[familyop]

Thank you for the reply. It's a good point. But there are not enough manufacturing efforts starting in those cities, either, unless American-"based" manufacturing on foreign soil is included.

Although it isn't pretty to stylish folks, much of the ingenuity is in small towns and rural areas. In my opinion, many more of us need to be joining efforts like the following, but with more self-educated and vo-tech technologists (hand-eye coordination developed from repairs in response to dire needs) instead of more "interns."

Marcin Jakubowski - The Open Source Economy | @marioninstitute
https://youtu.be/MIIzogiUHFY?t=35s

Open Source Ecology
http://opensourceecology.org/

[familyop]

Imagine vacant lots more than 35 acres each, far from the power grid and no people as far as the eye can see. No camping for more than 14 days without a permit (permit posted at the entrance to the property with a driveway permit—even on a private road—30-day limit). Every building larger than a 120 sq. ft. shed for storage only must be permitted with an engineered design by a licensed, PhD. engineer (greenhouses, barns, septic systems, all). No automotive work allowed on any residential property in the County. No manufacturing business—no matter how small—anywhere in the County except in the designated “industrial” area (can you say “rent-seeking” to the umpteenth power?). Nearly $1000 impact fee for the fire department before any building permit. And NIMBYs regularly patrol every empty development to scour it for activity and take photos. And most of them moved during recent years from New York, New Jersey and places like that. Backhoe rental? Thousands of dollars for a backhoe many miles away. Excavation contractors charge $120 or more per hour.

All of that, in an area that looks and feels much like Mars—one of the most brutally cold and windy micro-climates in our country.