Wow, have to start over again after writing all that...
After watching Doomsday Preppers, I noticed a number of people think there is an imminent economic collapse in America. Who here believes this, and if so, what are you doing to prepare for it? I found the show interesting, just curious to see if anybody is "prepping" or anything.
I'm lackadaisically storing up nonperishables. Am looking into junk silver a little. Planted a garden. Have a big dog. Moved to a hick town.
What I should be doing, but probably won't:
Buy a shotgun and plenty of ammo. Store water. Learn practical stuff.
My humble blog
It's easy to refute an argument if you first misrepresent it. William Keizer
Smiling Dave: I'm lackadaisically storing up nonperishables. Am looking into junk silver a little. Planted a garden. Have a big dog. Moved to a hick town. What I should be doing, but probably won't: Buy a shotgun and plenty of ammo. Store water. Learn practical stuff.
Cool to know, mate. Curious, why won't you consider weaponry and storage?
Curious, why won't you consider weaponry and storage?
No rational reason. One gets used to the status quo, and if it requires too much effort, I don't bother. The other stuff more or less fell into my lap, and/or I got when I first understood the problems we face and was very emotional about it. Now I'm kind of fatalistically resigned, and also think , well it didn't happen yet, so maybe it won't.
Like I say, not very rational reasons.
Smiling Dave: Curious, why won't you consider weaponry and storage? No rational reason. One gets used to the status quo, and if it requires too much effort, I don't bother. The other stuff more or less fell into my lap, and/or I got when I first understood the problems we face and was very emotional about it. Now I'm kind of fatalistically resigned, and also think , well it didn't happen yet, so maybe it won't. Like I say, not very rational reasons.
ha ha I like the honesty, my friend. I'm surprised more people on here aren't adding to this thread. Maybe because I'm new here but I thought a bunch of the lot might identify with those on t.v. I found it extremely interesting regarding how many people doubt the economy will prosper.
Econ collapse will be the LEAST of our worries. Civilization itself can't and won't last esp. with the gov massively subsidizing big ag and propping up monopolies left and right. I'm stakling up on as much gold and silver as I can but I'm also learning survival skills. If you want to survive the best thing to do is become self-sufficient.
I'm stacking up on storable food, rifles/shotguns, weed, and copies of the articles of confederation.
This is me in my living room:
This is the entrance to my kitchen:
I'm stacking up on storable food,
The problem w/ hoarding food is you'll be a huge target during a SHTF moment (which WILL come soon enough.) It's better to learn hunting and gathering skills instead.
Civ will NOT re-emerge after collapse.
I'm going to offer an alternative opinion and say that preppers are mostly crazy and there will be no significant economic downturn in the next few years.
1. You make it sound like the only way the economy can collapse is if the dollar is abandoned as the reserve currency. Unfortunately, there is more than one way to skin a cat, and our economy can collapse even while we are the reserve currency.
Imagine if the govt increases spending a miilionfold, literally, printing money to do it. I hope we agree that the result would be a collapse of the economy. Well, the number doesn't have to be a million. A thousand or five hundred might do it as well. Maybe even twenty, who knows. And there is every sign that the govt fully intends to do this.
2, You assume that as long as the capital stock is there, we are fine. But if enough laws are passed restricting businesses from profityably using the capital stock, it might as well not exist, right? And we are headed in that direction as well.
3. You assume that if Europe is worse off than us [which is not at all obvious, quite the contrary], then we will be OK, because investors will have nowhere else to go. It's either here or Europe. No other countries exist on the planet, so we will be fine. I think you might have to rethink this after consulting a globe.
4. You assume that people are saving, which they are not. Look it up. Or ask any five random people whether they have paid off their crdit card debt, a first step to being a net saver. Also, you assume that savings cannot be wiped out by the govt printing money, the same mistake Zimbabwans made.
1)
I don’t think this is a realistic prediction of the government’s budget within the next 20 years. They are already spending $4+ trillion per year, what are they going to spend more on? Sure entitlement programs will increase in the future, but that will take many years and I think the government will start cutting benefits at some point (not because politicians are smart, but because faced with imminent bankruptcy they will make the necessary reforms).
2) I know politicians are evil people who hate freedom, but they don’t just engage in wanton destruction of productive economies. American people may be stupid, but I don’t think they’d allow complete Sovietization of the economy. If they did favor that, why has Obama nationalized only a couple industries (GM, healthcare) and receive backlash from that?
3) If you’re an investor, with millions to spend do you really think that the Dominican Republic or South Africa are places of economic growth? Alarmists seem to always be bashing the US economy, but where in world is a more profitable place to put your investments?
4) People might not be saving right now, but in the long term people do save. If the economy gets worse, people will consume less and saving will increase. A downturn will not become a complete collapse because everyone will “tighten their belts” and increase savings.
I believe my strongest argument against economic, collapse is simply, “why hasn’t the economy collapsed already?” if America is so weak, why didn’t the SHTF in 2008 when housing and stocks collapsed? How has the economy gotten only slightly worse since 2008, despite the claims of many alarmists that the US is in the verge of collapse? I think the answer is that the economy is much stronger than preppers want to admit.
1. and 2. We seem to be in general agreement that the govt indeed has it in its power to ruin the economy, and very quickly.
We disagree on whether the govt has the requisite greed and foolishness to do it. I'm fine with that.
3. consult your globe again.
4. They may try to save, yes. But how well did that work out in Zimbabwe and other countries?
Now for the final argument, that there was a chorus of alarmists in 2008, and nothing happened, which proves nothing ever will. I refer you to my signature here.