Post-Peak Movements and Long-Term Sustainability.

When one seriously meditates on the process of industrial collapse, they can see that after a post-collapse age of scrap runs its course and all plastics, above-ground metals and such have deteriorated beyond usefulness, the only sort of lifestyle that's sustainable in the long term is one that does not depend on ANY industrially-derived materials. That basically leaves us with materials like stone, bone, wood, hide, leaves, stems, fur, sinew, crude glass, relatively minute quantities of bog iron, bark, etc. This is something that should always be kept in mind by people in movements like Transition Towns or any other post-peak groups. All of these post-peak movements should take this information seriously and respond accordingly. Time to build our skills.

Contact Jason at 313-258-1401 or newcultureearthskills (at) gmail (dot) com for more info or to make plans.

Gift Economy & Bartering.

What is the gift economy? Wikipedia says:

In the social sciences, a gift economy (or gift culture) is a society where valuable goods and services are regularly given without any explicit agreement for immediate or future rewards (i.e. no formal quid pro quo exists). Ideally, simultaneous or recurring giving serves to circulate and redistribute valuables within the community. The organization of a gift economy stands in contrast to a barter economy or a market economy. Informal custom governs exchanges, rather than an explicit exchange of goods or services for money or some other commodity.

What is barter? Wikipedia says:

Bartering is a medium in which goods or services are directly exchanged for other goods and/or services without a common unit of exchange (without the use of money). It can be bilateral or multilateral, and usually exists parallel to monetary systems in most developed countries, though to a very limited extent. Barter usually replaces money as the method of exchange in times of monetary crisis, when the currency is unstable and devalued by hyperinflation. Bartering is still common in the present, usually used within the Internet on sites like Craigslist.

I really like the idea of offering my services in both ways, especially in times like these.

Contact Jason at 313-258-1401 or newcultureearthskills (at) gmail (dot) com for more info or to make plans.