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SHOULD I BE WORRIED (Part 2)
Argentina just outlawed the buying and selling of gold by it’s citizens. “So what?” you may ask. There are many who believe that our economy is unsustainable (the numbers certainly lead to that conclusion), something about you can’t spend far more than you earn forever, and that at some point the whole thing will implode. Many who believe that feel that the economic collapse will look very similar to Argentina’s collapse back in 2000-2001, and that Argentina has provided a good blueprint for what may follow if our economy does go over the cliff.
Obama said the U.S. and Argentina share a range of common interests and concerns, including about the global economy. Obama has been reported as saying “Argentina suffered a devastating default on its debt in 2001 but has experienced nearly a decade of strong economic growth since then.” Hmmm, let’s see…
Keep in mind that I use Ferfal (as opposed to the media) as my point of reference on what life in Argentina is really like.
– In 2008, President Cristina Fernandez de Kirchner nationalized nearly $30 billion (US) in private pension holdings by transferring them to the social security system.
– Within the last 12 months she (her administration) has imposed severe restrictions on buying and selling US dollars. People were doing this because the dollar holds it’s value better than Argentina’s currency (yikes!). They still are, but there is now a black market which you must do it in. (insert ferfal link)
– This year there have been several tax hikes, federal restrictions on wage increases, and nationalized (seized) the oil company YPF which Spanish company Repsol had a 51% stake
– Their congress has passed an anti-terrorism law that has been criticized for using very vague and imprecise terminology (hmmm…that doesn’t sound familiar at all).
And now they are no longer able to buy and sell gold. This didn’t happen in an instant, it built over time, much like boiling a frog. One should also note that a federal financial disclosure in 2009 showed that the President and her late husband’s personal assets increased by 700% since 2003. Meanwhile the common folk aren’t even allowed to try and preserve their “wealth” by putting it in US dollars or precious metals, assuming they could even afford to in the first place.
The rich get richer, especially during economic crisis.
DOES YOUR VOTE MATTER?
Un-FREAKING believable! At least they used to have the decency to say “pay no attention to the man behind the curtain”. Now they are so arrogant that they don’t even hide it from us anymore. Their opinion of us is that we are so stupid they don’t even have to try to pretend it’s a ruse. They don’t see themselves as public servants, they see the public as their servants.
Thank you again to Paleryder.
QUOTE
“LIBERTY MEANS RESPONSIBILITY, 
THAT IS WHY MOST MEN DREAD IT” – GEORGE BERNARD SHAW
Wow, has it really been that long? Well, there are a couple of random thoughts I wanted to throw out there while they are fresh on my mind. First, liberty and the American Way are everything I have stated, but I have one more tenant to add: America was originally conceived to have people depending on each other – depending on their neighbors rather than the government or some other organization. Understand that I put the church in the category of neighbor, as opposed to organization.
The second thing is I had another opportunity over the holiday weekend to get my wife to see the value of prepping and resilience. She was out of sugar on Friday night and had already spent an hour at the grocery store. We were going to attend a cookout over the holiday weekend and she was going to bring brownies and carrot cake. The entire weekend was booked solid. As she started slipping toward clinical depression I stepped in and said, “I have sugar.” She replied “you do, really? Where”? I told her I had some in our food preps, and she asked “How much? Is it enough to make the brownies and cake?” I said “I don’t know, but it is a typical bag of sugar you buy at the store. 5 pounds I think.” She became elated and told me how wonderful that is. Jim Dandy to the rescue, just call me Johnny on the spot. So on top of getting to be hero for the day, she doesn’t see having redundancies in place as pointless as she did; and on top of that, she is going to replace the sugar for me the next time she goes to the store, so I now have her participating in prepping, she just doesn’t know it!
ACTION TAKEN TOWARD BECOMING RESILIENT
- Put primer on some more of the house, getting ready to paint it. I think preventative maintenance should be considered a form of resilience. It leads to reduce expenses down the road.
- Cookout with friends we haven’t seen since Christmas. Building a strong social network is vital to resilience in a SHTF situation. Note, I said ‘vital’, not ‘important’. That will be a topic I cover in a future post.
Don’t Wait
“Indecision is the greatest thief of opportunity.” – Jim Rohn, Facing The Enemies Within.
That statement seems so incredibly applicable to the concept of this blog. How many times did I look at or hear about awesome gardens, bug out locations, stockpiles of preps, AR-15s, and other expensive and/or time consuming stuff, and feel completely overwhelmed? Or feel like the things that people in the prepper/survival community are doing and acquiring are hopelessly unrealistic for my situation? I was left with the sense that even when they were beginner preppers, they did not have the burden I do of extremely limited resources. I didn’t even know where to begin, and I definitely felt like there was nothing I could do to become more resilient and independent until my circumstances changed.
Since I was determined to become independent from the systems to which most of society is unwittingly enslaved, I knew I must change my situation into one that would allow me to start my prepping. Thankfully I did finally realize that I can start working toward changing my situation in ways that are also steps toward resilience – steps toward living my life envisioned by the founding fathers. They may not seem like much right now, but they are getting me closer to the dream. Even things like working on my resume and paying off credit cards, or working out consistently count; the former gets me closer to independence from the system and the latter makes me more likely to survive a disaster. Don’t wait, do something to get you on your journey now. Today!
Actions taken toward resilience 5/3/12:
- Worked 18 hours of OT so far this week, may go in tomorrow for a couple more hours. I will now be able to pay off one more credit card with my next paycheck
Do I LOVE the Way I Live?
“the mass of men lead lives of quiet desperation.” – Emerson.
This country was founded on the concept of individual liberty. It seems we always focus so much more on the liberty part of that statement to the exclusion of the individual part. To achieve true liberty means we must each be an individual; and therefore we must be true to ourselves. To expect the government or corporations to give us jobs pretty much circumvents that concept for many, many people. The jobs they offer provide security, not freedom. I’ve said many times that security and freedom are at opposite ends of the spectrum. The more of one you have, the less of the other you have. “They that can give up essential liberty to purchase a little temporary safety deserve neither liberty nor safety.” – Benjamin Franklin. So True! In all things, we must not operate from a base of fear. “To live a creative life, we must lose our fear of being wrong.” – Joseph Chilton Pearce
I was reading Mark’s Daily Apple and he mentioned a blog he had written last August which peaked my curiosity so I went and checked it out. I have only read the first couple of paragraphs but it has given me an “aha!” moment; it has given me some clarity on something I need in my life – more playing. My current gig does not allow me to play enough. It doesn’t pay me enough money to even do the things the average schmo does for fun, and I want to do more than what the average schmo does. My job also demands too much of my time – specifically my day time – to allow me to play in the ways I want to, like exploring, hiking, etc. “A foolish consistency is the hobgoblin of little minds, adored by little statesmen, philosophers, and divines. With consistency a great soul has nothing to do.” – Emerson. I love to explore; I love the joy of discovery. “When we embrace play, we claim a better quality of life for ourselves. We decrease stress.” – http://www.marksdailyapple.com/the-lost-art-of-play-reclaiming-a-primal-tradition/ That concept has been gnawing at me for a good part of my adult life, and it is what inspired my intense dislike of working for the man. It is yet one more motivation to break free from the systems upon which we are so dependent.
“The life of white men is slavery. They are prisoners in towns or farms. The life my people want is a life of freedom. I have seen nothing that a white man has, houses or railways or clothing or food that is as good as the right to move in the open country, and live in our own fashion (Sitting Bull).”
SuburbanResilience 