Posted on 03/02/2009 3:17:56 PM PST by Jerrybob
I am not trying to be an alarmist, but I am worried about a lot of things. I just have to imagine what the chain reaction of the current downhill slide of the world’s economies can bring. Here’s what I imagine can happen in years to come:
Pensions will go bankrupt or be a shadow of what they were before, causing millions of retirees to be broke and maybe even hungry, with no recourse. Stocks and gold will probably cross at about 3,000. Robberies of banks and citizens will increase many fold, and make the streets of big cities dangerous. The danger will cause movie theatres, night clubs and restaurants to do poor business because of citizen fears of venturing out at night. Cars not in garages or in some way protected, will be subject to theft, break ins or stolen tires and parts, especially in big cities.
------------
The big cities, with their large numbers of out of work minorities, will become extremely dangerous places to live, and there will be an exodus to safer, small towns, by those who are able, even if it means selling a big city home at a sacrifice price, just to be safe. The infrastructure and utility providers in big cities may become insolvent or fraught with vandalism. Out of work minorities won’t be able to pay utility bills. Without electricity, gas, or water, even for a short time, life can be extremely difficult, and especially in a high-rise building or multi-storey apartment.
You can do a lot of internal remodeling. Such as fortifying the ceiling of the basement, designing a safe room area downstairs and stockroom. The problem with many houses today is that they will burn. If you have a brick or stone house, you need to make steel or aluminum covered panels that you can screw into your window frames and fortify any wooden doors so they won’t burn.
You will need to install a roof that won’t burn, like a steel roof. So they can’t burn you out and it will provide extra external protection.
Same thing with your garage.
Now if you have another place to bug out to, you need to pack up and get out as soon as possible.
www.survivalblog.com has everything you would want in a survival situation and more...good stuff
So if you have a place to live, and food to eat, and crime is kept down to a dull roar like usual, this is the bottom line for a “severe depression”.
And what does it have against it?
A population conditioned to expect government help
MASSIVE entitlement mentality from the majority of the population
Lack of moral fortitude that used to be present in America
A full blown communist as a president
A full up gun grabbing AG. Civil Unrest ... turn in your "assault weapons" ... POOF
That's the spark on the powderkeg.
This isn't your great grandpa's Depression. This will be MUCH worse.
Thanks for the ideas. I especially like the safe room and storage room ideas. I’m not bugging out...too old to start over, been here too long, family here. I suppose some kind of neighborhood watch could lessen the need for some of the more extreme at home defensive measures?
bfl
VON KLUTZ
(smiling modestly)
It would not be difficult. Nuclear reactors
could provide power almost indefinitely.
Greenhouses could maintain plant life.
Animals could be bred and slaughtered.
A quick survey would have to be made of all
the suitable minesites in the country, but
I shouldn’t be surprised if several hundred
thousand of our people could be accomodated.
Every nation would undoubtedly follow suit.
PRESIDENT MUFFLEY
But who would be chosen?
VON KLUTZ
A special committee would have to be appointed
to study and recommend the criteria to be
employed, but off-hand, I should say that in
addition to the factors of youth, health, sexual
fertility, intelligence, and a cross-section of
necessary skills, it would be absolutely vital
that our top government and military men be
included, to impart the required principles of
leadership and tradition.
— Dr. Strangelove
You forgot smoldering race hatred, that has been fomented for several decades.
(standing suddenly)
We must not allow a Mineshaft Gap!
bfl
but seriously, when you’re watching some lame monster movie and the poor ditzy actress (or doofus actor) hide in a shack and pile a couple chairs in front of the door for protection, don’t you find yourself saying, “get real. that’s not going to do any good!”?
This apocalyptic scenario will transpire only if the good people lay down and die — and I, in my inner-city neighborhood, am feeling an air of anger and resolve among my fellow property owners whom are giving signs of having turned the other cheek and fled in fear for the last time. Many, if not most, will stand and fight rather than surrender their homes and businesses to marauding Obamanist scum. They will find out this isn’t Zimbabwe. Live free or die!
Glad to hear that. An early show of resolve would certianly be best.
I actually wonder why the girl is wearing only her underwear...
and always wearing it so well.......
If things broke down, I would be one of those guys who volunteer to help maintain order. I doubt I’d be hiding out in a garage with lawn furniture piled against the door...
Yes, I’m thinking more and more that in a suburban setting, neighborhood cooperation and patrol is the way to go, rather than a completely defensive position.
...be like the French who barricaded the streets...except it wouldn’t be with horse carts and furniture, it would be with riding mowers and brightly colored patio furniture. Barricade those cul de sacs!
tear up the coblestones.....the way the blacktop is full of potholes after this winter, it could be torn up by hand.
A lot of the problems you mention solve themselves. If they are out in the desert, with an empty canteen, most people will quickly realize that nothing is going to happen if they yell at it, “I want water!!!”
The same applies to government largesse. Sure a lot of people will be royally po’ed when Washington turns out its pockets and says “no money left”, but it will be a statement of fact. People can be angry at their boss as well, when they are fired because the business has gone out of business. It achieves nothing.
And don’t be too dismayed by America’s modern lack of moral fortitude. From 1900 to the 1920s, a lot of Americans were sympathetic to anarchists and communists. Eugene V. Debs got a hefty chunk of the votes. Woodrow Wilson restarted the KKK, while his own parties’ far left was horribly screwing up Washington.
Over 100,000 Americans fled the Great Depression to move to Russia. The Russians did us a favor by making most of them slaves or outright killing them.
Then in the 1930s and 1940s, “Ol’ Frank” just used the constitution as toilet paper, lifting hefty chunks of the new deal from European fascists. The left was in love with Hitler and Mussolini and Franco before they hated them. The far left hated Hitler, then loved Hitler when he signed a treaty with Stalin, then hated Hitler when he attacked Russia.
What moral fortitude America had, we still have. We just haven’t needed it as much, lately.
Oh, I’ve no doubt that Obama and his crew are going to be annoying as all hell. But most of the military are Republicans, most of the police in the US are generally conservative, and most of Obama’s allies are lily livered, divisive and petty.
Obama will probably go down in history as having gone down. Like Carter or Clinton, but less effective. That doesn’t mean that the depression is going to hurt any the less, just that there probably isn’t going to be a major crisis unless people are homeless and starving, which even Obama should be able to handle.
This is post-WWII economy thinking. “Easy credit” was an experimental concept, and it has failed. Small business used savings to get started, and used income to grow, not credit, since Biblical times.
So we have to get back to business concepts that work. Credit is not for those who need credit. It should only be offered to those who can back it with 100% collateral, and that collateral should always be appraised ahead of time.
Even credit cards should be more like debit cards. They offer convenience and more security than cash, but not “really” credit. Most people should never have credit. Getting a mortgage should be very hard, as it used to be.
At the end of each month, people get a paycheck. At the start of the new month, they use that paycheck to pay their *next* month’s rent. Everything else they put into savings, to pay expenses as they come. And if they run out of money, they do without until they get more. Except for the last 50 years, this is how things worked.
Investment is only for the wealthy. The only investment most people had was the interest they earned from bank savings. The big money was in bank Certificates of Deposit.
It’s not impossible to live this way.
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