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US Economy--Recession, Depression, or Collapse?
"For Consumers, the Hits Keep Coming" a recent banner headline in a New York Times-owned daily newspaper here in Northern California reports. The article misses the main points. If we continue to understand ourselves as primarily passive consumers, rather than as active citizens, the US economy will enter at least a recession, probably a depression, and possibly a collapse. Even our republic is at risk.
Rampant consumption, our addiction to growth, and our failure to accept limits to growth damage us. The headline beneath the banner-"Cleanup Response Criticized"-reveals one of the saddest results. We are not adequately cleaning up the San Francisco Bay after a recent oil spill. Many other aspects of our environment need cleaning up. Without a healthy natural environment and climate conducive to humans, no economy can endure. Over-consumption drives the increasingly extreme and chaotic climate.
We have contaminated our air and waterways, clear-cut our forests, and our inner cities are dying. The pollution of such natural resources often preceeds economic and societal collapses.
I appreciate the Press Democrat for recently reporting the emerging economic trends in numerous articles. What I miss is more analysis, connecting the dots and providing context. The shrinking dollar, soaring gas prices, housing slump and stock market fall, though inconvenient, are not the biggest threats to the economy. These are symptoms caused by deeper systemic problems. We need to learn from these events and discover how to build more sustainable societies. Otherwise, these "hits" are likely to increase and spread.
We need to quickly evolve from our destructive individual consumption patterns that damage not only the economy but the Earth itself. We need to consider their many negative impacts and work together as active citizens concerned with the whole economy and the environment on which it is dependent.
Look around. Things are falling down and apart in the US, including cities like New Orleans, the Minneapolis bridge, and the Twin Towers. An increasing number of high-level government officials-like Karl Rove and Alberto Gonzales-have been forced out of office. The cuts are likely to go deeper. One can try to ignore, deny, or seek revenge for these events, all of which invite more disasters. Prudent planning would be a better alternative. These are not isolated events but point to systemic causes.
These are more than the "economic cycle of advance and retreat" that the Nov. 10 article reports. It is not just "things (that) have come together in the last 10 days." The US's false economy has been de-stabilizing for years and is now reaching a more degraded stage. We have become vulnerable to a variety of "hits" and should expect even more. Our economy has been described by some as a "house of cards," which is likely to fall. An unraveling is occurring, creating a time of great uncertainty and fear.
Many major American institutions are in crisis, including healthcare, religion, transportation, political systems, energy, and education.
The Iron Curtain came down and the Berlin Wall seemed to suddenly fall, as did the Soviet Union. The US economy may suddenly fail.
Protecting markets and "consumers" from the truth of how bad our economic reality is will backfire. We do not need to "panic." But citizens do need accurate news and analysis to get ready for the potential of a radically diminished economy. We are living in a time of unprecedented planetary crisis. People need to prepare physically and psychologically for massive changes.
It is not enough to write about a "silver lining" and report the perilous optimism of an economist wishing that "hopefully this week is not a microcosm of where we will be a year from now." We need more than false hope to get us through the coming hard times.
Most of the US population continues destructive, over-consuming behaviors that harm all of us. We are not merely victims of the problems; we cause them. We cannot merely blame outside "terrorists."
Among the facts left out of recent articles in the mainstream press on the declining US economy is the Iraq War. With so many resources dedicated to war-making, dealing with events like Katrina and cleaning up oil spills are more difficult.
"The Hidden Costs of the Iraq War" is a congressional report recently released. It states that the economic costs to the US of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan are already around $1.5 trillion. For the average U.S. family of four that is more than $20,000.
We are experiencing more than what headlines describe as a "slowdown." It could be a "meltdown." We might be approaching what James Howard Kunstler describes in his book "The Long Emergency" as "catastrophe."
Santa Rosa author Richard Heinberg's "Peak Everything" describes our situation well. "Waking Up to the Century of Decline" he sub-titles this new book. This sounds like bad news, but when we face changes early enough, we have more opportunities to cope with them and transform them into opportunities.
Helpful responses include reducing our consumption, accepting that we are contracting, and understanding ourselves as citizens able to take action, rather than as merely passive consumers who can only react. Citizen activism is what me most need at this point in history.
Humans can be far more than objects whose purpose is to buy, shop, spend, and grow the economy. We are threatened more by our own behavior than by any outside terrorists.
That which Heinberg and other Peak Oil theorists have been predicting for years seems to be entering its next stage. With the supply of petroleum and other fossil fuels diminishing and the demand for them increasing--especially from rapidly industrializing China and India--we are moving toward a radically worsened US economy.
When the mainstream press fails to report news and offer analyses that a large number of people are aware of, we can turn to citizen journalists on the web. The mainstream press is loosing readers because it no longer adequately investigates and reports some of the important stories. Fortunately, we now have other places to go to be informed and educated.
"Closing the 'Collapse Gap': The USSR Was Better Prepared for Collapse than the US" was published by the authoritative www.energybulletin.net. A Russian, Dmitry Orlov, who now lives in the US, wrote, "The US economy is poised to perform something like a disappearing act." Orlov compares the "two 20th century superpowers." An extended version of his analysis will be published as the book "Reinventing Collapse" in May by New Society Publishers.
Orlov examines the arms race, the space race, the jails race, and the "Hated Evil Empire Race." He concludes that "many of the problems that sunk the Soviet Union are now endangering the US." So we should "expect shortages of fuel, food, medicine, and countless consumer items, outages of electricity, gas, and water." If we plan for such possibilities now, we will be better able to deal with them.
Though Orlov details the threats to the US economy, he and his editors at EnergyBulletin remain optimistic. Orlov writes about the possibilities for an expansion of "enlightenment, fulfillment, and freedom" during times of collapse. Russia, after all, did recover. It may be more difficult for the US.
Helpful responses include strengthening local economies, being less dependent upon globalization, outside corporations and things distant, and knowing and preserving the sources of the basics--such as food and water. "There are many things we can do to navigate down and around" our problems, Heinberg writes, "so as to enhance human sanity and security and happiness."
Canada is one of the many countries whose citizens are ahead of the US in prudent planning for pending crises caused by extreme climate, Peak Oil, and related matters. The Vancouver City Planning Commission has posted a report on a 2006 seminar on collapse at www.plancanada.com. Videos of such ongoing seminars to get ready are available at www.peakmoment.org.
Too many Americans selfishly believe that they have a God-given right to consume whatever their wealth can purchase, without regard to the consequences to other people and the Earth. They take, rather than give, even the natural resources of other peoples. As a farmer, I know that you reap what you sow and that chickens come home to roost.
Our economy is paying and will continue to pay the consequences of over-consumption and the over-purchasing of people reaching beyond their resources that characterized the housing market. We have been greedy. There are limits to growth and those limits are crashing in on us.
Yet many piles of rubble have been rebuilt-often more beautiful than before they fell. Phoenixes have risen from the ashes before. Yet our future is uncertain, without guarantees.
It is time to think and write about more than the probability of a recession and consider the real possibility of a depression or even collapse. Then people can get ready, be active citizens, and prepare their personal, social, and political responses. We must do this together.
Shepherd Bliss, sbliss@hawaii.edu, teaches at Sonoma State University and has run am organic farm for most of the last 15 years.
71 Comments so far
Show AllLet's talk about solutions. Let's illumine this thread. I'd like to challenge anyone willing to share with us some of their most inspiring actions taken to change our current situation for the better.
I'm not being cynical but serious, inspire us to action either by example or out of dismayal at the luke warm response to this post.
Please don't include the attendance of recent or future protests, but the difficult, principled stands that you are taking in your own lives that effectively and undeniable loosen the hold that corporate America has on this culture.
Who is willing to share from that Sacred space where the rubber hits the road. I've seen wit in abundance, insight a plenty, I'm just curious if people here are also doing the crucial work of ironing out the wrinkles of excess and unecessary consumption in their own lives, the very fodder for the Corporatocracy.
The growth mantra is embedded into our economy, from the manner money itself is distributed through the Federal Reserve to the capital structure of all corporations, including the private prison, fast food, arms, and even the burial industries. You name it, it must grow.
The Shock Doctrine by Naomi Klein, 2007 [Excerpt]
An economic system that requires constant growth generates a steady stream of disasters all on its own, whether military, ecological, or financial. The truth is at once less sinister and more dangerous. Once you accept that profit and greed as practiced on a mass scale create the greatest possible benefits for any society, pretty much any act of personal enrichment can be justified as a contribution to the great creative cauldron of capitalism, generating wealth and spurring economic growth – even if it's only for yourself and your colleagues.
What we have been living with for three decades is frontier capitalism, with the frontier constantly shifting location from crisis to crisis, moving on as soon as the law catches up. The coups, the wars and slaughters to install and maintain pro-corporate regimes have been written off as excesses of overzealous dictators, as hot fronts of the Cold War, and now the War on Terror.
It was 1982 that Milton Friedman wrote the highly influential passage that best summarizes the shock doctrine: "Only in a crisis – actual or perceived – produces real change. When that crisis occurs, the actions that are taken depend on the ideas that are lying around. That, I believe, is our basic function: to develop alternatives to existing policies, to keep them alive and available until the politically impossible becomes politically inevitable."
http://theformofmoney.blogharbor.com/blog?nc=1
Quietly, seemingly by inches, I and my family are "moving out and away" from the loathsome, unsustainable, cityscape of 3 million benighted souls. Purchased: a small plot of ground with suitable dwelling, water well and nearby lake stocked with fish, far, far away from any major metroplex. Stocked with canned goods, emergency supplies, sand bags, firearms and munitions. Diversified investments out of U.S. dollar and purchase monthly small amounts of pure Silver coins for barter.
It's only a matter of time.
Yup glide time to get out of dodge!
Do with less.
glide625,
I often entertain the notion that an deep economic depression is just the medicine the US needs. But then I read attitudes like yours and I despair.
What if USAns had such "every man for himself!" attitudes back in the 1930's?
Weird thing is that this collapse may not be reflected in the stock market (since increasingly larger aspects of labor and other operations of "US" companies are now foreign-based), and it may not even be reported by the MSM.
People will just increasingly begin to ask one another: WTF?
Look, the U.S. economy has already collapsed and is only being propped up by a credit card spending spree. The national debt now exceeds all of the prior national debts combined. The kleptocrats Bush and Cheney are respectively planning to flee to Paraguay and Dubai. If you don't get the picture, you, along with the rest of the nitwit, Bible thumping sheeple, soon will.
Yup, Mr. Bramsher, the exploding ranks of huddled poor which will likely include many of us here, will not be televised.
No soup lines, though. Those who would organize soup kitchens instead be be pointing their guns our from behind their sand bags around their food cache-filled house in the country.
But is this new? If you go to India and only watch TV and never go outside, you would never know that three quarters of the country still live in severe poverty and a third are completely illiterate.
They are also a whole lot darker-complected than anyone in those those Bollywood musicals too...
Infinite economic growth with finite resources and ecosystem. How does that work ???? Another form of "vodoo economics" ??
We don't believe in long term planning in this country. We focus on quarterly statements and election cycles. Forget about tough decisions and long term plans.
...and the sheeple continue to consume..............
That's a good post, sunspot.
Because the situation with protesting seems kind of at the very least impractical right now due to the traveling you might have to do and what not I'm trying to improve the quality of my own life.
I am only in a car maybe 25 to 35 times per year, and I think I can cut back on that. The price of fuel may make that a necessity for all I know. I ride the bike but am fortunately very good at it so it's not a problem or burdensome to travel distances quickly.
I rent, do not own.
I lost my middle class american career while all this was going on, I'm not sure if you can entirely equate the two but maybe. Until I see fit, I plan to do the kind of subsistence work I need to do to survive. I am not in debt and will try not go into debt, not purchase anything like new clothing that would be luxuries, nor pay any further taxes of my own than might be taken from me beyond my will, until this debacle is over if ever.
I'm old enough where I don't feel any crushing urge to find my entertainment by having to purchase it. There seems to be plenty left to do for free which keeps me going.
If I can't make it to the end of the debacle due to lack of funds, I plan to take some minimal work situation only to pay the bills, and hold off as well as possible on the resumption of my "career" unless something VERY suitable comes along, which though being continually involved for very many consecutive years, seems to have come to a stop of late leading me to my own ideas about the health of the economy. But for all I know that's just me.
I have shut down the tv, but I'll keep the computer going as long as I can because I feel like I want to keep informed and learning about the world right now. It seems to me that we are at another pivotal moment in history or thought. And as they haven't shut the internet down yet I think I have been learning in a more studious fashion than since my days in school.
Hopefully, the electricity I use, 50 to $60 a month, is minimal and doesn't cause too much harm.
I'm interested in ways that the gap between rich and poor can be narrowed -- not merely ways in which the majority may embrace poverty and simpler living.
Hyper-consumerism needs a downward adjustment, no question there. But so does real estate and rural property. There can be no self-sufficiency if the banks enjoy the power to evict most anyone, anywhere.
Sunspot: Thanks for asking. In between posting on Common Dreams, I am working feverishly, on an idea that addresses the issues outlined in this article. I am hoping to be finished this week and to begin marketing next week. If anyone is interested in watching my progress just click on my name.
I used to say to my employees "Don't tell me the problem - tell me the solution."
We can all see the environment and the economy crumbling around us, the question is what are we going to do about it, I believe (as I have posted before) that the solutions will not come from corporations or governments but from individuals.
I am not alone in seeing this crisis coming, the macro-economic fundamentals of our economy are in very bad shape, I am not optimisticl. I could keep writing, but the author and I are in complete agreement, and I have to get back to saving the planet.
I don't want to use this platform for self promotion, I respect the opportunity given to me by Common Dreams to share my ideas with others, I will not abuse that priviledge.
Their are simple solutions individuals can take to not only protect themselves but our planet.
Ramsay
The difference between this situation and other economic situations of the past is that there are now 6.3 billion people in the world. In the past humans could move on and tear up the natural resources somewhere else to make profit. We've polluted our environment to a point where it's changing into something inhospitable to human life at this population level. And we continue to procreate.
The house of cards will collapse eventually. World social upheaval will be staggering. Think of a city like New York with not enough food because the shipping companies have no fuel or are out of business. 10 million people fighting for survival.
Not pretty.
Glide625 has the right idea. Better hurry though. Not much room left out in the woods.
Teach your children the evils of consumption and waste. Live with nature. The native americans of 600 years ago were the pinnacle of human society. (We whites destroyed that too in the name of profit.)Read and try to understand about them and their way of life. We are mother nature's children and we must behave that way.
There is no way back. Only the future. And this way of life must perish or the human race will.
"Hyper-consumerism needs a downward adjustment, no question there. But so does real estate and rural property."
But, I can't help but to feel that a lot of what drives high real eatate prices is that no one is satisfied withn and/or no builders are building simple, no frills, 1200 sq. ft houses anymore.
Think of a city like New York with not enough food because the shipping companies have no fuel or are out of business....
You just described some US cities during the worst parts of the 1930's. But, people didn't fight for survival, they orgainzed and cooperated for survival. OK?
please mr bliss. collapse? hardly. there are still football games to watch, shopping malls to roam and bars to frequent. we have so much it can't possibly go away. we're RICH!
PJD,
Sometimes there appears to be a fine line between remedy and exacerbation. I think moving in glide's direction can be extremely healthy, when taken with the right trajectory.
At the risk of being self-promotional, here are some measures I've taken to do my part.
-Our home is almost completely solar powered. (occasional propane generator for back-up.)
-We grow our own food and the amount of packaged food that we buy is very small.
-The last two jobs I've had have been within biking distance, one of them helping build a home using alternative methods.
-I've switched from $ to precious metals and have been spreading awareness of the sensibility of such since 2004 (when the gravity of the situation became pretty obvious, to anyone paying attention)
I feel it appropriate to mention to those who see my actions as escapist or as prohibitive to those who cannot afford such extravagant greeness; I own very little, have very little money and have consciously (nearing middle aged) sacrificed the privelage of being a property owner because of my recognition that such sacrifices are absolutely necessary. I choose to be paddling rather than at the bow.
It really isn't my intention to be "holier than thou". But the time for dramatic speech and dedicated action has arrived! We've made room for others who will be displaced when the cities cave in, what are you doing? We've virtually replaced our ecological footprint with a well prepared garden bed, let's stay focused on being the change we want to see.
Ramsay, geoff, Paul,
Thanks so much.All your posts came in while I was still typing.My comment would have been less edgy, I thought I was speaking into more of a vacuum than it has turned out to be.
"I'm interested in ways that the gap between rich and poor can be narrowed — not merely ways in which the majority may embrace poverty and simpler living."
I agree. Furthermore, this is not merely a "consumerist" problem. The entire political and economic system needs to be changed to one of self-sufficient social democracy; when people stop outsourcing and the economy is based upon what people can produce in fair, life-centered, environmentally friendly workplaces, and only fair trade based on need and workers rights. Enough citizens are not going to change voluntarily; the corporations need to be targeted, need to be made to STOP. Need LAWS AGAINST THEM. "Most americans" don't live extragavant consumerist lifestyles; the top five percent do, the rest of them just go on ignorantly with whatever scraps they can find; that is what needs to be changed.
sunspot----I addressed more directly your challenge on the other posting you did, so will not repeat myself. I think it is great what you are doing, and I have city friends who are quietly and consistently preparing for a big change in lifestyle----some choose to work at highpaying jobs as a way to buy and build into the green model. I salute them!
I have not been required to pay taxes for the past 4 years due to disability, and I have to say that nothing makes me feel more liberated from the beast of the military indistrial complex than this. As for the few services left that the govt. provides, I apologize for not contributing, but have done so for 40 years prior.
My lifestyle does not in the least feel like sacrifice----to simplify is to make room for "the practice of exaltation" as goeff29 quoted in another post here on CD.
I think what folks don't realize is that the "economic puppeteers" can see the writing on the wall for this particular market (the USA), and are already focusing on more promising "emerging markets". Go in peace,I say to them, although, they won't, but will do the opposite.
We can build a very different but better alternative with creative thinking, openness to fundamental change, and genuine compassion for those who got caught up short.
Since the average folks seemed to have at least survived the '30's, I have been giving a lot of thought as to what is different now that is going to make this economic collapse different in how Americans handle it. It seems to me that the situation in the Great Depression was very similar: concentration of wealth, political institutions broken and corrupt, corporations in control, etc. What is different is the breakdown of localcommunities, the distribution of goods and services, particularly in the agricultural sector, and the globalization of our economy.
I am doing everything I can as an individual to reduce my ecological and economic footprint. I have been doing that for years. I am particularly focused on reuse (buying used at Goodwill, from my neighbor, or turning trash into treasure), conservation by reducing my use of everything I HAVE to consume like electricity, and buying LOCAL, particularly from local farmers.
The most important thing we can all do is get to know our neighbors. Develop the network that you will all need to get through the hard times that are coming for your communities. I can appreciate that some will retreat to their own survival camps or farms, but most of us do not have that option. The only option that I see is what I call Community Sovereignty. And that requires working together co-operatively.
One of the first things you can do is move any money you have that is not invested in things for barter to a credit union or very small local bank. It may not be the best option, but at least you will no longer be contributing to the big financial institutions that helped to get us into this mess.
Second, learn how to buy in bulk and prepare your own food. Not only is it cheaper, you will need to learn these skills. Buy your food at your local co-op, mom & pop grocery store and farmers markets. Try to stay away from packaged/prepared food as much as possible.
Stop using your credit cards for anything other than essentials needs if you get to the point that you cannot afford them. I'm not sure what you should do about existing credit card debt. Payments on credit card debt just feed the monster. Minimum payments? Bankrupsy? Don't have the answer to that one.
I just sold my farm and am now debt free. Neat thing is that I am renting it back from the folks that bought it (and paying ywo years rent in advance out of my profit. But I don't know if that is a good thing for others, particularly in the current housing market. I just wanted to be assured that I would have a roof over my head and a place for the rest of my family and friends to go if they needed to.
I've also stockpiled about 6 months worth of food and essentials. Both for myself, but also for barter and to help others. I've also stocked up on a huge seed bank to share with neighbors and myself to grow our own food.
Now I'm working on purchasing a backup propane generator for my electricity needs. Will work on the solar stuff as well. Also, am putting together folks here to develop and build/convert small electric plug-in cars.
I guess that's all I can think of right now.
Peace
When everyone thinks they can live in an enormous mansion and buy it with little or no money down, only a fool would think that will work out ok for all concerned. Our materialism and consumerism has finally gotten the best of us, and the party is over. Who thinks they can predict the future, though? It is hard to find anyone that knew when Bushco took over we would have the trainwreck we now have in only 7 years. Many were sure that with honor and integrity back in the Whitehouse, everything would be beautiful. It does seem strange that in this great "Christian" nation, we have fallen into selfishness, greed, lawbreaking, and warmongering, that are responsible for most of our problems. We have to face the fact that our country had a chance and people let this administration throw it away so now it is anyones guess where we are headed.
I've been seeing this coming for years. For a decade now, I have restricted my consumption to necessities and educational/intellectual needs.
The first thing I did: throw out the TV, which generates so much mind "garbage" and pollution (PBS, C-Span, well-written intelligent dramas, and similar excepted), noise (the nonstop extra loud crassness of commercials), brainwashing, and distorting representations of life. The only way to avoid these white trash noises is to discriminatingly rent television programs once they are out on DVD.
I buy in small quantities. No need to buy a box of 50 pens, when all I need are 2. No need to have 3 pairs of sneakers, 4 sets of dishes, a dozen pair of pants, or any costco-sized item.
I listen to the radio on the internet; I carefully choose programs that are intelligent and will continue to educate me. What a pleasure to find programs from NPR, BBC, and other worldwide quality broadcasters.
I use the library a lot. No need to buy a book if I can borrow it from the library. However, when I absolutely have to have a certain book (i.e. to make notes in the margins and underline), I try to buy a used copy (I guess that falls into the category of recycling).
By all that I've said so far, you might surmise that I am cheap. Not so. I strive for quality and I will gladly pay the price for it. I have a highly developed sense of aesthetics and I can set a beautiful table---with what I already have. But, I am also sensible and understand the value of things---which is why I do not over-consume!!
I am appalled by the shallow pleasure that people are addicted to in a shopping mall---a vapid cathedral of lost, over-extended, anxious souls.
We have become a nation of restless sharks, consuming everything in excess. Until we put brakes on that, we cannot proceed to solve some very real crucial problems ahead. Until we pause and de-comercialize ourselves, until we take stock of what is truly essential for happiness
and teach our children by example, until we disengage from this credit-fueled false economy of unending aquisition, we cannot uphold a true democracy, we cannot understand what true freedom is, we cannot aspire to a civilization of enlightenment.
Now, let's talk about building economies of human scale.
I likewise do many of those things, I get to work on a battery electric motor scooter or the bus, we get most of our food from a CSA Farm or other local sources; fortunately Pennsylvania is a populous, but agriculture-intensive state. We don't use A/C, we keep the heat at 62 day 58 night and wear sweaters. I buy wind energy offsets, so technically our electricity is renewable.
Living in the city - and I mean the city, not suburbia, can be very sustainable - our old 1100 sq ft townhouse had common walls and was very cheap to heat. There are planty of spaces for urban gardening in the vacant lots (this is the rust belt). You don't need a car - you can walk of bus it everywhere you need to go. Most importantly, you stay engaged with other humans and your community.
I have trouble seeing how fleeing to the country doesn't leave you relying too much on a car - most poeple will still need to find work, that means driving long distances. Off the grid home power are simply not possible in many climates, (we go weeks without sun here) or is unaffordable.
pavroviandog, rebelfarmer---definite soul companions. Great lifestyle and great suggestions for others. RebelFarmer I like the way your choices always include choices that will help others who may find themselves caught up short.
A true believer, you, that real abundance is the unswerving certainty that what goes around comes around. I have never stopped giving to someone with less, just because I felt I had too little myself. ANd it has always come back to me multiplied by many many times. A great way to live and a sure way to insure your own needs being met.
If only everyone could trust that---what a different world this would be....
PJD---point well taken. Principled sustainable living can happen in any setting, and your lifestyle eloquently attests to that.
Us rural folks curse the distances we must drive for paying jobs. Before I became disabled, I took a job well below my educational level to minimize driving and set it up so I worked 3 days per week 10 hours a day---what I needed to subsist in relative comfort. ( my standards)
But more and more rural people are figuring out car pooling, and creative ways to mitigate wasting fuel. Necessity is the mother of invention, and the combination of generally lower paying jobs and higher fuel prices are a definite factor.
We are all working to the same end and no one's way is better than another. It is important to act, pure and simple.
Rebel Farmer---I use my credit card for everything I purchase but never carry a balance and thus pay the "beast" no interest. They call folks like me "deadbeats" and hate our "misuse" of their precious plastic. And I gleefully take the 1% cash back they have to pay me in spite of making nothing on interest or late charges. Not everyone is in that position but it is another way.
Thomas: I'm rotating the canned goods. And everything else. And I didn't buy any ammo. I figure if it gets down to shooting at each other there isn't much to live for anyway.
Purvis: I hear your frustration. But it's not like we can't multitask. We are fighting the goood political fight. Only problem is, they aren't listening and really don't care what "we the people" think or are experiencing. What you are hearing in these comments is "If we fail, and the government and economy goes to hell, then what?". We are not complaining or giving up. We are just trying to cover all the basis so we are still around to pick up the peices - TOGETHER.
PJD: There's an interesting difference of inclination that may arise between the hyper- self-sacrificing environmentalists -- and the progressive populists/self-deterministic people that would not have been the case a century ago.
In fact, it would not have been the case at any point in human history until this past century. Rather than willingly embracing poverty, landlessness, subjugation to the city/state, etc. in the name of environmentalism -- you could live in the country, own your own land or share it communally (The Commons), grow your own food, and rely on the primary means of locomotion available for the first 4 centuries of the US: the horse.
Any sort of ideology, however noble, eventually blurs into sado-masochism if it doesn't balance such concerns with class interests.
Lovely, what I'm getting is localize, localize, localize!
Community will be indispensable, I think. We have been able to do what we do only because of a handful of families coming together and purchasing land within short range of one another. For a time we were doing a work circle that involved a member from each household gathering at a designated property to work for the day, and rotating to include all. Very effective!
This way those of us who don't have much money can be as integral a part of this great solution as those who purchase the land.
I think the time has come to leap, with faith, into situations like this. Even if fellow collaborators are not close friends.
Thanks for all the feedback.
I don't get it. Every second person on this thread is talking as if reducing their energy use or hoarding food or going out and meeting your neighbors is a solution to the problem. Are you nuts? The problem is right here, RIGHT NOW, and can only be solved with immediate political action. Until you realize that, you can twiddle away your thumbs in Pollyanna Land until the real shit hits the fan.
VOTE FOR RON PAUL!
Eliminate the uncontitutional Federal Reserve. Eliminate the fiat money system and return to the gold standard. Eliminate all foreign military bases and bring all US troops home, reduce the military budget to 10% of its current levels.
IF we jut followed the Constitution we would have none of this economic mess.
What a gloomy bunch.
Its not quite that bad and you'll still have to wait for real concrete validation of global warming. Its probably happening, but its not proven............don't bother throwing things at me. Thats a simple scientific fact.
As to buying a lot of ammunition and canned goods.......what are you going to do later?
Didn't the very wise George Bush and Giuliani recommend that we "Go shopping" after 9/11? Shopping is a cure-all, ya' know. ;)
haha
I'm remembering Jackson Browne's beautiful tune "For Everyman":
Everybody I talk to is ready to leave
With the light of the morning.
They've seen the end coming down long enough
to believe
They've heard their last warning.
All my fine dreams,
Well-thought-out schemes
To gain the Motherland
Have all eventually come down to waiting
For everyman.
Purvis,
What you are witnessing is a sense of self accountability. It comes from the depth of vision to recognize that the societal structures constructed around us are really reflections of our own habits and decisions, our own level of consciousness.
We change our society by changing each one of ourselves. You were quite right, when you mentioned the problem is "right here, right now". Right there, right then was a human being breathing and thinking, in the midst of a life that is aligned with either the solution or the problem.
another thanks to Starofthesea, pavroviandog, and Rebel Farmer for insight and experience.
So, we need to wean ourselves away from the products of large corporations. Become locally self-sufficient as much as possible. Stop raping the earth by such activites as clear cutting forests. Here is a challenge: all toilet paper is currently made by large corporations using mass production machinery in huge plants which then move the paper long distances on trains and trucks etc. etc. Stop using corporate made toilet paper. That will be a good place to start! Now, how do you plan to do this? Hmmm. Not so easy is it.
i am the very thing they hate,
and who everyone else acts like they care about, but don't.
i am the poor, no heath care have'en, guy in a warehouse, housing stuff i can't afford…
i ride my bike.
i sort my trash, and budget for the bottles too.
i hold my peers accountable for their words and actions.
and if you cant/don't hold your peers accountable for their actions how do you expect to hold government leaders that you have never seen accountable.
i tell the truth.
i talk to everyone i can,
but everyone that has something has something to loose.
as far as i know you people are only words on a screen. words that somehow come off powerless…
… trying to fit in with each other "ideologically".
no one is more legitimate than me, and mine, its from us that culture comes.
and without culture we dint have the tools for survival.
A small solution:
if you need clothes buy them second hand..some of the second hand stores have excellant quality goods and the money sometimes will go to a charity
if you need something for your home go to Habitat for Humanity
Buy Second Hand
Consumerism is the ugly brother of materialism gone sadly astray; but it alone cannot account for the house of cards upon which our 21st Century civilization is built, and about to fall. To think so is to oversimplify. But it is one hell of a good place to start. The entire world now embraces the yardstick that measures a man's worth and success by how much wealth and material possessions he has accumulated, not by the development of higher qualities of personality or consciousness. I have with sadness watched for 20 years the explosion of marketing consumerism, with an increasing sense of powerlessness, regardless of how I conducted my own life. To sit in a mall and observe the compulsive insanity that one sees in the after Christmas sales is a study of a kind of mental illness not listed in the DSM. Gandhi said that 'the art of accumulating much money for ourselves but also of contributing that our neighbours still have less. In accurate terms it is the art of establishing the maximum inequality in our favour'.
And thus we have government run by corporate fiat; cronyism, greed for excess which in turn contributes to a class society in which a tiny percentage control most of the wealth. It is upon this foundation that wars are waged, mass media is controlled, and the dumbing of Americans has taken place. The historical parallels of society in decline, as one post succinctly stated, is the decay and pollution of the natural resources available to that society. As a species we have done many remarkable things, none quite as remarkable as seeding the ruin of a global economy. But we are amazing creatures, full of light and hope. I believe we will fall and then pick ourselves back up and put the world on a more spiritually enriching path, one in which there will be a more responsible distribution of wealth and resources.
Personally, I don't believe that there are enough resources to support 6+billion people no matter how equitiably divvied up. Further as the strain on the distribution networks, petroleum based agriculture, & the increase damage caused by global warming increase, while the fuel driving all these things increasingly becomes the domain of the wealthy things will ineviably get very nasty indeed.
I've lived off grid now for over 10 years at 48 degrees north with solar (& a little wind) & it can be done. yes if you want to watch dvds & whatnot in the winter very much a generator must top off the batteries. However if shit really COLLAPSES OUTRIGHT, we could do without the generator & still have light, waterpump, some computer use, ect. Like others here I have a stockpile of food (about a years worth for my son & me) & ammunition. However I don't see the ammunition as self defense so much, hopefully not at all!, but as food to be bagged if it need be. There are a lot of edible critters in the woods hereabouts which could be eaten, if needed, I'm no hunter, damnit, but if it came down to food for survival I wouldn't hesitate to do what's necessary.
Unfortunately I think a lot of the adaptations for whatever is to come have to wait & see whatever comes. For all the educated geusses, my own included, no one really knows what things will ensure best preparedness for the future. So as someone else here said the best thing will be to cover all the bases that we can forsee & hope some how that none of them will actually be needed.
imho
I do yoga and go barefoot as much as possible. Does that count?
It's a recession if you're wealthy.
A depression if you're middle class.
A collapse if you're homeless and hungry.
There are some really wonderful posts here. I read every one of them.
Here is one more idea: Freecycle. Freecycle is a Yahoo group you join and when you have something that you no longer need or want, you post an offer for it. And when you need something, you post a wanted notice for it. Everything is given for free. You help save the economy by not "feeding the beast of consumerism" and the environment by reducing stuff that ends up in landfill. I have been a donor person as I am at the stage of life when I need to shed stuff rather than accumulate it. But many people are just starting out an really need what you have to offer. I have offered many off the wall items that have been taken also, like bronze baby shoes, fake dentures, an old Polaroid camera, and a Mack truck hood ornament.
I do not have a link to the site but if you google Freecycle you will find it and it will guide you to a group near you. They are in just about every part of the US and in many places in Canada and a few other countries. And, if there is no group near you to join, you can start your own group.
As a small subsistence farmer with decades of experience in southern Chile (think coastal Oregon), a word or two. Only within pre-existing farming communities, replete with all the gamut of necessary technical expertise and equipment, can a viable and sustainable community be maintained. Technophiles as we are, few people have the skills to even begin to feed the masses without their specially designed mega-machines.
Cuba was able to re-convert to ox power after 1990, because the stock still existed.....but who even knows what an ox IS in this benighted country? Hunger anyone?
I returned to the USA to see the final fall of the behemoth which is the mechanized circus....and still hope that my hunches in the 60's were wrong.... maybe we can squeeze out a few more decades....but heck if I know what to do, other than protest the insanity every week in the street and talk up alternatives to the present evil....
one more thing: buying precious metals only encourages their further mining and polluting effects.....stick with paper IOUs printed locally.
I'm the canary in the coal mine; my endocrine system crashed and I'm not usefull for much. Still I buy as much of my food as possible from the local farmers market. I'm very good at cooking from whole grains, beans and brown rice as staples to go with my veggies. I've purchased an Xtracycle, a freight friendly bicycle attatchment, in hopes of using it more if I get better.
Don't get sick or injured. Learn as much as possible about naturalpathic and herbal medicine and make sure you have reference books. Bookmarks on the internet may not be much use when you really need the info. If something seems specifically important on the net, like a research paper, print it and file it in a binder. Remember that raw, dark, honey is the most effective topical antibiotic should you encounter MSRA. (google it)
Learn what you can about gardening and read up on Terra Preta. Make sure you always have a few potatoes around for planting stock in a real emergency. Now is a good time to walk around your neighborhood and bury walnuts and chestnuts in vacant lots and on verges and embankments. Learn how to build a rocket stove and make a practice stove for camping. Jerusalem artichokes yield more starch per acre than corn and are easy to wildcraft, buy some and bury them in a neglected sunny corner of your neighborhood.
Get a darning needle and some embroidery floss and set them aside along with some knitting supplies. A stitch in time saves nine was all about socks. No socks or poor socks in winter can kill you in frost prone areas.
Your water heater has about 30 gallons of clean water in it in an emergency. (something Katrina survivors didn't seem to know) On the same note a five gallon bucket makes a fine toilet along with an equal amount of sawdust, leaf mulch or compost. Make sure you bury it away from your garden. In a survival situation hoard every leaf, twig, stick and branch you can get your hands on in an urban area. All brown vegetative matter is usefull as compost, mulch, stove fuel or sanitation supplies. If you see a pile of sand near your house try to remember where it is for future use as a water filter.
I'm not sure who will need this information but some of it could have helped Katrina survivors both in the short and the long term. Remember your government is not going to help you in a crunch unless your Mcmansion burns down in San Diego. A city full of homeless people suddenly had free food and housing for the displaced wealthy.
Maybe I'm wrong and we can just keep printing paper money forever and sell worthless mortgages to the chinese. I don't think I'm wrong.
This is the most intelligent article you will ever read on the subject: "The Oil We Eat" published in Feb. 2004 by Harper's Magazine. Read it. Absorb it. Act on it.
Start by eating less meat. Yes, it's that easy.
http://www.harpers.org/archive/2004/02/0079915
I'm going to plant a tree, listen to Peter Paul and Mary, and get in my hybrid SUV and go for a drive. I've reduced my carbon footprint by 50% of what it would be if we'd had 5 kids instead of 3 and I'd bought that riding mower instead of hiring a Mexican guy to do it.
I'm green! I'm centrist. If we all reduce our carbon footprint by 40% the net result will be a fantastic 0 (because of population growth). But we'll feel neat. Just like that British Petroleum logo, how it's like a green flower. I love that.
I just read Newt's book on the Earth and if I cut my pork consumption to 14 servings a week I'll be doing good too.
Good article, jimbob. For even a more exploratory history of how America produces and markets what we eat, please read The Omnivore's Dilemma (by Michael Pollan). It was required reading for this year's incoming freshman class at the College of Holy Cross.
You can link to, and read, the introduction and first chapter through www.michaelpollan.com/omnivore.php .
Thanks for the link to Richard Manning's article.
Let's talk about solutions. Let's illumine this thread. I'd like to challenge anyone willing to share with us some of their most inspiring actions taken to change our current situation for the better.
I'm not being cynical but serious, inspire us to action either by example or out of dismal at the luke warm response to this post.
--OK, how about this:
Immediately tear up the "free trade" agreement, making it null and void. Next, regard those corporations that moved more than 50% of their operations offshore as no longer being American, meaning they will henceforth be regarded as foreign entities and ineligible for receiving benefits that are proffered American corporations. And give more assistance to Corporations that wish to stay and employ workers here in the US. Now, be aware there will be an initial fallout from doing this, but no worse than continuing on our profligate course until the waiter hands us the bill.
End the war in Iraq and invest in infrastructure. Unfortunately, there may not be much to invest, unless taxes on the rich are increased. If we feel guilty about this, we must remind ourselves how wealthy they have become at our expense.
Purchase American goods and hire American workers whenever possible. As a side thought, we must get a handle on immigration, one way or another. Think in terms of a solution being diluted with water. Unrestrained immigration dilutes the resources for everyone when everyone doesn't contribute to their maintenance.
Last but not least: STOP RUNNING A BALANCE ON YOUR CREDIT CARDS!! Spend only what you can afford to spend, whenever possible. I realize that you must use a credit card during an emergency, but in that case, resolve to pay it back, and refrain from going on subsequent spending sprees. Also, do not let yourself be suckered into borrowing foolishly by always Reading the fine print. Don't assume you'll be able to refinance or pay the full amount in the future--live and spend responsibly. Initially, this will seem like a bitter pill to many, but one that eventually will liberate.