grandpappy's prepping 2 of 5

GRANDPAPPY’S PREPPING 2

The reason your grandpappy could prep with twenty acres with a log cabin and grow his own food and have an arsenal and other such niceties was because there was half the population around as there is now.  Half.  Think about how much nicer it would be if half the people were after more real estate, half the people were in line for more jobs.  Far less people competing for far more resources.  Now, since resources were busy being consumed as population grew, there is an exponential drop in availability.  Okay, sure, perhaps computers and firearms ( not counting war surplus ) might be cheaper adjusted for inflation ( you don’t even need to adjust for inflation with computers-my first Mac was $3500 and this five year old MS model was $350.  My newest was only $200.  But this one I’m typing on, if adjusted for inflation, would be like $75 ) but pretty much everything else is far lesser quality for far more money, if even available ( try finding an all metal Tonka truck as big as they used to be-I don’t know why but that damn truck sure stuck in my mind all these decades ).

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Your father took a big drop in standards of living, but with a combination of putting the wife to work and maxing out his credit, he could both live middle class and prep like your grandpappy.  You, on the other hand, those close enough to retirement to taste it even as you know the tantalizingly close sweet taste will turn to ashes soon, you are, not to put too fine of a point on it, pretty good and humped.  Most of you, never having lived in prosperous times ( as in, the new normal was SNAFU ), probably never fully bought into the middle class dream ( as redefined as being in debt until you died ) and most likely probably mostly escaped the housing bubble induced equity underwater as property taxes doubled middle class wipe-out ( unlike most of the rest of the population ).  Which doesn’t mean you have the resources to prep like your father.  It just means you have some resources available, unlike the rest of the former middle class, to prep.  IF you prep smart rather than try to follow most of the advice out there, by authors desperately trying to convince themselves that their hollow empty Yuppie lifestyle still has some mileage left on it. 

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Now, I know you are all confusingly scratching your heads.  Didn’t Jim just now say firearms had beaten inflation over the decades?  Didn’t he claim this series was going to be on the economics of a survival battery?  Why doesn’t he ever get to the point instead of making us wait for days?  Why can’t my hair look as good as his?  Good questions, all.  First off, your hair sucks because you hardly have any left.  I’m from solid genetic stock and am smarter and prettier than you.  Sorry.  It’s like asking why a poodle can’t make bigger turds ( it would, if you fed it MRE’s, but it might kill the poor bastard in the process ).  And, yes, I do love to carry on for some length.  You should meet me in person-I barely shut up ( which is why the wives don’t mind me reading, for the break ).  Also, everyone else is busy shortening their writing so there is more room for ads on their blog, and I ain’t like most other people.  But to the main point.  Yes, firearms, although certainly NOT their ammunition, are cheaper than ever ( again, excluding war surplus ).  But your wages are down, as are your hours.  And everything else is skyrocketing in price.  You can only afford LESS guns, not the same and certainly not more.

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Back when my wages were half, I could buy a used AR-15 for what new ones cost now.  My rent was one quarter, though, as was my food.  Houses were one tenth.  Property taxes were lower by percentage.  Cars were one third.  That is all those other pesky Must Have expenses.  And having a kid?  Free, then, with an entry level management job ( no college required ) with medical as a perk.  Now, if you are even offered insurance, you spend a few months wages on the insurance and then a few more on a deductible payment.  This is not some old dude bemoaning it cost more than a quarter to get a kid to mow his lawn ( not that I would pay one of the fat lazy coneheads anything to mow the lawn.  They can rot, and I’ll push the mower with a walker before I pay them anything other than a smack upside their head and a boot up their ass ), but an illustration how much in wages all costs have escalated.  Your earnings don’t come close to your old purchasing power.  Less earnings, less disposable income.  And so less of everything, even those things that cost the same.  Continued next article.

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