He was my student in a cabinet-making class I taught in 1981 thru a college that teaches basic building abilities to owners - and he also happened to be an accountant, with a 9-to-5 desk job in San Francisco. I was showing them how they could save a little cash by building or at least installing their own cupboards - demystifying the method and enabling them to use tools and become less reliant upon consultants. About 9 months after the class stopped, the modest accountant sent me a photograph of a cupboard he built in his basement and a letter explaining that, over the beef of his white-collar family, he give up his desk job and began his very own cabinet business.

I recollected him today as I considered ways for normal folk to survive what I suspect we are headed for : an account of the global business order in which we northern Americans function as the great customers who, to paraphrase spiritualist Deepak Chopra, buy things that we have no need for using money that we do not have to provoke folk we detest. In my last column, I disagreed that not one of the structural changes wanted to end casino-style financing and put our economy on a viable basis are probably going to be manufactured by the the Street / Washington cabal. For those that can not find work, or are compelled to work for such low salary that it's not worth their time, self-reliance sometimes means home working, either as a self employed individual or in association with others. Note that I announced a livelihood, not just a revenue, for most houses can support gardens, providing food and accommodate the production of bartered products and services as well as cash-based revenue. For instance, in Oakland, Calif, where many have long been pressed to provide additional earnings for their families, I have seen garages converted into barber shops, bakeries and even a Red Wing shoe store. Airbnb puts the travelers and hosts in communication with each other before the rental date, so they can ensure they are happy with the arrangement. And just in case you suspect scratching a living by home cooking represents an unlucky, permanent regression to a less wealthy time, consider the story about a girl who once charged a tiny charge to provide Thanksgiving dinner to some guests in the depths of the Great Depression. Philip S Wenz, who got raised in Durango and Stone , now lives in Corvallis, Ore, where he teaches Making Your Ecological House" at the community university and writes about ecological concerns.