In this drug-fueled moment of clarity, it's obvious that caffeine is the grease that made the industrial revolution possible. You need loads of caffeine to keep up with modern studies and workflows. All the "competent" people I know are severe coffee or energy drink addicts, which leads me to believe that caffeine-free go-getters are freaks of nature.

Caffeine, however, also highlights some of the inequities of this industrial age. Living "close to the Earth" is becoming less and less possible, as bigger corporations take up more land to grow more food, using less labor and feeding more and more people. We've transitioned from a lifestyle where people mostly took care of themselves and made all their food and possessions (medieval), shifting more and more of the cottage industry to factories, until now everything a person needs to survive has to be purchased, using money.

Now, there's two major problems with purchasing 100% of the means of life. First being, the amount of overhead it incurs. Objects have to be manufactured somewhere, then they must be transported to a retail location, and the retailer has to store it and manage a staff to sell it. Granted, I'm probably missing some key pieces of the puzzle here, but this is just a rant; anyway, I have to wonder if this method is actually any more efficient than in-home production.

The other problem is that different types of labor earn very different wages, even though the amount of time spent is exactly the same. A retail job will just barely earn the minimum wage, which, in most places, is enough money to cover rent for an apartment (with roommates) and some dried noodles. Maybe enough gasoline to keep an automobile running. This forces many people working at minimum wage jobs to work two or three jobs, rocketing the work-week to well over 40 hours.

Skilled labor is another matter, often earning several times the wages of an unskilled job. Workers at this level can live "comfortably," though the proportion of people working "on-call" is somewhat alarming at this point. So, this "middle class" also seems to be overworked. On the other hand, they have enough money to purchase resources to raise a family and support "quality of living" activities such as vacationing and entertainment.

Now, this labor of the lower classes, which isn't apparently paying for their well-being, has to be going somewhere, and the only place I can see is the wealthy. Our labor, driving profits for people who don't always have to work as hard, lines their pockets and pays for "luxury goods," such as oversized houses, ridiculously expensive cars, and unproductive technical gadgets. Or it goes into cruise tickets and hotel stays. The problem is that much of this luxury comes off the backs of the people who have to work longer hours to earn a fraction of the wages.

I'm not entirely sure how it all works, but I'm not an economist. All I really have to go on is that Europeans work less and yet have a much higher GDP per capita. I mainly attribute that to better regulation of the industry and a better balance between imports and exports (America imports far too much). How the macroeconomic level affects the personal, I'm not entirely sure.

My current research, as well as my gut instinct, is telling me that the world we have now is all a farce. There's got to be a better way to live than money, or at least a better way of getting it. A way that doesn't involve the standard channels, which only serve to worsen the imbalance of rich and poor.

The best methods I can think of revolve around "going off the economic grid," analogous to producing your own electricity. Reduce expenses as much as possible. Use your body to get places, rather than funding the oil cartels. Room with people; it maximizes the space you pay for, which by far the biggest expense. Cooking your own food is cheaper and healthier than buying pre-cooked meals. Make your own clothes, or buy secondhand. Same for furniture.

Now, you might think, that's a lot more work. Maybe. But it adds variety, which for many, can make life less dull. Also, who said television requires your undivided attention, anyway? Cook during your favorite shows or whatever.

To pull in money from the outside, well... I'm still working on that one. Best idea so far is to take advantage of "the long tail" and sell physical goods over the internet. Or at your swap meet. Or you could join a band, if that's your schtick.

Rant too long. I'll do a part two when I'm less wired. As a parting note, I've been turning a lot of my attention lately towards learning how things are made. There's a reason so many 19th-century goods were made out of brass: it's really easy to work!