WOW! Some of y’all are really over-thinking this.
OK, so I grab some scrap steel and build a log jack. Yep, somebody else made the steel, but now it’s just scrap, just lying around like stones on the ground… that’s the age we live in. Even if the world as we know it ended, and no more steel was ever manufactured, it’s would still lying around in scrap piles and junk machinery for decades to come.
So I use my stick welder to glue the scrap pieces of steel into the item I want. Yep, someone else made the welder, but I didn’t buy it, it didn’t work when I got it, it was headed for the scrap yard. I took it apart and fixed it, and I didn’t need to buy anything to fix it, I used parts from other “scrap” stuff. So how deep is my reliance?
Yep, I buy the welding rod… but I know how to make “serviceable” welding rod if I really had to.
Yep, I’m using grid electricity to power the welder… but if the grid went down I have a generator. And yes, I bought the generator, but if need be, I know how to build one using “scrap” stuff in the junk yards. That’s the age we live in; the scrap will be there for decades.
Using the thinking of some of y’all… when the first human lashed a rock to a stick and made a club, he could score a zero… but every human after that scores a 200 because everything that happened after wouldn’t have been possible without that first club. Totally ridiculous thinking.
Y’all need to put it in simpler context… Do ya’ pay someone else, or do ya’ do it yourself?
I’m stayin’ with my 75 number.