cali exodus #1

CALI EXODUS Part 1

Beck School Of Economics

Milton Freedman School Of Economics was the perfect propaganda for the scorched earth takeover from the central bank, a quick process of a mere two decades or so that convinced the victims that participating in their own fleecing was a good idea ( prior to this, the central bank ran the economy and was the primary beneficiary. In this instance, the central bank started to cannibalize the economy, a one time process that is almost done. After that, it is Third World Banana Republic status for the US, without the peasants being able to feed themselves and without any resources being mined which might at least provide enough income to police the hungry peasants. Remember, the myth of the bountiful country is decades out of date. Peak Iron Ore was in the 1950’s, Peak Silver in 1999, the southern tip of the Midwest aquifer is dry, etc ). The Glen Beck/Rush Limbaugh School Of Economics is the propaganda that states that welfare recipients are parasites holding back the economy. The wide held assumption of this economic school as factual ( in actual fact, as deeply flawed as Keynesian, if not far worse ) means that when the safety net is withdrawn due to budgetary constraints, the infrastructure allowing rich people to profit is gone. They are going to cut off their nose to spite their face ( those that didn‘t leave-not all the rich are smart or connected ). We’ve talked about this before, but I’m trying something different this time and tying it into the coming out migration from California.

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Black folk or other minorities on welfare are the current fall guy for richer folk that are on a different kind of welfare. Middle class welfare is ending, pretty much, and this was what set the stage for the coming exodus, and rich welfare is on the rise ( if you are in the financier class, exponentially so ). In the very near future, in order for the last dregs of wealth to be wrung from society to put the last few dollars in the carry-on luggage of the rich as they fly first class out of our imploding economy, poor welfare must be ended. Where Glen and Rush earn their corporate paymaster paycheck is they are convincing the middle class that this is the most natural thing in the world. The best idea since slice white bread. But this is nothing more than national suicide. Don’t be stupid and play the race card, as this is camouflage- the simple fact is that the poor, lacking any support, unable to feed themselves, will turn on those with any means. It doesn’t matter their color or culture or tribe. Currently, welfare to the Blacks pacifies an otherwise angry and violent crowd ( Fergeson and the like is merely Obammy The Biggest Pole Smoker Of The Century agitating an otherwise passive mob in the interests of further divide and conquer of the poor and middle class ). A crowd, it might be remembered, in which almost every young male has been through the prison school of combat and pasty fat pukes with AR-15’s are no match for them. This has to have been deliberate. The rich divide us between skin color, gender, occupation and anything else proven to be effective slight of hand as they draw down our economy.

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Next article, how the middle class wealth exodus will fuel the fires of migration.

END

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consuming to invest 30

CONSUMING TO INVEST 30

Cooper

Barrel making is probably even worse than tanning, Back-To-The-Past regression wise. Today, a factory of intermediate complexity can easily churn out one piece ( other than the top, obviously ) barrels in plastic or metal. Before, you needed to precision cut pieces of wood in strips, fit them together, make metal bands and force them on the outside, all so liquid didn’t leak out. A bit of a tall order, and resource and labor intensive ( metal was always dear until recently. It was the massive amount of wood involved, needing close work ). Is it any wonder that the ancients deemed ceramic vessels superior, even if they were a disposable item? They could be mass produced ( one of the major obstacles in the early petroleum era, circa 1860’s-’1870’s, was the shortage of enough storage containers, those available being crafted wood barrels ), relatively cheaply. In the future, you will have a market for used five gallon poly buckets. Alas, these will be for the poor only, given the inevitable widespread tales of toxic poisoning as unscrupulous traders pass off industrial chemical buckets as food grade. Ceramic will need to wait until widespread trade resumes, as you need a centralized location with both quick growth wood, clay and a navigable waterway ( why England was one of the Roman centers for mass produced ceramics ). I imagine there will be some honest dealers peddling certified safe plastic buckets, and who knows if enough will be available locally ( you can count on decentralized authorities with no one carrying the monopoly on force in an energy scarce future ), but if coopers do make a profitable comeback it will be because in a resource scarce, no-trade era, local labor will be the way to do things once again.

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Paper & Ink Making

We aren’t going to go back to monks writing on animal skins once again, not after the printing press. If we are able to retain a flintlock/blackpowder level militarily, we will be able to keep printing books ( they won’t be very cheap, nor is any level of technological floor assured, but it is a decent probability ). And I’d also wager books will no longer pander to the lowest common denominator, not if paper and press and ink is much more dear and labor intensive ( remember, oil and machines are modern mans slaves, literally, and we are spoiled by close to free labor right now-what you are mainly paying for is the bankers stranglehold on all facets of the economy ). Books will once again be teaching tools rather than mere pandering entertainment. Currently, there are plenty of books on making books, as well as just paper making ( I’d imagine organic ink, as well ). It is 500 year old technology, or older. Plenty of old timey info is out there, and you can be sure books will continue to be offered to richer clients such as for military use and by the government. Any society above village level ( one does imagine in a total localized culture, reading would rapidly diminish as training went back to apprenticeships and guilds. Although, that is books. Paper and ink alone, not for printing or binding, should still be in demand ).

END

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consuming to invest 29

CONSUMING TO INVEST 29

Smithing

Blacksmithing isn’t much of a "thing" anymore, as 99% of what they do was eclipsed by modern steel making and factory work. Anymore, a welder is probably much busier than a blacksmith as far as custom work. Beyond shoeing horses, it is hard to envision many smithing tasks beyond a artsy-fartsy role. Blacksmiths won’t revert back to traditional tasks anyway. Before, surface sources of ore were worked prior to any fabrication. In the years after the collapse, salvage is going to be the only source of raw material, and as such a whole new skill set will be required. Raw ore does not work/react the same way as already processed metals ( and please note very carefully that ALL the surface ores globally were played out over a hundred years ago. Sure, that lasted thousands of years, but all things too must end. ALL ores in quantity are heavy machine/heavy finance/heavy fuel use extracted and the future is salvage only and NOT traditional historic primitive muscle fueled surface mined. You MUST recognize this new reality because it changed dynamics of politics, strategy, etc. The next couple of hundred years will not be like the last five thousand. Perpetual growth was possible only because of primitive extraction techniques. Once dinosaur juice exponentially increased our capacity to strip mine the earths surface, historic growth compressed a millennia worth of mining into a century or less. Without an ever continuing source of ore, what will the future look like? Certainly not the continual process of one empire replacing another. At best, a forever Dark Ages of decentralized power. As Europe eeked out an existence from the carcass of Rome, salvaging what had already been made, so too shall out future be nothing but salvage for anything other than organic recyclables ).

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Whereas before a smith might need a hammer and forge, tomorrows smith will need the same, but also he will need the tools of dismantling the steel and other metals of the Petroleum Age prior to reshaping. It might behoove you, should you wish to be a blacksmith in the future, to experiment now with stripping junk metal ( say, junked cars ) and trying to fashion it, all without modern methods. No welding, no power tools. Learn now what to do and you are heads and shoulders above all your competition. Immediately after the Big Flush ( was that reference from "The Survivors" with Robin Williams? ), before tires rot, gasoline goes bad and body panels rust, it will be relatively easy to commandeer all available motor vehicles and spend a lot of time dismantling, protecting and sorting. This will be a warehouse for your future metals industry. Buildings won’t move as easily, but they salvage nicely in moveable parts. You want to act quick, as one too many winters starts rot ( I can envision a former Home Depot or Wal-Mart building being a storehouse for insulation, 2x4’s and plywood sheets formally part of suburbia ).

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not another golden age

NOT ANOTHER GOLDEN AGE

The economy is not just about money. The economy has a huge infrastructure in place as a foundation. Trade is the lifeblood of any economy, and trade is what governments, militaries and warfare are all about. Boats and water ports and roads ( even in modern times with bulldozers and macadam they are insanely investment heavy-in more primitive times much more so ) and rail are all there for trade. Trade is the most important activity man is involved in. It is life itself, as almost no one is self-sufficient after a Stone Age level of existence is passed. We all need trade to survive. Bankers, on one level understand this, as they fund governments and war to achieve growth. Yet on the other hand they are far more fundamentally ignorant, since while they fund whatever profits them, and achieves growth, they refuse to see the need to fund long term infrastructure. The very basis of their existence. They fund what helps them grow, in other words, but refuse to fund their foundation. It has been repeated until no one pays attention, that ALL our infrastructure is decades past its shelf life and not being updated. One looks around, sees us still muddling through somehow, shrugs his shoulders and refuses to worry this state of affairs can’t continue indefinitely.

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But I don’t wish to repeat myself about our Oil Age infrastructure going to crap quickly. It isn’t actually such a bad thing, since once the petroleum runs out ( a process already way past started ) all our roads and bridges and dams and sewer systems couldn’t be run anyway. No, what I’d like to discuss now is the future of money. A gold and silver based economy needs an infrastructure just as a paper currency one does. Our current economy is actually oil based, which works much nicer in the short run since there is more oil than gold ( fun filled fact-half of ALL the gold ever mined everywhere came from South Africa [ what do you think the Boer War was all about? ] in the last few hundred years ). Long term, of course, it crashes and burns spectacularly since while gold sticks around, oil is burned up. But in the near future, we won’t have an infrastructure, nor will we have much silver or gold. In case you missed the news flash, artificially dampening the precious metal price helps the American Empire stay alive a bit longer, but it also sends most physical units of PM’s overseas to those with less sickly economies. Come post-apocalypse, we have no means of trade insofar as money. Gold and even silver will be far too scarce, even after massive population die-off, and will be quickly hoarded and NOT circulated. Barter will be the economy. Yet, barter allows only limited trade ( not to mention that in the absence of trade, governments are strictly local and can’t police trade routes- it is a chicken and egg issue ). Because we are trading gold for time, allowing foreigners to take the physical metal to prop up our Dollar ( even as our petro-dollar control declines ), trading gold for oil in a roundabout way ( I will wager anyone a jelly donut there is ZERO gold in Fort Knox or NYC ), come the collapse we will not have any functioning trade currency. Expect PM hyperinflation ( insanely high prices, PM payments only-like the instance of a dozen eggs selling for $20 in the California gold rush when that bought an ounce of gold ) almost immediately during the collapse as all metals are sucked into the few power dealers pockets, almost never to be seen again.

END

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consuming to invest 28

CONSUMING TO INVEST 28

Tanning

Tanning was a skill not because it was hard to learn but because it was a centralized activity. Rather than a household chore like knitting, producing leather was better on a large scale. Households can of course easily tan a hide or two, no chemicals needed other than the own animals brains, and it was a bonus you got from getting meat for dinner. Then, with only a punch, hammer and knife, you were able to produce leather accessories ( animal hides of thinner skinned animals could be sewn with conventional thread and needle. Thicker skins went to cobblers and accessory makers such as for horse tack ). Home production was more for rural self sufficient homesteads. Urban, settled areas had commercial tanners. The processing was centralized, both to move the putrid stench to a least unpleasant location and to get economics of scale with semi-skilled grunt workers. Following the market from Mountain Man re-enactors, there are books on primitive tanning widely available. Get a few, even if you are going to remain at the household level. Hides are invaluable, if nasty to process.

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Cobbler

There are a lot of 19^{th century books reprinted now. At first, they were only available as e-books from such Web sites as Gutenberg. Now, however, titles are being offered in paper. And usually at very modest mark-ups. While our public universities which pretend to champion the cause of the poor habitually charge $50 for a three hundred page book, these reprints usually go for $10 to $15. Suddenly, you have available a timeless retrieval system for skills, affordably. One cobbler book is "The Art Of Boot & Shoemaking" by John Leno. Go to Amazon for this one. Others, such as many on black powder manufacturing, are similarly priced. The great part is, you can read these free, in their original form on e-books. Then, if the book is worthy, you buy it from the paper book publisher. They slap on their logo, and design a new cover, then copyright the whole thing, but their source material is still in the public domain. Many poo-poo the Internet and e-books, but in many cases such as this, an invaluable modern resource for traditional skills ( needless to say, DON’T rely on e-books for the far future. Paper is a much better time traveler ).}

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Leather Working

It used to be, leather working was a highly paid modern skill. Gunslingers and horse riders would pay good money for solid craftsmanship. Alas, after cloth and plastic alternatives, and now Chinese leather imports cutting into those fields, you will be lucky to make this a business, even a "micro" one. You can still build for yourself. I have a wicked cool homemade knife gifted to me I’m wanting to sheath, and am planning on buying leather tools and material just for that one project ( and for a bayonet frog. Beyond those two projects, I can’t see what else I really need ). Then, I have the tools needed post-collapse. I can’t think it would make me money currently, however. But then, why worry. Most of these skills won’t. I just bring this up to warn you off dreams of treasure that are no longer valid. Again, go to Amazon. Several books on leather making are available ( read the comments carefully-you’ll know the right ones to buy, then ). Alas, most are from the 70’s, and high priced. But you just need two or so to cover the basics. Leather making ( the tools themselves also available from Amazon ) is just a few specialty tools, cheap, and a little practice. It is nice to have modern additions such as snaps and grommets, but not necessary ( although, easy to stockpile as they are hundreds for a few bucks ). I’d get a thick leather knife, easy to sharpen, rather than a razor blade cutter. And a few punches. A couple of tools to really make things easier, such as a seam measuring device, but can wait for your budget to catch up. If I could get started as a kid working leather, anyone can easily handle it ( I’m all thumbs guided by impatience ).

END

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bad news is normal

BAD NEWS IS NORMAL

Without getting into a tantrum fueled tirade against the steep decline in quality in journalism ( the steep decline in quality effects everything nowadays and is only a surprise because it seems surprising, given decades of the same ), it used to be the business was summed up by the simple "if it bleeds, it leads". Treat news as a car ride. As soon as there is a wreck on the side of the road everybody slows to five miles an hour trying to get a good look at the puddles of blood and if you get lucky, the occasional disjoined appendage. This was no different than in Hollywood, picking an actor based on the simple question "would you hump her/him?", pandering to the base instincts. It might seem dishonest, but when you run things on a capitalistic model, money talks and bull walks. If your competition only reports the highest standard news and analysis and loses money, the fear mongering becomes the new business model. But what concerns me today is the end result of all this bad news. We have gotten to the point where it effects our good judgment. Because even when you know better, your mind is still tricked. You go to the movie, you know beyond a shadow of a doubt that it is only a waking dream, a hallucination, and then when nubile teenagers ( played by twenty-five year olds ) are stalked and slashed by mentally imbalanced chainsaw wielders you get the crap scared out of you ( or, are deliciously happy at the blood and violence. Or both ). The brain is still fooled.

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We have become so desensitized to bad news that it is now no longer abnormal. This is a coping mechanism. Take the most horrific news, say, thirty percent of an entire nations population driving off to death marches and refugee camps which are just slower death events, and we think nothing of it. Just more bad news ( before, starvation was concerning. Now, whole populations dying is normal ). When a nuclear reactor is still melting down years later, we think nothing of it. Compare that to the hysteria of Three Mile Island ALMOST melting down. Now, even survivalists and the most ardent doom and gloomers remain numb from bad news as old news. Nothing gets us excited anymore. We have our coping mechanisms in full on damage control mode and they run 24/7. Which is why waiting for bad news to act ( such as, finally leave the big city, or buying a more rational quantity of storage food ) is a losing strategy. No insanely bad news actually motivates us anymore. Look at the Ebola scare which produced zero action amongst survivalists. No, buying Gatorade and Pepto is not a true reaction. Leaving civilization behind might have been. It wasn’t just because we weren’t sure it would be a real pandemic or not ( the WHO and others have queered that for us by habitually overreacting and over hyping all new strains of anything ). It was because we are inoculated to bad news. Don’t rely on bad news to motivate anymore. Allow logical analysis to guide you, and panic early because it makes sense. Let after-event panic be the forte of the unprepared masses.

END

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consuming to invest 27

CONSUMING TO INVEST 27

PART TWO

SKILLS

INTRO

Most old timey skills did not rely on expertise of a modern complexity level. Yes, you had years of apprentice training, but it wasn‘t because those skills needed years to master. It was because the master training you needed free labor for years and you needed a skill and you bought that through free labor. And it wasn’t a bad deal. Muscle memory from repetitive tasks made the most dull witted simpleton a master of any task. Nowadays, skills seem more intricate but have been kept as performable by simpletons by making them specialized rather than generalized. Difficult professions on par with medical doctors or engineers are saved for those with much better memories. Not worker drones, and paid accordingly ( although I could say that in many cases, rote memorization sometimes does not accompany originality or logic or out of the box problem solving and reinforces organizational rigidity ). In the near future, when we return to localized economies, the skills we will need to relearn will largely mirror those of the past. Yes, there will be salvage of the landscape littered with a hundred years of ores mined by petroleum extraction ( the previous century was marginally coal powered but largely run on surface ores extracted by muscle-which is why we will never duplicate that century-the easy ores are long gone and salvage is not always the same ) but that phase will be short. Not because the metals will necessarily run out ( although time will tell how much we ship to China as scrap before the collapse ) but because the energy to work that metal are and will.

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So, learning old skills might at first seem quaint and primitive and redundant, but they evolved in the past to make use of renewable resources, or to make full use of muscle power, or both. While thread and needle make nice leather products, a sloppier version of the same can be made of leather sheets and leather cord cut from another scrap, and you use half the tools. And no imported product ( yes, the tools were imported. Tools last a lifetime-consumables need continual trade ). Herbal remedies for headache or blood pressure might not be as effective as modern pharmaceuticals, but they grew locally and could be bartered for-a consideration in a no money economy. These skills are not antiquated but practical on a scale of millennium ( skills derived from petroleum, barely a century of practical use ). Some skills will be immediately applicable. The aforementioned herbal grower and prescriber. Some will need to wait until salvage runs out, such as a wheelwright. Or a bowyer, its usefulness hinging on the viability of gunpowder ( black or smokeless ) manufacture. All need just a few select tools and/or supplies. Manufactured metal used to be dear, and tools were simple and sturdy and practical ( if not fast or easy ). All just need practice more than money to learn.

END

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consuming to invest 26

CONSUMING TO INVEST 26

Misc.

Let’s wrap up this first section and include a few last items. There are many more, limited to your imagination, but since this isn’t an encyclopedia we’ll conclude with four more items. Wool carding, livestock, antenna and kitchen tools. Wool carding and spinning is taking hair and wool and creating your own yarn for crocheting. Livestock are yummy dead animals to barbeque ( or much more practical, their daily protein substitutes ), that don’t require huge pasture space of specialty feed. A television antenna is that bizarre tool almost unknown today that allows you to stop paying money to the cable or satellite company and yet still watch the boob tube. And kitchen specialty tools allow you to bypass commercially prepared foods or cut back on your costs. Making your own yarn gives you zero cost clothing items. Raising some livestock reduces your meat costs. No cable bill is a large monthly savings and a few simple kitchen tools allow you to cook cheaper.

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I don’t pretend to remember much about how my mother carded and spun wool. I remember having to set up her big ass loom for weaving, a huge pain in the butt if there ever was one, and her using a lot of homemade fibers for churning out foo-foo craft fair items. If I’m recalling right, you have that wood paddle with a huge patch of the pokey metal teeth and the long wood shaft with a base on it and that should be about the only two tools you need besides one to shear the animals. Just search "card and spin wool" along with "animal hairs for spinning" or similar. Since a book could be written separately for nearly every item in this first section, I’ve purposely left out most details. You just need to identify the needed tools from here, then you are on your own researching.

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The best meat to raise is still chickens, as they take very little in the way of feed and provide most of their own calories in bugs and other food items. But better than that, they provide protein every day without dying. Eggs ( and in the case of goats, milk ) are the daily perpetual protein source. The meat is a one time only item. Livestock should only be those animals that mostly feed themselves on non-human food, or deliver protein nearly daily. Nothing else makes economic sense ( pigs are great garbage/waste converters, but only make sense of a farm that provides enough of that-they are useless for the suburbs or a backyard. Even guinea pigs will probably be competing with your food, which just proves further God hated the New World compared to the Old ).

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I am totally confused as to why people pay for cable or satellite service. If you want to watch commercials, why pay for them? If you love a series, why pay for all the other shows you don’t like? A complete years series on DVD is much less than one months bill for cable. Why pay for a bunch of crap movies when you can pick and choose from RedBox and NetFlix? Or, even buy $5 discs from Wal-Mart. A La Carte makes more sense. Get a rooftop TV antenna for a one time only fee, then watch free broadcast TV ( twenty channels, a lot of locations ). Buy movies if cheap, rent if not.

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The kitchen is where a lot of savings happens, as well as a place to improve your health. Just make sure to buy your tools, rather than their luxury fads. A quality set of knives is great, a plastic push and chop machine is stupid. Cast iron or quality stainless steel is a "forever" pan or pot or skillet. A fermentation crock gives you fresh sauerkraut year round ( although mostly a winter staple ) from cheap cabbage ( and who cooks cabbage? BLECH!! ). A pasta and ravioli machine takes 35 cent flour and replaces $1 a pound store pasta. Usually, if it is new and handy, it is a fad. Time tested, century old tools are a one time investment, and practical.

END

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*By the by, all my writing is copyrighted. For the obtuse out there.

too good to be true

TOO GOOD TO BE TRUE-END IS NIGH

Before we start, yes, I know this isn’t really truly survivalist themed. Sue me. You know by now that once in awhile I veer from true form to pick at something else shiny that caught my eye. Or, just to talk about wonderful little me. Okay, so you know when something is too good to be true, you kind of tense up and start looking over your shoulder, paranoid that "the other shoe is going to drop" as it were. I did that when my child support ended. I was sure the world would end because after twenty years it sure seemed like I wasn’t allowed to enjoy the fruits of my own labor. And all that happened was two and a half years later I took a cut in hours and it didn’t hurt at all financially. Which is even MORE happy news that makes me paranoid. Then, I was pretty darn sure that once the second most wonderful fast food place on the west coast ( In-And-Out Burger is better, even after quality cuts, but they won’t get this far east ) arrived in town, that was a sure sign the end of the world was close. Well, all that happened was that Jack In The Crack reduced the quality of their food, so it turned out to not be so Too Good To Be True. Well, here is the third arriving Happy News that has me convinced The End Is Nigh So Gird Your Loins. I actually found a perfect gal.

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Now, I don’t want to detract from Ex-Wife #4. Her and I were probably never meant to be and it isn’t anyone’s fault. I hope she found her happy place. But I know she wasn’t happy for near the last decade, and she made me not so happy as well. I should have had the fortitude to end it for her and spare both of us a lot of stress. That was My Bad. Now, New Future Ex-Wife and I have known each other for about a year. We got along rather well, friendly like. Nothing more. Then, about a month or two ago ( times flies as the end of your life approaches ), once I was 100% sure there was no taking back ex #4 as I had so many times in the past, we started flirting ( she did most of it, being a rather brazen hussy ). Now, a couple weeks of dating later, I feel pretty confident this is going to be a real relationship. We are both a lot alike, and we both are the polar opposites of each others ex-spouses. We even have the same number of ex’s if you discount my military shame marriage. I don’t plan of spending all my time with her in town ( I’m pretty confident she won’t crap in a bucket out here in the boonies until she has to, then won’t object terribly. I don’t mind a Townie girlfriend ), we are taking things slow still. But I might slow slightly on the writing for a time. Still five days a week, but minimal length of 500 words as in times past. And I don’t think I’ll have all that many dud articles. If they get too frequent, do speak up. Just make some allowances at first. I can’t stop writing, but my attention is diverted right now. Wish me luck, take this as a portent of collapse if you feel so inclined. It’s got me a bit worried.

END

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Contact Information* Links To Others* Top 20 Survivalist Fiction* Land In Elko* Lord Bison*my bio & biblio
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My books on PDF ( ALL free!!  If you like it, most are available for sale in paper versions )  available at
http://www.lulu.com/shop/search.ep?keyWords=james++dakin&sorter=relevance-desc
*By the by, all my writing is copyrighted. For the obtuse out there.