====== Outsourcing vs. insourcing ======
One key feature of modern society and consumer culture is our reliance on outside agencies and suppliers to provide us with the things we want and need. Though obviously convenient, this also leaves people and communities vulnerable to exploitation from unscrupulous operators or those who seek only to gain at others' expense.

It's important to note that our reliance on outside agencies is not limited to consumable products. We also tend to outsource other aspects of our lives such as social decisions to government, health advice to doctors, entertainment from media, etc. This is not to say that we should never seek professional input, but that it should not always be our first port of call.

===== Insourcing =====
Insourcing is being self-sufficient, or limiting your set of external requirements to what is immediately available - in your community for example.

If we wish to create communities and a society without trade, we need to think about being less of a burden on others. Today, there are many great tools and a wealth of information available that can help us be more self-sufficient. [[https://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=tutorial|Youtube]] or [[https://www.wikihow.com/Main-Page|Wikihow]], for example, have hundreds of thousands of tutorials that can teach you just about anything you want to learn. This has the added bonus of upskilling yourself for the future, and a job well done that you have completed yourself tends to be more satisfying than having someone else do it for you.