Radical homemaking

Discussion in 'The big picture' started by greenfarmers, Feb 22, 2010.

  1. greenfarmers

    greenfarmers Junior Member

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  2. dannyboy

    dannyboy Junior Member

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    thanks for the link Heidi, some really good stuff there. I also liked the article 'take back your education'. nice one
     
  3. kerrip

    kerrip Junior Member

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    That was a great read Heidi. I believe there is a definate shift in peoples thinking in Australia in regards to how we go about our daily lives. I know that there is still a big push for people to 'get ahead' with their careers and take on more debt, but there is a feeling in the air that this is not the answer and slowly people are trying to recapture what is really important in life. And usually this means getting into to more simple pursuits such as growing your own food and looking locally to meet needs. It's great to see more and more stuff in the media because it helps people to clarify in their own minds what it is they are looking for and to find ratification for their own newly found 'radical' views.

    Thanks for sharing.

    Kerri
     
  4. Dreamie

    Dreamie Junior Member

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    But no one gets ahead when everyone is doing the same thing. The first wave of couples who made the decision to borrow money based on dual income to upgrade their house “got ahead”, but every single person after that is just treading water. Today you need a dual income to provide shelter over your head. To be back in the 70’s , 80’s and early 90’s when a single income could buy a house would be grand. We have made the step to 100% mortgages and spending 40% of our income on mortgage repayments it needs to stop, nay will stop when we cannot borrow anymore.

    Most of this is coming from the baby boomers though who don’t have the huge debts over their heads, they have super that they will retire on (smaller than before) and huge amounts of wealth that has been transferred from the younger generations in the way of higher house prices.


    We have become consumers and everything we do is about consuming. We consume debt like never before, we consume child care and we consume resources. This cannot go on forever but when it stops the result will be a reversal of the economy and no one seems to like that fact. Governments around the world are spending future tax incomes to prop up the unsustainable growth from today that was already based on future growth. So basically the future has been brought forward twice to pay for our consumption today.

    Society believes everything can be solved with more money and by paying for things that we cannot or don’t want to do ourselves. We are paying other people to look after our children because we are working too hard to care for them ourselves, we then wonder why violence has increased through lack of parental reinforcement. Oh that’s right let’s just have more police paid for by working even harder.

    The step forward to a better society is a harder step to take then the apparent step forward that was taken to increase the wealth of society by going into huge amounts of debt. The first person to make the decision for a parent to stay at home and look after their children has a much harder time then the last person to make this change. My wife and myself have made this decision and as a result will rent until we can afford a house on a single income.
     
  5. springtide

    springtide Junior Member

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    I have to reccomend a stint of FIFO to get past these difficult steps, my wife and i didn't like it all but we have never looked back.
     
  6. dannyboy

    dannyboy Junior Member

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    hi springtide, excuse my ignorance but could you please expand a little on FIFO and how it applies to transition? cheers
     
  7. eco4560

    eco4560 New Member

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    Fly in Fly out work for a mining company. They have been paying above average wages for workers for a number of years now.
     
  8. springtide

    springtide Junior Member

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    Sorry - thanks eco, i know the idea is not really related but at the time there was no other way we could pay everything off with 1 parent at home without constant work and a 30 year mortgage - when i was doing enviro work at Mining Area C about 7 years ago the kitchen hand (aka "dish pig") was earning 105k a year 2 weeks on 1 week off, a qualified tradesman about 130-140k. And an electrician (worker, not supervisor) at that new not so nice burrup peninsula gas construction site 3 on 1 off will be on 197k a year (based on advertised hourly wage).
    It's an option.
    >)))">
     
  9. dannyboy

    dannyboy Junior Member

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    gotcha. i googled it and wikipedia came up with "FIFO is an acronym for First In, First Out" which left me scratching my head. jeez, big money for sparkies! one year of that and i'd be sorted! would certainly shorten my 5 year plan... probably end up crazy after the long shifts though.
     
  10. springtide

    springtide Junior Member

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    The companies take care of everything but going back to civillian life is a bit interesting.... I try to keep up with this stuff a bit because i work with a lot of people who are stressed out and struggling to pay bills and keep their houses even on good local wages. - I tell them that if all else fails then FIFO is the worst that can happen. There are just so many different ways for people to achieve their goals if they look at all the options.
     

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