micro entrepreneur

MICRO ENTREPRENEUR


I’m pretty shameless when it comes to getting any and all ideas for articles. I’ll repeat ideas, hoping enough time has passed between now and when the last batch of minions threw up their arms in disgust and stormed off to visit YuppieSurvivalScumEroticallyStrokeThierBlackPlasticStockedPoodleShooters.com. I’ll steal ideas from other survival blogs, twisting perfectly logical positions into my own fear ridden paranoid model and passing it off as my own. I’ll gladly risk offending any and all groups in society, just to come up with something to write that day, not stopping to think even for a second that it would be pretty easy to “accidentally” hit me in a car in the darkness. And worst of all, I don’t lose even a second of sleep after listening to National Pravda Radio to get ideas. If McCarthy were alive today to hear these jack booted thug worshiping toadies sucking in great globs of Big Brothers ass for a pittance in funding, liberal weenies so afraid of their Birkenstock shadows that they live in fear of the downtrodden masses they champion, driving by the slums silently in their Prius electric cars ( their only tactical intelligent action ), he would crap himself a bloody stool in his hast to jump up and scream “Commie!” at the top of his voice. Today’s idea came from the radio segment on Haitian refugees make shift marketplace.

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In a sports stadium amidst the tent city, some Haitians have started profiting off their countrymen’s misery. Which is what free market capitalism is all about. Make no mistake, I’m as free market as you can be as an anarchist. I think anyone should be able to sell huffable glue, fully automatic firearms, 150 proof alcohol and cocaine to five year olds. If they kill themselves off, their parents can pop out another Darwinistic reject, since in a truly free market unhampered by government regulation and undistorted by tax money incentives a hospital visit would be very affordable. I’m all for refugees paying top dollar to those prepared. Gas gouging? Why not? If you are too stupid to not have a few gas cans set aside for a natural disaster, you should pay a premium to the person with enough foresight to stock up. That’s the basic problem with our welfare system. Not that it costs more to administer than what is paid out. Not the fact that we inflate the currency to pay its costs. All that is survivable. What is not survivable as a society is discouraging good breeding stock from reproducing by tax disincentives and encouraging the idiots to breed by giving them a living for free. And that amount goes up with each free kid popped out. In the long run, you get too many folks with the spot above their face being nothing more than a hat rack.

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But you know what? There wasn’t even price gouging in Haiti. Perhaps they feared Voodoo retribution. One guy was selling snow cones. Ten cents off the back of his little red wagon ( the shaved ice in a cooler, the syrup bottles alongside ). Another has a generator. He placed two surge protectors between the unit and was charging 60 cents to charge your cell phone. Another women was selling a noodle dish, which wasn’t going gangbusters but enough for her to make a living from those needing a change of pace from relief rice ( I can’t imaging who thought rice as food in a firewood stripped region was a good idea unless they are also distributing carbon fuels ). Another guy with just a pair of scissors was giving haircuts. None of these services was critical. Simply luxuries. But it does point out how luxury goods will always have a market. It isn’t a perfect analogy because the poor deluded fools actual think things will return to normal in their vast steaming craphole of a country, whereas in a true collapse folks might not be as convinced small treats are affordable. But perhaps it is good enough. The lessons here are that you need to stock up in advance on tools no one else is going to have, and that if you don’t have a critical skill then go with the luxury market. Obviously not the diamond and steak and lobster luxury market. The post collapse luxury market. In a disaster area, treating the kids to a sweet, something different to eat and having your dreadlocks shorn are not absolutely necessary but they are affordable luxuries. After the collapse, luxury will once again be redefined.

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We’ve covered most of this before. A shave and a haircut might seem like something anyone can do for themselves. But after the grid won’t run shavers and all the disposables start cutting skin instead of hair, few people will have the means to do so. A few pairs of quality scissors and straight razors will be all the equipment you need. Not everyone will need you, but it will become an affordable luxury to clean up. After a time, the average Joe might only be able to use paper shotgun cartridges with black powder, but professional soldiers, mercenaries, and bounty hunters will be able to pay the big bucks for near modern powder and cases. That sort of combines a skill with a luxury. Entertainment should thrive, the trick might be figuring out which. A solar panel charging small batteries would fall under a luxury. The panels might not be too scarce, but the rechargeable AA/C/D type batteries will be. Luckily you can buy in bulk. Then, you charge a hefty security deposit on them and the idiots go listen to their I-Pod or whatever. If it doesn’t pan out, use them for your LED lanterns. Which might also be a thought. You can get them cheap, buying the older tech which isn’t as efficient. But what do you care? You are recharging the batteries between rentals.

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If you are skill impaired for post collapse living, think affordable luxuries.

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