I'm finding some interesting reading over at How Many Miles from Babylon. I appreciate the emphasis on freedom and a viable example of what that freedom might look like. My thinking about economics and work is definitely moving in the direction he outlines, rather than toward a small commercial farm. Read especially the posts on a Direct Use Economy and this one.
We have been moving toward such an economy since I discovered that with 5 boys my food bill had become the single largest expense in my cash economy. Opting completely out of the Cash Economy is not really an option as long as we have property taxes to pay, or we aren't able (or willing!) to live off the power grid, but there's still a lot of freedom in not spending money, and the less of it you need the more free you can be.
The problem is that living with one foot in a Direct Use Economy and one foot in a Cash Economy, neither one functions very well. The more we can wean ourselves from reliance on cash which requires huge expenditures of time, the more we will have the time needed for production in the Direct Use economy. I'm hoping that we can reduce our cash needs by 20% or so a year for the next couple of years. If we can eventually do with half the cash we now need while increasing our skills to the point where we are producing a surplus of food, particularly beef, milk and veggies, we may be able to cut our ties to the corporate behomoth entirely. Free at last and all that.
