An unconventional threat to the homestead - Gentrification

Imagine that you've created your dream Doomstead which is practically a castle. Maybe it's built from stone with castle like features. It's got it's own water supply, electric, great garden and may even have anti-radiation features. All fine and good.

However, there are other threats to consider. Specifically, the assessor. You see, the nicer your home base is, the more the surrounding area will tax you. While YOU may have enough of everything, chances are, the poor Mayor in your town doesn't. To avoid a fire and pitchfork scenario from a populace that keeps him in power, he's going to need to tax and redistribute to stay in power. Same is true of county, state and federal politicians. It's a fact of life. Either be the head warlord (lots of work, crappy job security) or make sure you have a way to pay your taxes to whomever has conquered the area such as say, the U.S. Government.

Climate disruption will create massive migrations. However, the people coming to your area (or leaving) will not be just poor hobgoblin types. If your area still has a reasonable climate and some governance left, some wealthy people, may eye your location as a good place to run the remains of their business empire from. If they don't outright make an offer for your home, they may just build their home (or gated community) nearby. Then, they will likely demand services that they can pay for and you can't. The effect will be to increase the neighborhood property taxes since they can afford higher taxes to provide the things they want such as better schools, better roads and of course more police protection. This process is called gentrification.

So, how do you deal with the threat of gradually being priced out of your own neighborhood? An interesting question. Does one simply get better at participating in the "Great American Rat Race" or is there a better answer out there?

3d printing using only solar power.

If you have a big enough magnifying lens, you can melt sand into glass. If you have a computer controlling movement of the focal point, some interesting manufacturing possibilities emerge. Here is an example of such a device. The primary energy source for this device is solar. The energy takes the form of focused heat, provided by the Fresnel lens on top of the structure. The device also uses solar panels for powering the electronics that controls movement of the platform.



This device has the desirable feature that the products can be made exclusively from materials found in the immediate surroundings. For example, the bowl on the upper right was made with fused together sand. While it's clear this particular system isn't built for long term service, it does show that direct-solar manufacturing for some items could be possible.