The Survival Mom™ » Economy

14 Depressing lessons for America from the slow collapse of Greece

thesurvivalmom — Tue, 27 Dec 2011 23:12:24 +0000

image by RobW_

Other nations are hesitant to provide assistance to a nation nearing economic collapse , and for most, it won’t even be possible. In the case of America, how many nations will be able to bail us out? China’s economy is in more trouble than most people realize and most every other developed nation has similar struggles.
Public services will become unreliable as a government and economy collapse. Services we now take for granted, such as police, firefighters, and sanitation, will be poorly staffed and many will simply shut down leaving citizens to do their best on their own.
Government agencies will be forced to drastically reduce their budgets, leaving millions of Americans without services. It will be more difficult to do just about anything related to the government except paying taxes.
Confusing laws and red tape will increase as lawmakers at every level attempt to extract more taxes from their constituents in order to stay afloat.
New “creative” tax laws may be retroactive, will be overly burdensome, and include extreme penalties for non-payment.
Public sector retirees will realize their pensions aren’t nearly as safe as they had anticipated and public employees will experience missed paychecks and reduced hours.
Healthcare benefits will all but cease to exist and the quality of healthcare will be threatened. Medical treatment and medications will become prohibitively expensive.
Overall, the level of physical health will decline. More people will forego important medical care and ignore warning signs of serious health issues. This will cause more people to have weakened immune systems, allowing the spread of disease and opening the door to deadly epidemics. Ultimately, the lifespan of Americans will significantly decline.
Businesses will continue to close, unemployment will rise, and families will have less and less income to cover their most basic expenses, much less any luxuries to make their lives more comfortable.
Banks will experience runs by depositors desperate to conserve whatever cash they have. This will limit the ability of banks to loan money to businesses, thus impacting an already hard-hit economy.
The middle-class, formerly used to a comfortable lifestyle, will be devastated, with millions finding themselves homeless and hungry and without any hope for the future. Dumpster diving will become a way of life for many. As families use up their savings and retirement funds, government assistance will be limited or no longer available.
A collapse will take a deadly toll on the emotional and mental health of individuals, causing a rise in divorce, addictions, abuse, and suicide.
Family ties will become severely strained as parents are unable to help their children and desperate families are unable to take in destitute relatives.
Civil unrest will increase as desperate, angry people turn their wrath upon the individuals and entities they blame for the crisis.

I read recently that, “It’s always the case that the world changes before the human mind grasps the change that is upon it.” The Greek people and their politicians are struggling to come to terms with the results of decades of irresponsible spending. One Greek described it as, “living a lie,” much like an estranged married couple pretending to be happily married when in public. America’s politicians are making similar mistakes to those that have brought Greece to the brink. Hang on, we’re in for a wild ride, and if we’re smart, we’ll learn lessons from the decline of Greece.

Resources:

“Greece in Chaos” by Noelle Burgi

“Ten Years to Greece” by John Stossel

A Thousand Here, A Trillion There: The Devastating Effects of Debt

thesurvivalmom — Wed, 21 Sep 2011 15:28:14 +0000

It all started with a credit card. I was a new high school graduate with big dreams of going to college in style. My tastes were fairly simple. All I wanted was the best, and soon I had it. I was shopping in upscale department stores and boutiques, spending more than my $4.25 per hour job afforded. Soon, I was in debt and fully appreciative of my dad’s wise advice: “Lisa, stay out of debt!”

Our nation, led by both major political parties, hasn’t heeded that wisdom and is now deeply, deeply in debt, the size of which is almost unimaginable. Not only is that debt in the trillions of dollars, but the interest rises each day. For decades some of our leaders have bemoaned the size of the national debt and warned us about the dangers, but those warnings have had all the impact of the boy who cried wolf.

After all, until recently, prosperity has been the rule, not the exception. There isn’t a connection between our everyday lives and this debt, in spite of all the scary rhetoric. Or is there? What gives?

Our national debt now tops $12 trillion. Image by Kevin Krejci

The best way to understand how the national debt will ultimately affect all of us is to first narrow the focus and examine the impact of debt on a single family. I’ll call them Family X, and their debt is overwhelming. When paychecks arrive every Friday, that money does not belong to Family X. Instead, most of it goes to pay the mortgage or rent, medical bills, student loans, car loans, credit card debt, and other obligations. The family is in dire need of a new washing machine and dental exams, but those must wait. Dreams of going to college and developing the children’s talents through piano lessons, sports teams, and the like, are left unfulfilled. In fact, you could say their debt has crushed every dream. Mom and Dad no longer make promises to their children they know they can’t keep.

Over time, other household appliances break down, and there is no money to fix or replace them. Daughter A needs braces, but those are out of the question. After many months and years, the house begins to look run down, and vehicles are in need of maintenance and repair. If this family owns their home, foreclosure might be just months away, forcing them to move to a less safe neighborhood. Medical and dental issues are ignored, treatments are postponed, and the overall health of the family declines. Unless an employer covers the entire cost of their health insurance premiums, Family X must go without that safety net.

When an emergency occurs, the only choice is to pull out a credit card, thus digging the hole of debt a little deeper. Out of necessity, the family purchases the cheapest products, often of poor quality, and it isn’t long until this former middle class family resembles one from the Great Depression. A comfortable retirement is out of the question, and if hopelessness were a disease, each member would be infected. At some point, a tipping point is reached beyond which they will likely never recover. Bankruptcy and a “fresh start”, begin to look more and more appealing, and in fact, inevitable.

Debt devastates and enslaves. Can our federal government possibly fare any better?

The first obvious parallel between Family X and America is that no matter how much income is collected, it will never be enough. Taxes, no matter how burdensome, will never be enough for debt repayment and the up-keep of our national infrastructure, military, and the multitude of government programs and obligations, much less provide for the ever-increasing, future needs. Plans for new roads, bridges, and improvements to National Parks have already been put on hold.

Eventually, the debt load will begin to affect our national security. The wages of military personnel is likely to decline relative to the cost of living, benefits are already being reduced,and when weapons and vehicles break down or malfunction, there won’t be enough money in the budget for repairs or replacements. America’s leadership in military innovation will be in jeopardy.

Promises that our government leaders have made to senior citizens, college students, struggling families and others will go unfulfilled. Social Security, Medicaid, and Medicare are anything but secure. Eventually, millions of Americans will be left to struggle with fewer and fewer benefits. Funding for law enforcement and education will necessarily be decreased, and money promised to towns and cities will begin to dry up, affecting us on the local level as well. Initially, those cuts will be in marginal areas, affecting few people, but over time, the cuts will become deeper and more noticeable.

When Family X is unable to make their monthly house payment, the day will come when the bank demands the keys to the house. Our country is in debt to other nations, and when those foreign nations decide to hold out their hands for repayment, what will America do? Might our leaders hand over mineral rights or federal lands as payment? Individuals and families must repay their debt at some point, and our nation’s due date is approaching.

As individuals, we have no control and little influence on the decisions made in Washington. “New” money is being printed at this very moment, as though it will somehow make the pit of debt less deep . (If only generating money on the family printer were the answer to Family X’s hopeless dilemma!) Our elected leaders are rushing heedlessly down this slope, with no apparent concern or awareness that their decisions may result in tragedy for our nation.

We are currently in a small window of time in which we can prepare our families for the day our nation’s debt reaches the tipping point. One important step is reducing your reliance on government support as much as possible. Setting aside a few months worth of food, learning how to produce some of our own food, and seeking out alternative sources of water and energy are all simple ways we can position ourselves and our families to be somewhat buffered as our nation’s economy continues to decline. Paying off our own debt, saving money, investing in hard goods and precious metals, staying up to date with dental and medical issues are other ways we can provide a layer of personal security in the face of an increasingly insecure future. Preparedness has never been a smarter choice than it is now and debt has never been more foolish.

How high can the price of gold go?

thesurvivalmom — Thu, 18 Aug 2011 15:53:25 +0000

image by motoyen

What do you think of when you think of buying gold? Are you intimidated at the thought? Is it confusing to know if you should sell all your gold jewelry or start buying gold coins? We’re living in a very strange time, indeed, with the price of gold escalating to new heights weekly. You can keep track of the current price of gold, and silver, at Kitco.com.

How high will the price of gold go? Expert Chris Slife, President of Howling Coyote Silver Company, had this to say:

I hear more and more people saying that “Gold is getting high and can’t go much higher” or “Gold is in a bubble”. In my opinion, ‘rubbish’!!!

To begin with, we are seeing tons of people coming into the store selling all their gold and silver jewelry. Question: “If gold and silver were a bubble, why aren’t people lined up to BUY gold?” Answer: “Gold is not a bubble but is STILL climbing a steep ‘wall of worry’. When Joe and Jane Sixpack come in and start buying gold because their neighbor told them it was the thing to do, THEN I will start looking at gold as a ‘bubble’.

How high can gold go? Answer: Hypothetically speaking, “To infinity and beyond”, to quote Pixar’s Buzz Lightyear. Who knows where gold will end up in real terms, but in nominal terms, theoretically, gold could go to numbers that feel like infinity.

Take a look at this chart that Chris shared with his customers.

Chris explains,

In January of 1919, 170 German Marks were required to purchase one ounce of gold; however, by the time the hyperinflationary episode subsided, it took 87 trillion marks to purchase that same amount of gold. Did gold all of the sudden become more valuable. Of course not. In real terms, gold’s VALUE remained steady; yet, in nominal terms, the price of gold approached the theoretical level of infinity before the German government finally pulled the plug on the defunct currency.

None of America’s financial problems have been solved or realistically addressed. The price of gold can certainly continue to climb as our nation’s leaders dither over political positioning and, incredibly, the Federal Reserve begins to make plans to print even more dollars in a QE3 (Quantitative Easing). As the value of the dollar declines, gold prices rise.

If you’ve thought about buying gold and haven’t known where to start, start small. Literally! You can purchase gold coins in the amount of one-tenth of an ounce. Not only do these smaller purchases make it easier on the budget, but if you ever need to sell them or use them as currency, they’re more practical than one-ounce gold coins.

Visit one or two coin stores in your area and start asking questions. Be aware that the dealer will add a premium (his/her profit) to the spot price of the coin. For more information on buying gold and silver, read my interviews with Chris Slife listed below and download an instructional article written by Chris here. If you want a steady stream of information, be sure to sign up for his emails, and NO, I don’t get a commission for promoting him! I just like his honesty and common sense approach to something that used to intimidate me.

The Basics of Precious Metals, Part 1

The Basics of Precious Metals, Part 2

Savers are Losers!

thesurvivalmom — Tue, 10 May 2011 10:27:23 +0000

Guest post by Chris Slife, President of Howling Coyote Silver Company

This article is a rebuttal to, Buying gold — is it better than saving?

Savers are Losers!

For most of us, saving usually means setting money aside each month into a savings account. The assumption has been that this is the ‘safest’ way to save. I want to challenge this assumption and encourage people to look at other ways to save.

Fundamentally, I agree with the need to consume less, spend less and set aside for the future; however, whatever savings vehicle you choose, it MUST be able to hold its value over time, i.e. retain its purchasing power. For those that choose to adhere to the traditional wisdom of holding all of your savings in the dollar, i.e. savings accounts, money markets, or certificates of deposit, there is a very real risk of their purchasing power diminishing over time. In other words, because of the loss of purchasing power, you will become a loser – of purchasing power that is.

Chart #1 is a 20 year chart of the dollar:

Chart #1

Chart #2 is a longer term chart beginning with the creation of the Fed back in 1913:

Chart #2

If the majority of one’s savings had been kept in dollars over this time period, they have become a loser – a loser of purchasing power. This loss in purchasing power is accelerating. As you can see from Chart #3, we are creating dollars at a faster and faster rate.

Chart #3

The more dollars that are created, the less valuable every dollar already in existence becomes. Should this acceleration continue, or move into a hyperinflationary type event, traditional savers will be harmed even more. It is crucial that you choose at least one savings vehicle that accounts for purchasing power.

Below, I will share with you how I save. (And by the way, saving is NOT investing. Saving is preservation of purchasing power not trying to increase it.)

Step One

1) Emergency cash on hand in case you can’t get to a bank or banks close in an emergency

2) Have a savings account that has enough in it to cover up to a three month’s worth of expenses

Step Two

1) Gold and silver bullion

2) Food

3) Means of protection

4) Other common tangibles that would not be available during a hyperinflationary event

To sum up, I think it is very important for everyone to save for the future. The important caveat to remember, however, is that one of your saving vehicles must retain its purchasing power.

DISCLAIMER: I am not a paid financial consultant. I do not share in your GAINS or LOSSES so invest in your own financial education and study, study, study. Do not take my word for anything. Simply use it as a springboard to further educate yourself.

A taste of hyperinflation

thesurvivalmom — Mon, 09 May 2011 22:15:25 +0000

image by Paolo Camera

Wheelbarrows full of German marks and stacks of Zimbabwean dollars paint a surreal and absurd picture of economies gone bad. It could never happen here in America. Right? Well, I think we got a taste of hyperinflation recently when gasoline prices increased on a near-daily basis. What did it feel like to see the price per gallon increase from the time you drove to work in the morning until you passed that same gas station on the way home from work at five o’clock? If you were smart, you filled up your tank every time you saw the price dip and maybe even filled an extra gas can at $3.69 a gallon, knowing that tomorrow it would probably cost even more.

Daily price increases of gasoline are bad enough, but imagine trying to survive in a world where prices of virtually every good increases on a daily basis. During times of hyperinflation, wages do not increase at the same rate as everything else, so a family that is used to spending 10% of its income on food, for example, would find that percentage increasing to 40%, 50% and more. There would be very little left for paying utility bills, medical expenses, or even tiny luxuries.

History Learning Site describes the effects of hyperinflation on Germans in 1923.

“People were paid by the hour and rushed to pass money to loved ones so that it could be spent before its value meant it was worthless.
People had to shop with wheel barrows full of money
Bartering became common – exchanging something for something else but not accepting money for it. Bartering had been common in Medieval times!
Pensioners on fixed incomes suffered as pensions became worthless.
Restaurants did not print menus as by the time food arrived…the price had gone up!
The poor became even poorer and the winter of 1923 meant that many lived in freezing conditions burning furniture to get some heat.
The very rich suffered least because they had sufficient contacts to get food etc. Most of the very rich were land owners and could produce food on their own estates.
The group that suffered a great deal – proportional to their income – was the middle class. Their hard earned savings disappeared overnight. They did not have the wealth or land to fall back on as the rich had. Many middle class families had to sell family heirlooms to survive.”

It’s easy to see these same effects happening here in our country, or in any other whose government follows the disastrous financial recipe of over-spending and printing money (“Quantitative Easing”), resulting in the loss of confidence in the dollar, our fiat currency.

Surviving hyperinflation isn’t easy. I listed thirteen survival tips here, but from the description above, it seems that skyrocketing prices of food and energy have the biggest negative effect on everyday citizens. It makes sense, therefore, to grow, raise, and preserve your own food as much as possible and to look for ways you and your family could live off the grid as much as possible. Owning physical gold and silver is wise, as is establishing contacts with a network of like-minded people. After all, who is more likely to have what you need in a bartering transaction than another prepper?

Most of us don’t own “estates”, but we do have the advantage of learning from history and being smart enough to take proactive steps to protect our families against the devastation of hyperinflation now. If you didn’t like the taste of hyperinflation we’ve had with our rapidly rising gas prices, the time to take action is now.

Gold and Silver prices: a little education from Chris Slife

thesurvivalmom — Thu, 05 May 2011 18:41:45 +0000

Chris Slife owns Howling Coyote Silver Company. He sent this email this morning, explaining why the prices of silver and gold have been so volatile. If you have questions for Chris, post them as a comment, and I’ll ask him to drop by and answer them personally. By the way, you can track the live ups and downs of your favorite precious metal here.

image by sirqitous

There is a lot of very bearish sentiment right now out in gold and silver land and that is a very good thing!What has changed?

1) This past Friday and Saturday, www.marketwatch.com ran three major ‘hit’ pieces on silver: the waterfall started on Sunday. Do you think someone was scared?

2) We have killed bin Laden. Do you think we will leave Iraq and Afghanistan?

3) Margin requirements have been raised FIVE times on silver over the past eight days!

http://www.zerohedge.com/article/cme-margin-hike-4th-and-5th-charting-parabolic-rise-cme-silver-margin-hikes

4) My prediction was for EXTREME VOLATILITY around $50. This is actually good because, coupled with the margin hikes – see above – a lot of very weak hands are being forced out of the market. Silver is being given over to the strongest of hands, right here, right now.

5) Another prediction I made was a pause around QE2 to give political cover for QE3. Did anyone notice jobless claims today?

6) We are fast approaching debt ceiling limits. State pensions deficits, state budget deficits, et cetera. What is more likely, that foreigners will start buying more of our debt or we will print to cover? If you believe the former, I have a bridge for sale.

Could gold/silver continue to correct? Absolutely, anything is possible; however, I know I am trying to source some physical silver and have had no luck thus far. In addition, I am going to start nibbling on some SLV call options. For those of you who wish to profit from corrections in the metals, once again, I would encourage you to invest in your financial education and learn about call and put options. They are simply a tool in your toolkit, nothing more, nothing less. It has been physiologically bearable to see this price drop because I had put options in place when silver started to correct. I have collected on my insurance policies.

As always, do your due diligence. I am not a paid financial consultant and do not experience either your gains or losses.

BOTTOM LINE TAKEAWAY: What has changed? NOTHING!

A scary scenario: The One-Hour Meltdown

thesurvivalmom — Fri, 05 Nov 2010 11:00:04 +0000

photo by theamericanroadside

Every once in a while I read something that stops me in my tracks and slaps me up the side of my head, as my dad would say. Earlier this year it was the book Patriots: A Novel of Survival in the Coming CollapsePatriots by James Wesley, Rawles. The picture he paints of a possible TEOTWAWKI* scenario was just ghastly. For weeks afterward I had visions of our family foraging for edible roots and berries in the forest and collecting water in a solar still, all the while ducking bands of cannibal motorcycle gangs!

Now I’ve found another plausible future scenario that is just as appalling, and yet it doesn’t seem impossible. The warning signs are all there, and when one begins connecting the dots and thinking about chain reactions, all of a sudden it doesn’t seem so crazy after all to begin prepping. You can read “The One-Hour Meltdown” here. It will give you a lot to think about. Maybe knowing how to make a solar still and having all the equipment stored in the trunk of my Tahoe is a good idea after all!

* TEOTWAWKI – “The End Of The World As We Know It”, a term coined by Mike Medintz.

Prepare like there’s no time to waste

thesurvivalmom — Mon, 16 Aug 2010 19:24:26 +0000

I wish you knew me in person. I wish you could see for yourself that I’m a calm, rational, and mature person, not inclined to hysteria or panic. I’m saying this because what I’m going to write about next may sound, well, hysterical.

Last week I happened upon an article by Greg Hunter, When Will Financial Armageddon Begin? in which the author cites financial expert John Williams of

image by Editor B

shadowstats.com. His predictions are scarcely encouraging.

The day before last Friday’s dismal jobs report, Williams said, “. . . the timing of the looming U.S. financial Armageddon is coming into better focus, with increasingly high risk of it breaking within the next six months to a year.”

“Financial Armageddon . . . within the next six months to a year.” I called Williams to see why the odds of calamity have accelerated. He told me on the phone last night, “What is happening now to bring the timing into focus is the economy IS turning down. It is no longer the perspective the economy is going to turn down. That, in turn, will eventually trigger all the problems with the dollar, the debt and the deficit.”

How quickly could a collapse happen? Last year I posted A scary scenario: The One-Hour Meltdown with a link to an article that details just how rapidly a financial crisis could spell the end of the world as we know it. Hunter quotes Mallory Factor of Forbes who, apparently, concurs that a sudden collapse is very possible.

“In an age when billions of dollars in securities are traded in nanoseconds, when a 24-hour news cycle seems long, why should national decline be exempt from what the Germans call Zeitgeist, the spirit of the age? The Book of Revelation, speaking allegorically of ancient Rome, states, “Alas! Alas! You great city, you mighty city, Babylon! For in a single hour your judgment has come.” Ancient Rome surely did not expect its sudden fall any more than the Soviet Union did in 1991, or than America does now.”

As if this news wasn’t dreary enough, I spotted yet another must-read at American Thinker, An Argentina-like Economic Crisis by Scott Strzelczyk. Argentina’s collapse, which began in 1998, resulted in nearly60% of the population living at poverty level or below just four years later. Could that happen to my family?

image by Don Hankins

A year from now, we may read this post and laugh at my tone, but I don’t think so. I think there’s an urgent need to prepare. Here are some of the steps I’d like my family to take.

Buy a little 4-seater car. We own a Tahoe and a good-sized pick-up, and the vehicles suit our lifestyles and work requirements very well. However, should the economy bottom out, I want a reliable vehicle that uses very little gas and will serve as our main transportation. I’m thinking of something in the $4000-5000 range, cheap to operate, cheap to insure.
Prayerfully consider what to do with what remains of our retirement savings. Retirement may become a wistful memory for my generation and those of younger generations. Between a weakened dollar, sky-high long-term unemployment, falling home values, and an overall decline of the economy, we may all be trying to eke out a living well into our 60′s, 70′s, and beyond. (Thank God I had the foresight to marry a man seven years younger than me! When I’m an old lady, he’ll still be in fine working condition!)
Curb our appetite for the newest, latest and greatest toys. Will cool high tech toys seem like such a smart purchase if we can’t afford basic necessities?
Go back through our budget. Again. I don’t want indulgences now to endanger our financial security later. Depending on future events, we can always add luxuries back into our budget, but let’s take care of first things first!
We have four couches, a love seat, and a sectional. Why? It’s a long story. But if you ever come over to my house, you will have a place to sit, maybe even take a nap! We can easily sell two of the couches and the love seat. This week they’re going on Craigslist, along with our massive collection of Star Trek VHS videos. (Attention ST fans!) I want extra cash in my grubby hands to buy a little more food for our pantry, maybe a couple of water barrels, definitely some silver coins. How much could you sell or use for barter in order to acquire more essential goods?
Think really hard about our kids’ piano, guitar, and horse-riding lessons. It really kills me that a tanking economy could demolish dreams of thousands of kids who have amazing, God-given talents but whose families won’t have the funds for extra training and lessons. Who knows how much talent will go unrealized and
image by ND Strupler

undeveloped because of empty bank accounts? This category will be one of the last to go.
One expense I’m going to fight to keep is a couple of monthly donations to charities whose causes mean a lot to me. These will be one of the last expenses we cut. We’ll continue giving to our church. Giving to others softens a part of our hearts, even in the toughest times, and it’s a practice I want to continue for my own sake but also for that of my kids.
Take better care of what we own. We’re not careless people, but things do have a way of getting lost around our house. If money becomes scarce, I would feel so foolish if I had to replace an important item because we had lost it or stepped on it or it became a victim of any number of crazy things that go on around here!
Declutter. I’ve written about this before, and I think it’s more important than ever to unload hundreds, maybe even thousands, of pounds of stuff that isn’t necessary or relevant and just serves to take up space. I’ve had some good runs with clearing out the junk in our home, but I get sidetracked. Starting now I have a new focus and purpose.
Emphasize healthy eating and healthy living. Family hikes and bike rides aren’t just for fun and bonding but for strengthening our bodies and cardiovascular systems. No amount of stored food, spare tools, or stash of firearms and ammo can take the place of good health.

Fernando Aguirre, Ferfal, over at Surviving Argentina wrote about watching a family rummage through a dumpster looking for dinner, and then sitting together on the ground to eat. He said that broke his heart more than anything else he had witnessed. I don’t want to be that family! The time to prevent such a scenario is right now.

Will our country’s economy improve over the next several months and years? Few experts believe so. I am so thankful that we have this window of time to become more aware of current events, learn from history, and plan for a future that is uncertain at best.

A 21st Century Food Shortage

thesurvivalmom — Thu, 08 Apr 2010 00:48:09 +0000

image by Isaac Urrutia/Reuters

It’s 10 a.m., and tempers are already flaring at the Cada supermarket in Caracas’ San Bernardino neighborhood. The store has just taken delivery of two pallets of 4- and 11-pound sacks of sugar. With dozens of shoppers swarming around him, Rigoberto Fernández tries to pass out the bags one by one. The clerk hands a smaller one to a gray-haired woman, but she flings it back. “How dare you tell me I can’t have one of the larger bags?” she screams. The sack splits open, spilling sugar everywhere.

And that’s a view of life today in Caracas, Venezuela. A country rich in natural resources, including vast oil field, but whose citizens are now faced with food shortages thanks to the disastrous policies of their leader, Hugo Chavez. You can read this entire article in Business Week magazine. Thanks to the heads up from the owner of All-in-One Preparedness!

I have no idea if Americans will face empty grocery store shelves, but rising prices on processed foods are a reality. There is still a window of opportunity for preppers to stock up on food and supplies, buy silver and gold coins, and work toward becoming debt free. Ferfal, of SurvivingArgentina fame, says the two most important ingredients to survival in his country are money and mobility. Most of us are taking whatever steps we can to do a lot of prepping on a budget, but food storage is something everyone can do, even if it’s just picking up a few items ever week from the dollar store.

Be watching for my “Prepping on Pennies” series later this week.

What are you really preparing for?

thesurvivalmom — Fri, 02 Apr 2010 10:00:51 +0000

If you’ve been reading my blog for very long, I hope you’ve noticed that I am no fear-monger, nor do I dwell in the Land of Hysteria and Hand-Wringing. I’m simply someone who is observant, can draw rational conclusions, and has a desire to protect her family. Having said that, I want to answer a question I’ve been asked by every interviewer so far and then steer you to a blog post worthy of your time and attention.

image by Valerie Everett

The question I’m asked most often is, “So, what are you really preparing for?” Usually, the interviewer asks this as they lean toward me in a conspiratorial manner, as if I’m going to blurt out an outlandishly paranoid, likely drug-induced rant. My response is usually, “I’m preparing for everything,” and that’s true, to a point. Here’s my real answer, though, and I say it with a heavy heart. I’m preparing for a dramatic decline of my beloved country.

When I was a freshman in college, I took Economics 101, and guess what I learned? I learned that it’s impossible to increase the value of something by just creating more of it. If Widgets are selling for $5 each, and I pump up the number of Widgets I manufacture, the value of said Widgets will drop due to a glut in the market. When a nation begins printing billions and trillions of new paper money, the value of that money will decline. Economics 101. However, this is exactly what our government has been doing for the past year. As one of my readers, Linda, commented recently, “No country that’s tried that has EVER failed to plunge their nation into chaos.”

The printing of all that new money, combined with the collapse of the real-estate bubble, devalued home and land prices, and double digit unemployment, is the perfect formula for disaster. People like you and me are caught in the middle, trying our best to prepare for a future that is on a trajectory toward strange and possibly dangerous territory.

The answer isn’t having stacks of canned soup and buckets of wheat. Or rather, it isn’t the only answer. I believe that preparedness for this future requires more than that. It takes stepping back and taking a much longer view. Ask yourself, “What if this depression lasts the rest of my life? How can I help my family face that type of future?”

One of my favorite bloggers, Ferfal, writes about preparing for an economic collapse on his blog, Surviving Argentina. It’s not a particularly happy blog, but he writes from the perspective of one who has lived through each of Argentina’s collapses. I value the balanced wisdom that comes from his experiences. So far, none of us have had that experience. We can only guess how it will be, how we’ll react, and if we’re prepared well enough, or not. Here’s a sobering read from his blog, Preparing for the economic collapse: Getting started.

Even in Argentina, however, life goes on. Families celebrate birthdays together, prepare for holidays, and carry on long-standing traditions. Ultimately, the purpose of our preparedness is to preserve what is most precious to us, and that is family, faith and friends.