As long as the infrastructure functions, I believe greater opportunity exists on line. My personal questions involve how long the infrastructure can be maintained. I certainly wish to believe it will outlive me with for how much past my generation remaining a very open question.

We live in a time when catastrophic technological events have the power to destroy the lives and livelihood of millions. Witness the current events in the Gulf of Mexico BP disaster. The entire regional economy appears destroyed across the board. Fisheries, tourism and the oil industry all endangered.

IMHO, the plants in the back yard plants seem much more risky than an Internet business for the interim. Industrialized civilization, much less our current political situation, is truly unsustainable. Yet, it provides the power base for current the hegemony so continuity will be maintained at, literally, all costs until inevitable collapse.

As each individual becomes engulfed in the collapse they will come to rely solely upon local resources and markets. At that point, plants in the back yard would be a saving grace, as long as you were prepared to defend them, of course.