"Now that you've laid out the workings of the equation"
That's pretty generous there, Terence. I was no less than half serious, but still, it's far from an equation. It's maybe the way to start thinking about an equation, and may be useful for big ticket items, but really, I just do a gut-check and figure self-reliance for energy worth (to me) about $500 a year in additional costs, amortized out over the life of the equipment, and leave it at that. I'm glad you like it, though.
"self-reliance is a currency."
Not a currency precisely, but you are very right in that it would do people a world of good to start thinking of it in business like and economic terms. There's a stuff-that-hits-the-fan-load of tradeoffs in all this, and its too much to balance by gut alone. None of it is scalable if it doesn't leave you with more resources than what you started with, and doing things in the wrong order can leave you in a liquidity squeeze that you might not get out of. I think wind has a place in that, but it has to be done the right way, so at each step you're left with enough resources to go on to the next stage.
As a lot here know, counter-economics is my preferred method of political-ish action (I'm trying NOT to start that argument here, just making an example), and I've long said that it will only ever catch on if it can be made to turn a profit. Self-reliance and preparedness are integral parts of agorism, so your thinking really applies to that as well. I think it applies to other forms of political activism also, though the "revenue" side has to come from a much more abstract kind of evaluation. Either way, I think your (and shat's) observation about "monetizing" self-reliance, extended to other forms of value that fall generally under the broad political activism umbrella, is something worth thinking harder about.
