Last night, my dad posed this question (related to the small towns he lives near in Pacific County Washington... but perfectly applicable to Grays Harbor County where I currently live.

The Perceived Problems

Both of these counties are beautiful places to live but have quite a few perceived problems that aren't nearly as apparent as they are in larger areas (though the larger areas have the same problems):

• There are a lot of people at or near the poverty line
• There isn't much for young people (especially school aged children) to do so they tend to do nothing or get into trouble
• There are a lot of homeless people
• The buildings (businesses and homes) aren't maintained and are generally run down

The Primary Reasons

Obviously I was processing this question while I was sleeping as I woke at 5am with an answer that I believe is at the core of the reasons for poverty:

• Lack of self sufficiency leads to true poverty, reliance on societal support systems, and the inability to be able to keep oneself fed, clothed, in viable transportation, and living in a reasonably maintained home.
• Overbearing governments legislate away the ability for those who are somewhat self sufficient to openly support themselves.

Lack of Self Sufficiency

Most basic self sufficiency is simple enough that anyone can learn it:

• Acquiring Food: Fishing, hunting, gardening, and foraging
• Making and mending clothing: Sewing
• Storing and Preparing Food: Cooking, fermenting, canning, etc.
• Home Repair: Basic carpentry, electrical, plumbing, etc.
• Auto Repair and Diagnostics: fixing a car
• Living without power (water harvesting, wood and solar cooking, etc)
• Self Defense in Law (knowing how courts and law suits work, knowing your rights, etc.)
• Being Healthy (eating good food, avoiding toxins, getting exercise, not being irradiated, etc.)

If you cannot grow food, forage, hunt, fish, etc. then you must buy food if you want to eat. Eating is kind of necessary.

If you can mend clothing you don't need to buy clothes as often. If you can sew then you can make your own clothing. This skill is not quite as necessary as some of the others as there are a lot of places to get cheap/free clothing.

If you can store and prepare your own food then you don't have to rely on restaurants and/or prepared meals... which are almost always more expensive than cooking from scratch.

If you cannot fix your own home then you have to pay (usually a lot) to have someone else do it or ignore the problem as best you can.

If you cannot fix your own car then you have to pay through the nose to have someone else do so... or eventually no longer have a usable car.

If you can make due without water, sewer, power, etc. then you can choose to do so.

If you don't know your rights then you effectively have none. If you don't know how law is supposed to work then you have to hire a good lawyer (extremely expensive), hire a bad lawyer (still expensive), rely on a public defender (who is not there to defend you only to make sure your rights aren't violates so you cannot appeal), or most likely get screwed. Nevermind that if you don't know how law works you cannot tell if any lawyer you hire is actually doing what they should be doing.

If you don't know how to be healthy (avoid GMO foods, avoid pesticides, avoid eating sick/mutant creatures, get regular exercise, use wired devices instead of wireless, avoid pharmaceutical drugs, maintain good gut health, etc.) then they will eventually end up paying huge amounts of money for medical "care" and/or "treatment".

Finally, if you cannot do something yourself then it becomes extremely hard to hire someone to do something for you as you are probably unable to tell if they are doing the job right or not...

Every thing you can do yourself provides you with a choice. That choice is to address the issue yourself or spend money to have someone else do so for you.

For areas without a lot of jobs that pay a livable wage, if you cannot do things for yourself then you are probably going to end up on some kind of welfare or homeless.

Overbearing Government

If you get too creative then you are likely to also run up against local legislation and start being fined and/or harassed... which only makes things worse and pushes people further down.

If you cannot afford the basics then even a $20 fine or permit is a big deal.

Property taxes are another killer here. If you work for minimum wage then you most likely cannot afford to rent a place to live while buying food, paying for power, keeping the ability to get to work, etc. While the elderly get a break on their property taxes, the young (often poor) do not unless they go onto some kind of welfare. Eliminate property taxes and people who become self sufficient would be much better able to make a viable living AND keep up their transportation and homes.

Property taxes are the most oppressive taxes out there as they require even people who are completely self sufficient to find some way to make "money" just to keep living on the land that they supposedly own. Doing this "legally" practically requires getting a "job" (having less time to be self sufficient) or getting various "licenses" (again, costing money).

When everything is licensed, taxed, regulated, or outlawed then self sufficiency is tossed out the window and you end up with a bizarre serf/slave state where living free is illegal.

Schools promote reliance on the system, not self sufficiency

Public schools (operated and controlled by "the government") do not generally teach any real self sufficiency. Instead they spend way too much time teaching garbage that no one ever uses in real life.

If, instead, we forced them to teach self sufficiency the following things would happen:

• Our children would become competent AND self confident (this would cause them to stand up for themselves, likely resulting in push back when bad laws are passed and loss of revenue from fines)
• Our children could choose to hire something done or do it themselves (this would, of course, cause a loss of tax monies)
• Our children would become adults that could provide for themselves (they could choose to get a job or not, choose to follow their passions, etc.)(this would cut into tax monies)
• Our children would be able to defend themselves in law and stand on their rights (making it harder for "government" by decreasing compliance with bad legislation and reducing revenues from fines as people start contesting them)
• Our children would be healthy and their children would be healthy from birth. (this would result in huge losses in tax revenue, GDP, etc.)

Of course, this will never happen so long as those called government control what is learned.

A quick, direct video from Josie the Outlaw covers what schools actually are very well.

And for those that cry out "How would our children learn?!?, watch this:

Follow the money and control

Notice that the more self sufficient people become the less money that governments will likely receive as taxes, fines, etc.

Those running our current "government" know this. They control the public schools. The schools produce exactly what government actors want: Subservient dependent people who will be milked easily from cradle to grave.

Be Self Sufficient

Until we, as people, start to learn the skills needed to take care of ourselves, our families, and each other things will continue as they are and future generations will be more controlled, more subservient, and more hopelessly enslaved by the system that has been slowly built up around us.

Of course, becoming self sufficient means breaking free of the mind control that most people experience due to being public school victims in the first place... as most of us spend many years learning to obey without serious question and to believe anything that comes from a perceived authority.

At this stage in the game most people will work all of their lives at jobs they probably don't like and be unable to save much. As they get older they will become unable to take care of themselves earlier than previous generations. If they actually become old enough to collect socialist insecurity they will find that it isn't enough to cover even the basics.

Real Change

We won't have real change until we (and future generations) become self sufficient simply because there is a parasite class at the top of our society that treats "the masses" as their milk cows.... living in luxury, doing little if any meaningful work, and spending their free time devising more ways to enrich themselves at the expense of their human cattle.

Until people realize that there is a parasite class and that "the government" is just a bunch of people from this parasite class then things will continue as they are.

We don't need a revolution. We don't need to "find the right politician".

All we need for a better world is to free our minds, teach our children, and avoid paying the very people that are oppressing pretty much everyone.

A video from @larkenrose

Larken has a ton of good information though he is a bit abrasive. That being said, the following video illustrates fairly well the lies that we are told from birth. The narration is a little lacking but it's worth a watch if you are someone who wonders why no matter who is in high offices things seem to remain the same.