The most vital thing isn’t doing everything the hard way - just being smart about doing it all yourself. It’s the sense that freedom is a function of actual independence, and actual independence is a consequence of ability.
Well like, I am a woodworker. I haul several barrels of sawdust to the dump every year, and I’m only going to make more as time goes on and I start selling my work. I’m thinking of installing a pellet stove in my house and making my own wood pellets, which would save me a couple hundred bucks a year on gas AND the $30 or so I spend at the dump every year hauling out sawdust. I could further detach myself from the fossil fuel industry and the evils therein. This would require purchasing a machine that cost about what my table saw did, or about my take from the sale of one Morris chair.
http://www.popularmechanics.com/adventure/outdoors/a24399/the-art-of-staying-alive/
Well like, I am a woodworker. I haul several barrels of sawdust to the dump every year, and I’m only going to make more as time goes on and I start selling my work. I’m thinking of installing a pellet stove in my house and making my own wood pellets, which would save me a couple hundred bucks a year on gas AND the $30 or so I spend at the dump every year hauling out sawdust. I could further detach myself from the fossil fuel industry and the evils therein. This would require purchasing a machine that cost about what my table saw did, or about my take from the sale of one Morris chair.