Don’t listen to me, don’t listen to your brother, read up for yourself. Start reading history, esp. monetary history. Learn about the credit cycle, the federal reserve, the great depression, Mises Keynes and Hayek.
Then start applying the knowledge gained to current news and recent history.
At some point during this process you will absolutely freak out. If you don’t you’re not paying attention.
When does the game stop? I don’t know, maybe tomorrow, maybe past the end of my lifetime. I know the Roman Empire went on for centuries!
But most civilizations are not the Romans, and that’s not the way to bet. All I know is that we are way past the point of working within the system. The system is rigged.
Democrats are hopeless, Republicans are just a way to corral the opposition so that they have about the urgency and impact of a box of mewling kittens.
Cash your SS checks and enjoy them. You certainly earned them. Use them to payoff debt, buy things that will be worthwhile now, and after the crash. Use them to enjoy time with your family while you have it.
But prepare for the day when they won’t be there.
I’ve read all the stuff you suggested. But I ain’t moving into a cave, or bunker, or whatever other kind of redoubt there is, and awaiting the Apocalypse.
I choose to participate in Life as it is. If all the Doom and Gloom crowd would get off their dead asses and participate in government, it could be properly reconstituted.
But they don’t want to do that. It would require thought, planning, and work.