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1) I don't change my oil. My dad used to make us. . .and technically I know how. He stopped making us when my brother didn't put the oil filter on right and ruined an engine.
Here is how I weigh on the topic below.
its not worth my time. So lets take a close estimate of my average salary . . .OIl change is what $35 bucks? maybe 20-30 minutes of my time. $15 of that is supplies. I figure my free time is worth upwards of $50 an hour. . .if you don't break that threshold, it gets farmed out.
The same goes for most of the items you listed. I like cooking, so I will prepare nice meals. I don't have any interest in investing in the supplies or time needed to learn butchering (of all things). Starting such a thing is expensive, on its own. Chilling meats, transport, instruments. .. and the time involved in slaughter?
And that about sums it up, really. The reason why the current economy took off. . .is thanks to specialization. Not everyone can do the same thing. SO you pay the guy who knows how to butcher to butcher, pay the roofer to roof, etc.
Specialization is a byproduct of a established civilization. And if a plague wipes out 99% of the population. . .I can always break into a library to learn how to butcher a pig then.
oh and the below isn't the case There is a growing movement on slow food, for instance and lots of people taking up butchering, etc. It just depends on the person. Roofing or Butchering, to many, can be a hobby. Its not required. its not bad. it isn't needed
I look down on no one. I appreciate the people who love to do this, and can do it for me. . since I hate the work myself.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Chango
Oftentimes when I suggest Americans need more self-sufficiency in their lives I get shot down by people and labeled as a "spam bunker loon" even though I don't believe in isolating myself from the world, hording and waiting in my carefully prepared underground bunker for the apocalypse.
Since when was it bad to "do it yourself"? I know hardly anybody who changes their own oil, much less anybody who is capable of doing the things that others now regularly do for us like car maintenance/repairs, making clothing, home construction and repairs, basic food preparation like butchering meat or growing vegetables, making furniture and tools, ect.
A hundred years ago, things like this were part of the standard skill-set of nearly every American! Now those skills are gone; the average man can't hit a nail with hammer, much less fix a roof leak or replace a water heater.
And don't give me the excuse that "this technological world is too technological and complicated to expect anybody to be able to do it" crap. Human minds designed, built and installed every system we live with today.
Are you an inferior mind? An unskilled neophyte? An incapable worker? Those traits used to be the marks of a worthless bum... now you are "weird" and "looney" if you aren't like that.
What happened to America?! Since when was dependence a good thing?
When we were a rural agri based country self reliance worked. It does not work in a modern urban society. Take the case of changing your own oil. If I live in the country I can change my own oil. I can then take the old oil and dump it in a hole on my farm or in the woods or just leave it in a rusty container in my barn. Me and the other 20 neighbors that are spread out over 10 miles are not going to do much damage to each other doing that. But if I have 20 neighbors on my block or even in my building and we all decide to dump used oil in the backyard or down the drain, it will cause problems. Bad problems. That is true of many things. You want people in New York City running around with rifles looking for game to kill for supper or raising chickens in the courtyard for eggs?
Total BS...... I do change my own oil on 3 trucks, 1 van 1 car , a motorcycle and a bob cat skid steer that holds 3 in the engine and 22 qts in the drive.
I use 5 gallon gas containers to store the waste and take it to the local salvage yard where they burn it for winter heat.
Over the weekend I have been installing a new door on the house, and in other spare time in Sept removed and painted all the windows.
The shop is getting 4 new windows which are on special order and I I will install myself correctly, better than a hired contractor.
I also do every bit of the engine maint, and everything else to include making clothes. yeah that's right i can sew with or with out a machine and even make foot wear like boot mocs to my knees.
Total BS....... But then I can and do start fire with 2 sticks...
Self-sufficiency has taken on the meaning of being able to purchase services in a society that has been told that having others less fortunate to do 'dirty work' is spreading wealth around to those less educated, and that this creates a sensible prosperity. Considering that youth are being instructed to live in highly controlled condo/HOA atmospheres, which provide no space for self-sufficient pursuits, makes this mindset convenient, too. This is one downside of pushing everyone to be book-smart and diploma'd without knowing an actual skill set that involves doing honest things, like constructive work.
Why should one do something that wastes time like changing motor oil when they could take on side work or go make pretty on FB? Lifestyles are sold today that require people to perceive mundane tasks as something one hears was done in an uglier past not admired now since it indicates lack of income & prosperity, seen as a frivolous allocation of one's time. There is never enough time to socially network & beautifully live!
As for dependency being a good thing? Well, technology has made it so and the shifted demographic that looks down on physical production/actual independence can't get enough supply-side theoretical living. It is beneficial to some if you want an indolent service-oriented populace who gets accustomed (addicted?) to relying on others for basic skills, which requires economic servitude to feel complete since everything one needs done must be bought from another. This reminds me of an ad I saw for some online techie 'college' that showed some unfortunate child installing ram on a motherboard as if that was an important skill she learned from the Pell Grant-funded program she crashed-coursed through. Well, it is the little things after all?
I think it's the "Unibomber" stereotype: Some guy who lives in a bunker somewhere waiting for the black helicopters to come and try to take him and his gun away.
That being said, I respect people who are able to be self-sufficient. While I can change my oil if needed, I can't do much else. I need to learn more useful skills.
Well Jeff I get those choppers each fall just about now in fact. They fly over the garden where the corn stalks still stand looking for the wild wood land weed.....
Usually the sight of a double barrel shot gun is enough to make them fly away......
I have rebuilt a lot of engines from chain saws to cars and trucks. I have probably rebuilt more than 1,000 vw air cooled engines in this life, many Volvo, Saab, and MGB, some BMW and Porche engines a few motorcycle engines. At one point I could do a Vovlo Clutch in 45 minutes with no air tools just because I had done enough to know what tools to take on the first grab and not waste time. The books gave 8 hours too.
I never hire anyone else to do something I can do, and in general I can do it better. The really hard part is having all the tools.. I have all the tools and of mostly Snap On quality.
HUH? What do taxes and or wars have to do with what things you can do for yourself or not? I don't see where that idea for a comment even fits the topic..
Most people don't live in a highrise downtown, but some degree of self-sufficiency isn't impossible even there.
I live in suburbia, about 10 miles from a major city... not the boonies, BTW.
Just about every auto parts store takes oil free for recycling; you don't have to "dump it in the woods". You can raise chickens on a postage stamp sized piece of land if you want to; the chicken you bought at the store spent it's entire life in a cage too small for it to even turn around in.
You can also buy live chickens and other domestic animals and butcher them yourself for far less $$ than those shrink-wrapped cuts of meat from Venezuela or Argentina, but while the vast majority of people don't think twice about eating meat they are horrified of the thought of killing and preparing their meat themselves.
So essentially we have a generation of people who are so dependent they would starve to death because they don't know how to get meat or grow vegetables unless they can buy them a supermarket.
If they were dumped on piece of land in the Spring with all the tools and raw materials necessary to build a house they would freeze to death before Winter.
If you locked them naked in a room, gave them a roll of cloth, scissors, thread and a needle they would still be naked at the end of the day (the "smart" ones might have made up some kid of toga by then )
Can't anyone see... somebody WANTS us to be this dumb and dependent. They WANT us to absolutely NEED them for survival. Is this really a good way to be?
The same goes for most of the items you listed. I like cooking, so I will prepare nice meals. I don't have any interest in investing in the supplies or time needed to learn butchering (of all things). Starting such a thing is expensive, on its own. Chilling meats, transport, instruments. .. and the time involved in slaughter?
Start small - raise chickens - you can pick one, slaughter it, prep it - cook it and eat it same day.
Or you can hunt rabbits - if it is legal and they are around where you live. Kill it, skin and gut it, cook it. Good eating.
I've never had squirrel but I hear they are pretty good as well.
We aren't talking about a major operation - or putting tri-tip steak or filet mignon on the table.
Last edited by Harrier; 10-07-2012 at 04:14 PM..
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