rambling thoughts about the economy of an enclave #2
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@ -119,12 +119,27 @@ Track your fucking budget. Count your vitamins. The revolution needs
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accountants. See where you're tied to capitalism. Focus on strengthening
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accountants. See where you're tied to capitalism. Focus on strengthening
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your independence by cutting those bonds:
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your independence by cutting those bonds:
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* Find ways to produce what you need
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1. Find ways to produce what you need. If you need an item, and the
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default way of getting it is to buy it from an external supplier, try
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to figure out what it would take to produce it internally. Maybe you'd
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need tooling and raw materials (machine X and lower-level vitamins Y
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and Z), plus the skill and time to use this new productive capacity.
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While the initial capital outlay of buying the tooling might be
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considerable, and climbing the learning curve might initially take
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longer than just clicking "Buy Now" on JLCPCB or whatever, this
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investment might make economic sense if it can be amortized over a
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sigil-03
commented
i think there are two things that i'd like to add to the bootstrap section
i think there are two things that i'd like to add to the bootstrap section
1. bootstrapping also means bootstrapping people. adding people is a really easy way to diversify talent / resources / contributions
2. starting small / local - starting by supporting the immediate local communities is a great way to organically build the roots to survive in your native ecosystem. it's like how planting native flowers ends up needing less water + care.
a. for example, you may help a local farmer and now, although they are not part of your enclave or this project, they may offer alternate ways to obtain vitamins (perhaps through trade rather than through capital)
building community like this also helps feed into point 1.
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long productive life. The new productive capacity might serve the
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enlave and aligned external sibling-enclaves.
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* Acquire what you need by trading with your network instead of with the capitalist
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2. Acquire what you need by trading with your network instead of with the
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superstructure
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capitalist superstructure. This is the flip side of option 1: maybe
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some sibling-enclave has already taken on the task of internalizing
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the relevant production, and now we can lean on them (while supporting
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them) to satisfy our needs.
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sigil-03
commented
i think this is the answer. you have to get enough energy into the system to wedge the crack open enough to fit through. that also means being very directed with that energy. you later mention the work needing to both make money and offset living expenses, which is perfect. the capital is the energy to force the crack open from this side, and the living expense offset lets you squeeze through a smaller opening. i think this is the answer.
you have to get enough energy into the system to wedge the crack open enough to fit through. that also means being very directed with that energy.
you later mention the work needing to both make money and offset living expenses, which is perfect. the capital is the energy to force the crack open from this side, and the living expense offset lets you squeeze through a smaller opening.
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* Do without
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3. Do without. This one is simple enough - but the goal is abundance,
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not austerity. Material conditions will determine our actions,
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and many goods are worthless. Be stingy by default.
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# Bootstrap
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# Bootstrap
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one extra thing i think about sometimes here along with "do without" is the idea of like... "do with slowly"
for example, if i need vitamin X + external service Y to produce vitamin Z, and the cost to procure the tooling + raw materials to produce vitamin Z is approximately the same (or even a little greater) than the cost of an import then it usually feels worth it to procure the tooling + raw materials instead and learn a new skill + add to the enclave tool library
obviously it's a judgement call - like if it's just a one-time one-off thing that you will absolutely never need another one of again, then it is maybe not worth it, or if it's not aligned with your value vector, etc.
Tried to address this in a new commit to this branch.