Mind the Gap

Perhaps a defining characteristic of the present Depression is that it is providing most of the World's people a one-way ticket of 'downward mobility'. Whether or not you join the mass migration will depend on luck, social resilience, and your own choices.

Since the first two conditions are out of your control, we will focus the choosing part. If the collapse is to happen quickly (which appears ever more certain with each, further government-dictated misallocation of resources), then the gap between your lifestyle as it was and as it is to be will be quite shocking.

The most important choice you can make is to commit to adjusting to whatever changes come your way, no matter how disruptive or distressing. Let us illustrate from our own experience: we happen to live in an area with an abundance of wild rabbits. They would make for very easy hunting or trapping. But we find the idea of butchering them most distasteful. We would, however, manage to overcome our squeamishness, if our need for food became urgent enough.

We present an extreme example precisely because you may be faced with an extreme situation: complete loss of income - whether a job, a pension, or otherwise. How will you manage to put food on the table and fuel on the fire if left entirely to your own devices? Can you scrape up some kind of livelihood on your own?

We are not trying to go all 'doomer' on you - we just want you to exercise some creative thinking in contingency planning. The more you expect the system to work for you, the greater the risk you are subject to if things break down.