How will you survive?

[bitingmidge]

Well it's Friday, so I'll be serious too!

Remember only 20% of the world live like we do. That's us, the Seppo's, and a few Europeans.

The rest of the world lives somewhere between subsistence, and what the yuppie alternative lifestylers would mistake for utopian comfort.

They lead a life of assisted by a degree of self-sufficiency, just as our parents (for those over 60) or grandparents did.

I am not alone on this board in remembering a time when close to a minority of families had cars, no town water, few home phones, one light in each room (used sparingly), and that's more likely to be the picture here.

A return to "the good old days", when a train trip to the beach 60 k's away was akin to annual leave, and you killed the oldest chook for a special meal when someone had a birthday.

Most in this country, are one generation or less (in the case of many immigrants) from that lifestyle, and generally we haven't forgotten how to be resourceful, so will survive comfortably.

We are very detached from the holocaustic scenarios one can paint if one realistically analyses lifestyles in much of the US and Western Europe, so I don't have any grave fears for my generation.

I think it will be my grandchildren who will really need to learn stuff that I was exposed to as a matter of course, so while not going all dreadlocks, mushrooms and strawbales, I will certainly be working towards a more self-sufficiently oriented lifestyle that I can use by way of instruction.

Mind you, I have fairly strong thoughts on rabid consumerism as it is, so won't be putting my thoughts out on a podcast just yet!

Don't worry about running out of fuel, it won't happen in our lifetime, and even when it gets hideously expensive, they'll still have public transport. You just may have to sell some Eggs or Chokos to pay the fare.

Cheers,

P

[silentC]

Does anyone know anything about worm farms? I want to set one up. I've heard an old bathtub is good. Can worm tea be used to power an engine?

[Wongo]

I’ll become a vegetable-ian (how do you spell vegetarian again? ) and eat tofu all day.

[Cliff Rogers]

Yes.
OK.
Yes, if you cover it.
No.

[silentC]

Can I substitute vegetable-ians (or Wongos) for the worms?

[Wongo]

Silent I thought you have already worked out a cunning way to get cheap fuel. Why stuff around with the worms?

Ok back to the topic. If the end of our civilisation is near then what will happen to my super?:confused:

[Wongo]

And why do work so hard to pay off the house?

[craigb]

Ok back to the topic. If the end of our civilisation is near then what will happen to my super?:confused:

The bad news is you won't get to spend it.
The good news is neither will anyone else.

[silentC]

Sorry Wongo, but super-phosphate is harmful to the environment. Worm tea, on the other hand, is nature's fertiliser. Now come and lie down in this nice mud bath I've made for you and nibble on some of these leafy vegetables

[Wongo]

The bad news is you won't get to spend it.
The good news is neither will anyone else.

So the banks get to keep everything. Bloody hell.

[craigb]

What Banks? It's the end of civilization remember.

[Iain]

Psst, Wongo, I've got some tofu seeds, want to buy some

[Zed]

Not so fast there horse boy.
The new goverment has started a new tax on manure, the more your animal produces, the more you pay.
And the rego is determined by animal mass.

Al

in a post apocolyptic society any tax collector had better be well armed...

[Ashore]

Silent Don't go with the worms Get an Apiary no not a house like Zed's but a place to breed Bees, they produce a usable fuel that will run most car engines.

[Daddles]

Ahhh worm farms. My brother in law, Fig Jam, spend squillions on a worm farm. It lasted a day ... before their cocker spaniel got into it and ate all the worms

Richard