“They just don’t have an employer, and do the jobs for cash or barter.”
Yep, see my stamen above. Earlier this year I needed some fencing removed. placed a call out on FB. Guy called me and came out and took it away for $300.
Before arriving he wanted cash. No problem. Late 90’s flatbed truck that had seen better days.
Living off the grid guy
I think a great many of the unemployed men in big cities are either snowflakes who can’t find their ass with both hands and live off mommy and daddy, a wife or a girlfriend-or deadbeats who are more interested in lying around and an EBT card than making any money themselves. But those labels don’t fit in rural areas-this is a different world, and I’ll bet no rural areas were surveyed to get those numbers.
Anyone out here who wants work and is willing to work a blue collar job has one right away-but outsiders from the city don’t get hired-they are lazy and unreliable, especially the younger ones, both male and female-city people say we are clannish rednecks just because we hire/do business with our neighbors first-well, your neighbor is trustworthy and reliable...
I live in a rural area where many/most of us are capable of living off grid if TSHTF, and there are a lot of people live off-grid fulltime and love it-I’m looking at doing it myself within the next year or so.
Most of us are older people who are delighted to be self-employed after many years working for others, and don’t mind simple living-the area is all acreage properties except for a couple of small riverside fancy enclaves. Our home-based businesses are varied-operating a vehicle/boat mechanic shop in a garage or barn, doing welding, long haul trucking, raising poultry for eggs and meat, livestock for milk and meat, making goat’s milk yogurt and cheese, gardens of herbs and veggies-all organic-all for personal use and sale or barter if the trade is a good one.
I take barter or cash for everything from doing estimates and drawing plans to construction labor-all blue collar work in a place where more than 1/2 of us are college educated-those degrees are useless in a rural area-and the barter you do with a neighbor is more valuable than cash-people stick together and watch out for each other in BFE/redneck land...