SMALL TOWN LIVING
I haven’t lived in a small
town since 1987, not for lack of desire but opportunity. The jobs gravitated to larger population
centers and I simply followed them. I
had no angst that I was being deprived of a cultural experience or of
witnessing the end of an era-I am too narcissistic for that. I missed small towns for the security and
safety but couldn’t care less about the other quality of life issues. Of course, living in small cities isn’t too
bad, all things considered. If you stay
out of certain areas you are reasonably safe.
If you are part of the working poor but not living with the unemployed
you’ll most likely be in little danger.
Of course, paying enough in rent to stay out of the worst parts of the
city, you have little opportunity to ever escape properly ( you can always flee
on Greyhound or by junker car, but you can’t take many possessions ). The great thing about our car-centric culture
is that anyone can go anywhere to seek better living arrangements. And since we are indeed talking about the
last opportunity to do so, let’s cover small town living.
*
In case you have been
sleeping at the helm, we are just about at the point of economic collapse. Well, okay, already there but while
dysfunctional at least this turd is still rolling along after a fashion. Soon, the wheels come off. The fracking oil supply will seriously dip
soon and any day we could have overseas supply issues ( even, or especially,
from Canada ) both from spreading conflicts and economic warfare. No matter how long I talk about Peak Oil,
most likely your major life decisions are still predicated on the lifelong
normalcy of widespread petroleum availably.
Even at the worst, during the Arab Oil Embargo ( which effected less
than 5% of our supply-which coincidentally, will be about what we are just
about to lose initially as the frackers go bankrupt. Then, we’ll lose that much again from Canada
with their tar sands. Then… ), you could
still get gasoline even if it was problematic.
But we are going to be seeing multiple 1970’s gas crisis here very
soon. So far, mostly, demand destruction
has kept pace with supply contraction.
But people are still driving around like there is no tomorrow, even
without jobs. Once their ability to do
so becomes more limited, expect a knock-on effect as even more retail goes
bankrupt. We probably won’t see no gas,
but just far more employment issues with less gas. Get out while there is still extra money,
extra fuel and a few jobs left ( or, for that matter, government welfare ).
*
Will you be moving to a
small town? I know that would be my
preference ( I live in a really large town, or a very small city. I’d prefer a lot less oxygen wasters around
me ). Of course, small town America 2000
is a lot different than small town 1970.
Despite the idealistic blatherings of Yuppie Scum Survivalists who pine
for the isolated Norman Rockwell community where everyone is afraid of God and
willing to shoot Democrats on sight, if you chose an economically blighted area
you also accept the cultural decay that is its evil twin. Simply, without jobs peoples lives go to
crap. They have no structure. They have no self-esteem. And they usually have no hope. At the very least, alcohol and drugs see a
lot more abuse. I’m not suggesting that
25% of Americans are worthless. I detest
commentators that blame the poor for their condition. There are no jobs out there. There is fewer and fewer opportunities to
create your own job, both because disposable incomes are shrinking, meaning
less money is available to buy non-essentials, and because of start-up costs
and regulatory hurdles.
*
We have already entered
the part of history where the rich are stripping assets and the middle class
are joining the poor and welfare is bankrupting the government ( alas, it isn’t
so much bread and circus’s but corporate welfare doing the most damage ). Add in death of empire and we are right where
Rome was in her death spiral. If you
waste time with wishing for a president to save us ( ANY president,
libertarian, socialist or from the soon to be created Magical Unicorn Glitter
Party ), or railing against the poor for causing all this, or desperately
clinging to a dead paradigm such as indebted consuming suburbia dwelling, you
are wasting your time. The end is nigh,
and only Can Kicking got us this far.
Hard work and Yankee ingenuity and Go Get It-ness are not going to cut the
mustard. The sad fact is that you can
only be one of the first to the lifeboats, and that life is NOT the same as
being in the luxurious stateroom of the now doomed liner. This is the primary problem with Yuppie
Survivalists-they want their boats to be too comfortable.
*
If you go to a small town,
and I do heartily recommend them, odds are good that it will be one that has
fallen on hard times. They are the
bellwethers, having lost all the rural and decentralized jobs over the decades,
then been in no position to weather the start of the Greater Depression in
2008. They are already economically
dead, and so don’t expect their cultural to be Leave It To Beaver time machine
perfect. That is another thing I
despise about Yuppie Survivalism. It is
time warped in the 1950’s. I understand
the longing for yesteryear, but it is far from realistic. Small towns are no longer refuges from modern
life but insular, class divided like everywhere else, and slowly devolving and
splintering. No, I haven’t lived in a
true small town for thirty years. But it
isn’t hard to guess how things play out, baring a change in human nature. Are small towns better places to live? Of course.
But you aren’t living there for a superior culture. Or less crime. You are going there because there are far
less people.
*
I don’t mean to imply
culture or crime are worse. They aren’t. The culture is still superior, for the same
reason crime is different. When everyone
knows you, you act differently, more attuned to acting in the specified manner
of a tribe. Crime will still take
place. But when you are no longer
anonymous, you usually prefer property rather than personal crime. And even when alcoholism and drug use are out
of control, there are still group pressures rounding off the worst of your
behavior. There is some restraint, other
than that imposed by the fear of incarceration.
Just don’t expect a world already long dead and buried. Digging up putrid corpses never benefits
anyone. You get exactly what is
advertised-far less people. Don’t ask
for more.
END
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"The sad fact is that you can only be one of the first to the lifeboats, and that life is NOT the same as being in the luxurious stateroom of the now doomed liner. This is the primary problem with Yuppie Survivalists-they want their boats to be too comfortable."
ReplyDeleteExcellent commentary!
My life might look like Hillbilly poor now -- composting toilets, rainwater cisterns, subsistence gardening, butchering critters, heating only with wood, no clothes dryer/microwave/dishwasher, lots of manual labor -- but I like to look at it as Post Collapse Upper class.
I figure folks will be begging to live as good as me after the crash.
I raised my three kids this way so they think it's normal to have to collect snow to melt for water on the wood stove so they can take a shower. When the collapse happens in earnest, it'll be like good ol' home for them.
Idaho Homesteader
Hillbillies live in mobile homes-I think you are okay :)
DeleteHey, I resemble the mobile home remark. Of course i live in the country in south Mississippi. It works for now and is paid for.
DeleteIm working on hammering my debt. I have an 8.6 acre lot and a 13+ acre lot....connected. All my improvements are on the 8.6. They are financed through a friend. Since the well and septic are on the 8.6 i will likely build my 800-1000 sq. ft. house on it. If by some miracle we get 2-3 years of "normal" I will build my house debt free. I owe nothing to the banks except my truck. i dont worry about the banks.
If you must have debt, an auto only is best. Since you can repo it and it doesn't follow you through bankruptcy.
DeleteMost BK courts will allow you to keep a car that you own without debt, if it's an older POS. Wage slaves need a beater to get back to work and take on some post-BK debt to keep the system going.
DeleteWhich is surprisingly generous of them. In a divorce, ZERO thought is given to how little the male is left with to survive on so he can keep working in adequate health ( perhaps the male haters really do want them to work themselves to death ).
DeleteSmall towns while great most have aging populations and high poverty levels. You see a lot of grankids living off of grandparents. While multi generational living has a long history most are now young sponging off the older. Drugs are prevalent but more speard out.The mill towns of the 50s are dying a slow death. Land is in the hands of a select few and not for sale. My Mom still lives in a small town It has 3 employers of note providing 900 jobs to a population of 10,000.
ReplyDeleteMost small towns if deprived of welfare/food stamps and social security would be ghost towns.
I think most areas, regardless of populations, are supported by government checks.
DeleteI am looking forward to this very fact. Because, if there is anything to the whole 'agenda 21' conspiracy to get everyone to live in the cities, the easy way to go about it is to make benefits such as food stamps and welfare require urban residence to receive. Overnight the rural eater class will pick up and move to the cities.
DeleteIf they don't, well, it is still easier to ID them especially the trouble making sort than elsewhere, and fewer of them to potentially have to deal with.
Thinking about your days living in Happy Camp California again I see. Nothing was funnier than watching you walking around in a stupor en-route to the video store job.
ReplyDeleteYes that was a great little town, but all vestiges of jobs are gone now,replaced with growing pot, making honey oil and meth and of course stealing from the 1's who are prepared or the 1's who have recently moved there.
I'm sure this describes 80% of all the small towns across the USofA now.
But since you moved in with Betty and became a Townie I must admit that I don't really glean that much info from your blog anymore.
Knowing that you have joined "them" and given up riding the bike, now back to fast food and tooling around in a vehicle while twice weekly screaming "the oil is falling,the oil is falling"!Kinda of pushes me to look for other prepper wiseman to follow.
Yes, the economy is going down in flames (I'm pegging it's full crash for October 2016) but don't preach to us from your Lazy Boy in front of the Cable TV!
Go back to your old style of attempting to learn us the prepper way of your pre-Townie days please.
I'll leave aside your perpetual fantasies about "our" time together in Happy Camp, and just say that I don't think you've supported this blog enough to think I should give up any personal relationship just to remain living off-grid. Others that live off-grid give VERY crappy advice indeed. Because I'm not currently in the military, I shouldn't comment on that institution? Of course not. Same with living in or out of town. I've done my time and learned my lessons-those are not invalidated. Not to be a dick, but are you one of those Fracking Fags? Are you lashing out? Don't kill the messenger, dude.
Delete“If you waste time with wishing for a president to save us ( ANY president, libertarian, socialist or from the soon to be created Magical Unicorn Glitter Party ), or railing against the poor for causing all this, or desperately clinging to a dead paradigm such as indebted consuming suburbia dwelling, you are wasting your time. The end is nigh, and only Can Kicking got us this far. Hard work and Yankee ingenuity and Go Get It-ness are not going to cut the mustard.”
ReplyDeleteExcellent synopsis James. I tried explaining this in an email to my former co-worker, who has been out of work for a year now, same as I, and he's still blathering on about the future being bright and how technology will save us.
As side note, I may have lucked out. It looks like I'm going to be selling one of my parcels at a decent price. I'm going to immediately stock some cheap food, clothes, a lifetime of property taxes, and some other necessities, and still have a small nest egg for the occasional necessary purchases. Between this, and my new low paying career at Amazon's Mechanical Turk, I think I will be set up for the rest of my life. I'll be setting up the Elko property here in the near future as a result, if all goes well.
Best of luck on the move. You shouldn't regret it.
DeleteNot every small town was economicly dying even into 2008. Towns are required for various resource extraction (aka the gold mines of Elko, etc.) Even with mega farms taking only a handful of people to run; that handful need a place to buy their gasoline, gallon of milk, and carton of cigarettes. Cities will never grow on such a small base of population, but if you hunt for small towns with very modest to zero growth you can find them. A lot were given their growth by the oil patch boom (now going bust) but if you are just far enough from the boom places you might still be able to find some deals.
ReplyDeleteAnother aspect of the really small towns is that there is far less of the neighborhood class distinctions. Mansions will be next-door to run down trailer houses. And as a related item there is less zoning and code enforcement IF your neighbors don't dislike you.
The farther down towards tribe, the more leeway you have when the law is being enforced. Like it used to be when LEO's were instead Peace Officers.
DeleteYep, knowing the sheriff, mayor, and county commissioners on first name basis and face recognition (in positive or neutral light) is a GOOD thing.
DeleteTalking to the head of the road crew, phone company, and dump grounds directly and usually immediately, is also a good thing. Easy to do with a population of 1 - 5 thousand. Near impossible with a population of 50 thousand.
Is my acquaintance Danny the sheriff going to gun me down in cold blood during the crash, instead of talking to me or trying to work things out by other means first? (good luck trying to protect yourself from a government sniper if you don't know the member of the government).
Keep off the feds radar, make friends with the local power structure, and keep the big banks and businesses as far from your personal business as possible and you have a chance at coming out of the crash with the least possible hurt.
“Survivalists who pine for the isolated Norman Rockwell community where everyone is afraid of God and willing to shoot Democrats on sight”
ReplyDeleteDream crusher! :D
One of our Food Bank volunteers is a democrat, and was at one time a JarHead. Two strikes! Smartest guy I've met for a long time. Just saying.
DeleteYeah, I totally get that the two parties are the de facto same party James. That being said, I've always been baffled at why any white, Christian, heterosexual male, would vote for the party that runs on the platform that demonizes him? To me, the metaphorical equivalent of a Jew voting for the Nazi party! :D
DeleteGood analogy. I might inadvertently use it one day, not remembering I stole it.
DeleteTrump will fix this. Look at everyone he has running scared! He'll fix the economy, bring back jobs, make America great again! No more getting pushed around by china. GO TRUMP!!!
ReplyDeleteYour hair inspires us all!
DeleteOne other thing. moving to a small town makes you the outsider. I takes a few years (at a minimum) to be considered "one of us", so small town life has it's drawbacks.
ReplyDeleteBeing fresh meat means that if anyone is going to be burglarized, it will be you. It also means that the Sheriff will not be real zealous to go arrest his cousin, since that will make Thanksgiving Dinner awkward for him.
That makes it doubly important to LOOK POOR, but NOT vagrant.
you don't want to look like you have much worth sealing, but you don't want to be the bum that the "Law" has to run out of town.
Pro tip:
If you want to fit in more quickly, start attending whatever the local church is. Word will then get around that you are "good people". If you are not really into it, don't go every Sunday, but more like once a month, or so. Every once in a while, help out with the "outreach" stuff like volunteering with the church'es food bank. the point here is that you want to be seen , as quickly as possible, as an asset, but not a person WITH assets. Once again, we are going for: "he's good people" NOT: "he has nice stuff"
If you seriously do NOT want to go to church, you should maybe join the local VFW, or Moose Lodge, etc.
The idea here is that you are the new guy in town, so the rumor mill will be about you, at least in the beginning. by "socializing" you have some input as to what the town thinks you are all about. at the end of the day, the good people in town will be wanting to know why you had to leave the town you left. To the small town mindset, there really are only a few VALID reasons to move, and there lots of reasons that are INVALID.
I am running a little long for "comments" so i might write this stuff up, if i get a wild hair, but before i go, one last Pro Tip:
When you get to town, look around at how the people dress, and approximately copy them. Fitting in is Key to being "accepted". NOT BEING accepted marks you for the stewpot...
-eviltwin
And of course, if you bring money in ( it doesn't have to be "he's rich" money, just Blue Collar money ), you'll get extra brownie points.
DeleteJim, I moved to a small town in 2000 and left it in 2002 because I did not have any roots their. People were friendly on the surface but that was as far as it went. I could not get any help or info. I would truly be on my own if TSHTF. Better have lots of money to build everything you need and stock lots of food and ammo. If you don't have family their don't go. This is where a little bit bigger city is better just get land a few miles out of town to set up shop until the die off is over. Work the land and stock a hidden catch if food, guns, cooking stuff.
ReplyDeleteRight. I think the coping mechanisms for small towns don't always work-one hen higher in the pecking order disapproves and you get nowhere.
DeleteI have heard from several sources that being young single female and moving into a small town is very difficult. The current batch of local females are watching their men closely for ANY interaction with the "city whore" who will steal their men, and inventing gossip from whole-cloth based on innocent daytime behavior. A woman must be seen as either already "belonging to someone" or be 200% useful (volunteer, small-business, etc.) and unimpeachable (teetotalling nun, careful-modest dress, non-luxury car 3-10 years old, minimal jewelry, minimal make-up, widow of famous admired person). This is not without basis, since all-life-same-town people are often lacking significant education or big-picture perspective and may have been left behind by their peers because they are "slow" and/or "lack initiative" (dropped out of HS, had sub-crap ASVAB scores, or were paralysed-in-place early by successful local prosecutors enforcing order).
DeleteSingle men can show up with money, employment story that matches clothing, bathe occasionally, buy some drinks at the local pub twice, attend "acceptable" church 4 times a year, and "he's a good guy".
cue: David Bowie "When you're a boy".
Excellent! I hadn't considered that at all-thank you. I was only noticing trees in that forest.
DeleteSo when I move out to the country I should leave my makeup, dresses, high heals and jewelry behind?????????????
DeleteChuck Findlay
Well, in theory, you shouldn't be discriminated against because you are embracing the new victim paradigm. Perhaps don't show them the box of Wheaties with your picture on it? Or would that help?
DeleteI think the bump in the road I live in has a population of less than 800. Its failing quick, not enough revenue to keep the sewer working right, I expect the state to step in soon and take over. The bills will sky rocket, I am working on a plan. Hint: they bill for sewer based on the water usage. I'm using a shallow well to "wash cars" and water the garden with. I don't see why that can't flush a toilet as well as provide semi clean water in a grid down situation. Still have to boil or some other method to sterilize it. I lived on a shallow well for 40+ years with no ill effects. The local drug users have so far not been much of problem, all my stuff appears to be worthless junk I guess. We do have somewhat of a local tribe going on, mostly old geezers that can't sleep looking out the window out of complete boredom wishing they were some where else. They love to call the law just for a bit of excitement.
ReplyDeleteCan't the old bastards just watch TV like all the other self-respecting zombies?
DeleteI think that small town life has changed considerably for the worse since the post internet and technology age James. Practically speaking, many small towns in the 1980's and before, really were still living back in the 1950's. Most of these rural areas only got the 1 or 2 local television stations, and I'm going to guess that these stations didn't air too much of the hollyweird filth. Flash forward to the 90's and practically everyone, even the small town poor, now have an internet connection and an 18” satellite dish to filter the propaganda into their homes. Surprisingly, there were still many rural townships that did not have grid power as recently as the 1960's.
ReplyDeleteAlso, meth has become a problem in practically all small town areas all across the country; unheard of when I was a kid. You always heard about the moonshining hillbilly's, but they were tame compared to the drug cookers.
Actually, I would put the filth stream start at the early to mid '80's with the advent of video stores. I don't remember ANY television channels, but the video store did a brisk business, as did the liquer store that also rented a smaller selection.
DeleteI do handyman / home repair work, in order for me to have money I need a town / city with people willing to pay me. Small towns don’t have enough people to support my working. Also people in the country are more likely to repair things themselves.
ReplyDeleteI live in a suburb of a somewhat large city (Toledo Ohio) and am able to easily drive to the jobs I need to do. My plans in a few years (I take care of my parents as no one else will do it. They are 86 & n88 years old) is to move out 25-miles or so so I’m in the country a bit but still close enough to do the work I do.
Back during the 1930’s depression people moved to the cities, not away from them because there was no money to be made in the country. It also happened this way in Argentina during the 2001 collapse.
I know it’s a prepper dream to live way out by yourself (pushed by JWR and his Patriots series of books) but it’s not practical and will probably fail.
We all need money and trade to live and cities is where this happens.
James I don’t blame you one bit for moving to a town or city. Like I said above I want to move to just outside of the city to still make a living.
I have a LOT of skills that would allow me a reasonable good life in the country, I have the tools and a good supply of materials to go with the tools and skills. And I’m actively learning more all the time, but I still need money to buy things, pay taxes and the 100 other things money does for us.
I’ve learned to live on a lower level of income them most people and actually be pretty happy. But I still NEED money as we all do and few of us have enough of it to be isolated from it’s exchange for goods. And small towns probably won’t support the base of people they have right now when or if the government paycheck stops. And I’m fairy sure you will again see a migration to (not away from) cities.
Trade must happen and we need people for it to do so. And barter is another prepper wet dream, I barter my repair services some now, but it’s hard to find things people have that I want or need (silver always works, but few people have silver) so while I generally like to barer work, it’s hard to actually get it to work on a large scale.
Might it be better to position yourself for this now then post SHTF and be close enough to a city or large town for trade and work to happen, but still out a bit to give you a buffer from the crazy that may happen???
Chuck Findlay
I have no bills ( I discount rent as this is elective ) and don't think I could get by on less than half of what I earn now ( $5k a year instead of my current $10k ). As you say, there is simply too many things needing money. Barter was feasible prior to mechanized farming and the Federal Reserve-it won't be again until we devolve quite a ways.
DeleteBarter is inferior trade. It's for consumables and friends, or Nation-States with raw materials when they lack supplies or willingness to use gold. People will barter, but mostly with people they know and trust, so it's going to be with people you almost want to make a gift to, if you could be reasonably sure that they would help you when you need it. Instead of barter, you could assemble local trade-clubs with a ledger-entry trade system that could allow credit to be offered by sellers to retail buyers as well as among themselves. You could allow anything as-agreed-to, but it stops working if anyone gets too much debt or credit compared to the system (like TBTF banks). 7-year Jubilee might be a good reset period to prevent formation of slave and master classes by debt/credit. Buying a farm with produce from that farm probably couldn't mathematically happen, but if a buyer had some super-money (gold or silver) to put half down, it probably could be bought for 5 years output. Land wouldn't change hands much, but people would live/work on the land and have rights to themselves/family/personalproperty as feudal tenants would.
DeleteThis why small silver coins (US pre-1965 dimes) are so important for trade: you can't trust strangers to operate inside your barter club and they can't trust you the same way. You need something desirable (compact/divisible/permanent/standardized & limited in quantity) to act as money not needing trust/counter-party risk, and gold/silver/platinum metals do this best, especially when coined. Trades are possible using base-metal coins/bars of copper/nickel/tin/aluminum/zinc metals that are industrially useful but you need warehouses, not pockets, to walk away rich.
I'm sure really-smart people have overthought this already, and we are living the end-game of their Illuminati descendants.
pdxr13
There was a story recently about someone in China stocking copper, in huge amounts, for barter. Can't remember any details.
DeleteLord Bison,
ReplyDeleteI just wanted to tell you that this is likely the best column that you have penned in your illustrious career.
My family hails from the Northeastern Appalachian area. Your descriptions of the state of small town America dovetail rather nicely with my own. My mother and father both left a small mountain city (20,000+/-) to migrate to the East Coast worker hives (circa 1983). Many of their siblings scrammed as soon as they could.
30+ years later the entire region my family hails from is a motley collection of people scraping by--barely, or others that teeter on the brink of oblivion due to substance abuse and mental health issues and chronic unemployment. Thanks for not falling into the trap of blaming the poor for problems clearly out of their hands. I am no bleeding heart...but Horatio Algering your way out of many situations is just not viable (if it every truly was).
The family that I have still living in the vicinity would gouge your eyes out for a shot at a 12$ per hour job. The only solid employer is the prison system (both state and federal) which keeps building jails on the site of moribund industrial properties (including the factory that my great grandma worked at until her retirement).
There are also jobs aplenty in the underground economy mostly centering around illicit pharma and drug dealing. A number of my cousins entered this line of work...Beats McDonald's or so I am told.
I think that these area's certainly offer safer alternatives to living the big city life. Especially as we continue to follow in the economic death spiral. However,it is good to have perspective. These regions are not the mom's apple pie, Norman Rockwell honey pits that so many wish to believe that they are. Welfare and drugs are just as much a way of life in West Virginia as they are in the urban slave matrix of Oakland, CA. Overall the lower population density is what keeps you safe.
Again damn good article and hump that dude giving you BS.
"Again damn good article and hump that dude giving you BS."
DeleteI actually like strong disagreement, based on logic. It keeps me sharp and alert. Pure hate, I really can't comprehend. Oh well, I'll keep posting them as long as the N-Bomb and libel rules are followed-if you start to censure for other things it becomes a slippery slope.