by Pops » Fri 13 Mar 2015, 17:41:00
There is a debate tactic, I can't remember the name, but it is where you say, "I used to believe so-and-so but after I investigated I now think differently." 10 years ago I was very doomy, not "looking forward" doomy like some folks, but "skeered enough to buy beans n bullets" doomy. And I'm not so much now.
And I'm not really sure why. Probably has some to do with telling myself a story about a homestead and now I have a different story to tell myself. But part of it has to do with the fact I can't really argue with some of the tech available now.
Back in the day I was trying to telecommute and it was pretty hard at time. But I learned to do it and over time some of my clients (not all) came around. Most of my clients now have never even seen a picture of me! The upshot of that is I use very little oil for transportation, none for work transportation. That is the same whether I'm in town or the sticks, in the sticks I didn't shop often, here I can walk to the store. Anyway you look at it that is a complete triumph of tech over PO. Obviously I use "oil" embedded in everything I consume.
But on the supply side, I've always wanted PV but just never had the money to justify it. It was at the top of the list for the homestead but to be big enough to be worthwhile I would have never have lived long enough to recoup the cost.
But crap, the cost has dropped by some large factor just the last few years while at the same time appliances have become rather more efficient. And for that matter I have become much more efficient as well. Long term I've tried to argue with Kub and others about sustainability of such as PV and couldn't come out on top so I've become at least agnostic on that front.
The legitimate object of government, is to do for a community of people, whatever they need to have done, but can not do, at all, or can not, so well do, for themselves -- in their separate, and individual capacities.
-- Abraham Lincoln, Fragment on Government (July 1, 1854)