BARBELITH underground
 

Subcultural engagement for the 21st Century...
Barbelith is a new kind of community (find out more)...
You can login or register.


Underground > Switchboard >

New Political Theory

  
 
solid~liquid onwards
14:41 / 27.10.04
I started a blog yesterday (http://sttab.blogspot.com/) and earlier today i had a rant on my politcal theory, which, i beleive would be just about the best way to solve quite a few of Britains current and future problems and further the freedom of the individual. It centres around sustainable housing, give it a read and let me know what you think of it. Its not complete at all, just a ramble but some of the ideas should give you plenty to think about

its the 27th of october post
 
 
solid~liquid onwards
14:48 / 27.10.04
exuse the topics bad name, its not a new idea at all, simply an evolution of a concept to fit the UK...got your interest, though.

heres some links so you know what im talking about when i ramble about earthships
http://www.sci-scotland.org.uk/earthship.html or
http://www.earthship.com/
 
 
ONLY NICE THINGS
15:54 / 27.10.04
For those who do not want to go to sttab's blog, the relevant entry is:

My aim is to reduce the cost of living of the individual to a potential of £0 but so that you can live totally comfortably without working, therefor people wont have to work unless they want to. Also to greatly reduce humanity's environmental impact on our fragile planet.

How is this doable? My answer is sustainable self sufficent housing. A concept like earthships. houses that uses earth rammed tires as a building material (totally insulating and have thermal mass i.e store heat during the day and slowly dissapate it at night) and with large south-ish facing double/trippple glazing to heat the home with the energy of the sun... for free. Solar pannels, wind turbine or small scale hydro will provide all the electricity you'll need and can be stored in a large system of batteries. An earthship makes the perfect greenhouse for growing plants, but with some land you can grow all the food you'll need, if you want too. There are many ways to process your swereage, such as reed bed filtration, cheap and recycles your shit cleanly back into the ecosystem. Also earthships are made mostly from recycled tyres and cans and are very cheap and easy to build. a home can be built for a little over 20k

Sure building it is relatively cheap compared to conventional builds but land is very expensive in britain today, making this imposible for most ppl to do. Land isnt expensive, land is dirt cheap. Land with planning permission is extortionatly expesnsive. So to make this possibel for ppl to do on a larger scale we need a reform planning permision so that ppl can buy farmland, wasteland, whatever cheaply and automatically be Granted planning permision if they are doing an environmental build.

There are several other ways to encourage more environmentally friendly homes (and therefor cheaper to run) Grants for each environmental subsystem, such as those that already exist for solar pannels in the uk, but to extend those to cover water systems, sewerage systems, insulation, double glazing. Making it more available for ppl to improve there homes, reduce their energy cost, increase energy efficiency etc and also stimulating the industries that make such renewable technology.

When you build a house today, it has to conform to certain levels of insulation, sound proofing structural stability. These should be extended so that all new builds must produce electricity and be totally energy efficient.


These subtle change in the law + more grants for renewable sub-systems would have the benefits of

*preparing large numbers of ppl for possible future energy shortages
*Reduce the cost of living of ppl, so if they lose their job, they can still support themselves cheaply
*Reduce ppl's Environmental impact in the UK
*Liberate people from the having to work once house is built and paid for
*Create low cost housing (house prices are stupid in the UK) which may have the knock on effect of lowering house prices
*Act as an example to other countries on the benefits of renewable housing

Think about it, if you had a good cheap house and a bit of land. You could work part time or do seasonal work, or not work at all, depending on how far you want to take it. What would you do with all the free time and less worries? Write? Play music? paint? watch TV all day? use the net excessively? Grow your own pot and smoke all day long? dedicate yourself to projects? do sports? meditate? basically you would be more able to do whatever you wanted to, increasing your personal freedom.

Heres some thoughts on housing schemes. govnt buys large tract of land of farmer for a fair price and offers this land for free, with the constraint that you build the houses, learning to build on site (with trained pro's to tell you how andd what to do). An earthsip style build can be completed in 2 weeks. Another constraint is that for every 8 houses built, 2 must be built (govt pays materials costs) for the elderly... its important to look after old ppl or mabye a sustainable old folks home in the centre of the community.

A few questions to start with:

1) Do "Earthships" produce more electricity than somebody "using the net excessively" would consume?
2) What happens if the food planted by somebody fails to grow and provide enough sustenance?
3) For every eight earthshps built, the government has to make two for old people, at a cost of £20,000 a shot or thereabouts. Where does this money come from?
 
 
solid~liquid onwards
18:28 / 27.10.04
im not envisaging an overnight housing revolution, but gradual change.

1) Do "Earthships" produce more electricity than somebody "using the net excessively" would consume?

depends on what sort of a set up you go for, how many solar panels, turbines etc. this tech has finaly affordable and efficient, but yes they could and can. You would tailor make it to your needs.

2) What happens if the food planted by somebody fails to grow and provide enough sustenance?

what happens today if you dont have enough money to buy food?...I suppose you'd do what you had to do, work, trade or steal. The chances of crop failure can be greatly reduced by erecting big polythene (i think) crop covers (im thinking about scotish weather). By Growing organic style and avoiding mono genetic strains of plants reduces chances of mass famine etc.3)

3) For every eight earthshps built, the government has to make two for old people, at a cost of £20,000 a shot or thereabouts.Where does this money come from? With a self sufficient home ppl would have less need for pensions

I suppose you can provide for them if they cant do so for themselves or you can kill them (would make good fertiliser) Teh material cost is less, your getting labour in exchange for land. When the old people die, you give (lend until they die) to other old ppl. 20k now, for (potentialy) hundreds of years of good housing for old ppl. The money would come from waging war on poor countries and stealing all their stuff...no, joking... Taxes

full self suffiency is simply an option, people will use sustainable technology to the extent to which they feel confortable.
Please, more questions, question these answers, give thoughts of improvement and criticism and mabye by the end of it will exist some totally sound theory
 
 
ONLY NICE THINGS
22:00 / 27.10.04
The money would come from waging war on poor countries and stealing all their stuff...no, joking... Taxes

And... if nobody is under any obligation to earn, and those who do earn are doing so purely to purchase luxuries, where do these taxes come from? We're looking at minimum, simple build start-up costs of 40K per, let's say, 10-30 people, coming straight from government, when none of those 10-30 people is necessarily even bothering to earn a wage. Heavy taxation on seeds and photovoltaic cells? In that case, the model collapses, because people have to earn money to buy seeds to support a subsistence model they are too busy to sustain. If people have no income, they have nothing to pay income tax on. Possibly a massive, disabling tax on existing savings and wage-earners, on the assumption that they will be happy to do that in exhange for living in an eco-friendly, equal society, where their taxes go towards subsidised homes and seeds rather than, say, rented homes and milk...
 
 
w1rebaby
22:30 / 27.10.04
Seeing as how this is the Switchboard rather than Creation... how do you envisage getting our current oligarchy to support such an endeavour, seeing as how they do not benefit by it at all and in fact lose power? And persuading people that living in a house made of tyres with people smoking dope, playing the guitar and growing mung beans is a good idea? Personally it sounds like hell but that may just be me.
 
 
solid~liquid onwards
18:02 / 28.10.04
Instead of waging war on iraq (16 billion)the government could have payed for 640000 2 bedroomed earthships or subsidised 6.4 million at 10% of the costs. taxing seeds and solar pannels is silly and counter productive to the idea of encouraging ppl to reduce their basic cost of living and reduce their impact on the environment.

We are currently obscenely taxed already, it would be a matter of taking money from something else, im not too hot on my economics, but so much money is wasted by the government.

Everyone needs to live in a house, so why not one that will have no bills and very little impact on the environment, that is actually cheaper than a conventional build. EU legislation will come into force soon that will make the dumping of tires illegal... so they'll have to be recycled or put in big piles... at great cost to the taxpayer.... or they can be used to build houses that are in every way equal to conventional builds, and better in many aspects.

Less power plants would be required. excess electricity can be sold to the national grid for less than that electricity cost to produce

I do beleive the concept to be very sound and implementable, but the details of how to do it still need worked on. if you have any thoughts or more critiicm, pls put it forward
 
 
solid~liquid onwards
18:16 / 28.10.04
Seeing as how this is the Switchboard rather than Creation... how do you envisage getting our current oligarchy to support such an endeavour, seeing as how they do not benefit by it at all and in fact lose power? And persuading people that living in a house made of tyres with people smoking dope, playing the guitar and growing mung beans is a good idea? Personally it sounds like hell but that may just be me.

I accept we live in an oligarcy.
Changing planning permision laws wont cost much & increasing building standards wont cost much to the govnt. They must recognise that in the future (unless antimatter nuclear power plants become commercially viable) we face energy crisis, increased sustainable housing will future proof many ppl and stabilise the future of britain. these homes will last many hundreds of years if upkept. It could be a popular move i reckon

having a house that has no bills and is cheaper than a normal house sounds like hell? then dont live in one, be a slave to neccesity. I will, when i finish this year of uni and have a job im selling my flat in dundee and building an earthship. I will work till my mortgage is fully paid of (which will be quicker with my lower cost of living). after that... I'll have all the free time to do as i please, work will no longer be a complete neccesity, i could just work doing something i enjoy, rathr than something i hate that pays well.
 
  
Add Your Reply