I have a friend who is an electrical engineer and high level executive at one of the largest utility companies in the United States, and they are seriously considering moving near Niagara Falls (on the Canadian side) because they don't foresee our grid handling any of this. They're already prepared for blackouts and have a small urban farm in their backyard.
This has made me get prepared but also consider leaving for the same reasons, unless I can get a great off grid setup in the next 2-3 years.
They probably had formal addresses but used informal directions. They do this in my grandmother's small town. No one will give you an actual address despite having one.
I know you are saying this in jest but that's exactly how people know how to get around in small towns everywhere including in the US.
I used to joke about how direction always seem to include "Food Lion" (take a left at the food lion etc) when I visited family in NC. My grandmother who lived in a tiny town would always tell me to go somewhere "round yonder" and I would somehow know where yonder was that particular day.
That's because these companies have purposefully misrepresented themselves as part of the sharing economy despite the fact that their core business models are nothing like Freecycle or Couchsurfer, or even like casual carpooling.
Exactly. This is similar to how women and children kept getting killed or injured by seatbelts simply because no one in the room thought to test for them since no one in the room looked like them.
This has made me get prepared but also consider leaving for the same reasons, unless I can get a great off grid setup in the next 2-3 years.