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Okay, so we're stuck with four more years of Obama... which, to me as an aspiring self-sufficient man, really only boils down to one thing: OBAMACARE. I have yet to figure out exactly how I'm going to handle this... especially since my aspiration is to get to the point where my family can live very comfortably beneath the income tax threshold such that we will not be subject to income tax at all. Being of such limited means isn't really a bad thing, but it could become much harder to pull off if I'm forced to buy health insurance at several hundred dollars a month or even several tens of dollars a month.
Does the election result change how any of y'all are going to live, or do your preparations for whatever self-sufficient life you envision? If no, say why. If yes, say what and why. I'm interested to hear you.
I'll start.
I had been considering New England states as a good place to locate, for self-sufficiency... including Maine. Then Maine went dramatically blue, not that that's a surprise... and also became the first state where a gay marriage proposal was voted into law by the populace. (Every time since yesterday, when it's been on the ballot in any state, it's been voted down by the people... even in California.) Don't hate on me because I oppose gay marriage. God says that homosexuality is perversion and a sin, so I'm just God's follower. If you want to take that up with God, that's up to you... but I don't want to hear it right now because it's irrelevant to this thread. I mentioned it because it's a condition of an area I'd considered for self-sufficiency, which makes me not want to consider it anymore.
I'd been considering West Virginia and the western tip of Virginia... not sure if I'm going to be looking there anymore. Virginia went "blue" again, much to their shame in my mind... and West Virginia, though a solidly red state for the presidential election, chose a Democratic governor and some Democratic congresspeople. That makes it seem like WV is on the skids, where I'm concerned... it's known to be a very poor state, which isn't so bad, but when poor people start falling under the spell of Democratic principles, they never extricate themselves. Basically, it seems likely that West Virginia could become a blue state fairly soon, and wind up enacting liberal laws that would get rammed down everyone's throats anyway. (Where liberal politics are concerned, I agree with another poster to this self-sufficiency forum who wrote me a DM not long ago. Liberal vs. conservative is often depicted as big government vs. big business. After all, that's straight from the mouth of Hillary Clinton. I don't like big business either, but at least I would have the choice not to buy anything from those companies. Big government is legislated into your life and you can't avoid it like you can avoid patronizing big businesses.)
About the only state on my present-moment short list that survived the election without affecting my opinion of it was Alaska. Alaska went solidly red, has a history of laissez-faire laws such as "no income tax" and "no sales tax", and you can also avoid property tax if you live in the right place.
If only staunchly conservative places like Idaho, Wyoming, and Utah actually got a reasonable amount of rain...!
I think you are looking at things well and taking into account what matters to you, good place to start.
There are several solidly conservative states in the west that would meet some or most of your criteria, don't limit yourself, look at all of them, and don't believe just because they elect a democrat governor or whatever that they are somehow tainted.
In my state, we solidly went Republican for president, and right now the votes are too close to call for state offices, but we will probably have a mix of Republican and democrat, however, most of the democrats here would be considered Conservative in states like california or new york.
My best advice is to find a place where you want to live, can afford to live the way you want, and can work around the jesters in power.
I know that most of my stuff is far below the radar, and will be moreso now for at least the next few years.
OPSEC will be of paramount importance for those who want to come out ahead and keep what they have.
One thing about obamacare, if you are not making much money, it is free, right? Everybody else is supposed to pay for your healthcare, so if you are planning to live with no real income to list, you should be fine.
I'll probably end up writing more about your query here later. Suffice it to say for now that, yes, the election outcome drastically affects my future plans. But, then again, the outcome was not all that unexpected for me. I rather suspected that the hens would re-elect the fox into the henhouse.
Just a note on the Obamacare thing: if you are living below poverty level (especially if you have a family), you will be exempted from the law (which is, of course, rather ironic considering what the law was supposed to have done in the first place). Assuming any sort of normalcy in my life by the time the law fully swings into place, that's exactly what I will be doing--limiting my income to under poverty level. It's one of the few ways to get out of that neck violin.
The only way Obamacare will be free for anyone is if their state sets up the health insurance exchanges, or expands Medicaid. Many are opting out of this, so their citizenry will be in pretty much the same place they are now...
To the original question, no, the election won't really affect anything I do anymore than the last election did, or the one before that, or the one before that...
I don't think it would have mattered who got into the Oval Office.
We are too far along the current path. Congress is the bottleneck and with the House/Senate divided no President would be able to effect any meaningful change.
We have become too dependent on the FedReserve for propping up the country.
What started off as a temporary stop gap 4 years ago has turned into BAU with $80 billion per month for infinity.
i don't see blue state has any effect on self-sufficient man life style. if you want to live in North wood Maine and have no interest in paying taxes to support blue state mentality (school, social welfare,conveniences, etc) you can easy do so. live on forest land no permanent structure you can avoid all those expenses, may be $40-50 per year taxes on 40 acres for the US military to keep the Russian from take over is a small price to pay.
Okay, so we're stuck with four more years of Obama... which, to me as an aspiring self-sufficient man, really only boils down to one thing: OBAMACARE. I have yet to figure out exactly how I'm going to handle this... especially since my aspiration is to get to the point where my family can live very comfortably beneath the income tax threshold such that we will not be subject to income tax at all. Being of such limited means isn't really a bad thing, but it could become much harder to pull off if I'm forced to buy health insurance at several hundred dollars a month or even several tens of dollars a month.
Does the election result change how any of y'all are going to live, or do your preparations for whatever self-sufficient life you envision? If no, say why. If yes, say what and why. I'm interested to hear you.
I'll start.
I had been considering New England states as a good place to locate, for self-sufficiency... including Maine. Then Maine went dramatically blue, not that that's a surprise... and also became the first state where a gay marriage proposal was voted into law by the populace. (Every time since yesterday, when it's been on the ballot in any state, it's been voted down by the people... even in California.) Don't hate on me because I oppose gay marriage. God says that homosexuality is perversion and a sin, so I'm just God's follower. If you want to take that up with God, that's up to you... but I don't want to hear it right now because it's irrelevant to this thread. I mentioned it because it's a condition of an area I'd considered for self-sufficiency, which makes me not want to consider it anymore.
I'd been considering West Virginia and the western tip of Virginia... not sure if I'm going to be looking there anymore. Virginia went "blue" again, much to their shame in my mind... and West Virginia, though a solidly red state for the presidential election, chose a Democratic governor and some Democratic congresspeople. That makes it seem like WV is on the skids, where I'm concerned... it's known to be a very poor state, which isn't so bad, but when poor people start falling under the spell of Democratic principles, they never extricate themselves. Basically, it seems likely that West Virginia could become a blue state fairly soon, and wind up enacting liberal laws that would get rammed down everyone's throats anyway. (Where liberal politics are concerned, I agree with another poster to this self-sufficiency forum who wrote me a DM not long ago. Liberal vs. conservative is often depicted as big government vs. big business. After all, that's straight from the mouth of Hillary Clinton. I don't like big business either, but at least I would have the choice not to buy anything from those companies. Big government is legislated into your life and you can't avoid it like you can avoid patronizing big businesses.)
About the only state on my present-moment short list that survived the election without affecting my opinion of it was Alaska. Alaska went solidly red, has a history of laissez-faire laws such as "no income tax" and "no sales tax", and you can also avoid property tax if you live in the right place.
If only staunchly conservative places like Idaho, Wyoming, and Utah actually got a reasonable amount of rain...!
But that's my story. How about yours?
What's keeping you in America at all? Why not try a different country?
[quote=itsMeFred;26843613]The only way Obamacare will be free for anyone is if their state sets up the health insurance exchanges, or expands Medicaid. Many are opting out of this, so their citizenry will be in pretty much the same place they are now...
[quote]
Other than they will be forced (under penalty of being thrown in prison with thieves, rapists, and murderers) to purchase something they may not want or may not be able to afford.
This will especially affect those who strive for simple living or simple sufficiency.
All bets are off in NH too. Check out wmur news if you wish to see what happened in NH last night.
I have no idea what it means other than MORE TAXES. We elected real big Spenders, but we don't have real big money to back it up. That should be interesting..
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