Where to live/retire in a post peak world?
I've been giving a lot of though about were I want to live for the rest of my life. My dream is to buy a small piece of land and live “off the grid”, while doing subsistence farming, but there are many external factors to consider.
For me, this research is more about being sick of the rat race and wanting a simpler/healthier lifestyle, in a post peak oil world.
Among the items I'm considering are: Water, Taxes, population density, population demographics, real estate prices, soil quality, natural hazards, alternate energy potential, cultural environment, access/cost of pharmacies and health care.
Water ( rainfall for crops, access to clean fresh drinking water): If you don't have water nothing else matters. Drought prone areas with high population density and poor access to clean drinking water are just a disaster waiting to happen. Regardless of what happens with oil supplies and climate, only a fool would live in such a place.
Trend in annual temperature and rainfall
Climate maps
For drought monitoring use this link
Taxes: As has been pointed out ad nauseam, in a post peak oil world local governments will be hard pressed to maintain essential services. Right behind water supply will be the problem of a shrinking tax base and increased operating costs.
It is really tough to find a current and comprehensive review of taxes (by county) in the USA. Although some sites have a significant amount of information. When I check that information against the facts on the ground I find is very incomplete. Although state income, sales and real estate taxes are not that difficult to find, it is the county, city and school taxes that are the big problem.
I found a couple of sites that had good tax information, but when I checked it against places I know, I found it to be missing a considerable amount of the tax burden. In particular, back in my home town the school taxes and money owed by the county due to embezzlement by the county commissioners were not listed. None the less, these are two really good places to start.
Retirement Living: Taxes by state.
National Association of Home Builders: Residential Real Estate Tax Rates in the American Community Survey
Population density and population demographics: The census bureau provides this information.
Once in a particular thematic map you can switch from state to county view and change the data classes to give a better view. I prefer the quantile classing method and the county view.I think it is important to look at the population density and the AGE of the population. While and aging population is going to impose a greater tax burden on the local government it will also be less likely to riot (if for no other reason than they don't have the stamina).
Real estate prices: Very easy to find thanks to http://www.realtor.com/
Natural hazards (flooding potential, wild fires, earthquake potential, hazardous weather conditions): NOAA Billion Dollar U.S. Weather Disasters and Latest Earthquakes in the USA.
Alternate energy potential: U.S. Solar Radiation Resource Maps, Wind resources.
Soil Quality: http://soils.usda.gov/
PS: Although this sounds like building a “life boat” for the hard times ahead, it's not.
I don't believe that an individual can create a fortress against unstable times. If lawlessness and violence were to become commonplace, someone would simply come and kill me, then take all my stuff. After all, I'm just one guy, eventually I have to sleep or I'll get sick. If thinks were to get really bad, no place will be safe. Think about what has happened to Yugoslavia or what Argentina experienced in 2001.
Here is a good write up to of what happened in Argentina in 2001 , from someone who lived through it. It was originally a series of posts on the survivalist web site forum http://www.frugalsquirrels.com/
