first world wealth 2

FIRST WORLD WEALTH 2

I teased you a bit yesterday discussing true wealth, then went on to imply it was business based. Let's expand on that today. A lot of people want you to believe that skills are true wealth. These are usually folks selling expensive survival advice ( in a universe where just your chest rig for your mandatory Imperial Stormtrooper plastic poodle wounding carbine costs half as much as four years of minimum grain calories, because What Is Your Life Worth?, all the advice from $40k farmland to FLIR scopes is surreal on the affordability scale ), and then if poor they throw you the sop of skills.

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Skills are important. I grant you that. Growing your own food is far superior to storing it. EXCEPT! Except when it isn't. Here in the desert, with dead soil and the issue of water transportation, the best farmer is going to have issues growing food after the collapse. You need both stockpiles and skills. And when preppers ONLY focus on one they are set up for failure. These followers of the Great Idaho Guru who cannot afford a $300k Idaho lot of land, and freeze dried foods and pallets of ammo, they are left with patio potted plants and a karate class.

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Their odds of survival are much closer to zero than they wish. Their skills don't stack up against forces beyond their control, like weather or demographics. I'm not trying to disparage skills, only place them in context. A highly educated person is NOT carrying wealth around in their head. That fairy tale worked in the Horatio stories, the fables about fleeing Jews immigrating to America from Nazi Germany, the propaganda about ( dot, not feathers ) Indians on work vistas here in Silicon Valley.

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All their skills were secondary to forces outside their control. The Indian programmer is not there because of his skill, but because a CEO wants more hooker and blow funds, because of the history of India including colonialism influencing his language abilities, the current temporary ascent of globalism, the downward trajectory of American empire and many other factors making his skill not so very important. A 19^th century butcher or baker or candlestick maker from Germany had more to thank the forces of Industrialization and the repression of wages than his skills in getting into this country.

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Again, this does NOT discount skills. It merely places them in proper perspective. I had NO skill in law enforcement even after nominal training ( lacking the proper mindset and neurological wiring ) but because of the nuances of the Cold War and the economy, was utilized anyway. I had better skills in management but my primary attribute was willingness to work far below the desired wages of my peers, AND, the secondary effects of the financialization of the economy after deindustrialization. My, a-hem, skills in writing are still open to debate, and are probably secondary to lack of competition and my mindset of simplifying trends.

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In short, skills are far less important than infrastructure, the cycles of history and geopolitics among other external factors. Remember, this is in context of creating wealth, only, for this discussion. Moving on, assets are a poor container of wealth. They are the easiest to plunder or destroy. All the 5.56 ammunition in the world isn't going to pay the taxman, even AFTER the collapse. A company of spearmen, employing the proper tactics, will easily surround and eliminate a well armed individual, and secure both arms and ammunition for the area warlord, so THAT barter is ill advised.

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( The Maxim machinegun would have served for naught in colonial Africa had the indigs controlled the logistical tail rather than performed a frontal charge ) For all the blather and bother of the Asparagus Farmers Armed With FLIR Scoped Carbines advocates, a farm is both a food production system AND a big fat target ( unless you are up in the mountains, off grid and off paved roads, and even then your weak link might be US Imperial controlled Dinosaur Juice. Still, the best odds ). This is not to discourage assets, but just to point out they are the first thing easily taken more than they are wealth.

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( And yes, permaculture and guerrilla gardens are very important for mountain farmers to utilize. As they should. One should wonder, however, if they are going to be successful OFF the mountain. Geography isn't everything but it is a lot. The gold here in the high desert is extremely diffuse. It needs diminishing oil to extract. Whereas the gold above ground gains in value from mines shutting down as the oil wells do. I hardly envision foreign occupation here. Then, the area becomes completely undesirable for all but myself. It DOES matter where you hang your collapse hat )

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There is an area where assets become negative wealth and value. Whereas most folks think a McMansion close to the cubicle farm workplace, with a hot tub and a German SUV are wealth and assets, I view them as shackles to a death trap. Your dependence on oil, the grid and plastic boxes holding in central air is nothing more than a worker financed life support system to benefit the bankers. I don't just mean the mortgage, but placing yourself within striking range of ghetto battalions. If God is on the side of the bigger battalion, you are hosed, White Boy. Your high cyclic rate carbine will be of little use in the suburbs.

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The only reason you are in danger is not because you are stuck in the city, but because you choose to wear golden handcuffs. By picking the wrong asset class to invest in, you are at this moment a debt slave and in the future a sex slave of the area warlord ( talking to you, guys. Even if OtherColor's rioting and lynching don't frighten you, perhaps the red ball gag scene in “Pulp Fiction” will. If not, I seriously worry about your mental state and your life choices ).

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As they say, when your hole gets too deep, stop digging. Unless you go in horizontally and start digging a stairway back up and out, that is. But the “stop digging” is good enough without elaboration for our discussion here. Negative return assets are a fools gold you must objectively look at, shrug your shoulders in resignation at the turn of luck, and walk away from. Not to say you cannot partially cash in on, to finance a more self sufficient change in lifestyle. Great job? Live in your car as you repo the house ( if underwater ). Save every dime and very soon, you are financed.

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Note, I do not disparage low asset folks living close to cities or in the “wrong” state. You can still make a prepping strategy work there. I'm only saying if you remain in danger under the delusion of holding on to assets that are illusions of wealth, you are a damn fool. A homeless guy in L.A. ( not for me, thanks, but this is illustrative ) who is willing and able to start hiking out of the area at the first whiff of irreversible trouble is in a better position than a millionaire in that city who is unwilling to leave because of asset possession. THAT analogy right there is what I want you to keep in mind balancing assets and danger.

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Cash is not wealth. It is one thing only, SHORT term emergency funds. All money saved is nothing more that a BOB asset. It will, guar-an-Gott-damned-tee you, depreciate to its original value, and sooner than you would like. Paper currency is nothing more than company store chits, your paycheck. The company gives you the chits and you overpay renting your shack, buying groceries or anything else from company owned stores. They are Army Of Occupation script. They are worth less than toilet paper ( the wrong kind of paper, which will paper cut your hemorrhoids ) as soon as the company bankrupts.

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That is certainly NOT rocket science. Of course, you NEED that script, that funny money, for emergencies, but it is the last kind of pretend wealth you want to be burdened with long term, AND, no matter what you do you lose wealth to one degree or another with it. Continued tomorrow, with gold and silver.

( .Y. )

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