Posted on 05/07/2010 7:35:01 AM PDT by blam
20 Things You Will Need To Survive When The Economy Collapses And The Next Great Depression Begins
Michael Snyder
May. 7, 2010, 10:26 AM
(This is a guest post from The Economic Collapse Blog.)
Today, millions of Americans say that they believe that the United States is on the verge of a major economic collapse and will soon be entering another Great Depression. But only a small percentage of those same people are prepared for that to happen. The sad truth is that the vast majority of Americans would last little more than a month on what they have stored up in their homes.
Most of us are so used to running out to the supermarket or to Wal-Mart for whatever we need that we never even stop to consider what would happen if suddenly we were not able to do that. Already the U.S. economy is starting to stumble about like a drunken frat boy. All it would take for the entire U.S. to resemble New Orleans after Hurricane Katrina would be for a major war, a terror attack, a deadly pandemic or a massive natural disaster to strike at just the right time and push the teetering U.S. economy over the edge. So just how would you survive if you suddenly could not rely on the huge international corporate giants to feed, clothe and supply you and your family? Do you have a plan?
[snip]
Are you prepared?
[snip]
(Excerpt) Read more at businessinsider.com ...
1.8 is about right.
I hate the people who bankrupted this country...
“I hate the people who bankrupted this country...”
...read “Patriots: A Novel of Survival in the Coming Collapse” by James Wesley Rawles...then start to make preparations for you and your family.
Thanks
Bingo, already getting that set up in my neighborhood.
Lots of elderly, or 3-1 ratio not too good.
You work with what you have and sometimes you have to be creative.
I don’t remember this Mad Max scenario occurring during the Great Depression, but I suppose I could have missed that little tidbit. Not.
Thank you for your response.
“
I would build a fire and using the black coals, sand and dirt,
in a tube or bottle might do it.
“
I think the suggestion to use cotton/T-shirt to filter crappy water
was being mentioned in regard to the tsunami situation...
where the inundation renders building a fire to boil water may not
be possible.
I agree that the methodology doesn’t sound like a great option.
Having watched enough episodes of “I Shouldn’t Be Alive”, I’d likely
go for the “recycling” of bodily fluids before I’d try the “filter
foul water that has bathed dead bodies for a week through T-shirts” method.
“
I have 8,000 coffee filters in storage for that purpose.
Then after filtering, of course, I will boil it.
“
Agreed.
I think the mention of the T-shirt straining was a “worst case scenario”
option.
If a fire couldn’t be built, I’d go for trying to build a solar still
or “recycling” bodily fluids before I’d try the T-shirt straining method.
It’s a last, totally-desperate option, for sure.
This can’t be stressed enough. All evacuation and disaster plans should consider community, neighbors and family. So many of the idiocies of New Orleans and Houston post-Katrina could have been avoided if evacuations and shelters had put neighbors together and if the evacuation centers, police stations, and hospitals had prepared to care for the families of essential personnel.
You’re welcome.
I don’t want anyone to suffer, but what I can do is very tiny. But if each person did a little to be responsible to help themselves, come what may, much suffering could be avoided.
In the Great Depression, there were very few illegitimate children, feral kids, broken families, many rural people had no electricity and electricity did not run EVERYTHING as it does now. There was not a huge underclass entirely dependent on government to take care of there every need. There weren’t as many people who depend on handfuls of drugs (legal) every day. There weren’t as many people who depend on (illegal) drugs every day.
More women canned. More familes had pantries with food stored. Most women stayed at home and knew how to cook from scratch and nurse the sick.
Most goods were made in the US. There were many small family farms. Much food was grown locally, in truck farms outside of cities and towns. Local dairies were plentiful. Even when I was a kid in the 50s, tons of food was grown where I grew up and there was even a grist mill run by a water wheel for grinding grain. Thread, shoes, clothes, fabric, furniture, tools, utensils, cookware, cars and car parts, bicycles - all made in the US.
There was no welfare, food stamps, HUD, Medicare, energy assitance. Kids did not flash mob and create mayhem for the fun of it. Kids in schools were not having sex at 13 nor were there Gay Straight Clubs. When I grew up I still remember those billboards - “A Family Who Prays Together Stays Together”. The ACLU would be on that in a minute to rip it down.
Societal breakdown is a whole different ballgame. The cultural veneer is much thinner and the foundations are crumbling as we speak.
What was unemployment in the Great Depression? 25% of so? Therefore 3 in 4 people continued to work, even if it was at reduced pay.
I don’t believe a depression today would result in mass lawlessness. I understand your points, that we have a far smaller group of self-sufficient people, and a much larger group of dependent entitlement-demanding people. I get that.
If we have similar unemployment, it means we will still have 3 in 4 people working, who will be foreced into wealth redistribution to pay for the “safety net” for the slackers. I don’t see mass riots and violence coming as you seem to see. I see that more of the money of the workers will be stolen to give to the slackers during the depression.
We will see which of us is right so all I can say is “stay tuned”. I don’t see a scenario for societal breakdown. As long as the politicians cut things like the military (which is coming) and keep sustenance level pay going from your pocket to the slackers, there won’t be widespread sociatal breakdown. That comes from people with nothing to lose, and as long as the slackers have food, power and cable TV, they won’t risk it in a mass riot.
I’m not talking about the unfortunate workers who just can’t find a good job throughout the depression, who will also be supported from tax money collected from the 3 in 4 still working — I am talking about the true lifelong entitlement-demanding slackers who have the “gimmee” mentality to start a societal breakdown.
It was more like 1/3, IIRC.
But there are other differences. What’s coming IMO isn’t just a depression. WHole entire countries financial underpinnings collapsing. And nothing practically of any use or value is manufactured in the US. A couple of generations of fools indoctrinated in schools that teach leftist ideology. Marriages falling apart at a rate not see in the 30s, or even imagined.
I am not saying “mass” lawlessness, but something possibly akin. Have you read “Patriots” by John Rawles?
Man that makes me angry.
...and when they say that to me I tell them I have X number of bullets waiting for them and their family at the door. They nervously chuckle for a second (as they are already scared of "guns"). Then they see my facial expression change from seriousness to a scowl and reality starts setting in that I won't save them (I might help them when push comes to shove but perception is reality for these folks and I don't want them assuming that I will take care of them as I will have my hands full). Then I take it a step further and tell them they will make good food for my working/guard dogs, as I don't want to use people food for them if I can help it.
At this point, reality sets in and they get the picture and they either run and hide with their tail between their legs or some actually starting listening and thinking!
Well, either way, I'm not going to wait and see. I am insulating my family against whatever happens. Maybe it's just inflation, and in that scenario I am ahead of the game on food and other items.
People get insurance for all sorts of things. And yet when it comes to something really important like being able to eat without relying on others, they never give it a thought and think people like me are kooks.
I just buy them 72 hour emergency kits to keep at their house. If TSHTF, none of them will be able to get to me anyway.
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