Economically, how can concerned Americans prepare for the worst?

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Yea about that...

My family waited 13 years on a waitlist before getting an immigration visa to the US, other places, such as the EU is much stricter, most Americans aint going anywhere. Can't even claim political asylum since most of the world still considers the us a democracy.

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I think the EU depends on your country of entry. Some countries are under much more pressure than others. Also a lot comes down to your skill set.

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See they could fit in here in Australia already!

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IMO, there are three "levels" of economic hardship:

Severe recession: Where the economy shrinks, many businesses go bankrupt, unemployment hits around 7-10%
Legit depression: Core institutions in most or all sectors of the economy go bankrupt. Even highly skilled people cannot find work and are reduced to charity, begging, or stealing. Unemployment hits 15-25%
Total economic collapse: All major institutions in all sectors fail, or cease having any legitimacy. The country's currency becomes worthless due to either hyperinflation or governmental collapse. All people except the super wealthy elite, become destitute.

The last time the US experienced the second level was the Great Depression, where during the depths of the dust bowl and the depression, unemployment hit about 25%

If you genuinely think we are in for anything worse than level 2, you should flee the country now, or buy a gun and stockpile ammunition, food, and medicine.

Realistically, level isn't going to happen. Level 1 very likely will, level 2 I would give a 5% chance personally, but that is based only on vibes.

Have some savings in cash, a few hundred bucks mostly in small denominations should be alright. Don't do more than that.

Buy cheap bulk foods. Beans, chickpeas, lentils, raw oats, rice, four, potatoes. Buy several of those big 24 packs of bottled water. Most large retailers have them for 4-6 bucks a pack. You need A least 5-6 bottles a day to stay minimally hydrated. That's roughly 4 days of water per 24-pack. You should have at least a week of water per person.

Other folks here have good advice. Connect with a local community. If not your direct neighbors, then a group that meets nearby. You need other people for support. If you're in a really bad place, they will be the last line of dependable aid.

Quit your vices. Cigs, alcohol, excessive caffeine, and junk food all cost a lot of money, aren't healthy, and will make you much more vulnerable to economic upsets. It also allows others to take easier advantage of you, because of your desperation to get a fix.

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From my viewpoint, Trump is and will be causing social hardship much more than economic hardship.

I could possibly see a benefit in preparing for a harder times socially. Further division among neighbors might be the main casualty of this administration. Social cohesion is already struggling from his first four years.

Economically, I have no confidence in Trump's actions overall, but I am very confident that his massive ego determines his actions, and that ego is largely held up by the performance of the stock market. He will be very careful not to take any action that will rattle the markets too much. Whenever he see a negative reaction in the markets, but pulls back, claims a moral victory and moves on to the next thing.

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Yeah thats old school. That's where I started try to get back into the trading original but it seems now Facebook is the place tho as much as I hate Faceberg

Network effects strike again

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You can't. Ride the wave. If the market tumbles, everyone will suffer. Which is most likely what they want anyway, because a hungry population is much more easier to control.

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What kind of tools do you use to woodwork? And where did you learn?
I've done some light building but never figured how to do the small detailed stuff you mention.

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I disagree. A sated population is far easier to control. Hungry populations become desperate and have little to lose. Americans are sated and comfortable which is why we have allowed this to happen.

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That's what you would think. Like hungry people would protest or take action. But that's not how it plays out. When everyone is so busy with getting by and staying alive, nobody cares about any atrocities committed by the higher ups. I've seen many countries where the people simply ignore the craziest things their governments say or do.

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You're not wrong. We are seeing that exact scenario play out right now. We can agree on one thing. We are all fucked.

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Don't go to Facebook first! We need to start normalizing ways to organize outside of those giant corpo-fascist sites.

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I honestly don't really know, but i can guess.

Stock on basic food items, maybe enough for a year or more (including noodles, rice).

Maybe, if you can afford the space/time for it, learn how to grow some basic vegetables on your balcony/garden, to go along with the calories.

That is all i can do. Maybe, also look into viable long-term accomodations in case you lose your house/apartment. Could be homeless shelters, could be sanctuaries, idk.

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Yeah my wife uses Market Place, but for me their privacy policies and data gleaning steered me away.
Craigslist is still big and busy where we are in the Vancouver area.
Either way it good to connect locally.

We bought 6 Eggnog oat/ soy milk on sale from grocery store. Odd taste compared to other brands, rather than return my wife put it for free on Market Place, and some family came and got it. They were so happy since it was their favourite kind.

We found a 7 foot tree for free, a retired dude was having to leave his apartment to go into longterm care. We offered him cash for it, but he wouldn't take it. My wife took a cutting and propegated it for a while, then we dropped it off at his care home with a watering can so he can continue growing his tree. They keep in touch once in a while.

I think these moments got lost for a while with the technology boom, and people staying home being constantly entertained.

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Sigh, openinsulin.org really needs to make faster progress.

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The french revolution has entered the chat

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I think Italy authorized a remote worker visa that sounded pretty flexible. Last I checked the process for actually getting the visa was not yet in place, but it has been a few years since I checked

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It's not even universally true in red states, unless you want to believe I'm the Super Special Exception. I was thinking of my own failed attempts to reach out recently and got bitter and started saying shit.

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Felt that I should add a few notes:

Storing a small supply of luxury items for trade or making friends may be a good idea. Don't set aside so much that you make yourself into a mark, just a small amount, maybe no more than a grocery bag full. Tobacco, booze, coffee, weed if it's legal, and chocolate are all going to be big hits with a lot of folks, but you know your area better than I do and maybe you'd be better off having a special cheese stash or something. Use your best judgement. Get into this stash when you need a little something to make or sweeten a trade, or when you'd like to make nice with someone (pro-tip, give gifts with no expectations of reciprocity, but if it's offered, don't refuse. Instead of refusing, try to see that it doesn't feel like the exchange of gifts wasn't completely square. Not so much that someone feels ripped off, but enough that the transaction doesn't feel complete. It's a narrow window to thread, and just accept the exchange graciously if you can't hit it).

If you're worried about keeping your food garden low-key, there's a number of plants that can pass as ornamentals that, while not staple crops, will still feed you. Right out the gate, pumpkins are, imo, really able to walk the line between ornamental and food. Corn can go with pumpkins here if you can pull off the fall aesthetic. Going into less conventional food sources, you can put clover, chives, and spring onions into your front yard and they probably won't be meaningfully distinguishable unless you've got some HOA dorks up your ass. There's also a number of clump grasses that will 100% pass as ornamentals but will also feed you. Look into the grasses that the native Americans depended on in your area; they're a little too region specific and too many to get into here, IME. There's also a pretty good selection of trees and herbs that can be treated as ornamentals, but will also keep you fed. Blueberries spring to mind, in particular, as their foliage is very handsome imo.

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Find books written about farming/saving during ww2. Get a freezer and a canner. Stock up on beans/rice/etc (long shelf life foods). Save bones from meat, boil them for 6 hours, then let fool and strain them. Can/freeze the broth (I put mine in quart freezer bags flattened out in the freezer). One quart added to 1qt water is filled with nutes for soups and such. If you have a fireplace, keep a bag of dryer lint for kindling. Buy heirloom seeds, learn how to save seeds (Whenever I grow green beans I always have 100+ dried pods in autumn as I usually only have enough to harvest 2x with any real quantity. Each dried pod has at least 4 beans). Buy things you need now that tariffs will affect the most (electronics, coffee, etc.) Start learning how to fix things yourself, get basic tools (drill, hammers, driver sets, wrenches, etc). Fix car problems now, before parts go up. If you know ANYONE still alive now from the 30s to 40s, pick their brains on what they did. Also, get books on identifying plants. Sorrel is awesome to add to food for flavor, dandelions are a good source of Vit C... my knowledge is limited, but so far that's what I've tried (do NOT eat roots of dandelion).

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Economically, how can concerned Americans prepare for the worst?