It seems to me that contests such as the $300 house are a good sign that the larger tides are turning and we collectively will start evolving low cost infrastructure for non industrialized parts of the world and the soon to be post industrialized parts of the world.
Low cost renewable energy powered infrastructure that still keeps us integrated into global communications seems very feasible and imminent. Yet there are plenty of social barriers that will make it a challenge to implement in the west. In my last post I mentioned some of the biggest barriers I see to this movement, land prices, zoning ordinances and taxes on said land. All of that makes it somewhat unlikely that even if one attains high degrees of self sufficiency with some product surplus to sell that you'll be able to afford the mortage, unless you came in with a good chunk of cash prior to the venture. With a deeper recession/depression imminent and most potential "homesteaders" or "unpluggers" approaching these ventures with no savings and probably some debt to service, this economic hurdle becomes a big one.
Obviously one can try and find work outside, but depending on your choosen "unplugged" location this can be challenging and often conflicting with your unplugged job ethics. What seems to have the most potential is figuring out a decent way to plug into the online economy. Elance and other online markets are a start but somewhat a race to the bottom as labor markets are international. So the open ended question I have now is whether we can build openly collaborative firms that are working in alignment with solar autonomy and also bridging the economic gap?
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