Florida Outlaws Off-the-Grid Living
By Guiles Hendrik /January 4, 2015
Robin Speronis has lived off the grid, independent of the city’s water and electric system. A Florida court ruled this off-the-grid living illegal last week and has given Robin until March to connect her home to a municipal water line or face possible eviction. Further, officials in the city of Cape Coral have justified this by deeming Robin’s home “unsanitary,” citing the International Property Maintenance Code. First of all, since when did we begin to locally recognize “international codes?”
Where in the US Constitution does it provide for international jurisdiction over local codes? Ironically, this “international” code mandates that homes be connected to an electricity grid and a running water source, even though most of the world lives without reliable electricity and municipal water and sewer.
Further, the code is outdated and obsolete because it was written without consideration to both old and new technologies that relegate the need for grid tied power and municipal water as unnecessary and expensive; especially, in locations where it simply isn’t feasible to have grid tied utilities. Nonetheless, Speronis’ home does in fact have power and water through far cheaper and more environmentally friendly means — solar panels and rainwater, but that reality is ignored by the local government.
All too often now it has become blatantly clear that our governments will stop at nothing to control every aspect of your life and demand by force of law that you are dependent upon the system. Why dependent? Simple, because dependent people can be controlled. Nothing screams of totalitarism more than irrational government demands to conform to nonsensical and inefficient systems when better options that may suit an individual are available.
Today, living off the grid allows one to become in a large part independent of the government and as such, has now been targeted as criminal behavior. Of course governments are not going to directly say this. Instead, you see governments using the tact such as Cape Coral citing “sanitary” reasons even though they presented no conclusive evidence that Robin’s lifestyle presented any type of public health threat.
Sure, it was not the typical urban setup for a dwelling, but then, when was it demanded by law that everyone conformed to outdated modes of existence? In fact, how is locally sourcing water from renewable sources and incinerating or biodegrading human waste “more” unsanitary than the city’s own activities?
Let’s be honest, providing filtered sewage mixed with a cocktail of harmful chemicals through debris and corrosion filled pipes as “clean” drinking water isn’t my idea of sanitary. Further, pumping raw sewage into open bodies of water and burning millions of tons of fossil fuels isn’t exactly sanitary either.
When viewed in its entirety, it appears that the government is simply mad because someone found a way to do things better and without the need of their “services.” Instead of adapting and reforming their code to catch up with technology, the uber bureaucrats with clearly limited mental faculties and stunted emotional development decided it was easier and or better to just prosecute Robin as a criminal.
How scary is it that in today’s society common sense, logic, and reason are excommunicated by bureaucrats in favor of mindless adherence to ineffective, dated, and or obsolete codes and regulations that were allegedly designed to help not hurt the public? Instead of good judgment and rational logic, the go-to tools of bureaucrats are brutal police enforcement and prosecution of anyone that dares to try and live independent of their noxious edicts. As you have witnessed and will witness going forward, this is a recipe for a national collapse.
No person, business, or state can function under such bureaucratic idiocy and harassment. The freedom of people and the ability of businesses to operate productively are inversely proportional to the size of the bureaucracy. The United States has hit the point where intrepid trend setters, inventors, pioneers, industrialists, and builders are no longer able to lead this nation forward, but instead, unaccomplished and dimwitted individuals with titles such as inspector, social worker, tax agent, appointee, consultant, and compliance officer are leading this nation into ruin.
I don’t know how much longer the US can continue the allusion of a functional nation, but as sure as the sun will rise tomorrow, this system and nation will collapse under its own bureaucratic weight and feel good hubris. I hope you are prepared.
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