a hundred benefits of SKIP (Skills to Inherit Property)

At the permies.com staff meeting this morning, we got to talking about this.  I thought it would be nice to make a list.

When I think about a global problem, like the rising rates of children with cancer, I think about what is the global solution.  And then I think about how the whole world will gladly adopt a solution if the solution happens to fit within their human nature.  So I have to think of solutions where 100 million people will derive some benefit, and reducing childhood cancer is a side effect.  

I think that if 100 million people pursued SKIP then there would not only be a massive drop in childhood cancer, but there would be a great benefit to each person pursuing SKIP.  Plus, a bonus would be that if a child did get cancer, there is a good chance that there is a SKIP property that has a very low toxic footprint and a high level of polyculture food grown in rich soil - a place where the child could go and their cancer might go away.

So as we try to list the 100 benefits of SKIP, I think part of the list is global problems that are solved or at least impacted for the better.   Plus the benefits to the individual pursuing SKIP.


primary benefits:  benefits to the individual pursuing SKIP (skipper)

  - possibility to inherit land that they otherwise would not have inherited
  - develop skills
  - develop a sense of accomplishment
  - a path out of the rat race, or a path to avoid the rat race

secondary benefits:   benefits to the entire population
 
  - reduction in carbon footprint
  - reduction in petroleum footprint
  - reduction in toxic footprint


tertiary benefits:  benfits to an individual developing a relationship with a skipper

  - will your property to somebody you find worthy
  - hire somebody you find worthy
  - rent to somebody you find worthy


What else do we add to this list?  Can we get to 100?  Are there more categories?

A fourth category could be:
Benefits to Otis's neighborhood
 - Homestead/farm stays as a farm
 - Local food is retained
 - New owners won't bulldoze it into a subdivision
 - New owners won't bulldoze it into a strip mall
 - New owners won't remodel it into a mansion
 - New owners won't turn it into a perfectly manicured lot and get mad about the rooster next door
 - New owners won't play with dirt bikes or 4 wheelers all day
 - New owners won't use pesticides or herbicides and poison the local ecosystem
 - New owners will be more like Otis than something unexpectedly different

primary benefits:  benefits to the individual pursuing SKIP (skipper)

  - Develop HOPE for something other than a 50 year rat race struggle
  - Learn ways to do things that are more "permacultural"
  - Earn apples for completing BBs
  - Get shiny badges in your signature line
  - Use your spare time to create things (wooden spoon, pizza)
  - Save money on plumbers, electricians, seamstresses, etc

secondary benefits:   benefits to the entire population
 
  - More skills in the populace that support less fossil fuels and less toxins
  - Less depression from people seeing Otis's dream turn into a strip mall
  - More "points of light" in the world where level 0/1 people can see folks living the Gert dream
  - Reduction in consumerism (5 million people building a fence saves a lot of fence materials)
  - Less housing pressure in the cities
  - Less load on the waste water treatment centers
  - Less load on the city water supply
  - Less load on the local utility

tertiary benefits:  benefits to an individual developing a relationship with a skipper

  - Satisfaction of writing those lousy kids out of your will
  - Way to find someone to help out around the place in exchange for parking their tiny house in the back 40
  - Warm fuzzy feeling of helping a young'un get going in the world
  - Warm fuzzy feeling of seeing youthful joy over baby chicks
  - Warm fuzzy feeling of renting to someone who has your environmental values
  - Warm fuzzy feeling of hiring someone who has your environmental values
  - Satisfies that need to shop = Looking at all the Peppers and trying to figure out who you'd like to give your land to