When I told UrbanMan what I have been doing the past month and wanted to write about it, at first he was a little skeptical but relented after I sent him some stuff to read. UrbanMan’s note: I took the liberty of editing Jim’s letter just a little before posting here. However, it is substantially the same as what he sent me. For the past two months I have been in crazy mode reading stacks of books and on-line information concerning economic collapse of nations as well as the predictions of the collapse of this country; and, historical information and data on currency failing, recessions and depressions; etc. I am sure most of you know that the life span on non-gold backed fiat currency is about 40 years. We are past that, and we (the U.S.) is heading for a reckoning.
Maybe you stop there in your research and study on economic collapses,...I didn't. There is no doubt that a currency collapse is coming. It doesn't matter if it is caused by the devaluation of the dollar or by other economic factors. This has taken place all throughout history. We (the United States ) set this course when we took the dollar off the Gold standard. This is an irreversible course now. What this generates, other than pain and suffering, is a giant
re-distribution of wealth......and benefits those who are prepared. Sure, the first order is to get prepared for a total collapse - this is the most dangerous scenario - where the infrastructure is gone and doesn't come back. The ability to protect yourself and your family; survive the hardest period of degradation; have the material and skills to live - grow your own food, etc., are essential,...and again the first order to business.
But what if the collapse is a gradual collapse and rebounds in some fashion, albeit with a different currency and maybe backed by precious metals?
I work as a computer programmer, on contract to the Government, and make a good salary. However, most of my wealth (currently about 65%) comes from my network marketing business. Since I have minimal expenses, other than buying survival equipment, gear, guns and food - ha ha the same boat we are all in, but I don’t have a wife I have to placate. I have taken much of my available money and have bought much more Gold and Silver.
Again, herein lies the rub,…most people are planning for a chaos; an end of the world scenario and are not planning for a rebound sometime in the future. I wasn’t prepared for anything previous to one year ago, now I am somewhat prepared for a worst case scenario. Like I said, I have bought quite a bit of Gold and Silver over the past month as well as long term survival food. I have also purchased a food saver and vacuum packed twelve buckets of food and counting. I am going to buy a couple more firearms and probably trade my old Toyota RAV in for a new and larger pickup or SUV.
The experts I have been reading,....R.G. Allen, Robert Kiyosaki, Gonzalo Lira, Mike Maloney, Mike Dillard, and more recently the National Inflation Association, Porter Stansberry, and Sandy Leeds,….all have great things to say about what you can do to prepare yourself to come out the next crisis (and it will be a big crisis) if, in fact, this coming collapse will have an upswing in the short or long term future. Most of the advisors and experts I read say to buy Gold and Silver (done, but I’m still buying); stocking food (done, but still I’m still buying and stocking); make a Survival plan (done, but still evaluating it and will changes if necessary); and, develop multiple streams of income (done, but still building my networking marketing business) – almost everyone has, or can develop or can sell a product, services or information (PSI) – a good book on this is “Cash in a Flash” by Robert Allen and Mark Victor Hansen. So I am expanding my multiple streams of income, not only to provide more near term income for survival preparation, but to position myself to come out of the giant redistribution of wealth on the high side.
I advise all of you reading this, who are obvious interested in planning and preparing to survive a collapse, to look at developing additional streams of income – this is the Multiple Streams of Income concept so you make your financial situation more stable and therefore better able to take the disruption of losing one or more streams of income. Again look at PSI (Product, Services and Income) as almost everyone has something they can do to create more income. Know the difference between linear income and residual income. Linear income is money earned for performing work for a period of time. Residual income is money generated time and time again from one period of work.
As an example, I know a lady who makes custom greeting cards. This is her passion. She is now marketing them to friends and to friends of her friends. I advised her to start a website or blog site to advertise her cards and generate more business. UrbanMan for instance, generates income from teaching firearms and related classes to private citizens. I know yet another person who does property inspections on the side to generate linear income. Many different ways, beside the network marketing business that I do, to create Multiple Streams of Income. Take a personal inventory of your skills and capabilities then look at your options. Get prepared, not just for the total collapse but prepare to come out of a collapse on the top side of the wealth redistribution curve. Good luck.
Friday, January 14, 2011
Wednesday, January 12, 2011
Statistics That Show We Are Already In A Collapse
Another good website to research and understand all the economic and financial factors that will influence just how fast and deep the coming collapse will be is
The Economic Collapse Blog
Great site, bookmark it and follow it would be my advice.
The following statistics are from their website which was introduced, in part, with the following: Most Americans have become so accustomed to the "new normal" of continual economic decline that they don't even remember how good things were just a few short years ago. Back in 2007, unemployment was very low, good jobs were much easier to get, far fewer Americans were living in poverty or enrolled in welfare programs and government finances were in much better shape. Of course most of this prosperity was fueled by massive amounts of debt, but at least times were better. Unfortunately, things have really deteriorated over the last several years. Since 2007, unemployment has skyrocketed, foreclosures have set new all-time records, personal bankruptcies have soared and U.S. government debt has gotten completely and totally out of control. Poll after poll has shown that Americans are now far less optimistic about the future than they were in 2007.
#1 In November 2007, the official U.S. unemployment rate was just 4.7 percent. Today, the official U.S. unemployment rate is 9.4 percent.
#2 In November 2007, 18.8% of unemployed Americans had been out of work for 27 weeks or longer. Today that percentage is up to 41.9%.
#3 As 2007 began, there were just over 1 million Americans that had been unemployed for half a year or longer. Today, there are over 6 million Americans that have been unemployed for half a year or longer.
#4 Nearly 10 million Americans now receive unemployment insurance, which is almost four times as many as were receiving it back in 2007.
#5 More than half of the U.S. labor force (55 percent) has “suffered a spell of unemployment, a cut in pay, a reduction in hours or have become involuntary part-time workers” since the "recession" began in December 2007.
#6 According to one analysis, the United States has lost a total of approximately 10.5 million jobs since 2007.
#7 As 2007 began, only 26 million Americans were on food stamps. Today, an all-time record of 43.2 million Americans are enrolled in the food stamp program.
#8 In 2007, the U.S. government held a total of $725 billion in mortgage debt. As of the middle of 2010, the U.S. government held a total of $5.148 trillion in mortgage debt.
#9 In the year prior to the "official" beginning of the most recent recession in 2007, the IRS filed just 684,000 tax liens against U.S. taxpayers. During 2010, the IRS filed over a million tax liens against U.S. taxpayers.
#10 From the year 2000 through the year 2007, there were 27 bank failures in the United States. From 2008 through 2010, there were 314 bank failures in the United States.
#11 According to the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development, the number of U.S. families with children living in homeless shelters increased from 131,000 to 170,000 between 2007 and 2009.
#12 In 2007, one poll found that 43 percent of Americans were living "paycheck to paycheck". Sadly, according to a survey released very close to the end of 2010, approximately 55 percent of all Americans are now living paycheck to paycheck.
#13 In 2007, the "official" federal budget deficit was just 161 billion dollars. In 2010, the "official" federal budget deficit was approximately 1.3 trillion dollars.
#14 As 2007 began, the U.S. national debt was just under 8.7 trillion dollars. Today, the U.S. national debt has just surpassed 14 trillion dollars and it continues to soar into the stratosphere.
So is there any hope that we can turn all of this around?
Unfortunately, the massive amount of debt that we have piled up as a society over the last several decades has made that impossible.
If you add up all forms of debt (government debt, business debt, individual debt), it comes to approximately 360 percent of GDP. It is the biggest debt bubble in the history of the world.
If the federal government and our state governments stop borrowing and spending so much money, our economy would collapse. But if they keep borrowing and spending so much money they will continually make the eventual economic collapse even worse.
We are in the terminal stages of the most horrific debt spiral the world has ever seen, and when the debt spiral gets stopped the house of cards is going to finally come down for good.
So enjoy these times while you still have them. Yes, today is not nearly as prosperous as 2007 was, but today is most definitely a whole lot better than 2015 or 2020 is going to be.
Go to The Economic Collapse and read the entire article.
The Economic Collapse Blog
Great site, bookmark it and follow it would be my advice.
The following statistics are from their website which was introduced, in part, with the following: Most Americans have become so accustomed to the "new normal" of continual economic decline that they don't even remember how good things were just a few short years ago. Back in 2007, unemployment was very low, good jobs were much easier to get, far fewer Americans were living in poverty or enrolled in welfare programs and government finances were in much better shape. Of course most of this prosperity was fueled by massive amounts of debt, but at least times were better. Unfortunately, things have really deteriorated over the last several years. Since 2007, unemployment has skyrocketed, foreclosures have set new all-time records, personal bankruptcies have soared and U.S. government debt has gotten completely and totally out of control. Poll after poll has shown that Americans are now far less optimistic about the future than they were in 2007.
#1 In November 2007, the official U.S. unemployment rate was just 4.7 percent. Today, the official U.S. unemployment rate is 9.4 percent.
#2 In November 2007, 18.8% of unemployed Americans had been out of work for 27 weeks or longer. Today that percentage is up to 41.9%.
#3 As 2007 began, there were just over 1 million Americans that had been unemployed for half a year or longer. Today, there are over 6 million Americans that have been unemployed for half a year or longer.
#4 Nearly 10 million Americans now receive unemployment insurance, which is almost four times as many as were receiving it back in 2007.
#5 More than half of the U.S. labor force (55 percent) has “suffered a spell of unemployment, a cut in pay, a reduction in hours or have become involuntary part-time workers” since the "recession" began in December 2007.
#6 According to one analysis, the United States has lost a total of approximately 10.5 million jobs since 2007.
#7 As 2007 began, only 26 million Americans were on food stamps. Today, an all-time record of 43.2 million Americans are enrolled in the food stamp program.
#8 In 2007, the U.S. government held a total of $725 billion in mortgage debt. As of the middle of 2010, the U.S. government held a total of $5.148 trillion in mortgage debt.
#9 In the year prior to the "official" beginning of the most recent recession in 2007, the IRS filed just 684,000 tax liens against U.S. taxpayers. During 2010, the IRS filed over a million tax liens against U.S. taxpayers.
#10 From the year 2000 through the year 2007, there were 27 bank failures in the United States. From 2008 through 2010, there were 314 bank failures in the United States.
#11 According to the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development, the number of U.S. families with children living in homeless shelters increased from 131,000 to 170,000 between 2007 and 2009.
#12 In 2007, one poll found that 43 percent of Americans were living "paycheck to paycheck". Sadly, according to a survey released very close to the end of 2010, approximately 55 percent of all Americans are now living paycheck to paycheck.
#13 In 2007, the "official" federal budget deficit was just 161 billion dollars. In 2010, the "official" federal budget deficit was approximately 1.3 trillion dollars.
#14 As 2007 began, the U.S. national debt was just under 8.7 trillion dollars. Today, the U.S. national debt has just surpassed 14 trillion dollars and it continues to soar into the stratosphere.
So is there any hope that we can turn all of this around?
Unfortunately, the massive amount of debt that we have piled up as a society over the last several decades has made that impossible.
If you add up all forms of debt (government debt, business debt, individual debt), it comes to approximately 360 percent of GDP. It is the biggest debt bubble in the history of the world.
If the federal government and our state governments stop borrowing and spending so much money, our economy would collapse. But if they keep borrowing and spending so much money they will continually make the eventual economic collapse even worse.
We are in the terminal stages of the most horrific debt spiral the world has ever seen, and when the debt spiral gets stopped the house of cards is going to finally come down for good.
So enjoy these times while you still have them. Yes, today is not nearly as prosperous as 2007 was, but today is most definitely a whole lot better than 2015 or 2020 is going to be.
Go to The Economic Collapse and read the entire article.
Tuesday, January 11, 2011
Urban Survival Preparation - Stand Alone Food Buckets
I had previously written a post about vacuum packing foods in usable amounts and storing in buckets. The idea was rather than have a large bucket with nothing but rice, have several different types of foods and accessories in the buckets so they stand alone. Imagine having the ability to only grab one bucket during a Bug Out,......wouldn't you rather have a smaller amount if many different foods and items?...or would 25 lbs of rice make you happy.
Recently a friend called me to let me know he packed six buckets that he bought at Home Depot, with various foods including white and brown rice, pinto and black beans, spit peas, bouillon cubes and some peanut butter. He wanted to know if I thought he forgot something.
I told my friend to wargame grabbing the bucket, Bugging Out, then stopping at a secure, defensible location to rest and eat. Visualize opening the bucket and now what do you wish to find in it?
Some things to consider may be:
Vacuum packed bags of Nuts. Peanuts, dry roasted or plain or cocktail Nuts. I include two cans in each of my stand alone food buckets.
Butane lighters. I like to put a two of these with fire starters in a soap dish and vacuum pack.
Hand Soap. A squeeze tube of waterless hand cleaner and maybe even a small bar of soap.
Extra zip lock bags. These are good to place some dry goods like rice, beans, lentils, split peas, etc., into with water to soak, especially while you move so you can eat them cold if the security considerations dictate or have a quicker time cooking them.
Vacuumed packed coffee. I place a small can of coffee in my stand alone buckets. I can boil water to make coffee. I can put the coffee into a zip lock bag and use the can to cook in or to store other things.
Spices. I vacuum pack black pepper and garlic as well as include salt. Some of my buckets have a can of Morton's Iodized Salt while others have a vacuum pack of little table packets of salt.
Surplus Canteen Cup. These aluminum canteen cups with the folding handle are great to cook small amounts of food in. They are useful to catch or collect water from shallow sources for later purifying as well.
Hex Fuel Tablets.You can use them to cook over when building a fire is un-advised or the fuel for a fire is too wet. You can also use them for warmth, but beware the toxic fumes.
Small Travel Pack of Hand Wipes.These can double as toilet paper and take up less room.
Small Can Opener. P38 style military can opener. Indispensable. You may come across or barter for canned goods, and will need a can opener. I put 4 or 5 in stand alone food buckets. They are also great barter items.
Small bottle of mixed Aspirin and Ibuprofen. This stand alone food bucket is not designed to be your medical kit, however aspirin or Motrin takes up a small amount of room and may be routinely needed, also an great item for barter.
One last thing that I recently added to my stand alone Food Buckets are vacuumed packed complete dry soup and stew mixes. They don;t take up much room and can be added with one half pound of rice to make a big enough pot of chow to feed at least four hungry people.
I think food is going to be a really important aspect of not only a total collapse into chaos, but for a slow gradual period of hyper-inflation leading into a great depression. We need to be able to feed ourselves from stored food supplies and grow our own food as well. Be safe, stay prepared!
Recently a friend called me to let me know he packed six buckets that he bought at Home Depot, with various foods including white and brown rice, pinto and black beans, spit peas, bouillon cubes and some peanut butter. He wanted to know if I thought he forgot something.
I told my friend to wargame grabbing the bucket, Bugging Out, then stopping at a secure, defensible location to rest and eat. Visualize opening the bucket and now what do you wish to find in it?
Some things to consider may be:
Vacuum packed bags of Nuts. Peanuts, dry roasted or plain or cocktail Nuts. I include two cans in each of my stand alone food buckets.
Butane lighters. I like to put a two of these with fire starters in a soap dish and vacuum pack.
Hand Soap. A squeeze tube of waterless hand cleaner and maybe even a small bar of soap.
Extra zip lock bags. These are good to place some dry goods like rice, beans, lentils, split peas, etc., into with water to soak, especially while you move so you can eat them cold if the security considerations dictate or have a quicker time cooking them.
Vacuumed packed coffee. I place a small can of coffee in my stand alone buckets. I can boil water to make coffee. I can put the coffee into a zip lock bag and use the can to cook in or to store other things.
Spices. I vacuum pack black pepper and garlic as well as include salt. Some of my buckets have a can of Morton's Iodized Salt while others have a vacuum pack of little table packets of salt.
Surplus Canteen Cup. These aluminum canteen cups with the folding handle are great to cook small amounts of food in. They are useful to catch or collect water from shallow sources for later purifying as well.
Hex Fuel Tablets.You can use them to cook over when building a fire is un-advised or the fuel for a fire is too wet. You can also use them for warmth, but beware the toxic fumes.
Small Travel Pack of Hand Wipes.These can double as toilet paper and take up less room.
Small Can Opener. P38 style military can opener. Indispensable. You may come across or barter for canned goods, and will need a can opener. I put 4 or 5 in stand alone food buckets. They are also great barter items.
Small bottle of mixed Aspirin and Ibuprofen. This stand alone food bucket is not designed to be your medical kit, however aspirin or Motrin takes up a small amount of room and may be routinely needed, also an great item for barter.
One last thing that I recently added to my stand alone Food Buckets are vacuumed packed complete dry soup and stew mixes. They don;t take up much room and can be added with one half pound of rice to make a big enough pot of chow to feed at least four hungry people.
I think food is going to be a really important aspect of not only a total collapse into chaos, but for a slow gradual period of hyper-inflation leading into a great depression. We need to be able to feed ourselves from stored food supplies and grow our own food as well. Be safe, stay prepared!
Weapons - Army XM25 to debut
No hiding place from new U.S. Army rifles that use radio-controlled smart bullets. Weapon hailed as a game-changer that can fire up and over barriers and down into trenches. Soldiers will start using them in Afghanistan later this month
The U.S. army is to begin using a futuristic rifle that fires radio-controlled 'smart' bullets in Afghanistan for the first time, it has emerged. The XM25 rifle uses bullets that be programmed to explode when they have traveled a set distance, allowing enemies to be targeted no matter where they are hiding. The rifle also has a range of 2,300 feet making it possible to hit target which are well out of the reach of conventional rifles. The XM25 is being developed specially for the U.S. army and will be deployed with troops from later this month, it was revealed today.
The XM25 Counter Defilade Target Engagement System has a range of roughly 2,300 feet - and is to be deployed in Afghanistan this month.
The rifle's gun sight uses a laser rangefinder to determine the exact distance to the obstruction, after which the soldier can add or subtract up to 3 meters from that distance to enable the bullets to clear the barrier and explode above or beside the target. Soldiers will be able to use them to target snipers hidden in trenches rather than calling in air strikes.
The 25-millimetre round contains a chip that receives a radio signal from the gun sight as to the precise distance to the target. Lt. Col. Christopher Lehner, project manager for the system, described the weapon as a ‘game-changer’ that other nations will try and copy.
He expects the Army to buy 12,500 of the XM25 rifles this year, enough for every member of the infantry and special forces. Lehner told Fox News: ‘With this weapon system, we take away cover from [enemy targets] forever. ‘Tactics are going to have to be rewritten. The only thing we can see [enemies] being able to do is run away.’
Experts say the rifle means that enemy troops will no longer be safe if they take cover. The XM25 appears perfect weapon for street-to-street fighting that troops in Afghanistan have to engage in, with enemy fighters hiding behind walls and only breaking cover to fire occasionally.
The weapon's laser finder would work out how far away the enemy was and then the U.S. soldier would add one meter using a button near the trigger. When fired, the explosive round would carry exactly one meter past the wall and explode with the force of a hand grenade above the Taliban fighter.
The army's project manager for new weapons, Douglas Tamilio, said: ''This is the first leap-ahead technology for troops that we've been able to develop and deploy.' A patent granted to the bullet's maker, Alliant Techsystems, reveals that the chip can calculate how far it has traveled.
Mr. Tamilio said: 'You could shoot a Javelin missile, and it would cost £ 43,000 (British Pounds). These rounds will end up costing £ 15.50 apiece. They're relatively cheap. Lehner added: ‘This is a game-changer. The enemy has learned to get cover, for hundreds if not thousands of years.
‘Well, they can't do that anymore. We're taking that cover from them and there's only two outcomes: We're going to get you behind that cover or force you to flee.’ The rifle will initially use high-explosive rounds, but its makers say that it might later use versions with smaller explosive charges that aim to stun rather than kill.
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