Shannon Larratt is Zentastic

At this point, the top 20% of Americans make nine times as much as the bottom 20%. Americans receive about half as much secondary and post secondary education as other Western nations, and that number is almost entirely related to income (as many of you know, US tuition fees are prohibative). In addition, of all Western countries, the US has the least “movement up” of workers — that is, if you fall into a low paying job, the odds of you ever finding a better life are lower than in any other Western country. American workers get less benefits, vacation time, and raises than equivilent workers in other countries.

Why do I mention this? Because I just read something inspiring in light of this.

Above you can see me holding up this month's Home Power Journal. The article that excited me was a short how-to article on building a wooden alternator-based generator using nothing but wire, wood, and a few magnets. It generates about a hundred watts, which is certainly enough to charge a small battery array.

While one could easily use an old scrapped car alternator (and many people do), this article actually has the reader coil their own wire and build every piece of the elecrical components from scratch. And, the punchline is that it's easy to do. No special skills at all are required, except a little motivation and effort. Can't afford ten thousand dollars for solar or wind power? Build your own, hook them up to car batteries, and buy some used RV appliances (which run on 12/24VDC)…

Everything — including power — is free if you make it yourself! Who cares if the economy is going down the drain and the rich hold the poor down? If you don't take part in the collective financial lie, and money has minimal meaning to you, then welcome to freedom.