders and wrote this article off of his experience with them, he “knows ABOUT” homesteaders. There’s a small, but crucial difference there.
Knowing something is having the information and the experience.
Knowing about something is just having information, which may be incomplete.
The thing is, he didn’t try to be in their shoes, he just imagined what it would be like, based off of his limited knowledge. He didn’t try to imagine the satisfaction from growing your own produce, or paying for your insurance off of your small business, or what it’s like to get to live in the beauty of the county side.
Instead, he overgeneralised.
Really good response Daisy, very insightful ! Keep up the good work.
James Madison, US fourth president, wrote:
“The class of citizens who provide at once their own food and their own raiment, may be viewed as the most truly independent and happy. They are more: they are the best basis of public liberty, and the strongest bulwark of public safety. It follows that the greater the proportion of this class to the whole society, the more free, the more independent, and the more happy must be the society itself.”
I have seen a doctor once in the last 5 years, he was a fool, and I went 15 years without consulting one, and thus I follow Dr Greenburg :
“As a retired Physician, I can honestly say that unless you are in a serious accident, your best chance of living to a ripe old age is to avoid doctors and hospitals and learn about nutrition, herbal medicine and other forms of natural medicine unless you are fortunate enough to have a naturopathic physician available.
Almost all drugs are toxic and are designed only to treat symptoms and not to cure anyone.
Vaccines are highly dangerous, have never been adequately studied or proven to be effective, and have a poor risk / reward ratio.
Most surgery is unnecessary and most textbooks of medicine are inaccurate and deceptive. Almost every disease is said to be idiopathic (without known cause) or genetic-although this is untrue. In short, our mainstream medical system is hopelessly inept and / or corrupt. The treatment of cancer and degenerative diseases is a national scandal. The sooner you learn this, the better off you will be.” Dr A Greenberg
However I believe that Mr Ozimek is entitled to his own opinion.
“Opinions are like orgasms… mine matters most and I really don’t care if you have one.”
— Sylvia Plath
If the medical industry cured us then they would put themselves out of business. So it is no wonder that they make us sick. They thrive on our disease.
The writer of that Forbes article apparently confuses Reality TV with reality. Note to him: Reality TV shows have about as much to do with reality as bubble gum has to do with black holes.
“It boggles the mind that this fellow successfully wrote and defended a doctoral thesis.”
That is, until one realises that the education system is designed to change us into unthinking dependent sheep.
Schools teach children to have blind faith in authority. They do this by rewarding children for believing in what the textbooks say even though the children are not presented with evidence supporting that which the textbooks say. Children who are good at unthinking memorization get called smart and have high grades.
This creates adults who tend to base their beliefs on blind faith in authority. That makes it easy for the government to further indoctrinate those adults using their further “education”, the news, pop science shows, and other such government controlled propaganda.
Ozimek has been thoroughly indoctrinated by both his education and the television so it is to be expected that he speaks statist nonsense.
Thank you for responding to this dribble. It made me quite angry when I read this article because the writer was so obviously clueless it was clear he was out of his depth on this topic but his disgust and arrogance towards people who choose this way of life was eye-opening. Forbes magazine, isn’t it just a mouthpiece for the elites? Sure seemed like it from this article.
Dear Daisy,
I wouldn’t get too upset with anything Adam says, as he is unable to separate TV entertainment from reality. I would be more concerned with Forbes for giving him a platform to spread his psychological projection of delusion. Adam is obviously suffering from cognitive dissonance which is the psychological stress experienced by a person who simultaneously holds two or more contradictory beliefs. Adam is unable to care for himself making him highly reliant on the “fabric of civilization” so he attacks anyone who can live off-grid (even if it is just TV Reality). However, the scary reality is that there are a lot of Adams out there.
People like this are the reason why i am walking away from the mainstream and also why my screen name is no longer Kulafarmer.
We have people like this in our local government that think that those in agriculture exist because they allow us to and subsidize us with lower rates on everything,,, well i dont want anything forom anyone and especially not from government or banks, everything on the farm is bought and paid for and i am homesteading rather than growing thousands of pounds of produce to feed the local community, rather starve to death than be told i have an obligation to the community, and i wont be the one starving, i have more edibles in the weeds growing around our place than most small stores have in their produce section.
Smug self satisfied people are why i am walking away, and never coming back to the mainstream.
As a PHd, Dr Ozimek has been through the maximum indoctrination. That explains a lot about his position and the evidence he uses.
Look further into Colbert, who lives in the Georgia swamps. He retired from American Express after a very successful career. Typical refugee from Dr Ozimek’s “Civil Society”. If it were the least bit civil right now, we wouldn’t have to be prepping for nuclear war with 4 adversaries, prepping for street violence from George Soros thugs in BLM, Antifa., bracing for poisoned China chickens, more terrorist immigrants, etc.
Most of what China has sent over to us has had some kind of poison in it. From our kids toys, to sheet rock and other building materials, and also in our flooring. It’s best to pay a little more and support our own country!
You are correct about “indoctrination” in universities. In a brilliant essay titled “The Zeroth Amendment” published at Taki’s Magazine online, author Steve Sailor says:
“The longer the university indoctrination of the white Hillary voters, the more unhinged they were about this slander [the belief that it’s racist for whites to show an interest in their their race but not racist for people of color to do the same]. Among white Clinton supporters with a college degree, 84 percent said it was racist for whites to be allowed to favor whites in immigration policy. Among Hillary’s whites with advanced degrees, 91 percent agreed.
In contrast, among us deplorables, “Only 11 percent of white Trump voters labeled as racist the view that American whites have a moral right to vote that the immigration system not be exploited to drive them into political and cultural impotence.”
Very well written response, enjoyed this much.
Amen…..I get this kind of response from people who find out that I want to live off the grid and am working toward that. I ask them simply what would they do if the S##T hit the fan. They leave me alone after that. If I never get to the “off the grid” point at least I can care for myself where I live now. I am learning and practice skills like fishing, gardening, practice using a knife in many ways, have a crossbow and am learning to use it for hunting (it’s quiet) dehydrate my veggies and fish, sew , make yogurt and cheese and well you can see I am learning as much as I can. I am 71 and live alone. Thank you for your article. It lets me know I am okay
This guy doesn’t understand or can’t comprehend that this is a way of life. Great response, I enjoyed the article.
Although I appreciate your desire to call out the misinformed, The problem that I see in your analysis of his dribble is one of defense.
Why do you feel as though you need a defense to his attack on a given subject. ? In this country we are free to make the choices that we decide for ourselves.
The main focus that he is trying to convey is that conservatism does not work in his utopian view. proving without a doubt that liberalism is a mental disease. Wasting time arguing with it is not an offense, and certainly a weak defense
In America you are free to make your own decisions only as long as they are the same as those that Uncle Sam decided for you.
I always heard that PhD stands for “piled higher and deeper”. We now have definitive proof that it is true.
Very well written Daisy. Thank you for what you do.
I just read yesterday a writer saying convenience is just placing the burden on someone else. When I was reading your article today, that was all I could think about.
Great response to his nonsense. Hope you were able to post this where he can read it. I guess he will find out the true reality of life if it all falls apart. Sounds like he will be one of many who will be cold and hungry.
Another over educated but short on common sense idjit. I’m guessing Democrat—but, wait—he said anybody in this country .that wants a job can get one. So I’m confused there
So Forbes published an article by a man whose research consisted of watching sensationalized TV shows. Ah, and mainstream media outlets wonder why they have no credibility. The next Forbes article will be a scholarly examination of vampires based on watching “Buffy” and “Supernatural.”
“and safety net the rest of us contribute to”
That very safety net that was looted & pillaged by his fellow peers from the Too Big Too Jail Corporations, The Wall Street Shysters & The Banksters who cheated everyone in their rigged high speed computer controlled stock markets – Where their big banks have been fined hundreds of millions to billons of dollars for Fraud, Corruption & Manipulation of the Markets.
Hoo boy: another self righteous know it all who forms his opinions on a topic based on what he sees on TV. As if the solution to anyone’s problems is more insults and fake news puked up by some lame poser who couldn’t replace a light bulb, much less grow a vegetable or even cook his own meals, even when the power is still on; never mind iof the grid goes down for even a day or two. Earth to Adam: none of us has EVER claimed we’re 100% self reliant.We don’t claim to be better than everyone, just better than you.
Just in case anyone was unsure about the purpose of Forbes, according to Wikipedia: “the site, like the magazine, publishes many lists focusing on billionaires and their possessions, especially expensive homes, a critical aspect of the website’s popularity.”
Is that how billionaires view self-reliant homesteaders? Is this the group thinking of your targeted audience? I doubt that this piece would have been published if it was not.
He is, what we in the country call a ” cityot”- rhymes with idiot!!
Sounds like someone who hates what America used to be like and what America can still be. We were an independent group of people once, and now because of mass media and government, have become, for the most part, a population who would rather suck ‘hind tit’ than product anything. Why doesn’t he pick on 25 year old mothers of 7, who have never needed to work a day in their life for the welfare they get or the gang-bangers who get welfare. There is a huge host of people who should get a negative article written about them, before anyone thinks of homesteaders as a feature of a negative article.
I could be wrong but those mothers and gang-bangers who get welfare are viewed as nothing more than mindless sheep in this author’s opinion and therefore don’t constitute a threat whereas people who think for themselves and are independent are more of a threat to these people (elites).
We should not expect much from most of today’s economists and this is just another absurd example. Most of them are Keynesian in nature (as opposed to those from the Austrian school). They are the ones who like to manipulate money supplies and maneuver whole societies to their whims. They cannot allow the natural laws of economics to take effect because that would show the whole world that the policies they pursue are actually the cause of most of our economic problems. They have been behind our nation moving from a saving and producing population to that of a consumer society.
Why do they want us all to be consumers and pursue instant gratification with more things? Because that moves us into the direction of getting loans or maxing out credit cards. By doing that, the bankers make more money to spend on more politicians and wars and mischief. That makes the borrower (us) slave to the lender (them).
I would recommend reading G. Edward Griffin’s, The Creature From Jekyll Island to learn more about these bankers and economists. The book reads like a Grisham novel with twists and turns everywhere, but the crazy thing is – it’s true.
Another note: according to the author, the police and military keep us safe.
As a former cop, I can tell you that the greatest majority of what the police do is take reports of crimes that have already happened. That does not keep us safe because we have already become victims. They may give us crime prevention tips on how to keep ourselves safe, and those are valuable, but they rarely if ever actually prevent crime on their own – stated differently, they do not keep us safe – WE keep us safe.
Police investigate and find criminals which are then put right back out on the street or fined some pittance, and they take reports for the government. It would not be too far of a stretch to say that today’s police keep government safe from the people, and help fund the government by hiding in the weeds to catch us violating any of the thousands of mala prohibita laws that government passes. Considering the police strip Americans of more property than all of the burglaries committed (policing for profit), we really need someone to keep us safe from them.
As for the military keeping us safe, they are “over there” stirring up people in other countries. If we would follow the founder’s advice and avoid all foreign entanglements, most of the world would not be hostile to America as they are today. We might want to have our brave soldiers posted on our own shores and borders, but otherwise we should leave people in other countries alone, stop meddling in their elections, and be friendly with them if we can.
I don’t think police and military do much to keep us safe. America is changing in such a way as to convert society (us) into the ones who serve them, instead of them being the servants to us as it was not that long ago.
re: Forbes et. al.
Aren’t these the same people that have hideaways and bunkers all over the world?
My husband and I are working hard to become self reliant homesteaders in NZ. What the author has written makes total sense… for the passed 7 years we have spent every weekend getting our off grid homestead ready to move to. When we are not working on our dream we are working in 9 to 5 jobs paying taxes, insurances etc and saving money. We are not mooches, we are just choosing a different lifestyle. Jenni
Anyone who has ever been in a natural disaster and survived the aftermath knows that you are on your own. People in hurricane Andrew, Hugo, and the Louisiana fiasco where it took over a week just to get water shipped in, know better than to rely on others for your welfare.
“hey still benefit from the modern civil society thanks to the private property protections, rule of law, and military that provide them with safety and security”. Geez, just WHAT was this cretin’s point?? It’s THEIR fault/transgression they were born into jut such a society??!
Shame on Forbes. Trying to discourage you. So I think this comes from the “Soros” type group to give you NO HOPE and only trust Gubmint.
Don’t EVER believe them. SHAME on Forbes. Soros must have loaned them money…..
I grew up in Los Angeles, and it is the ultimate connected society. Connected and interdepedent, this type of thinking is almost universal because if you try living outside the hive, you are a suspicious character . I almost find this yahoo amusing; his prejudice and fears are showing. People who are in dependant and can think for themselves, are obviously a threat. Not paying your “fair share” of taxes is a sin that will not be tolerated. Sheesh! I am just trying to get situated so that I can take my little family and disappear into the hinterlands-before the bombs start falling, before Antifa starts riots in the streets, etc. I will be happy to live off grid, in a small but well connected community that watches out for one another, and if we need to barter-it is a possibility.
.. who really owns their home ?
without owning it…Richard Bryan and Harry Reid sold Bundy’s ranch to
the Chinese solar clients of Richard Bryan’s Lionel sawyer Collins law
firm. but Reid and Bryan (BLM GOONS) could not deliver the bundy
land to the Chinese who bought bundy’s land from bryan’s law firm for $3.4 million .
so Bryan filed bankruptcy & dissolved Lionel Sawyer Collins to hide the land sale scam from the American people
so Reid and Bryan had to have Obama appoint a hand picked & groomed
corrupt judge Gloria Navarro and use new senator Catherine Cortez Masto
corrupt judges are taxpayer funded govt. employee labor union members
…………………………..
corruption
– done with help of harry reid senate replacement Catherine cortez
mastoMasto … is the corrupt useful idiot with husband-ties to the FBI
to hide the land grab cover up…
Nice job Daisy Luther. Many in the ivory castles of academia are worthy of the same reprimand. A mans ability to be self-reliant and independent in no way suggests he doesn’t contribute to society. Why have so many educated people been completely brain-washed?
The intention of this article must be to dissuade people who are thinking about taking up homesteading and leaving the Consumer-Cogwheel lifestyle of control. Keep an eye open for similar articles elsewhere in the near future.
Daisy, from my perspective I took a step back and had to look at why some jerk from Forbes would target the off grid community with an insult and baseless unscientific banter without a journalistic alternative interview or any documented fact at all. So as an opinion, let’s say it because that’s what it is. Forbes has let this mouthpiece bash the off grid peeps why? Because we are a serious threat to their system of privatized work servitude yoke on the ox way of business. And everyone pays under my understanding for health insurance. So we mooches really concern them and this type of brash insult to demonize is structurally targeting solar wind self reliance. And it is we as a group they are focusing on as we are a barrier to their utility mandate marketplace.
Just wonder if he is a racist. Most of these folks are white. I would like to offer him a chance to right this SAME article with the subjects being black inner city and illegal immigrants . Bet he would be out of a job in a NY minute. I guess we are such easy targets for this fellow. With so many millions on welfare he chooses us. How nice.
Ozimek likes to play “what if..” , and like most who are unwilling to provide for the safety and security of their families, he knows, deep down that he is not a Man.
He resents those who, by their life choices point out the fact that his ability to survive a crisis and protect his family is non existent.
As an economist, the Forbes author seems lacking in some underpinnings. Does he seriously imagine that the participants on the TV Reality Shows he references aren’t handsomely paid for their little vignettes that he spends so much idle time perusing?
His view of reality, whether of a TV show or his own, is quite fantastical.
Looks like your article is at the twitter of http://www.libertarianinternational.org flagged L for Life Extension themes…
“…If Dr. Ozimek wants to talk about delusions and superiority, he could find all the inspiration he needs by taking a look in the mirror…”
Assuming of course that they still reflect his image…
Steve C
Spring, TX
I would direct Dr. O. To another man with a PhD, this time in classical studies, who is also a member of the Hoover Institue at Stanford. Dr. Hanson lives on a 40acre almond homestead In the California Central Valley. His comments about the difference today between the city folks oand the country folks is revealing. Country folks tend to be Republicans, self-reliant, and possessing the skills necessary to live that life : the city folks very often are the Democrat, possessing none of those skills whatsoever, and who rely on the government redistribution schemes in order to live their good life. Look at the political map. Big city blue in a sea of red.
Self reliance is a relative term. I’m sure even the most self reliant prepper didn’t make the door knob they use to open the door or the knife they use to cut their vegetables.
Most of the liberals I know don’t mow their own lawns or wash their own cars. I’m unimpressed with their opinions on the fact I do. My decision to raise my own beef and vegetables is as personal and valid as their decision to not. Should unforseen circumstances occur I’ll still eat, they’ll be in a FEMA camp sleeping in a tent and reliving themselves in a Port-a-Potty.
I worked for fifty years before retiring and earned any government benefits I may be entitled to. Being self reliant is not doing everything for yourself but doing all you can.
And whose door to you suppose Mr. Ozimek will be knocking on when he’s starving? That is if he hasn’t already been made into a meal himself by “roving bandits”.
My granddaughter asked me if our family left the city and lived together on a farm if the government would tell us what we could grow for our family? I was in shock. She knows even in the city we grow organically and loves vegetables. I have thought about that. If we did that would this problem arising in our country about farms affect even small farm families who only grow for themselves who sell at their local farmers market for extra money? I wonder if other families who live together just to keep food on their families tables can be affected and are worried about this?
They’ve done it before.
“Are we going to take the hands of the federal government completely off any effort to adjust the growing of national crops, and go right straight back to the old principle that every farmer is a lord of his own farm and can do anything he wants, raise anything, any old time, in any quantity, and sell any time he wants?” — President Franklin Delano Roosevelt after the US Supreme Court struck down his agricultural program.
Well done Daisy.
I think we have to be careful of people like this who have the ear, even if small, of the public. While it may sound paranoid, first it’s a hint that we are ‘scrounging’ off the government and taxpayers, then it becomes louder no matter how false it really is, then before we know it they slap new taxes on us for something, charge even more for equipment in some way, then finally what we do somehow becomes a safety matter and illegal. The government, Federal, State, and Local, wants us dependent on them. If they don’t have the people, they aren’t needed anymore. Good article Daisy; wonderful and spot on rebuttals.
Homesteaders are moochers. They take government money to live there and live on land stolen from Native Americans.
Ummm…not by this definition. Homesteaders are people who take their legally owned or rented property and use it to provide for their family’s needs, by raising livestock, fruits, and vegetables.
Anyone who lives outside of civilization is a mooching parasite.