The Amish and Mennonites avoid the dilemma by restricting computers. Many Amish communities use 12-volt electricity from batteries to operate small tools, cash registers, and word processors, but not computers. The size and portability of laptop computers makes them especially tempting to deviants in these communities. Likewise, cell phones are seductive to the Amish who traditionally have kept phones outside of buildings in community phone shanties. Many Old German Baptist Brethren are involved in business.
Some Hutterite colonies manufacture stainless steel and similar products.
Among the Amish, hundreds of small businesses have sprung up in recent years. Indeed the percentage of farmers in some Amish groups dips below ten percent, according to the authors. This major shift from farming to business will have a profound impact on the values, practices, and culture of these groups in the decades to come. For some groups it is the biggest and most far reaching change since they arrived in North America a transformation that will bring changes in child rearing, gender roles, use of English, adoption of technology, and attitudes toward work and leisure. It is indeed a seismic shift in the social organization of these rural communities.