I like to make fun of politicians for sticking their head in the sand and pretending this isn’t happening, but then I always catch myself doing the exact same thing when I read articles like this because it’s so overwhelming and scares the crap out of me.
Democracies always fail and they fail when the public realizes it can vote goodies for itself. And then after the collapse comes tyranny. It’s exactly what happened in Germany and Venezuela and there’s no reason why it won’t happen here. The vast majority of people who vote have no idea how any of this works and they think all government money is free… so they vote for people who put that into practice, whether they know it themselves or not. Our politicians are either stupid or cynical, but neither will avoid the collapse.
Read "180 degrees" by Feargus O'Connor. If this crap scares you, that book will give you nightmares. Nightmares notwithstanding, you really SHOULD read the book, and KNOW.
"Democracies always fail and they fail when the public realizes it can vote goodies for itself. And then after the collapse comes tyranny."
I read Alexander Tytler's statement of this years ago and it made sense, except that oligarchies and monarchies are not exactly adverse to using the state in self-serving ways, either.
You are correct, but typically the debts they ran up were personal debts of the sovereign and when he eventually defaulted or got deposed, those debts went away. And it really didn't make a difference to common people because the economy was really insular and simple compared to the way it is now.
Our modern monetary system is designed for that not to happen. These aren't personal debts, these are sovereign debts and as such the people of a country are on the hook for them.... with a whole lot of locally felt consequences if they are defaulted upon. The world is too interconnected now for these things to be contained to one person or even one country.
"You are correct, but typically the debts they ran up were personal debts of the sovereign and when he eventually defaulted or got deposed, those debts went away."
Not in Tytler's time. And debts didn't disappear with the death of the debtor.
Since a very young age we are indoctrinated into the story of “good” guys vs “bad” guys, that we are (of course) on the “good guys team” and the reason that the poor people from our country were (and continue to be) sent to other countries to kill other human beings with technology designed to end sentient life is so that we can “bring them democracy”, “protect our freedoms” and “ensure regional stability”. The truth is nothing even close to that comforting fairy tale.
Many in current society live in that sort of Stockholm Syndrome type relationship with government, and I contend that such a toxic, abusive, parasitic and degenerative relationship and belief in Government is the single most detrimental thing on Earth at present. What many fail to understand is that belief in "authority" (such as involuntary governance structures that depend on violent coercion such as "democracy") is a form of organized religion (the delusional belief that someone "out there" in a "position of power" is going to fix our problems for us).
When the Italian Mafia tells you they are going to provide you with “protection services” (and then if you do not pay up they beat you down, take your stuff and maybe make you disappear) that is called “Pizzo”. When your government does that same thing, it is called “taxation”.
The military industrial (and now also the big pharma/big tech industrial) complex uses its influence over nation states to pass laws and influence policy in combination with the multigenerational racketeering operation known as ‘taxation’ in order to take your money from you (under threat of violence and kidnapping) to spend on bullets, guns, bombs, landmines, drones, “vaccines” and other chemical/biological weapons.
I think it is also worth noting that so called "Democracies" are just as likely to fund genocides as communist dictatorships.
Unlike the biological, chemical and economic warfare that was waged on most of humanity during the height of the Scamdemic (which would more accurately be described as “Democide” https://margaretannaalice.substack.com/p/a-mostly-peaceful-depopulation ) ethnically indiscriminate mass murder of citizens by government edicts) what is happening in Gaza is more like the eugenics operations of the old days (such as the weaponization of small pox blankets by the government/military in Canada or the residential schools where the priests and nuns murdered little indigenous children by the tens of thousands, assisted by the RCMP of course).
The proclivity of smart phone addicted corporate media dosed normies to cheer for insane and cleary morally repugnant military operations like what is happening in Gaza right now should not surprise me anymore, but when it comes to how many little kids and babies are dying in this case, I do find it shocking and disturbing (despite the fact that this is just the most recent example of a long history of mass murdering of innocents campaigns by the state in ‘developed nations in recent history).
Some blame conventional religions (or specific religions but not others) for this kind of insane mass murdering, but I think that the most dangerous religion of all (which is not really perceived as such by most people since they have been indoctrinated into it since birth, and are kind of like the fish trying to perceive the water they were born into) is involuntary government (which applies to all modern day national governance structures).
Conventional Religious dogma/scripture is weaponized/twisted by psychopaths to confuse, enthrall and brainwash some to commit atrocities yes, but those isolated crazies weaponizing religious texts are no where near as effective and prolific with their mass murdering operations as governments are.
I contend that without the the religion of Statism, we would not see highly organized, well funded and relentless mass murdering campaigns (that often target children and babies) such as we are seeing in the middle east now persisting and repeating over and over again globally.
I elaborate on why I believe this to be the case in this article:
"If the American people ever allow private banks to control the issue of their currency, first by inflation, then by deflation, the banks and corporations that will grow up around them will deprive the people of all property until their children wake up homeless on the continent their Fathers conquered.... I believe that banking institutions are more dangerous to our liberties than standing armies.... The issuing power should be taken from the banks and restored to the people, to whom it properly belongs."
To clarify private banking was the answer. I believe Jefferson meant government controlled banks to where they'd be captured by big businesses. I mean, it's not like regulatory capture could happen in another industry like med/pharma...oh wait.
Jefferson was speaking of Central Bank, currently our Federal Reserve. He predicted what happened in 1913 when 6 powerful men met at a posh resort on an island off the coast of South Carolina. Read about it here, "The Creature From Jekyll Island".
Most people have no idea how banking and fiat currency actually work. They just think there are little green pieces of paper floating around that is intrinsically "money" and the government can make more of it with no consequences.
In reality, corporations and banks rely on that ignorance from "voters" who in turn empower the corporations and banks to be as corrupt as they are.
The sheer ignorance of the gen pop on matters of economics and money is by design, it has to be. Long ago those in charge realized that buying votes was the easiest way to keep power, so why complicate matters. But with a king it was only 1 man that needed to be appeased. This bloated federal government of ours has 1000’s if not tens of thousands, or even millions of peoples hands in the cookie jar. It’s unsustainable and it appears when the house of cards crumbles, it will be very very ugly indeed.
Yep. The internet has awakened many people. Not enough yet because apathy and distraction. A honest currency or currencies would weaken if not destroy the welfare and warfare state. Inflation is a hidden tax, but people are waking up.
And most people think the Arab Oil embargo in the 70's was because they hated us for our freedoms and speculators, not because we stopped shipping them gold as payment......
Bring on true austerity. Like no funding for anything other than true critical need (national security and public safety). We need the Bobs from Office Space to come in and ask every government employee (politicians included) what they really do on a typical day...
I think our biggest problem has been zero accountability. When money gets appropriated, there is no inspection on how that money is spent. Every business practices this, or they fail and go bankrupt. We are refusing to allow the government to go bankrupt, which is just enabling the problem.
We allow the same circus barkers to populate our halls of governance. Then when we vote in someone new, we delude ourselves to think it will be better, but in reality it is another circus barker in a different suit. As Gato's First Law states, these hijackers of wealth will continue to come for the public kitty, until we vote in somebody who stands on true principles of freedom. But, unfortunately, our system may be too far gone for that...
Any politician, which is about 90% of both parties, who is talking business as usual is willing to sell you out to keep their protected status in Washington D. C. You know they have their taxpayer provided safe havens stocked with the necessities, and many non-necessities, to weather the oncoming storm in style. We are spending a third more than we can afford. All of a sudden, both parties in Washington have agreed that $6 Trillion is the minimum they can get by with. If we are to avoid disaster, hard choices are going to have to be made and people will feel pain. Some suggestions: Ukraine, you are now on your own. We'll pressure Russia to help you get a decent deal, but we are a bankrupt nation and we can no longer provide aid to you to prolong your war. China: if you want to take Taiwan, just weigh this in your decision making: How much is your economy dependent on exports to the U. S? This next line needs to turn into a leaflet campaign in Spanish, Chinese, Arabic, etc. To all of the Biden "migrants". We cannot afford you. There will be no shelters, food, medicine, or schools for you. Go back home now. Head on down to the Greyhound station where you will be given a ticket to the Southern Border, or to the nearest port where you will be given a steerage class ticket to your home continent. Federal Workers: all of you will be given a 10% pay cut next year. If you work in a seemingly worthless Cabinet Department, better get ready for a 20% pay cut. If your job is based on DEI, get ready for a 100% pay cut. Congress: your pay is hereby cut in half, your retirement system has been nationalized, and you are now on Social Security and Medicare for your retirement. All Federal Departments will take at a minimum 10% across the board budget cuts from their current spending levels. All monies appropriated in prior fiscal years and not spent will be frozen. To everyone hoping to make a bundle off of the Green New Deal: that gravy train has dried up. If you had any sense, go into oil and gas exploration. If you are under 65 and receiving a government check, better plan on a 20% cut at minimum. And if you have your eyesight and all 4 limbs, be prepared to be put to work. If you are receiving any government money and are not a green card holder or a U. S. citizen, expect a 100% cut. If you are over 65 and have over a couple million in assets, expect a 25% cut in social security and a 50% increase in your Medicare premiums. If you have over $10 million in assets, expect steeper cuts. If you are just over 65, expect a 10% cut to your Social Security and no COLA's for the next 5 years. What am I leaving out?
Very good, thorough comment. Unfortunately, none of it will happen.
What then? Read All the other posts about preparing for what happens AFTER the collapse. I am crafting a response that is going to offend some folks but I think it is realistic, honest and helpful to those with ears to hear.
You might want to look for it. It is not one of my early responses to other comments. I intend to post it as a stand alone comment to the Bad Cat's post. I think it will be worth the read.
TBH, I agree with everything you listed, and more. But the system is set up on auto pilot and the folks who benefit from the system, are being rewarded handsomely until the very end. They won't touch a thing. They are simply looting the treasury as Rome burns.
If you want to read a short history of how this will likely play out read the first half of "The Bitcoin Standard". The first half of the book is NOT about BTC but instead is about the history of money, stores of value, inflation and what happened to EVERY SINGLE nation/kingdom/republic/etc. that ended up where we are. They inflated their currency into oblivion. I read about 40 or 50 books a year and that half of the book to be "can't put down" reading.
Then read "One Second After" for a brief guide of what happens when civilization disappears.
We have started to prepare, but given we live on a residential lot, flexibility is somewhat limited. I'm going to try and convince my wife to transfer one of the guest bedrooms into a store room. I've heard people say they would rely on hunting to feed themselves when the SHTF, but when you get the facts, we have 10 times the number of people as we have deer and other ungulates, wildlife will be wiped out pretty fast. And in the state where I live, the edible game population is even lower when compared to the population. Food and water storage are very high on the list.
My wife retired with pension in 24. We are moving from suburb in a blue state to a VERY rural part of a VERY RED state where there are many times more wildlife (deer, turkey, rabbit, squirrel, and lots of fish in lakes). RE is dirt cheap. And in order to survive in this place one would need the skills of a redneck but be well enough read and informed to thrive. Thankfully, my upbringing provided me with the former and the last 40 years of life have taught me the latter. We will take our chances.
Also, forming a community of like minded folks is important. No one can go it alone.
Not "fixed" -- taken-advantage-of... but by the wrong people: Instead of being bought by poor[er] people who didn't have the means to legitimately buy sub-prime mortgage homes, but *could* afford, later on, to buy them on-the-cheap as bank-foreclosed-and-owned properties, these same assets were bought, in bulk, by corporations... which then turned them into cash-cow rentals. You know what? Perhaps that WAS the "fix" (i.e., "the 'fix' was in").
Corporations are just groups of people who share a financial interest. So yeah, they're going to be "evil". The problem is us assuming people are naturally good. Human nature is human nature. The only "good" people are those that war against their own selfishness.
I know the government is broke and playing with inflationary fire, but... this government also hates my people (straight white males), has declared its own citizens the enemy, and has essentially begun waging war against us. From the response to 9/11 to COVID, we've got decades of catastrophic criminal fraud by our own government against the American people, with zero accountability for any of it, and none of that will change as long as this regime is in control. Hyperinflation will be terrible for all, but if it bankrupts the criminal cartel occupying our government, then it's probably analogous to chemotherapy for a cancer patient: the cure is awful, but the disease is even more deadly.
So, for thise who have any, what do we do with our life savings? Where do we stash it? I’ve been searching for answers and always come up empty as in the same hollow answers. Scary stuff.
As with all inflationary crises, your “life savings” should not be in cash. You should own physical tangible things. Right now, stocks and other investments are good enough since they are tied to inflation, but those stocks are based on real world earnings and real world earnings will eventually be negatively affected by the collapse. You will need to own things, not money: guns and ammunition, durable or self-reproducing commodities (eg livestock), land. Nothing that spoils and everything that someone else needs. But definitely not fiat money.
And one thing they will eventually do is crack down on people and their money to make it look like their fist money is valuable and useable. In other words, you will be stuck with fiat money and not allowed to own anything else. Tyrants are tyrants and they always will be. Just the names change.
The problem with things like land is that it is not portable or hideable. You really don't "own" it; you only have a claim to ownership, dependent on the government. It is like fiat money--the illusion of ownership is created by government fiat.
And as JR has pointed out, the taxes on land, even undeveloped land, will continue to increase. The physical thing you own must be able to spin off enough cash to pay for ongoing costs that will increase. Rental real estate seems like a good investment, but if the population in your city, region, or country starts to decrease, even rental property becomes complicated. Do you buy rental property in a region where most jobs are in oil and gas? But what happens if the government puts more restrictions on that sector of the economy? Do you buy rental property in a financial hub, like New York City or London? But what if the government of that area increases the already confiscatory taxes and stops providing services, like police services to the people living there? It is a real puzzle.
Some people invest heavily in their education, and become for example doctors. Even in a societal collapse doctors will be needed, but that road is long and some of us commenting are too old to start walking down that path.
Well, if you think about it, when we get down this road as far as we are talking, the Federal government will not be able to operate or collect taxes in Red states or areas. They will be told that this particular state is a no go zone for Feds of any 3 letter agency.
So, land may be a good bet.
I also hear that Paraguay has most of the rights we have in our Constitution enshrined in theirs. Guns I am pretty sure. Speech, don't care. Will stay hunkered down.
Bitcoin. You can hold it yourself - no 3rd parties.
Takes a bit to wrap your mind around it but it's well worth it.
General PSA: in all likelihood, Blackrock's bitcoin ETF is going to be approved soon. This means that investors can get a nice boost when the bitcoin prices goes up - but it also means that Blackrock holds the bitcoin itself.
Don't fall for this! If you're interested in bitcoin, do the work to find out how to hold it yourself.
I'm actually in the crypto mining business. The problem with Crypto is that you need access to the internet and that's something government can crack down on eventually. How well can they crack down? That's hard to say, but they will certainly try and they will least make it less simple than it is today to just log on and amend the blockchain. Not to mention government's propensity to outlaw its own competition. But that's just more tyranny and we've all accepted that that's going to happen.
For those curious about "what's coming," other than science fiction*, probably the best guide would be history. I'd recommend some of the non-fiction (?) written by those who lived in dictatorships like the Soviet Union, wartime Europe, etc. Solzhenitsyn and Bukovsky are two good ones. While not the focus, these authors make many comments on the difficult economy and the adaptations that ordinary citizens had to make to get by. I’m sure that gold coins were highly valuable, but even so, in a totalitarian regime they won’t do you much good if nearly anyone is an informant and if the corrupt authorities choose to, they can imprison you and torture you to reveal the location of your stash, real or imagined. That may not be an exaggeration either -- several scenes in these books basically say that. You might have a Czar's ransom in pre-Revolution gold coins, jewelry, etc. stashed away, but for all practical purposes it would be impossible to sell or trade them. If you were lucky, you would merely have your goods confiscated to "The State." At worst, you lose your goods and end up in a cell in the Lubyanka enroute to an unmarked grave or a labor camp.
*Forgive my cynicism, but I place crypto in that category. In an real crisis, people will want food, clothing, ammo, other useful “stuff.” Real gold or silver coins will be more useful as trade goods than a USB stick with your magic numbers on it.
Believe it or not, I think the interwebs are bigger than the government. And if they f*** with the web they will be f***ing some of their own crap. This shit is complicated..
They'll definitely crack down in any way that they can! I would count on it. I think that bitcoin's incentive structure will eventually win out, but I'm sure there will be some nasty stuff in the meantime.
I don't think they can directly mess with the blockchain (except maybe something like pushing a ton of other stuff on there and driving up fees?).
It is important to recognize that when people speak of bitcoin (or even PMs, for that matter) as some kind of "investment" opportunity, most of them are missing the point. In their minds, they are thinking about how many more dollars their "investment" will be worth, implicitly assigning fiat currency the central role in their thinking. What is actually most important at this point is recognizing the need to PRESERVE whatever wealth you have. As Warren Buffet said, sometimes you need to worry about return OF capital, not return ON capital.
I'm surprised I had to scroll this far down to find someone suggesting crypto. As an air-based currency I'm pretty sure it has to be one of, if not the biggest, answers.
Agreed. Problem: keeping wealth in gold or silver coins may have some advantages, but being immune to theft and robbery whether by criminals or a rogue government is not one of them. Agreed. Problem: keeping wealth in gold or silver coins may have some advantages, but being immune to theft and robbery whether by criminals or a rogue government is not one of them.
Your fiat money comment bears an additional comment. Those of us who are privileged to live in the richer countries have little concept of how daily life is in the third world. Local currencies exist nearly everywhere. But the vast majority of those are little better than toilet paper. People spend the stuff as fast as they can because they know it won't hold its value. The real economy is “hard currency” which means U.S. Dollars, maybe Euros, and other reputable paper.
Most of these nations also feature legal and economic systems are corrupt and worthless as is their official money. As you might guess, to conduct business in anything remotely resembling Western efficiency, rule of law, etc. is most difficult in such regions.
Come to think of it, what’s everyday life in such places might be a good prediction for what we’re likely to see in coming years in the U.S. If we’re lucky, the changes will be relatively gradual, all the better to adapt to the new realities.
I doubt that guns and ammunition are a useful hedge for your life savings. There might be other advantages to owning guns, but as a financial hedge for the coming storm, not so much.
Yeah, need other options besides livestock and land. Too old to learn to farm, to keep it going! Not interested in guns (nowhere to store lots of stuff anyway); don’t see it as a realistic option for myself.
No offense intended at all, but your comment indicates that you just don’t understand the issue. I’m not talking about what happens before the collapse and what choices can be made in the short term, I’m talking about what will happen after the collapse when there are no choices or options.
It doesn’t matter what “realistic options” you might want for yourself. Reality doesn’t care what you prefer.
When the shit hits the fan, there are no other “realistic options” beyond real estate and tangible commodities that can be used or traded. At some point, that’s all there is and the phrase “life savings” becomes meaningless.
All that will matter is what you physically own that other people want and, more importantly, that can be protected from those other people. “Money” (as most people think of it today) will be a meaningless concept.
EDIT: there are a lot of other comments in this thread that show you aren’t alone. Again, no offense intended.
EDIT 2: a great novel that explains a lot of these issues and shows what could happen in the United States is The Mandibles by Lionel Shriver. It’s eye opening to say the least.
I like this positive perspective in your last sentence! In fact, I have a friend whose parents and grandparents weathered soviet rule. I should talk with them! Good suggestion.
Thank you - I've worked with lots of east europeans in the past, and the USSR wasn't that far off from Sweden, East Germany even closer, and both had a very real impact and influence over our domestic politics, something which is still felt today.
The ones I've worked with, both as a teacher and in other capacities, were very quick and clear in politely pointing out the ever-growing similarities of today (post year 2000) with what they grew up under.
Going from West to East back in the day, well words cannot describe the difference. Like switching from HD full-def max-res colour-TV to a monochrome 1950s Radiola.
"When the shit hits the fan, there are no other “realistic options” beyond real estate and tangible commodities that can be used or traded. At some point, that’s all there is and the phrase “life savings” becomes meaningless."
People who lived in Bosnia during the 1990s told me that skills were especially valuable. If you could sew, for instance, or repair cars or fix appliances.
Chris Martenson (and his coauthor- can’t remember the name!) has done a nice job of describing 8 forms of capital, all of which we would do well to develop right now.! Social, health, knowledge (I think skills are in there) … it’s a good framework.
Right, absolutely, but you can't keep or maintain your savings in a skill. All a skill does is allow you to create in the here and now and perhaps to start saving all over again.
looks like I don't understand your earlier comment, not the issue. Although the issue is complex so not saying I have a full grasp. No offense taken. :-)
I have been considering real estate, actually. But, the tax hit on capital gains from moving money from investments...yikes.
Thankfully, I have a service that can be bartered.
I think forming communities of like minded is important so we can continue to support each other whatever the future holds.
This was what someone close to me who lives in a country who is seeing an inflation rate of $145% had to say about the blog post:
"The US still stands as the dominating imperial world power, and no other country or bloc can take its place: China? Not yet. Europe? They can't agree on anything. Russia? Not with their war economy in shambles. BRIC countries? Even more no way, too much development still going on. The US won't collapse, I think, but only dwindle, like the British empire did when the US took over. And the British kept on thriving. It's not in anyone's interest to allow the US dollar to suddenly collapse. Everybody uses it.
I'm no economist but I just don't fear a full blowout of the US economy. I think it will lose its lead and slowly be replaced, perhaps, but I don't fear losing all my money up there."
I largely agree. The US will always have a pretty big seat at the geopolitical table. But that’s only if it stays as the US. I’m not sure we can be certain that that’ll be the case indefinitely. The looming fiscal crisis alluded to by Gato in this post is an event horizon and it feels impossible to tell what is on the other side of it.
Land always comes with property taxes that keep rising until people are land poor. We had an 80 acre piece of land with a small house and old barn. Property taxes went from $750 in 1975 to $4,400 in 2000. We sold and radically downsized that year, retiring to a 2 acre place with a manufactured home and it had $1400 property taxes, and rising each year. Current owner of our old place built a new house and their property tax went over $10,000 now. People keep pushing 'Buy Gold' but we don't have the money to buy a meaningful amount, then those I know who bought gold and had to sell some, found after assaying and fees they lost 20% of what the gold spot price currently was. Gold works well as a portable wealth stash if one needs to move to a different country. But where to move in this current political and economic climate???
Argentina? Now that they have an anarcho-libertarian president voted, who at least claims to want to do away with central banks, it might the place that will be up and coming in the next few years? (Me, I'm waiting to see it happen first. Also, I'm in Europe and my first choice right now would be Hungary or Romania.)
Milei talks ofdollarizing the economy. Menem did that 20 years ago and the country paid a dear price for it where everybody lost when the bubble burst.
I know it's mess now. But what if that changes because they actually voted in a guy who nows what he's about? Wait and see what happens, then decide, I' d say...
Whatever way one chooses to go, the primary principle is that "money does not equal stuff." For instance, if it was possible and practical to buy and securely store a lifetime supply of food right now, I think that would be one great start.
In essence, buying anything you know you will eventually need is perhaps the best way to "preserve wealth." Next on the list would be things ("stuff") you could TRADE for things you will need.
Incidentally, although I certainly wouldn't turn my nose up at PMs, note that things like gold don't necessarily fall into this latter category. They have virtually no use in and of themselves, and are just another form of money (a better form, granted, since it tends to control government spending behavior, but nevertheless...) And again, the primary principle is that money does not equal stuff.
Anyone that has significant wealth to preserve is in a bit of a conundrum.
The most realist lifetime supply of food is in live animals and fish and vegetable and grain crops. For the non-farmer that means gardening and raising animals for food and hides, wool, and feathers. Hunting, fishing and gathering is part of that as well. In an economic collapse situation we are looking at living more like our ancestors lived to an extent. I think that even urban people can look at the natural resources around them and augment their food for some time. Eventually there will be big population movements and reorganization of what communities are and what is important. But right now is probably not the time to make the moves for most people because the costs of buying new places are out of reach for most and selling existing homes is difficult with mortgage rates and lack of buyers. We are going to eventually have to think differently about property and tax structures and the creation of alternate economies.
I have been trying to figure out how to be more self reliant. Part of which is acknowledging that I can’t do everything. I live in a small Texas town that raises mainly cattle. Not dairy, meat. The ground is rocky, full of granite, and horrible to grow any type of crop. We get severe droughts and the heat kills every plant. Yup that bad. We are on a well, but electricity will be interesting because we have to buy that. Husband is handy, and I can knit (sweaters, socks) and we are at an age where we don’t need much. I just don’t want to be 70-80 and have shit hit the fan. I know be prepared, but you will never be full prepared because no one yet has been able to predict when and where.
As it happens, I am 72 and my wife is 80. We also have made adjustments as to what we can handle and what we no longer can. Where we now live the soils in very sandy (glacial lake bed) so we grow veggies in raised beds. We also have a well and on grid electricity. 10,000 watt dual fuel generator when the power goes out. Transfer switch on the power box outside. We also have 2 Bluetti (brand name) 2048 watt hour power stations (one has a second 2048 watt hour battery) and 600 watts of solar panels. ( I set those up if needed to recharge the power stations during a power outage). Power often is interrupted by thunder storms so all that is helpful. Those preps may be helpful to you. For alternative transportation I have my old 10 speed bike and an E-bike that has a 30+ mile range on a charge - enough to get me to town and back 2 times on power assist level 1 of 5. Beside our normal storage of extra food and 2 freezers, we bought several months worth of emergency freeze dried food from My Patriot Supply. We may never need it but it would get us through some difficult months. Lakes nearby as well as streams to fish in. Never was really a prepper, but living rural made us put up grub stakes of extra foods because winter snow would sometimes strand us at home for a week and stores for main shopping were pretty far away.
Study bitcoin and put 5% in that. If it somehow disappears (looking very unlikely at this point) you'll only have lost 5%. If it keeps going, you'll be in nice shape :)
If you’re rich, buy land, preferably farmland. As the saying goes, they aren’t making any more of it. But better do it quick before Bill Gates gets it all. Then again, if you’re rich you probably know all this stuff already.
If you’re like most of us and not rich enough to buy real estate, look into playing the stock market or invest in other financial instruments. Treasury Inflation Protected Securities (TIPS) are one option designed to handle high-inflation environments, as you get a semi-annual boost to your principle based on CPI numbers. In times like this of high inflation, newly created money tends to be handed out to the already-rich, so copying their investment strategy is also a pretty solid bet.
If, like me, you hate the financial sector, crypto (bitcoin specifically) is a great alternative. The ‘get rich quick’ days of crypto gains might be over, but we’re simply trying to beat 7% (or whatever) inflation is coming down the pike. Buying physical precious metals is another ‘anti-bank’ way to get your wealth into not-dollars. These options are also easily converted back into dollars if the need arises, unlike financial instruments which often have an ‘early exit’ penalty.
The precipitating crisis for the French Revolution was the problem of state finances. However, this is hardly the first time such problems have happened and there are tried and true 'solutions.' One is a forced exchange rate swap to a new currency. They'll just say everyone has to turn in all dollars for digital iBucks by a certain date at a certain exchange rate. Then they'll pay off dollar debt holders with old dollars they collected in the exchange. People will rush to do it since the value of the dollar will be falling so quickly.
One of the first paper currencies was in China under the Mongol Yuan dynasty. They told people to exchange silver for it and then absconded with all the silver. That's what is going on here. The connected elites bought up hard assets like real estate for several years. Then they pull a currency swap, leaving everyone with new trackable money while they own everything. They can implement various caps or curbs for people deemed to have too much if they like, but it won't really be necessary to worry about for the new digital currency.
The new currency will stop inflation simply by programmed purchase limits. After your egg allotment for the month, each additional egg costs 1000x more. That has always been the goal of climate change and overpopulation rhetoric: digital central planning down the the individual consumer level with all the concommitant expansion of power for governments.
This! and more, is covered quite nicely in the first half of "The Bitcoin Standard" and it does so in a very engaging, easy to read style. Most folks have no idea what lies ahead. Hell, I consider myself an extremely well read redneck, and I am not prepared.
It is an inescapable death spiral. This is a debt-ridden, multi-cultural, dysgenic, idiocracy. The Normalcy Bias keeps us from seeing reality. The United States and its empire are cooked. We need to resist and build anew. It is time for new nations.
Given that people don't change, I would imagine we are heading for the big crack up. All we can do is prepare as best we can.
I notice that all the most effective and motivated young entrepreneurs, or even middle-aged ones like me, are in consumer markets. The government has made it so terrifying and cost-prohibitive to make long-term capital investments that few are tempted to risk everything on production-end moonshots when it can all be destroyed or seized on a whim. Gretchen Whitmer just became the latest government to declare her state the future home of third-world income economic disparities through destroying the energy grid and blighting the landscape.
Look at our marketplace. The big money is in entertainment, medicine, and get-rich-from-home content. None of those build a future of prosperity. Two are consumption and one is damage-control.
it astonishes me now, how well i lived in my 20s as a mere hs graduate working crappy jobs as a secretary to morons and earning in a year what i pay for two months' rent now. seven percent interest on my modest little savings account, and i ate out, went to the movies, saw zero mostel live in the theatre, and traveled to europe every summer for several years in a row. it's true i borrowed the money for that. paid it off every year before it was time for the next trip.
and i ate a lot of brie. haven't tasted that in years.
When the money is fake, the rest of the economy is doomed to follow. Unfortunately, our looter class is busy stealing everything they can before the house of cards tumbles down and the rest of us are stuck with the bill.
This is why the founders said only gold and silver shall be money -- not to maximize GDP, but to prevent the bankers and politicians from literally printing the wealth out from under us.
Even if you don't "like" BTC (whatever that means), read the first half of the book, as it simply lays out the history of fiat currency, stores of value, inflation, etc and what happens EVERY TIME in history when a country/kingdom/republic, etc. gets to the point the US is in right now.
Democracy has failed the test for the last 5,000 years. Supposedly it is a system tempered by majority rule. As long as there are governments, the minority will terrorize the majority.
I like to make fun of politicians for sticking their head in the sand and pretending this isn’t happening, but then I always catch myself doing the exact same thing when I read articles like this because it’s so overwhelming and scares the crap out of me.
Democracies always fail and they fail when the public realizes it can vote goodies for itself. And then after the collapse comes tyranny. It’s exactly what happened in Germany and Venezuela and there’s no reason why it won’t happen here. The vast majority of people who vote have no idea how any of this works and they think all government money is free… so they vote for people who put that into practice, whether they know it themselves or not. Our politicians are either stupid or cynical, but neither will avoid the collapse.
Sadly, I'm not sure that the tyranny after the collapse isn't the end goal for those currently running the show.
Read "180 degrees" by Feargus O'Connor. If this crap scares you, that book will give you nightmares. Nightmares notwithstanding, you really SHOULD read the book, and KNOW.
Thanks for the rec. I've ordered a copy.
When you've read it and want to share some thoughts, I'll be right here... Just remember this thread...
"Democracies always fail and they fail when the public realizes it can vote goodies for itself. And then after the collapse comes tyranny."
I read Alexander Tytler's statement of this years ago and it made sense, except that oligarchies and monarchies are not exactly adverse to using the state in self-serving ways, either.
You are correct, but typically the debts they ran up were personal debts of the sovereign and when he eventually defaulted or got deposed, those debts went away. And it really didn't make a difference to common people because the economy was really insular and simple compared to the way it is now.
Our modern monetary system is designed for that not to happen. These aren't personal debts, these are sovereign debts and as such the people of a country are on the hook for them.... with a whole lot of locally felt consequences if they are defaulted upon. The world is too interconnected now for these things to be contained to one person or even one country.
"You are correct, but typically the debts they ran up were personal debts of the sovereign and when he eventually defaulted or got deposed, those debts went away."
Not in Tytler's time. And debts didn't disappear with the death of the debtor.
Kinda like watching a season of a hit television drama only to realize part of it "was a dream."
Since a very young age we are indoctrinated into the story of “good” guys vs “bad” guys, that we are (of course) on the “good guys team” and the reason that the poor people from our country were (and continue to be) sent to other countries to kill other human beings with technology designed to end sentient life is so that we can “bring them democracy”, “protect our freedoms” and “ensure regional stability”. The truth is nothing even close to that comforting fairy tale.
Many in current society live in that sort of Stockholm Syndrome type relationship with government, and I contend that such a toxic, abusive, parasitic and degenerative relationship and belief in Government is the single most detrimental thing on Earth at present. What many fail to understand is that belief in "authority" (such as involuntary governance structures that depend on violent coercion such as "democracy") is a form of organized religion (the delusional belief that someone "out there" in a "position of power" is going to fix our problems for us).
When the Italian Mafia tells you they are going to provide you with “protection services” (and then if you do not pay up they beat you down, take your stuff and maybe make you disappear) that is called “Pizzo”. When your government does that same thing, it is called “taxation”.
The military industrial (and now also the big pharma/big tech industrial) complex uses its influence over nation states to pass laws and influence policy in combination with the multigenerational racketeering operation known as ‘taxation’ in order to take your money from you (under threat of violence and kidnapping) to spend on bullets, guns, bombs, landmines, drones, “vaccines” and other chemical/biological weapons.
I think it is also worth noting that so called "Democracies" are just as likely to fund genocides as communist dictatorships.
https://www.caitlinjohnst.one/p/israels-savagery-is-so-shocking-its
Unlike the biological, chemical and economic warfare that was waged on most of humanity during the height of the Scamdemic (which would more accurately be described as “Democide” https://margaretannaalice.substack.com/p/a-mostly-peaceful-depopulation ) ethnically indiscriminate mass murder of citizens by government edicts) what is happening in Gaza is more like the eugenics operations of the old days (such as the weaponization of small pox blankets by the government/military in Canada or the residential schools where the priests and nuns murdered little indigenous children by the tens of thousands, assisted by the RCMP of course).
The proclivity of smart phone addicted corporate media dosed normies to cheer for insane and cleary morally repugnant military operations like what is happening in Gaza right now should not surprise me anymore, but when it comes to how many little kids and babies are dying in this case, I do find it shocking and disturbing (despite the fact that this is just the most recent example of a long history of mass murdering of innocents campaigns by the state in ‘developed nations in recent history).
Some blame conventional religions (or specific religions but not others) for this kind of insane mass murdering, but I think that the most dangerous religion of all (which is not really perceived as such by most people since they have been indoctrinated into it since birth, and are kind of like the fish trying to perceive the water they were born into) is involuntary government (which applies to all modern day national governance structures).
Conventional Religious dogma/scripture is weaponized/twisted by psychopaths to confuse, enthrall and brainwash some to commit atrocities yes, but those isolated crazies weaponizing religious texts are no where near as effective and prolific with their mass murdering operations as governments are.
I contend that without the the religion of Statism, we would not see highly organized, well funded and relentless mass murdering campaigns (that often target children and babies) such as we are seeing in the middle east now persisting and repeating over and over again globally.
I elaborate on why I believe this to be the case in this article:
https://gavinmounsey.substack.com/p/lest-we-forget-war-is-still-a-racket?
Thanks for the comment.
"If the American people ever allow private banks to control the issue of their currency, first by inflation, then by deflation, the banks and corporations that will grow up around them will deprive the people of all property until their children wake up homeless on the continent their Fathers conquered.... I believe that banking institutions are more dangerous to our liberties than standing armies.... The issuing power should be taken from the banks and restored to the people, to whom it properly belongs."
Seems like Thomas Jefferson was on to something.
To clarify private banking was the answer. I believe Jefferson meant government controlled banks to where they'd be captured by big businesses. I mean, it's not like regulatory capture could happen in another industry like med/pharma...oh wait.
Jefferson was speaking of Central Bank, currently our Federal Reserve. He predicted what happened in 1913 when 6 powerful men met at a posh resort on an island off the coast of South Carolina. Read about it here, "The Creature From Jekyll Island".
Most people have no idea how banking and fiat currency actually work. They just think there are little green pieces of paper floating around that is intrinsically "money" and the government can make more of it with no consequences.
In reality, corporations and banks rely on that ignorance from "voters" who in turn empower the corporations and banks to be as corrupt as they are.
The sheer ignorance of the gen pop on matters of economics and money is by design, it has to be. Long ago those in charge realized that buying votes was the easiest way to keep power, so why complicate matters. But with a king it was only 1 man that needed to be appeased. This bloated federal government of ours has 1000’s if not tens of thousands, or even millions of peoples hands in the cookie jar. It’s unsustainable and it appears when the house of cards crumbles, it will be very very ugly indeed.
Yep. The internet has awakened many people. Not enough yet because apathy and distraction. A honest currency or currencies would weaken if not destroy the welfare and warfare state. Inflation is a hidden tax, but people are waking up.
And most people think the Arab Oil embargo in the 70's was because they hated us for our freedoms and speculators, not because we stopped shipping them gold as payment......
We've soft defaulted before, that is what the 70's were. Only difference this time is that the competition is ready.
Interestingly, the statue of Thomas Jefferson in New York City Hall was just removed last week (November 24).
The reason? Because Jefferson owned slaves.
Now we all get to be debt slaves.
Waiting for Johns Hopkins name to be wiped (yes he owned slaves too) but you don't see that happening.
Bring on true austerity. Like no funding for anything other than true critical need (national security and public safety). We need the Bobs from Office Space to come in and ask every government employee (politicians included) what they really do on a typical day...
I think our biggest problem has been zero accountability. When money gets appropriated, there is no inspection on how that money is spent. Every business practices this, or they fail and go bankrupt. We are refusing to allow the government to go bankrupt, which is just enabling the problem.
We allow the same circus barkers to populate our halls of governance. Then when we vote in someone new, we delude ourselves to think it will be better, but in reality it is another circus barker in a different suit. As Gato's First Law states, these hijackers of wealth will continue to come for the public kitty, until we vote in somebody who stands on true principles of freedom. But, unfortunately, our system may be too far gone for that...
“until we vote in somebody who stands on true principles of freedom”
seems like that vote happened in venezuela, so it’s def possible
Any politician, which is about 90% of both parties, who is talking business as usual is willing to sell you out to keep their protected status in Washington D. C. You know they have their taxpayer provided safe havens stocked with the necessities, and many non-necessities, to weather the oncoming storm in style. We are spending a third more than we can afford. All of a sudden, both parties in Washington have agreed that $6 Trillion is the minimum they can get by with. If we are to avoid disaster, hard choices are going to have to be made and people will feel pain. Some suggestions: Ukraine, you are now on your own. We'll pressure Russia to help you get a decent deal, but we are a bankrupt nation and we can no longer provide aid to you to prolong your war. China: if you want to take Taiwan, just weigh this in your decision making: How much is your economy dependent on exports to the U. S? This next line needs to turn into a leaflet campaign in Spanish, Chinese, Arabic, etc. To all of the Biden "migrants". We cannot afford you. There will be no shelters, food, medicine, or schools for you. Go back home now. Head on down to the Greyhound station where you will be given a ticket to the Southern Border, or to the nearest port where you will be given a steerage class ticket to your home continent. Federal Workers: all of you will be given a 10% pay cut next year. If you work in a seemingly worthless Cabinet Department, better get ready for a 20% pay cut. If your job is based on DEI, get ready for a 100% pay cut. Congress: your pay is hereby cut in half, your retirement system has been nationalized, and you are now on Social Security and Medicare for your retirement. All Federal Departments will take at a minimum 10% across the board budget cuts from their current spending levels. All monies appropriated in prior fiscal years and not spent will be frozen. To everyone hoping to make a bundle off of the Green New Deal: that gravy train has dried up. If you had any sense, go into oil and gas exploration. If you are under 65 and receiving a government check, better plan on a 20% cut at minimum. And if you have your eyesight and all 4 limbs, be prepared to be put to work. If you are receiving any government money and are not a green card holder or a U. S. citizen, expect a 100% cut. If you are over 65 and have over a couple million in assets, expect a 25% cut in social security and a 50% increase in your Medicare premiums. If you have over $10 million in assets, expect steeper cuts. If you are just over 65, expect a 10% cut to your Social Security and no COLA's for the next 5 years. What am I leaving out?
Very good, thorough comment. Unfortunately, none of it will happen.
What then? Read All the other posts about preparing for what happens AFTER the collapse. I am crafting a response that is going to offend some folks but I think it is realistic, honest and helpful to those with ears to hear.
You might want to look for it. It is not one of my early responses to other comments. I intend to post it as a stand alone comment to the Bad Cat's post. I think it will be worth the read.
TBH, I agree with everything you listed, and more. But the system is set up on auto pilot and the folks who benefit from the system, are being rewarded handsomely until the very end. They won't touch a thing. They are simply looting the treasury as Rome burns.
If you want to read a short history of how this will likely play out read the first half of "The Bitcoin Standard". The first half of the book is NOT about BTC but instead is about the history of money, stores of value, inflation and what happened to EVERY SINGLE nation/kingdom/republic/etc. that ended up where we are. They inflated their currency into oblivion. I read about 40 or 50 books a year and that half of the book to be "can't put down" reading.
Then read "One Second After" for a brief guide of what happens when civilization disappears.
Then start getting ready. Most of us won't be.
We have started to prepare, but given we live on a residential lot, flexibility is somewhat limited. I'm going to try and convince my wife to transfer one of the guest bedrooms into a store room. I've heard people say they would rely on hunting to feed themselves when the SHTF, but when you get the facts, we have 10 times the number of people as we have deer and other ungulates, wildlife will be wiped out pretty fast. And in the state where I live, the edible game population is even lower when compared to the population. Food and water storage are very high on the list.
My wife retired with pension in 24. We are moving from suburb in a blue state to a VERY rural part of a VERY RED state where there are many times more wildlife (deer, turkey, rabbit, squirrel, and lots of fish in lakes). RE is dirt cheap. And in order to survive in this place one would need the skills of a redneck but be well enough read and informed to thrive. Thankfully, my upbringing provided me with the former and the last 40 years of life have taught me the latter. We will take our chances.
Also, forming a community of like minded folks is important. No one can go it alone.
Good fiscal policy gets you public goods everyone can enjoy, this was people raiding the treasury before the country burned down
Exactly. “COVID” and “Ukraine” were the smash-and-grab that “green energy” never quite managed to be, at least not at the same scale.
"Green Energy" is standing on deck....
Just a continuation of 2008 my friend, it never ended cause it wasn't fixed.
Not "fixed" -- taken-advantage-of... but by the wrong people: Instead of being bought by poor[er] people who didn't have the means to legitimately buy sub-prime mortgage homes, but *could* afford, later on, to buy them on-the-cheap as bank-foreclosed-and-owned properties, these same assets were bought, in bulk, by corporations... which then turned them into cash-cow rentals. You know what? Perhaps that WAS the "fix" (i.e., "the 'fix' was in").
Yeah, ain't it funny Gato never talks bad on corporations? Unless it had to do with Covid? They were evil long before then in many many ways.
Corporations are just groups of people who share a financial interest. So yeah, they're going to be "evil". The problem is us assuming people are naturally good. Human nature is human nature. The only "good" people are those that war against their own selfishness.
I know the government is broke and playing with inflationary fire, but... this government also hates my people (straight white males), has declared its own citizens the enemy, and has essentially begun waging war against us. From the response to 9/11 to COVID, we've got decades of catastrophic criminal fraud by our own government against the American people, with zero accountability for any of it, and none of that will change as long as this regime is in control. Hyperinflation will be terrible for all, but if it bankrupts the criminal cartel occupying our government, then it's probably analogous to chemotherapy for a cancer patient: the cure is awful, but the disease is even more deadly.
So, for thise who have any, what do we do with our life savings? Where do we stash it? I’ve been searching for answers and always come up empty as in the same hollow answers. Scary stuff.
As with all inflationary crises, your “life savings” should not be in cash. You should own physical tangible things. Right now, stocks and other investments are good enough since they are tied to inflation, but those stocks are based on real world earnings and real world earnings will eventually be negatively affected by the collapse. You will need to own things, not money: guns and ammunition, durable or self-reproducing commodities (eg livestock), land. Nothing that spoils and everything that someone else needs. But definitely not fiat money.
And one thing they will eventually do is crack down on people and their money to make it look like their fist money is valuable and useable. In other words, you will be stuck with fiat money and not allowed to own anything else. Tyrants are tyrants and they always will be. Just the names change.
The problem with things like land is that it is not portable or hideable. You really don't "own" it; you only have a claim to ownership, dependent on the government. It is like fiat money--the illusion of ownership is created by government fiat.
And as JR has pointed out, the taxes on land, even undeveloped land, will continue to increase. The physical thing you own must be able to spin off enough cash to pay for ongoing costs that will increase. Rental real estate seems like a good investment, but if the population in your city, region, or country starts to decrease, even rental property becomes complicated. Do you buy rental property in a region where most jobs are in oil and gas? But what happens if the government puts more restrictions on that sector of the economy? Do you buy rental property in a financial hub, like New York City or London? But what if the government of that area increases the already confiscatory taxes and stops providing services, like police services to the people living there? It is a real puzzle.
Some people invest heavily in their education, and become for example doctors. Even in a societal collapse doctors will be needed, but that road is long and some of us commenting are too old to start walking down that path.
We've all seen how doctors have been owned and controlled by the state these past several years....
Well, if you think about it, when we get down this road as far as we are talking, the Federal government will not be able to operate or collect taxes in Red states or areas. They will be told that this particular state is a no go zone for Feds of any 3 letter agency.
So, land may be a good bet.
I also hear that Paraguay has most of the rights we have in our Constitution enshrined in theirs. Guns I am pretty sure. Speech, don't care. Will stay hunkered down.
This is all true.
But by “ownership” I mean simple possession.
And it’s yours if you can protect it, which is the main point.
Bitcoin. You can hold it yourself - no 3rd parties.
Takes a bit to wrap your mind around it but it's well worth it.
General PSA: in all likelihood, Blackrock's bitcoin ETF is going to be approved soon. This means that investors can get a nice boost when the bitcoin prices goes up - but it also means that Blackrock holds the bitcoin itself.
Don't fall for this! If you're interested in bitcoin, do the work to find out how to hold it yourself.
I'm actually in the crypto mining business. The problem with Crypto is that you need access to the internet and that's something government can crack down on eventually. How well can they crack down? That's hard to say, but they will certainly try and they will least make it less simple than it is today to just log on and amend the blockchain. Not to mention government's propensity to outlaw its own competition. But that's just more tyranny and we've all accepted that that's going to happen.
For those curious about "what's coming," other than science fiction*, probably the best guide would be history. I'd recommend some of the non-fiction (?) written by those who lived in dictatorships like the Soviet Union, wartime Europe, etc. Solzhenitsyn and Bukovsky are two good ones. While not the focus, these authors make many comments on the difficult economy and the adaptations that ordinary citizens had to make to get by. I’m sure that gold coins were highly valuable, but even so, in a totalitarian regime they won’t do you much good if nearly anyone is an informant and if the corrupt authorities choose to, they can imprison you and torture you to reveal the location of your stash, real or imagined. That may not be an exaggeration either -- several scenes in these books basically say that. You might have a Czar's ransom in pre-Revolution gold coins, jewelry, etc. stashed away, but for all practical purposes it would be impossible to sell or trade them. If you were lucky, you would merely have your goods confiscated to "The State." At worst, you lose your goods and end up in a cell in the Lubyanka enroute to an unmarked grave or a labor camp.
*Forgive my cynicism, but I place crypto in that category. In an real crisis, people will want food, clothing, ammo, other useful “stuff.” Real gold or silver coins will be more useful as trade goods than a USB stick with your magic numbers on it.
Believe it or not, I think the interwebs are bigger than the government. And if they f*** with the web they will be f***ing some of their own crap. This shit is complicated..
They'll definitely crack down in any way that they can! I would count on it. I think that bitcoin's incentive structure will eventually win out, but I'm sure there will be some nasty stuff in the meantime.
I don't think they can directly mess with the blockchain (except maybe something like pushing a ton of other stuff on there and driving up fees?).
It is important to recognize that when people speak of bitcoin (or even PMs, for that matter) as some kind of "investment" opportunity, most of them are missing the point. In their minds, they are thinking about how many more dollars their "investment" will be worth, implicitly assigning fiat currency the central role in their thinking. What is actually most important at this point is recognizing the need to PRESERVE whatever wealth you have. As Warren Buffet said, sometimes you need to worry about return OF capital, not return ON capital.
It’s so hard to avoid using fiat as the metric! As terrible as it is, it’s how most of us have measured costs for a long time..
But- yes, totally agree about preserving wealth.
I'm surprised I had to scroll this far down to find someone suggesting crypto. As an air-based currency I'm pretty sure it has to be one of, if not the biggest, answers.
Yes, something that just happened to appear right after 2008, which is probably just an inflation/money printing sink, is the answer.
Agreed. Problem: keeping wealth in gold or silver coins may have some advantages, but being immune to theft and robbery whether by criminals or a rogue government is not one of them. Agreed. Problem: keeping wealth in gold or silver coins may have some advantages, but being immune to theft and robbery whether by criminals or a rogue government is not one of them.
Your fiat money comment bears an additional comment. Those of us who are privileged to live in the richer countries have little concept of how daily life is in the third world. Local currencies exist nearly everywhere. But the vast majority of those are little better than toilet paper. People spend the stuff as fast as they can because they know it won't hold its value. The real economy is “hard currency” which means U.S. Dollars, maybe Euros, and other reputable paper.
Most of these nations also feature legal and economic systems are corrupt and worthless as is their official money. As you might guess, to conduct business in anything remotely resembling Western efficiency, rule of law, etc. is most difficult in such regions.
Come to think of it, what’s everyday life in such places might be a good prediction for what we’re likely to see in coming years in the U.S. If we’re lucky, the changes will be relatively gradual, all the better to adapt to the new realities.
I doubt that guns and ammunition are a useful hedge for your life savings. There might be other advantages to owning guns, but as a financial hedge for the coming storm, not so much.
Guns hold their value similar to gold. If you buy a gun use it for 5-10 years and sell it, you’ll find it hasn’t depreciated like most consumer goods.
perhaps cigarettes and whiskey. Skills and labor you can barter, if your age and health allow.
Yeah, need other options besides livestock and land. Too old to learn to farm, to keep it going! Not interested in guns (nowhere to store lots of stuff anyway); don’t see it as a realistic option for myself.
No offense intended at all, but your comment indicates that you just don’t understand the issue. I’m not talking about what happens before the collapse and what choices can be made in the short term, I’m talking about what will happen after the collapse when there are no choices or options.
It doesn’t matter what “realistic options” you might want for yourself. Reality doesn’t care what you prefer.
When the shit hits the fan, there are no other “realistic options” beyond real estate and tangible commodities that can be used or traded. At some point, that’s all there is and the phrase “life savings” becomes meaningless.
All that will matter is what you physically own that other people want and, more importantly, that can be protected from those other people. “Money” (as most people think of it today) will be a meaningless concept.
EDIT: there are a lot of other comments in this thread that show you aren’t alone. Again, no offense intended.
EDIT 2: a great novel that explains a lot of these issues and shows what could happen in the United States is The Mandibles by Lionel Shriver. It’s eye opening to say the least.
It would probably benefit americans to look closely at how romanians, polacks and such weathered the years under the Soviet thumb.
How to get by, how to profit even and how to have your own without being made an example out of, while in no way believing in the regime's dogma.
They are also good examples of how fast you can rebuild and what problems comes with rebuilding.
I like this positive perspective in your last sentence! In fact, I have a friend whose parents and grandparents weathered soviet rule. I should talk with them! Good suggestion.
Thank you - I've worked with lots of east europeans in the past, and the USSR wasn't that far off from Sweden, East Germany even closer, and both had a very real impact and influence over our domestic politics, something which is still felt today.
The ones I've worked with, both as a teacher and in other capacities, were very quick and clear in politely pointing out the ever-growing similarities of today (post year 2000) with what they grew up under.
Going from West to East back in the day, well words cannot describe the difference. Like switching from HD full-def max-res colour-TV to a monochrome 1950s Radiola.
"When the shit hits the fan, there are no other “realistic options” beyond real estate and tangible commodities that can be used or traded. At some point, that’s all there is and the phrase “life savings” becomes meaningless."
People who lived in Bosnia during the 1990s told me that skills were especially valuable. If you could sew, for instance, or repair cars or fix appliances.
Chris Martenson (and his coauthor- can’t remember the name!) has done a nice job of describing 8 forms of capital, all of which we would do well to develop right now.! Social, health, knowledge (I think skills are in there) … it’s a good framework.
I read about how Bic lighters and alcohol shooters brought a premium during that conflict.
Right, absolutely, but you can't keep or maintain your savings in a skill. All a skill does is allow you to create in the here and now and perhaps to start saving all over again.
Savings are rapidly lost in such contexts. Best not to rely too much on them.
thankfully I have a highly regarded (although not essential) skill to barter!
looks like I don't understand your earlier comment, not the issue. Although the issue is complex so not saying I have a full grasp. No offense taken. :-)
I have been considering real estate, actually. But, the tax hit on capital gains from moving money from investments...yikes.
Thankfully, I have a service that can be bartered.
I think forming communities of like minded is important so we can continue to support each other whatever the future holds.
This was what someone close to me who lives in a country who is seeing an inflation rate of $145% had to say about the blog post:
"The US still stands as the dominating imperial world power, and no other country or bloc can take its place: China? Not yet. Europe? They can't agree on anything. Russia? Not with their war economy in shambles. BRIC countries? Even more no way, too much development still going on. The US won't collapse, I think, but only dwindle, like the British empire did when the US took over. And the British kept on thriving. It's not in anyone's interest to allow the US dollar to suddenly collapse. Everybody uses it.
I'm no economist but I just don't fear a full blowout of the US economy. I think it will lose its lead and slowly be replaced, perhaps, but I don't fear losing all my money up there."
Thoughts?
I largely agree. The US will always have a pretty big seat at the geopolitical table. But that’s only if it stays as the US. I’m not sure we can be certain that that’ll be the case indefinitely. The looming fiscal crisis alluded to by Gato in this post is an event horizon and it feels impossible to tell what is on the other side of it.
Yes, looking like a slow demise
Land always comes with property taxes that keep rising until people are land poor. We had an 80 acre piece of land with a small house and old barn. Property taxes went from $750 in 1975 to $4,400 in 2000. We sold and radically downsized that year, retiring to a 2 acre place with a manufactured home and it had $1400 property taxes, and rising each year. Current owner of our old place built a new house and their property tax went over $10,000 now. People keep pushing 'Buy Gold' but we don't have the money to buy a meaningful amount, then those I know who bought gold and had to sell some, found after assaying and fees they lost 20% of what the gold spot price currently was. Gold works well as a portable wealth stash if one needs to move to a different country. But where to move in this current political and economic climate???
Thank you.
Argentina? Now that they have an anarcho-libertarian president voted, who at least claims to want to do away with central banks, it might the place that will be up and coming in the next few years? (Me, I'm waiting to see it happen first. Also, I'm in Europe and my first choice right now would be Hungary or Romania.)
Milei talks ofdollarizing the economy. Menem did that 20 years ago and the country paid a dear price for it where everybody lost when the bubble burst.
I have family in Argentina. With 145% inflation and growing, probably not. Not for me, anyway.
I know it's mess now. But what if that changes because they actually voted in a guy who nows what he's about? Wait and see what happens, then decide, I' d say...
Gold might work unless the government confiscates it.
It's too "material". We're moving in to an age defined by air.
Pisces was all about belief; people believed in fiat currency and material gold.
That world is dying on its butt. (Thank goodness.) The future can't be that way.
Whatever way one chooses to go, the primary principle is that "money does not equal stuff." For instance, if it was possible and practical to buy and securely store a lifetime supply of food right now, I think that would be one great start.
In essence, buying anything you know you will eventually need is perhaps the best way to "preserve wealth." Next on the list would be things ("stuff") you could TRADE for things you will need.
Incidentally, although I certainly wouldn't turn my nose up at PMs, note that things like gold don't necessarily fall into this latter category. They have virtually no use in and of themselves, and are just another form of money (a better form, granted, since it tends to control government spending behavior, but nevertheless...) And again, the primary principle is that money does not equal stuff.
Anyone that has significant wealth to preserve is in a bit of a conundrum.
The most realist lifetime supply of food is in live animals and fish and vegetable and grain crops. For the non-farmer that means gardening and raising animals for food and hides, wool, and feathers. Hunting, fishing and gathering is part of that as well. In an economic collapse situation we are looking at living more like our ancestors lived to an extent. I think that even urban people can look at the natural resources around them and augment their food for some time. Eventually there will be big population movements and reorganization of what communities are and what is important. But right now is probably not the time to make the moves for most people because the costs of buying new places are out of reach for most and selling existing homes is difficult with mortgage rates and lack of buyers. We are going to eventually have to think differently about property and tax structures and the creation of alternate economies.
I have been trying to figure out how to be more self reliant. Part of which is acknowledging that I can’t do everything. I live in a small Texas town that raises mainly cattle. Not dairy, meat. The ground is rocky, full of granite, and horrible to grow any type of crop. We get severe droughts and the heat kills every plant. Yup that bad. We are on a well, but electricity will be interesting because we have to buy that. Husband is handy, and I can knit (sweaters, socks) and we are at an age where we don’t need much. I just don’t want to be 70-80 and have shit hit the fan. I know be prepared, but you will never be full prepared because no one yet has been able to predict when and where.
As it happens, I am 72 and my wife is 80. We also have made adjustments as to what we can handle and what we no longer can. Where we now live the soils in very sandy (glacial lake bed) so we grow veggies in raised beds. We also have a well and on grid electricity. 10,000 watt dual fuel generator when the power goes out. Transfer switch on the power box outside. We also have 2 Bluetti (brand name) 2048 watt hour power stations (one has a second 2048 watt hour battery) and 600 watts of solar panels. ( I set those up if needed to recharge the power stations during a power outage). Power often is interrupted by thunder storms so all that is helpful. Those preps may be helpful to you. For alternative transportation I have my old 10 speed bike and an E-bike that has a 30+ mile range on a charge - enough to get me to town and back 2 times on power assist level 1 of 5. Beside our normal storage of extra food and 2 freezers, we bought several months worth of emergency freeze dried food from My Patriot Supply. We may never need it but it would get us through some difficult months. Lakes nearby as well as streams to fish in. Never was really a prepper, but living rural made us put up grub stakes of extra foods because winter snow would sometimes strand us at home for a week and stores for main shopping were pretty far away.
Study bitcoin and put 5% in that. If it somehow disappears (looking very unlikely at this point) you'll only have lost 5%. If it keeps going, you'll be in nice shape :)
Get right with God. Know you cannot control everything. Then seeds(to trade). Then ammo to go down fighting.
I wrote about this last year:
https://simulationcommander.substack.com/p/dodging-the-dollars-devaluation
If you’re rich, buy land, preferably farmland. As the saying goes, they aren’t making any more of it. But better do it quick before Bill Gates gets it all. Then again, if you’re rich you probably know all this stuff already.
If you’re like most of us and not rich enough to buy real estate, look into playing the stock market or invest in other financial instruments. Treasury Inflation Protected Securities (TIPS) are one option designed to handle high-inflation environments, as you get a semi-annual boost to your principle based on CPI numbers. In times like this of high inflation, newly created money tends to be handed out to the already-rich, so copying their investment strategy is also a pretty solid bet.
If, like me, you hate the financial sector, crypto (bitcoin specifically) is a great alternative. The ‘get rich quick’ days of crypto gains might be over, but we’re simply trying to beat 7% (or whatever) inflation is coming down the pike. Buying physical precious metals is another ‘anti-bank’ way to get your wealth into not-dollars. These options are also easily converted back into dollars if the need arises, unlike financial instruments which often have an ‘early exit’ penalty.
Exactly my question.
Gold. If you want to move past the typical precious metals bullshitters, start here:
https://fofoa.blogspot.com/
I've thought of gold, too. Thanks for the link.
The precipitating crisis for the French Revolution was the problem of state finances. However, this is hardly the first time such problems have happened and there are tried and true 'solutions.' One is a forced exchange rate swap to a new currency. They'll just say everyone has to turn in all dollars for digital iBucks by a certain date at a certain exchange rate. Then they'll pay off dollar debt holders with old dollars they collected in the exchange. People will rush to do it since the value of the dollar will be falling so quickly.
One of the first paper currencies was in China under the Mongol Yuan dynasty. They told people to exchange silver for it and then absconded with all the silver. That's what is going on here. The connected elites bought up hard assets like real estate for several years. Then they pull a currency swap, leaving everyone with new trackable money while they own everything. They can implement various caps or curbs for people deemed to have too much if they like, but it won't really be necessary to worry about for the new digital currency.
The new currency will stop inflation simply by programmed purchase limits. After your egg allotment for the month, each additional egg costs 1000x more. That has always been the goal of climate change and overpopulation rhetoric: digital central planning down the the individual consumer level with all the concommitant expansion of power for governments.
This! and more, is covered quite nicely in the first half of "The Bitcoin Standard" and it does so in a very engaging, easy to read style. Most folks have no idea what lies ahead. Hell, I consider myself an extremely well read redneck, and I am not prepared.
they're not kicking cans, they're executing plans.
It is an inescapable death spiral. This is a debt-ridden, multi-cultural, dysgenic, idiocracy. The Normalcy Bias keeps us from seeing reality. The United States and its empire are cooked. We need to resist and build anew. It is time for new nations.
Given that people don't change, I would imagine we are heading for the big crack up. All we can do is prepare as best we can.
I notice that all the most effective and motivated young entrepreneurs, or even middle-aged ones like me, are in consumer markets. The government has made it so terrifying and cost-prohibitive to make long-term capital investments that few are tempted to risk everything on production-end moonshots when it can all be destroyed or seized on a whim. Gretchen Whitmer just became the latest government to declare her state the future home of third-world income economic disparities through destroying the energy grid and blighting the landscape.
Look at our marketplace. The big money is in entertainment, medicine, and get-rich-from-home content. None of those build a future of prosperity. Two are consumption and one is damage-control.
it astonishes me now, how well i lived in my 20s as a mere hs graduate working crappy jobs as a secretary to morons and earning in a year what i pay for two months' rent now. seven percent interest on my modest little savings account, and i ate out, went to the movies, saw zero mostel live in the theatre, and traveled to europe every summer for several years in a row. it's true i borrowed the money for that. paid it off every year before it was time for the next trip.
and i ate a lot of brie. haven't tasted that in years.
Damn woman. Stop with the brie already. I can't afford it either - anymore.
Just had to look at the online-store for one of the low-price supermarket chains over here.
The cheap kind of brie sells for about $13 - $15 per kilo (2.2 pounds).
The expensive fancy stuff with truffels and such goes for about $30 per kilo.
How does that compare to the US?
When the money is fake, the rest of the economy is doomed to follow. Unfortunately, our looter class is busy stealing everything they can before the house of cards tumbles down and the rest of us are stuck with the bill.
This is why the founders said only gold and silver shall be money -- not to maximize GDP, but to prevent the bankers and politicians from literally printing the wealth out from under us.
Bitcoin fixes this.
Get a copy of "The Bitcoin Standard" and read it!
Even if you don't "like" BTC (whatever that means), read the first half of the book, as it simply lays out the history of fiat currency, stores of value, inflation, etc and what happens EVERY TIME in history when a country/kingdom/republic, etc. gets to the point the US is in right now.
EVERY. SINGLE. TIME.
Don't be caught with your pants down.
Yes!!
For folks wanting a quick glance right now, take a look at
https://whybitcoinonly.com/
(no affiliation - just seems like a great resource)
Democracy has failed the test for the last 5,000 years. Supposedly it is a system tempered by majority rule. As long as there are governments, the minority will terrorize the majority.
Y'all could have voted for Ron Paul... but ya didn't.
RON PAUL 2024!!!
He retired already.
His son Rand seemed a bit of an asshole at first, but he's coming around...
We're not going to let a little thing like retirement stop him!
Rand is great when you compare him to anybody but Ron.