Always nice to see a population that prides itself on self sufficiency and old ways doing well. The Amish are growing.

We are fortunate to live near Amish country in Ohio and visit them at least once a year.
The PA area they are not so independant, nearly every amish family sells to Hershey so if anything would ever happen to Hershey they are all out of a customer. There were a lot of activities around there that were not authentic amish, for example buggy rides with an amish driver but hired and paid for trhough the resturaunt/gift shop/motel there.
In Ohio when you want a buggy ride you look on a side street for an older Amish man who can;t work in the fields anymore with a handamde sign saying amish buggy rides by donation and you get more of the real thing.
Its interesting, all the houses will look the same during the day so you have to wait until night then you can spot the amish homes because you can see a lantern hanging in the center of the living room and its usually a LED battery powered one. The one room school had an old laser printer/copier/scanner/fax that was plugged into an inverter connected to a battery under the table charged by a solar panel on the roof, they would turn it on and copy their school papers then turn it off. As high tech as us but still self sufficient.

Wait, so it's a self-sufficiency thing not an anti-technology thing? I thought they shunned technology that made life to "fast".

-Blast

I used to live near Amish country in PA. You can find every shade of Amish just as you can find every shade of any other faith. Some Amish drive cars, others are "cultural amish", and still others are devout. The devout ones are the ones the rest of us typically see the least of.

the electric thing has to do with being connected to the grid that everyone else uses..they have some hi tech milling machines making parts for air powered kitchen gizmos,food choppers and such--

Some subgroups have electric tools run by a generator outside the barn, others may have air powered tools and others may have a very old fashioned water wheel running belts to run the tools, it depends on the particular sect.
But yes the main reason it to be not dependent or connected to the outside world partly for self sufficiency and partly to keep out corruption
I fall somewhere in the middle, I'm connected to the outside world because there is good stuff to be found (such as this forum) but I don't follow the hollywood/pop culture or sports or non christian music, etc.

Here is a documentary about the Amish way of life. They certainly seem to be the Worlds squarest teenagers.

http://www.channel4.com/programmes/amish-worlds-squarest-teenagers/4od

There was a feature some time back in a woodworking magazine about an Amish cabinetmaker's shop. The shop had all the modern power tools. But all of them were run using hydraulic lines, fed by a central diesel engine, instead of electricity. The Amish have made some interesting compromises and drawn off-limit lines around modernity.

Like they can't have a telephone in the house, but many are allowed one at the end of a long driveway. And they are allowed to use their non-Amish neighbor's phone.

Also, while Amish teenagers are typically staid, and about as square as they come, they are allowed to cut loose before deciding to stay in the Amish community as adults. During this time of experimentation they can be some of the most off-the-hook partiers around. After seventeen years of repression some of them make up for lost time in a very big way.

The Amish - and I live not too far from Lancaster - are curious.

They don't pay social security tax. Legally.

Many beat the puss out of their kids and their animals.

They (usually) won't use technology - but they will hire people to use modern technology for them. It's not uncommon to see an Amish farmer being driven to the tractor supply by his hired help.

Roller blades are OK, but hooking into the electric grid isn't. They will run a generator to power a table saw.

They are NOT in any way "self-sufficient" - quite the opposite. They are communal - in most senses of the word - within their community.

Many use pesticides, genetically modified crops and so on.

There are gradations of Amish, and yes, the ones "you don't see much" sort of "live off the land" but they are not as common as the more "worldly" types.

Thats what I was saying about the ones in Lancaster, they are all very dependant upon Hershey and therefore not very self sufficuent or disconnected from the world. Other areas are a little more 'pure'.