So I am going to have to take a half day off of work today due to a sick kid, my wife and I split the day because she doesn’t get paid if she doesn’t work.  I was off yesterday, and in the environment which I work I feel uncomfortable taking this afternoon off, even though I got to work at 6 AM and will put in 6 hours plus use ½ vacation day.  It’s ridiculous to have to dread using a vacation day for a sick kid.  It’s also offensive that “they” refuse to allow me to do my job remotely.  There are many employees that can, and there are contract workers (temps) that can do it.  There is nothing about my job that requires me to be in my cube to do it, nothing.  There seems to be no company policy around it, it seems simply to be a matter of who you know.  I despise the environment I work in.  Moral is in the toilet, you can’t believe anything management says (like reducing salaries by 6% to avoid layoffs, then having in excess of 40 people laid off one month later), the “more with less” attitude constantly being forced down our throats, never knowing where the axe will fall next, etc.  What it must be like to work in an environment where you treated like an adult and treated with dignity.

Even if you are one that does work in that type of environment or for that type of company, I think you should pay attention to this video on downward class migration.  Coming soon to a society near you!

So what’s the point?  Be prepared.  I may have said this before but it bears repeating:  I am more of a resilientist than a true prepper or survivalist.  However there is a lot of crossover, so much so that at times it is hard to tell the difference.  I think my distinction between the two lies in the purpose or approach of each.  A prepper is planning for disaster(s) that they feel are eminent, whereas a resilientist is looking at having more liberty and freedom in their life.  And a survivalist is prepping for the worst possible scenario to happen.  A survivalist may have 10,000 rounds of ammo for each of their guns but hasn’t updated their resume in 6 years.  What good is that ammo if the disaster that strikes isn’t global economic meltdown but the loss of a job?  That would be a personal economic meltdown and the resume would be a far better tool for dealing with it than the guns and ammo.  Now sure, the resume doesn’t mean squat if the economy collapses but which of those two scenarios has a greater likelihood of occurring?

I think Resilientist, Prepper, and Survivalist are varying degrees of the same mentality.  Perhaps the difference stems from the motivating factor/driving force (belief) that leads us to do what we do.

I need to be able to live my life on my terms.  I no longer want to be a debt serf.