Economically, how can concerned Americans prepare for the worst?

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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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Buy gold, keep cash on a safe at home, make sure all documents are current and aren't about to expire (in case you need to quickly leave the country). Prioritize essential purchases over luxury ones and if short on cash pay those over debt payments

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A hungry population is easier to direct in violence. Tell them who the enemy is, who the reason for their problems is, and they will focus on that hatred and prejudice. Blame others for the problems.

That’s what the republicans have been doing, and they will continue to do it.

That’s the kind of control I think the commenter meant.

Right now we’re easy to control because we’re afraid to lose what we’ve got.

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Another way to remove oxygen from stored food to prevent rancidity is to make your own oxygen absorbers (rancidity is caused by oxygen oxidizing fats and other flavor compounds)

Which are literally just iron filings mixed with table salt in a gas permeable packet (coffee filter paper works great)

The salt is hygroscopic (absorbs water) and water + oxygen + iron turns into rust, which sequesters the oxygen

I make my own and put them in opened packages of nuts and seeds :]

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Economically, how can concerned Americans prepare for the worst?