The Economic Collapse….people envision bank runs, life WROL
(without rule of law), piles of worthless currency, rampant
homelessness, and breathless news reports on CNN and the network
channels (if you happen to still have access to a television, that
is). They imagine a grim, gray world, devoid of entertainment, with
unwashed citizens digging desperately through the trash.
Because of this apocalyptic image, the idea of an economic
collapse seems pretty far-fetched to most people. After all, we still
see cars in every driveway, lights in every window at night, children
going to school and parents going to work. Everything’s fine,
right? The economic collapse is only a conspiracy theory,
cooked up by those crazy libertarians and right-wingers, right?
Sadly, no. It’s a fact and it’s all around us, right now. The
economic collapse has occurred quietly and stealthily. In fact,
many people probably think that it has only happened to them, as job
losses occur, utilities get cut off, and the pantry gets more sparse.
They don’t talk about it because poverty is a humiliating
state – they suffer quietly, not realizing that the next-door
neighbor is probably in the exact same situation. They don’t
realize that they aren’t alone.
Less than half of America is employed right now.
Despite the deceptively whitewashed claims of the Job Report that
say that things are looking up,
Breitbart
released an article on July 5 refuting their optimistic
assertions. While there are technically “more” jobs, this
is because positions that used to be full time are now part time –
meaning that two or more people hold what used to be one job.
According to the article, only 47% of Americans are employed full
time. In an age where most families require two parents to work full
time in order to make ends meet, this is a devastating economic blow.
The administration is careful not to divulge the entire story,
instead playing with numbers and percentages to portray growth
instead of dismal decline.
If today the same proportion of Americans worked as just
a decade ago, there would be almost 9 million more people working.
Just in the last year, almost 2 million Americans have left the labor
force. With a majority of the population not holding a full-time job,
it isn’t surprising that economic growth has been so weak.
In June, the number of Americans who wanted to work
full-time, but were forced into part-time jobs because of the
economy, jumped 352,000 to over 8 million.
The Jobs’ Report is increasingly measuring only a part
of the American economy. While Friday’s report was better than
expected, it only measures those who are working or actively looking
for work. There is a growing number of Americans slipping through the
cracks of the job market. (source)
Meanwhile, as income drops, expenses increase.
Consumer spending is on the uptick, a sign that the government
likes to say is positive. However, people are forced to pay more to
get less, just to maintain a basic standard of living with food,
utilities, and gasoline. People aren’t spending money on
goods – they are spending it on essential items and services.
Fuel: The price of transportation has gone
up dramatically. The price of gasoline has risen a staggering 294%
over the past 10 years. That’s right – 294%!!!! This, of
course, affects anything that must be transported, which is,
well….pretty much anything. If your food comes from another
country or continent, you can add high fuel prices to the cost of
that item. If your television was made in a factory on the
other side of the globe, tack on some extra transit charges. This
one item – the price of fuel, is the catalyst that is making the
price of everything else increase.
Food: Furthermore, if you are a commuter,
the price of getting back and forth to work is higher. So again –
you are paying more for the basic essential supplies you need to live
your life in your current fashion.
The price of food is climbing, and doing so rapidly. Significant
increases have occurred over the past two years, particularly in
truly healthy foods like fresh fruits and vegetables, as well as
organic products. Deceptively,
package
sizes are getting smaller (or are staying the same size but
containing less food). The price, however, remains the same as
before, in an attempt to trick consumers into believing that prices
are not actually rising. Apparently, 12 ounces is the new pound
and 3 quarts is the new gallon.
Utilities: Utility rates are climbing,
making it increasingly difficult for struggling families to keep the
lights on and the temperatures pleasant.
The Commerce Department said consumer spending advanced
0.2 percent last month after a 0.7 percent rise in February.
The increase, which beat economists expectations for a
flat reading, was driven by higher spending on services as outlays on
utilities posted a second straight month of hefty gains. Spending on
goods, a key measure of underlying demand, fell.
“Utilities made up a pretty decent chunk of spending,”
said Ryan Sweet, a senior economist at Moody’s Analytics
in West Chester, Pennsylvania. “When you extract from that,
spending was less than impressive in March. The economy is
slowing.” (source)
The prices of electricity are rising dramatically. Customers
have been warned that they will face increases. Smart meters
have been installed nearly everywhere. Many places are
instituting time-of-day pricing, making it only affordable to do your
laundry in the middle of the night.
Part of the reason Americans are facing higher prices is President
Obama’s War on Coal. (In his own words he promised
to
bankrupt
the coal industry.) If Obama can’t close down power
producers through the front door, he does it through the back door,
via the EPA. Even though the climate change theory through CO2
emissions has been
completely
debunked, the EPA is still passing draconian laws to reduce our
“carbon footprint” and thus raise the prices on power.
Obama has shut down 8 coal mines across 3 states, and he and his
buddies at the EPA have plans to scale back production at over 200
coal-powered plants via a regulatory assault.
A welfare state
More than half of all Americans receive some form of government
benefit: food stamps, supplements, health care, to name a few. We
are in big trouble because the people who work for a living are being
outnumbered by those who vote for a living. Politicians buy votes
with giveaways and freebies. (Who can forget the notorious Obamaphone
video?)
The Economic Collapse….people envision bank runs, life WROL
(without rule of law), piles of worthless currency, rampant
homelessness, and breathless news reports on CNN and the network
channels (if you happen to still have access to a television, that
is). They imagine a grim, gray world, devoid of entertainment, with
unwashed citizens digging desperately through the trash.
Because of this apocalyptic image, the idea of an economic
collapse seems pretty far-fetched to most people. After all, we still
see cars in every driveway, lights in every window at night, children
going to school and parents going to work. Everything’s fine,
right? The economic collapse is only a conspiracy theory,
cooked up by those crazy libertarians and right-wingers, right?
Sadly, no. It’s a fact and it’s all around us, right now. The
economic collapse has occurred quietly and stealthily. In fact,
many people probably think that it has only happened to them, as job
losses occur, utilities get cut off, and the pantry gets more sparse.
They don’t talk about it because poverty is a humiliating
state – they suffer quietly, not realizing that the next-door
neighbor is probably in the exact same situation. They don’t
realize that they aren’t alone.
Less than half of America is employed right now.
Despite the deceptively whitewashed claims of the Job Report that
say that things are looking up,
Breitbart
released an article on July 5 refuting their optimistic
assertions. While there are technically “more” jobs, this
is because positions that used to be full time are now part time –
meaning that two or more people hold what used to be one job.
According to the article, only 47% of Americans are employed full
time. In an age where most families require two parents to work full
time in order to make ends meet, this is a devastating economic blow.
The administration is careful not to divulge the entire story,
instead playing with numbers and percentages to portray growth
instead of dismal decline.
If today the same proportion of Americans worked as just
a decade ago, there would be almost 9 million more people working.
Just in the last year, almost 2 million Americans have left the labor
force. With a majority of the population not holding a full-time job,
it isn’t surprising that economic growth has been so weak.
In June, the number of Americans who wanted to work
full-time, but were forced into part-time jobs because of the
economy, jumped 352,000 to over 8 million.
The Jobs’ Report is increasingly measuring only a part
of the American economy. While Friday’s report was better than
expected, it only measures those who are working or actively looking
for work. There is a growing number of Americans slipping through the
cracks of the job market. (source)
Meanwhile, as income drops, expenses increase.
Consumer spending is on the uptick, a sign that the government
likes to say is positive. However, people are forced to pay more to
get less, just to maintain a basic standard of living with food,
utilities, and gasoline. People aren’t spending money on
goods – they are spending it on essential items and services.
Fuel: The price of transportation has gone
up dramatically. The price of gasoline has risen a staggering 294%
over the past 10 years. That’s right – 294%!!!! This, of
course, affects anything that must be transported, which is,
well….pretty much anything. If your food comes from another
country or continent, you can add high fuel prices to the cost of
that item. If your television was made in a factory on the
other side of the globe, tack on some extra transit charges. This
one item – the price of fuel, is the catalyst that is making the
price of everything else increase.
Food: Furthermore, if you are a commuter,
the price of getting back and forth to work is higher. So again –
you are paying more for the basic essential supplies you need to live
your life in your current fashion.
The price of food is climbing, and doing so rapidly. Significant
increases have occurred over the past two years, particularly in
truly healthy foods like fresh fruits and vegetables, as well as
organic products. Deceptively,
package
sizes are getting smaller (or are staying the same size but
containing less food). The price, however, remains the same as
before, in an attempt to trick consumers into believing that prices
are not actually rising. Apparently, 12 ounces is the new pound
and 3 quarts is the new gallon.
Utilities: Utility rates are climbing,
making it increasingly difficult for struggling families to keep the
lights on and the temperatures pleasant.
The Commerce Department said consumer spending advanced
0.2 percent last month after a 0.7 percent rise in February.
The increase, which beat economists expectations for a
flat reading, was driven by higher spending on services as outlays on
utilities posted a second straight month of hefty gains. Spending on
goods, a key measure of underlying demand, fell.
“Utilities made up a pretty decent chunk of spending,”
said Ryan Sweet, a senior economist at Moody’s Analytics
in West Chester, Pennsylvania. “When you extract from that,
spending was less than impressive in March. The economy is
slowing.” (source)
The prices of electricity are rising dramatically. Customers
have been warned that they will face increases. Smart meters
have been installed nearly everywhere. Many places are
instituting time-of-day pricing, making it only affordable to do your
laundry in the middle of the night.
Part of the reason Americans are facing higher prices is President
Obama’s War on Coal. (In his own words he promised
to
bankrupt
the coal industry.) If Obama can’t close down power
producers through the front door, he does it through the back door,
via the EPA. Even though the climate change theory through CO2
emissions has been
completely
debunked, the EPA is still passing draconian laws to reduce our
“carbon footprint” and thus raise the prices on power.
Obama has shut down 8 coal mines across 3 states, and he and his
buddies at the EPA have plans to scale back production at over 200
coal-powered plants via a regulatory assault.
A welfare state
More than half of all Americans receive some form of government
benefit: food stamps, supplements, health care, to name a few. We
are in big trouble because the people who work for a living are being
outnumbered by those who vote for a living. Politicians buy votes
with giveaways and freebies. (Who can forget the notorious Obamaphone
video?)
New
research from Ranking Member of the Senate Budget Committee Jeff
Sessions (R-AL) reveals that this reality may already be
here, with more than 107 million Americans on some form of
means-tested government welfare.
Add to that 46 million seniors collecting Medicare
(subtracting out about 10 million on Supplemental Security Income,
Medicaid, and other senior-eligible programs already included in
Sessions’ means-tested chart) and 22 million government employees
at the federal, state, and local level — and suddenly, over 165
million people, a clear majority of the 308
million Americans counted by the U.S. Census Bureau in 2010, are
at least partially dependents of the state.
The late Margaret Thatcher warned, “The problem with socialism
is that you eventually run out of other people’s money.” That
is what we’re seeing right now – our insurmountable debt is
multiplying faster than Bernanke can print $100 dollar bills, and
eventually, this bubble won’t be able to hold anymore and it will
pop. That is the point at which the stealth collapse becomes
big, real, and undeniable.
Surviving the stealth collapse
The goal for most of us is to maintain our independence while the
powers that be try to return us to serfdom through limiting our
access to affordable necessities. You simply cannot rely on
anyone else to bail you out of this (Silly peasant, government
bailouts are just for billionaires!) You must change your
lifestyle and meet this head-on, using strategies like the following.
Stop looking for a dramatic news report to tell you that the
collapse has arrived – it’s here. Figure out how you’re
going to survive it.
Cut your expenses. Create your own
austerity
plan to reduce your expenses as much as possible. This is
not caving to the pressure – this is a way to assert your
independence, by making your own cuts instead of government mandated
ones.
Learn to provide for many of your necessities alone.
Grow food, join a co-op, raise chickens and rabbits. Even a
small salad garden in a kitchen window can help you to offset high
food prices. Learn to sew, mend, repair,
preserve,
and build. Decrease your dependence on consumer goods and
services. Embrace your frugal side and opt to be
cheap
by choice.
Reduce your dependence on the power grid.
Use rain barrels to collect water, direct the gray water from your
washing machines to reservoirs, hang your clothes to dry, and use
solar lighting whenever possible. The
less
you depend on public utilities, the lower your bills will be,
which could mean the difference between having some services or being
totally without them.
Find other ways to stay warm. This can be
difficult if you rent but
it
can still be done. Consider making modifications to allow
for the use of portable wood heaters, look into different types of
camping heaters and make your plans and purchase your supplies well
before you need them. Learn how to safely store fuel for these
secondary devices. Invest in battery operated C0 monitors (and extra
batteries). Get sleeping bags with a warmth rating for low
temperatures, consider a small tent where you and family members can
sleep in your living room to pool body heat, and stock up on cold
weather clothing like hats, fingerless gloves, long underwear and
heavy sweaters. Find ways to insulate and separate one main living
area off from the rest of the house by closing doors, hanging
curtains in doorways, etc.
Watch the prices of your utilities. As the
prices begin to rise, more and more people will be unable to pay
their bills and eventually their power will be shut off. Check
your bill each month and as prices increase, use less power. Redefine
necessities. You can hand wash your clothing, cook on a
woodstove or outdoor grill and can foods to preserve them instead of
relying on a large chest freezer. None of these are the way things
are commonly done these days, but if you can manage to keep power on
for the most basic necessities, like running the pump for your well,
running a refrigerator, and maybe powering up a laptop, you’ll be
living in luxury in comparison to those who have no power, no heat
and no running water.
Prep, prep and then prep some more. The end
of the American way of life is upon us. Stock up on beans,
bullets and band-aids. If you’re new to the idea of prepping, check
out some sites like
Ready
Nutrition (especially the
52
Weeks to Preparedness Series),
Survival
Blog,
Survival
Sherpa,
Prepper
Website,
Lew
Rockwell, and
SHTFplan.
The clock is ticking, so buy as much as you can, while you can.
Despite what many veteran preppers may tell you,
it’s NOT too late!
Stop looking for a huge, life-changing calamity. In reality,
the economic collapse is the culmination of many small events, rising
prices, lower (or lost) incomes, and the deliberate erosion of
our self-sufficiency by those who would control us.
