zlacker

>>hugoda+(OP)
Once men turned their thinking over to machines in the hope that this would set them free. But that only permitted other men with machines to enslave them. Frank Herbert, Dune, 1965

>>indian+WG
So why didn't this happen with electricity, water and food, but would with thinking capacity?

>>chii+ve1
What do you mean? This is very much true. We are economically compelled to buy food from supermarkets, for instance, because hunting and fishing have become regulated, niche activities. Compared to someone from the 1600s who could scoop a salmon out of the river with a bucket, we are quite oppressed.

>>midtak+ZZ1
On the flip side, fishing quotas are the reason there are some fish left. However you are free to grow your own vegetables.

>>kuerbe+k62
... provided you own land that the government allows for agricultural use. And most people can't afford to own enough land to be self-sufficient.

So you're not free to grow your own vegetables either; just like fishing, farming is regulated to manage limited resources. Things get ugly fast when you start raising pigs in your city apartment, or start polluting with pesticide runoff, or start diverting your neighbour's water supply...

>>amiga3+U82
>.. provided you own land that the government allows for agricultural use

Gardens are a thing, and you do not need your house to be on agricultural land to grow a garden, at least in my state.

>>galley+6u3
You can grow some amount of produce, if you have a garden, but a lot of people don't have their own garden, and if they do it's quite small. To be entirely self-sufficient, you need quite a large area of land just to grow enough food for the entire year.

Most people don't have that, and can't afford that, hence why they take the route of earning money some other way, and using the money to buy food made by others, from supermarkets. They can supplement their diet with home-grown fruit and veg, but few can sustain their family on home-grown produce.