The farm journey, a bit of reflection on how the farm has changed us and how the world has changed while we have been here.
When we first moved to the country in 2010, we were still a bit unsettled, and destined to remain so till 2014. After that we were finally sure of where we could live and that we could put down roots without the worry of tearing them up again. That was in a time when designed obsolecence was still the rule, when companies were becoming more and more obviously trying to build things that were not meant to be bought once and last. The main culprit was a major appliance company that was creeping through all the brands, buying them as it went, then “making them more profitable.” They were acquiring other companies like a vanture capitalist firm.
Then the software companies began to offer subscriptions to their products, making it easier to buy with a small monthly payment and guaranteeing updates for a certain number of versions of the software. But over time, the subscription would cost more than the software would have to just buy the license for all at once. But they were taking advantage of the fact that they never sold the software outright, but only a locense to use it on a computer or two, max. They finally realized that since they claimed continued ownership, they could just as easily make the subscripotion model, get people into the software for a lower initial barrier, lowering it and making it more accessible while actually charging more for it over time.
Now I hear talk of subscritions to features on new model cars, such as heated seats, ot access to the frunk on one model. So now you can pay north of $50K for something and still not own it?
All of these monthly expenses may be a lower initial cost, but as everyone seems to want them, and there is the rising costs of rents, fuel, power, and food, and all the while car companies are making it impossible for an owner to perform even the most basic service on, the average person is being priced out of their own life!
So, it seems we are heading back to basics with the inevitable rise of prices, and since we are going to have to select what we want to spend our money on, let me proposition the following idea.
Stop!
Stop buying this crap. You buy a video on from one major online retailer, and you never get a hard medium to keep at your house. They can even change what version you own, changing the content without you knowing. Not the way it was when you had a video you could look back at and see what that line was when it was made, but they would not get away with now. I find it ironic that the same retailer is attempting to launch a vehicle that you can customize and have for yourself as cheap as chips. Where will that go? Will it remain, or os it another hook to get the buyers in, then change the sales model? I dare not invest, because the retailer has a bad reputation of not upholding their business model, and leaving consumers in the lurch. So, stop buying their crap, be it objects designed to fail, or promises to go back to the way things were before they went and fucked it all up!
Now, I admit I am a bit old fashioned to begin with. I procured my ideas on melamine and particle board furniture a long time ago while seeing how the structure of such failed, and while looking through antique stores and seeing how furniture used to be made. Yes, some of that failed, too. But in different ways and over different time scales. Back in the late 1800’s and early 1900’s some boards would be glued together with the grain in opposition, then covered with veneer. Yes, the boards cupped and bowed over the years, and eventually the glue gave out. But it was not at the first sign of humidity or water. These were pieces that were north of 80 years old. It was not just an issue of loving the furniture and how it was built in the time, but it built trust.
When I built my woodshop on the farm, I had the option to go any direction I wanted to with it. We had power put out to the building I intended to use, and it was enough to run a variety of machines and dust collectionif I wanted, and to work in tandem with the kids or grandkids in the future, all while running an AC or heat as needed, and a refrigerator if I wanted. But I did not go with power tools, in the end. I have some to do some of the heavy work, but the backbone of the shop is a collection of handplanes built by one of the most reputable manufacturers in the business today. The tools I selected are built to last, and some even have a certain degree of elegance to them that together remind me of my goal with everything I build. Build well, build to last, and build with flourish.
But the woodshop is only one part of the bigger picture. Our ambition is to buy or build everything we can ourselves with intention. The intention is to help to create generational wealth. It is to save money for ourselves over time by buying once, and hopefully leaving things for the next generation to use. This in addition to not buying what is unnecessary, fixing what we can, and not falling for the desire trap of always wanted the latest of everything, should help lead us through the rest of our lives more economically, and with more wisdom. While some revel in haiving the latest phone with the newest features (the most recently repackaged old ones), I revel in how old a piece of furniture is, who in my family has owned it before me, and if I can build to that same quality when I need something for my house or life.
We are still trying to unravel from the modern culture of consumerism that seems to be just pulling wealth from the little guy in America and sending it up to the one percent class. They don’t need my money. After a certain point a person generates more income on their wealth than they could possibly spend it if they tried hard. I am never going to see that. I am my own economic engine, and I have to rely on my pwn health and labor to generate. I don’t have investments growing my wealth. I have rich people just trying to ply it away from me in every direction, and it has got to stop!