Economically, how can concerned Americans prepare for the worst?
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[email protected]replied to [email protected] last edited by
Easiest access to the "inert gas" piece is dry ice from your local grocery store. CO~2~ is heavier than air. Wrap some in a tea towel and put it in the bottom of the bucket before adding the food. Then place the lid on but do not close. Keep in a place without significant air movement while the dry ice sublimates, pushing out the lighter gasses, before sealing the lid. This takes a few hours.
Times and amounts are purposely vague, as I don't remember them, but it should be easy to look up. If not, err on the side of too much and too long - the extra gas will just seep out the top.
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[email protected]replied to [email protected] last edited by
A lot of good advice on this thread, particularly the emphasis on social connections and food. Given OP asked to assume near or total economic collapse though, two thoughts:
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Some people advocated building up money savings. If you are convinced there will be runaway inflation (part of what I assume is meant by collapse) then this is exactly wrong. The thing to do would be to convert as much money as possible into durable goods while the money still has any value. Look into the history of prior examples like the collapse of the deutsche mark in 1922, and the rush on payday to buy necessities immediately.
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Gold is also being suggested. If your threat model includes social collapse gold won't do you much good. Gold has financial value but no use value for individuals (it is useful industrially, but not in a way you can take advantage of). Unless you're planning to run, bulkier but more immediately useful goods like food and tools are likely to hold more value. When everyone's starving, a baseball bat to guard it with is worth more than a lump of shiny but useless metal.
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If you aren't assuming social collapse, foreign currency is another option. Be careful, because you want to pick one that is not likely to track your local currency and fall together. The advantage here is that when your local currency stabilizes, the value of gold will drop quickly and it will be very hard to guess exactly the right time to cash out. Foreign currencies won't have that same crash effect.
All that said, don't jump into action out if panic. Take time to think it through calmly - collapse is probably not coming in the next week or two. The actions that will save you financially in a collapse can destroy you if that collapse doesn't come. Make a plan for what to do if you're wrong to avoid shooting yourself in the foot (or, as many people do after that kind of mistake, the head).
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[email protected]replied to [email protected] last edited by
Skills are a good bartering chip. Things others can't do, or can't do to your abilities. A rare skill set or talent/ability will get you really far. But you have to advertise that ability. An engineer that can make a working electrical system out of car batteries and alternators will be worth more than a literal tonne of gold. Someone who can cut hair, valuable. The more you can help a community, the more accepting they'll be of you. A biologist would be amazing.
"Yep, that's hen of the woods, totally good to eat."
Vs
"I mean you COULD eat that, it won't kill you, but you'll be seeing pink Floyd's music"
"Never heard of pink Floyd"
"Doesn't matter, you'll know it if you eat that"
Vs
"If you fucking so much as touch that, I'm leaving, because you'll start projectile shitting your internal organs"
Yeah, biologists will be super valuable.
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[email protected]replied to [email protected] last edited by
At first I thought you were advocating for stocking up on Dr Pepper - ,wouldn’t you like to be a pepper too’
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[email protected]replied to [email protected] last edited by
My neighbors are all fascists, judging by the flags they have flappin' in their front yards
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[email protected]replied to [email protected] last edited by
How old were your elders? We don't have the gold standard anymore and gold prices are only loosely tied to the economy anymore. In a dire enough scenario, lead becomes more valuable than gold. If you're going to try to make money off of this situation, put all of your chips on China. As we collapse, they're right behind us. In many parts of the tech tree, they're ahead of us already. Despite their population problem, they're trending up while America is trending down. They're leading the way in solar, fusion and drones. Ahead in hypersonic, hacking, manufacturing, and AI. And they're on par in space, and I know I'm forgetting something. Oh, they're also way ahead on worldwide public opinion at the moment. So likely to get better deals.
Literally the only advantage the US has right now is military and logistically. But if we keep alienating (ironic, right?) allies, our logistics is shot to shit. (It's actually worse, because if we can't supply our bases around the world, those bases are sitting ducks.) The Chinese are masters at stealing tech. What they don't have is a navy capable of projecting power, but that's changing quickly.
If you want to make money off the fall of America, bet on the next superpower. Which is china.
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[email protected]replied to [email protected] last edited by
No arguments from me on China. They're excellent at playing the long game. My elders are boomers and the greatest generation.
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Craigslist also has a free section, we have given and received on there.
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[email protected]replied to [email protected] last edited by
Alright well just forget what boomers say. American boomers had the easiest lives in human history. But the greatest generation knows struggle. Listen to them, but not on gold. Gold isn't what it was, it's volatile at the moment. It'll stabilize again if the world comes to peace, but that isn't likely.
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[email protected]replied to [email protected] last edited by
I don't think housing is going to come down in any meaningful way. They'll just be bought up by corporations automatically now when the price dips low enough
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[email protected]replied to [email protected] last edited by
It's also not going to be easier to buy.
Banks are much more reluctant to loan, jobs are harder to keep.
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[email protected]replied to [email protected] last edited by
It's not so much about profiting from the situation but maximising your options.
You don't want to cash in your 401k and buy gold, but if you have some investments then buying physical gold with 5% or 10% is not a terrible idea.
In a holocaust type situation an ounce of gold in the right palm at the right time could buy passage for an entire family.
We may not have the gold standard anymore but I can assure you that gold remains a stable store of wealth.
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[email protected]replied to [email protected] last edited by
3%ers? Proud Boys? AfD? National Front?
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[email protected]replied to [email protected] last edited by
Lol you just reminded me of what my grams said to me about why the boomers suck...
me: grams why are your kids so messed up?
grams: they were raised during the US's peak golden age. they have no basis for actual reality.May she rest in peace. Thanks for the advice. I appreciate it.
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[email protected]replied to [email protected] last edited by
I've been asking myself that question for years. My wife and I thought the best solution for us was to leave the country. We don't have a good outlook for the future of the US. We moved to Germany last spring and have been enjoying a healthier and better quality of life. It's not easy but it is very rewarding. The cost of living here is less than half of what we were paying in the US. Groceries, rent, utilities, insurance, everything is cheaper except eating out at restaurants (that costs pretty much the same). For what it's worth, we moved from Denver to Frankfurt.
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[email protected]replied to [email protected] last edited by
If you don't mind sharing, how difficult was/is the immigration process? Are there stipulations and things you have to pass?
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[email protected]replied to [email protected] last edited by
As an American we had the standard 90 day visitor visa, which is basically just proven by showing the stamp you get on your passport when you enter Germany. I recommend applying for your next Visa immediately. Our wait time for an appointment was just short of 90 days. We did the language learning Visa which is good for up to one year and allows you to work up to 20 hours per week. They can't really track that if you have a remote foreign job, it just hinders you from getting full-time employment in Germany. If you go this route, you can find a job that will sponsor you for a work visa or you can apply for the new Opportunity/Chance Card (Chancenkarte) which is up to a year long "job seeker visa". If you have an accredited degree then you are eligible, otherwise there is a point system for things like language, age, finances, etc. The Chance Card wait time is pretty long so keep that in mind when planning.
The non-working visas also require you to have €992 per month in a "blocked account" that will be disbursed to you each month for living expenses. If you aren't working, you'll need private health insurance. Ours is €50 per person per month and is far better than the Kaiser Permanente insurance that we paid $550 a month for in the US.
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[email protected]replied to [email protected] last edited by
potatoes can keep your ass alive and can dead ass be grown in buckets and sacks. They're not picky plants, either. Just watch a couple YouTube videos to get your bearings, go buy a couple potatoes from the grocery store, and plant those bitches. You're probably going to want to try and get potatoes that haven't been treated to keep them from sprouting, or else give them a good scrub and let them sit on the windowsill till they start sprouting. You could also go and buy seed potatoes, but that's really not needed and it's a higher up front cost. Plant them literally anywhere. Plant some french marigolds alongside for a good edible flower that will help control the pests that like munching on potatoes.
Learn to Forage this one takes some time, dedication, caution, and research, but you would be absolutely blown away just how much you're surrounded by edible weeds and unrecognized fruit trees. Get in the habit of identifying the plants that you see (plant net is a helpful tool) around you, learning about them, and spotting them elsewhere as you go through life.
Ditch the car if you can. Shit's expensive, yo. Especially if you live in a city, a bicycle, e-bike, or motorcycle can do most of what you need out of a car most of the time if you get creative.
Skill up start learning the simple stuff- how to patch and darn tears in your clothes, how to cook on a budget (there's great depression cookbooks around that are pretty good), how to repair and service stuff, how to jam and can your leftovers, how to entertain yourself cheap with card and dice games or drawing, and a really huge underrated one is how to talk to other people. If you're terrible at dealing with other people, get to fucking work on it yesterday and thank me later. I found the book Verbal Judo to be enormously helpful.
NETWORK bring small gifts to your neighbors when you can, share your good fortune with them, ask them how you can help, start getting involved in the lives of the people around you and get to know them. If you don't have some kind of regular meeting you go to with otherwise unrelated folks, find one. This is a way to build resilience, because there's going to be times where things aren't so rough for you, and times where things are extra rough. That's true for everyone. If you have other people who can lean on you and you can lean on, we can all help smooth out each other's journeys through the downturn.
Don't be afraid to get ghetto. Do what you've got to do. Summer's hot, man, go ahead and put foil on cardboard and put that shit in your windows. Winter's fucking cold; it's easier and cheaper to heat small spaces than big spaces, just don't catch your shit on fire or give yourself CO poisoning (NO combustion indoors, that includes using a kitchen stove for heat! Make sure the heater is completely by itself on a non-flammable surface). You can't eat a lawn; fuck that grass, plant potatoes, onions, and marigolds. Will some people find it impossible to mind their own goddamn business? Certainly, but it's a small price to pay for surviving. Need a coat? Go to Goodwill, go to a garage sale, shit, ask your neighbors if they have one they don't want anymore. Don't be above asking for help. Don't be a fucking thief, but keep your eyes open for opportunities; people throw all kinds of good shit away all the time, even during downturns. If something breaks, prioritize whether it needs to be fixed now, patched now, or if it just has to wait; if it's just about keeping up appearances, it can wait.
Start prepping now set aside an emergency stash of:
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Cash (my rule of thumb for rock bottom minimum is ~$100/person). This is cash for absolute emergencies, treat it as a non-renewable resource. I would say not to use it trying to stay in your mortgage even though you don't have a plan for the month after that.
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Food: brown rice, dry beans, macaroni (whole grain is best), and bulk powdered potatoes will get you a long way. Learn to use these ingredients before you actually depend on them, and have a bulk supply on hand. Also, set aside some salt and pepper to keep you from completely losing your fucking mind. Each of these individual things can really help you stretch your meals or tie together a few other random ingredients into something edible. They're not a complete nutrition source on their own, but they'll just about keep your ass alive. Add to your food stash as you see fit, but try to keep it cheap, flexible, and durable.
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Luxuries: if you like coffee, set aside a couple containers of it. It doesn't have to be great; Folgers will rock your fucking world once you've been without coffee long enough. Same deal with chocolate or candy. Basically, give yourself something to look forward to.
This is hardly a comprehensive list, you know your own unique needs and situation better than I do, and there's going to be other better or worse advice for that here. Go with what fits for you.
I hate to say it, but things get worse than you think in a downturn. Lots of people get depressed and blame themselves for what's happening. Please remember that the way you feel isn't the way you're always going to feel. Shit sucks, and everything is temporary.
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[email protected]replied to [email protected] last edited by
Remember there have been worse times and you are descended mostly from people who survived them.
I love this
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[email protected]replied to [email protected] last edited by
Mate? I’ve never heard an American say mate.