The financial squeeze is on for all of us - except the 1%. How are we going to make it? The answer that is emerging is that we can do a lot more with less - if we think radically.
In this post I want to show you the Tiny House. A big idea that can change a lot.
Keeping up a house in the traditional way will be impossible over time. So is it possible to look at a house in a new way?
When I first saw this - I reacted with "How quaint" but over time, I have seen more to this.
The industrial system makes us into wage slaves by making us pay too much for key things. Such as now a College Education. We leave school, if we go there, with so much debt that we have to take the job - but now there are so few jobs.
We want to be healthy, so we spend a fortune on pills and procedures. Many Americans spend as much on health insurance as they do on house payments.
We aspire for a house. Usually over 2,000 square feet. We have to heat it. Insure it, Repair it. We fill it with stuff. The only house we can afford is in the suburbs, so we need a car. Maybe 2 cars!
The new financial reality means that none of this is affordable now. So what to do? Live on the street? Live in a flop house? No I think the key is to start to think of what we need in a new light.
Do I need to go to school full time for 4 years and have all this debt? The jobs that demand the degree are not there or are hell. So do I rethink my education?
Is my health dependent on drugs? No it is not. If you eat well and live a real life, it is likely that you will be well.
Do I need a big house full of stuff? No we don't. Does the stuff make us happy? The traditional house ties us down just as the health care costs and student loan do.
Now is it possible to live in a 100 square foot house? As you see, Jay now has his house and a larger one of about 400 square feet for his family. Might not the Network apply to housing too?
See this video for more on this.
It's early days. But I know that my kids can get a better education out there on the web and at a Co Working palce. I know for sure that I don't need the health care system unless I am in an accident.
It will just take a bit more work to think through the practical aspects of networked housing. I am talking to my daughter about this for us right now. How can we be separate and together? How do we combine smaller spaces?
You don't have to wait for your kids to grow up either. You have a teen child? Hey they can have a house now too. Think what he will learn? Not just about buolding a house but about living in a new way. What will be his thoughts over time abiut stuff? How free will he be?
And if you are wondering how to make sure that your eldery mum and da are ok - how about this?
