Hello SteemIT, I am Richard, a PC desktop support technician, former Air force aircraft electrician, and avid gardener.

I am working to become less dependent on the general economy. I am trying to accomplish this by growing some of my own food, and trying to create secondary income streams that do not depend on my job to be sustained - I am trying to be more self-reliant.

I believe this effort of self-reliance should be a major effort of everyone on this planet, because we all know the economy is not as stable as it was last year, last decade, or even the last century. Both our local and the global economies, everywhere, are not doing so good. The good times, when measured by the old paradigms, are over. Especially in the western style civilisations, Australia, most of the EU countries, great Britain, Japan, New Zealand, and North America to mention a few, we are facing the stark reality that hard times are ahead! People in less developed countries already live with those stark realities.

But technology CAN and most likely WILL solve SOME, but not all of these issues.

I believe the technology base that is the internet is going to be THE future. How many things have displaced traditional ways?

• Google and databases are replacing traditional hard copy libraries and dictionaries.
• Email, smartphones, and social media have replaced the land line phone, just about done away with the postal services, and what is left of postal will soon be replaced by DHL, FedEx, and UPS.
• Amazon just about has replaced the brick and mortar department stores. The only place Amazon will not be able to compete is in the Locavore (less than 10-25 kilometer/mile) craze.
• Automation and robots will replace many of our jobs. all the menial labor jobs will go away, soon!

What does this mean to us "average" humans, us peons, plebeians, commoners, whatever you want to label us?

The divide will become larger between the large businesses (and their owners) providing the mass produced things in our lives, versus the crafted items of the local economies providing:

• local food
• locally made tools
• recycled, repaired or up-cycled mass produced items
• the repair economy
• information & knowledge gained from working in the local economies

It is these local niche markets and local small businesses and sole proprietors we need to focus on. Those will allow us to survive and buffer any regional or global economic repercussions. So what if a major recall by a big corporation causes the mass market beef or chicken supply to disappear for a few weeks or months? So what if melons from some massive farm are recalled because of listeria?

If you have some egg laying chickens and a decent local garden economy able to supply egg protein and healthy veggies, we can survive, the lack of protein or bland (but cheap) fruits and veggies will not kill us right-away!

So how does technology like the internet and SteemIT tie into this?

Knowledge!

Knowledge is power and independence. If someone takes away all of your money, all of your property, and drops you off in the middle of nowhere, if you know nothing about basics of life you will die in 3-5 days. If you know a little, how to source safe water, basics knowledge of what is edible, and you practice this knowledge NOW, if such a situation were to occur, you would most likely survive for weeks on your own, with hope of finding other people to band up with.

The internet, Google, SteemIT give us the knowledge AND by extension, the POWER to survive and thrive.

But you MUST practice the knowledge. Just like so many libraries and internet servers have gone by the wayside, so the likes of Google and SteemIT that provide us with all these abilities could be wiped out in an instant!

So let's get to it, let's develop those local economies, for one day, in some minor or major form, we might need to depend on these local economies, and like riding a bike, once you know how to ride, even if you have not been on a bike in years, you remember how to ride one. The same holds true for all other knowledge.

Learn it, then use it!
Let's do it!

Live long and proper!

Richard.

My other social media accounts:
Blog - https://rmolby.wordpress.com/
Facebook - https://www.facebook.com/richard.molby
Google+ - https://plus.google.com/+RichardMolby_KE5GRW
Twitter - https://twitter.com/RichardMolby

A little more about me and SteemIT:

My 1st quarter of my life:
I was born to two amazing parents! When I was little, less than 3 but older than 1, my parents were in an accident that could have killed them but they survived. I was however traumatized (so I was told later) and my speech development was behind. I didn't start fully speaking until I was 4 I think. I was a slow learner, still am sometimes today.

I got to go to private school. Waldorf School. This was probably the best thing that has ever happened to me.

As a got a bit older my dad got me into microelectronics. I build a small Heath Kit computer that basically was a digital clock; I learned to program it to make the digits play patterns. Then I got a Commodore Vic-20, and later a C64. After I graduated school, I went into the Air Force, where I bought another C64 and C128. When PCs became dominant, I started helping friends fix and upgrade theirs. My dad sent me stuff. I got leftover parts from friends. I started building scrap parts PCs. I had a BBS, then got on Prodigy, later CompuServe, then finally the internet. I started with a 2400 baud modem on a 386 running DOS/Win3.1 with WinTrumpet to get on the internet! I have been an internet junkie since then...

My 2nd quarter of my life:
After I got out of the Air Force I worked a variety of jobs, most of them in the Information Technology field. Telephone supoprt for a software company, PC repair tech at several small computer stores, and desktop and network support at a government facility.

During the latter part I learned about cryptocurrencies. I got involved with bitcoin fairly early, around the time it was about US$1! At the time I didn't quite understand the implications of the blockchain, but I fully grasped the financial aspect of bitcoin. I mined with my PC, later got a Butterfly Labs Jalapeno miner, and then some USB miners, a few Saphire and then ANTminer units.

I also started a blog in October 2010. I was a blogging greenhorn but kept working on it. I have not posted to it since last year but go check it out below.

My 3rd quarter of my life:
I went back to work in the civilian sector. First an IT company that supplies IT services to companies too large for a hobby level or owner technical support but too small to have their own IT department, and currently I am employed as desktop support for a fairly large corporate IT outfit.

I am slightly past half my expected life expectancy, if I look at my grandparent's life spans! I have entered that part of life where I have less energy but more wisdom. I have entered that part of life where K.I.S.S (keep it simple stupid) has gone from "eh!" to every day implementation. I look more at the big picture than the details.

As for SteemIt, I am curious how this introduction fares. I have read quite a few of other introductions, including cloverme and steve-walschot whose intros somewhat parallel mine. I find SteemIT intriguing, new and innovative, but I am also sceptical, as I have seen a lot of ventures flourish and the crash and burn. But just like getting involved with bitcoin, I want to get in on the action that is SteemIT. You can't benefit from something you don't participate in!

Keep on Steeming :-)