The world society runs on money. Are DIY projects a way to undermine the economy?

Opinions, rants, ideas on how to apply this, and anything else is appreciated. I'm trying to work this idea out in my own head and was looking for some sounding boards as all my friends IRL are morons.

You'd have to become totally self sufficient then, and presumably that would take a reasonably large amount of money to set up, like a generator etc.. I doubt that just doing a few diy projects would have any major impact...

True, but if everyone made their own soap, and only their own soap, the soap industry would crumble.

yeah but isn't making your own soap a dirty smelly and nasty process? And how would you convince everyone to do that? Most people don't have time, so you'd end up with other people making their soap for them, and you'd recreate the soap industry all over again.

so what why should we be dependent on anybody to be clean but ourselves? Be self dependent, it's the better way to go, if everyone was self dependent then we wouldn't have half as many worries.

but that's my point. It's all well and good to be self sufficient, but "everybody" wouldn't do it. there wouldn't BE such things as a soap industry if it wasn't for the need for a soap industry. If everyone became self sufficient, then some people who wouldn't want to make soap, would make something else, and before you know it you have cottage industries, and then an industrial revolution, and we've all got holes in our cheeks...

(obscure literary reference.. kudos to anyone who knows what book I'm referring to)

I'm all for being self sufficient. Anything that screws up the economy is great as far as I'm concerned.

thank you Ralph Waldo Emerson.

WHAT??? How is self dependence better off... Humans are a colonial being...We live like ants or bees...We are dependent on others but i guess we could live independently. Man has thrived because of it's ability to work toward goals with other humans.

We're not colonial, jerkass. Social pack animal is a far cry from colonial which, as far as I can remember, only exists in insects. And man has thrived only because of the ability to make and use new tools (according to my interpretation).

But anyway, back to the story. While it's true that people are lazy and won't want to make their own soap, it isn't true that making soap is a dirty of smelly job, Suzie. It depends on the type of soap you're making, but most people could save major scrill if they made their own.

That isn't even the story. Human tendency is another issue and it dilutes this one: DIY can destroy an economic institution. Now, say noone really wanted to make their own soap, but there's a contingent in society that believes that the soap industry is so wrong that they make and give away their soap.

ok, sorry for the misunderstanding, I thought soap was annoying to make or something.. don't ask me why I thought that, just one of those random things in my head..

I understand your point entirely, and it would work if it were not for human tendency. If there were a group who gave away all their soap, then yes, the soap industry would die


So anyway, how DO you make soap? do you know? Tell me how and maybe I'll try doing it, hell, why not.. I know how to make a bunch of other cosmetics, so why not soap

soap is anoying to make you have to mix lye and animal fats.

Good point Suzie, but everyone would have the ability to make soap or other things at a whim's notice if others decided not to make it or the soap makers died.

Clown Unit,

Dependency on others is the greatest weakness any person could have. I don't like the idea that I have to depend on Doctors to tell me that I have to take peniccillin and this particulary type. I can just as easily do a cell culture and bacteria ID as well as they can and probably quicker than a lab with hundreds of samples to test and confuse. I can also research the strains of penicillin to use and how much to take. I could then go to a store and buy it. Some farmers have remained quite healthy fighting ailments with the same medications given to livestock. In very many cases it's the same thing a PhD would subscribe to you, only under a different name.

I'd much rather raise my own meat, that way I know what the animal was fed how it was butchered and how it was cured out. If you don't depend on someone else for something, then you'll still have that something when that someone is gone. If not you could be royally fucked.

It is nice to go out buy stuff you don't have time to make, but it's wise to know how to get along yourself, just in case.

Do you think the farmer flood victim really cares if you get hambuger and corn on the cob when his house is 2 miles downstream in pieces?

As you research, you're putting trust that the information is correct. A way to depend on others.

I don't mean to ruin you're point - I agree - but there is no way to advance knowledge without relying on others at some point. You can't discover or even test everything collectivly known by humans in several lifetimes.

Suzie,

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I understand your point entirely, and it would work if it were not for human tendency. If there were a group who gave away all their soap, then yes, the soap industry would die

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