Answering Reader Comments on Economic Collapse Indicators

UrbanSurvivalSkills.com received a couple quick comments about how local government bankruptcy are an indicator of a pending collapse.

Anonymous 1 said...Stop with the peyote! I was with you until now...and...Anonymous 2 said...How does these cities going bankrupt plunge us into a collapse?

UrbanSurvivalSkills.com does not believe that simply one or more local governments going bankrupt, or, a number of either government employee unions or commercial unions defaulting on their pension responsibilities will plunge us into anarchy or an economic collapse.

It is a combination of events and a chain reaction that may very well push us head down into a gradual economic collapse. One of the dangers of a gradual economic collapse is that it could pickup speed and very quickly over whelm us.

I friend of mine sent me an e-mail telling me his County, located on the Mexican border, has to cut $15 million from it's budget. This County has a population of 1.1 million spread out over 1,200 square miles. The proposal on the table is for the County Sheriffs Office to cut or lay off 65 patrol deputies from it's ciurrent staff of 270. This of course is occuring all across the country as local governments try to balance budgets and make payroll. Sure the County saves money, but who pays for the unemployment benefits of laid off patrol deputies? We're not even talking about the problems with a greatly reduced patrol and response capability and what that means to an increase in crime. What about City or County's going bankrupt and cannot meet payroll for utility workers? City or County Hospitals?

Same for other programs like the food stamp and other welfare programs. The Government is just going to run out of credit, as the deficit is 4 times larger than it has ever been in our history. No country has ever rebounded from such a economic condition. Manufacturing continues to go "off shore" reducing our self sufficency as a Country. Add increased taxes after the Bush tax cuts expire which will not only restrict the growth of business and jobs, and there is just no basis for solid hope that our economy will rebound, but there is plenty of analysis that we will go into a super recession and another great depression.

Some analysts call this the destruction of the American middle class. And the danger here is that without a middle class, this country will have only the "haves" and the "have nots", with the have not's out numbering the haves by a 20 to 1 ratio. With unemployment currently at 18 to 19% , counting the people who claim unemployment insurance and are theroretically looking for work and the people who have given up looking for work, and the annual in-coming influx of high school students not being able to find jobs, all indicate a large group of disaffected people who have grown up in an entitlement society. What would you think about a concentrated population group living nearby you who are without food, can't pay for utilities and are mad about the government not being able to take care of them? I think that's a powder keg.

Once the Obama Administration is successful in pulling out of Iraq and Afghanistan, mark my words, you'll see a reduction in the Military, both uniformed service members and civil service positions - it has happened after every war. This will add to the burden as there won;t be jobs for all the service members and civil service looking for work.

The stage is set for a great depression. This one will be much worse with the sheer numbers and population density of desperate people. So the point of the articles on economic factors is that 1 - this is not only possible but probable and therefore a scenario in which Survival Planners and Preppers need to prepare for, and 2- an gradual economic collapse is much more likely than a nuclear strike, panademic disease spread or whatever a person's greatest fear is.