extreme poverty

EXTREME POVERTY

It is easy to get lost in our surplus mindset. We all have pretty much conquered the frugal living for frugal prepping contest. We know how to live on very little so that we can prep a lot. Not much else to see here, move along. The problem is that we are now mini-warehousing. It isn't an issue, per se. Buying double or triple for the same price, by buying bulk, is super deluxe magical. No, the problem stems from the New Normal being that we CAN live surrounded by bulk. We can lose sight of the fact that surplus is abnormal.

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All empires suffer from hubris and delusions of surplus. America is no exception. We OUTDID the rest of the empires through history with the scale of that delusion, but that is only because of oil. Even England, with its coal, never approached the level of unreality. Mostly because of the class system, most folks were used to poverty and deprivation, all through the Industrial Revolution. Once it became time to politically share, after WWI, the ability to do so had long passed from the economy being eclipsed and society burdened by unintended consequences.

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The US never really had a resource disruption, despite always having some part of society living in abject poverty. This was a political and economic system exploiting new immigrants, wherein the old immigrants could then move up the socioeconomic ladder. That played out until very recently, whereby new immigrants were then rewarded as the multi-generational original settlers were exploited and ruined economically as the original wealth pump was reversed. The American Dream was always about exploitation and theft, but the contract was rewritten.

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The good part of this dynamic is that the bankers can only control you through debt. We bought us a small window of relief by staying out of debt and hence could survive nicely on the crumbs thrown us, but you also have to beware the caveats to that. If you foolishly get married, or have children, that is weaponized against you. If you want more money or more luxury, that is weaponized against you. You must live on the margins, staying less visible by needing less money. We are at a fortunate time right before overcapacity ruins the global economy, and before the energy is seriously depleted.

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Don't mistake this time as a normal condition. It is a reprieve. If one avoids debt and lives frugal, it is nothing to save a bit of cash and buy in bulk. As 70% of Americans live paycheck to paycheck, we don't have a lot of competition. We are being rewarded with steep discounts for being able to save rather than stay in debt. What a glorious time, buying $200 cases of AR ammo, twenty-five cents a pound of wheat buying in bulk. Ten years ago, global drought saw a shortage of wheat ( or, increased prices ) and there was ZERO affordable ammunition. The decade of economic decline eliminated a lot of consumers.

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It is nothing, barely registering on our budget, to buy thirty space blankets at a time, or twenty fresnel lenses. We only shop the family packs of meat, on loss leader sale. We are surrounded by crates of cheap LED lights, or Sportsman's Guide military surplus sold in half dozen lots. You can buy used paperbacks at the library for a dime each, as the fools trading in for a Kindle ( with far worse modern books ). And none of this is normal. And it is dangerous because we have embraced it as such, in desperation.

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After the deprivation of the 1970's, we as a people and culture went shopping at the mall, an orgy, a glut of consumption, exactly because the last decade had really sucked. We were applying Shopping Therapy. We all did it, voting for the Happy Optimist in Reagan, and partying so hearty the term “hookers and blow” entered the mainstream. Some fool on the radio was telling us to “don't worry, be happy”. Our entertainment went from depressing and violent with universal suffering ( Death Wish ) to happy and violent ( almost any action film ) where only the bad guys suffered.

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I think we might be in danger of being in a similar place of indulgent reality avoidance. We really were traumatized by the Greater Depression. Now that another Even Greater If Not The Greatest Forever Depression seems to have started, we might cling ever tighter to our material overabundance, to shield us. Oh, we know hard times are coming, but all this excessive crap is a talisman. A security blanket. I'm not judging. I was NEVER the level of hoarder I am now. It might be easy to forget that we are about to enter Extreme Poverty.

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I keep harping on it, although I've let it rest for longer in between lately, the problem of semi-auto firearms. All our lives, ammo was there, even 24 hours a day when Wal-Mart was still selling it before selling out to the commies. Even during the ammo drought, you could still buy ammo, just for a lot more money. Except rimfire, but I'll do you the favor of not harping on my favorite Peak Ore topic. But by and large, the ammo didn't disappear. I'm buying it up now, as if it will. Mostly because of politics, but also the next economic collapse.

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But my point is folks look at ammo as a given, something that will always be there, even if the price isn't right. Ah, no. We are going to be entering the phase of empire akin to the Great Depression, but worse, without the surpluses we had then. We are going to be following Britain's lead, but without another superpower to prop us up as we did them. Most of us are going to be entering into extreme poverty, as the ass falls out of the economy. Which will NOT recover as there is no more energy to prop one up.

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Yeah, here's my second favor. I won't get into all that, the Peak Oil argument. I'll just say, 2030 is the Olduvai Theory end game. Anyway, wasting ammunition tactically isn't the problem here. I just use it as an example of the surplus mindset. Another example is toilet paper. Far too many of us, myself included, still try for that mythical pallet of TP, rather than practicing NOW, with water or clothe wipes. I save SOME, not a lot, by delivering my Po Boy Bidet by soaking a wad of TP in water from the sink, after the initial solid removal, the water soothing on the hemorrhoids and far more easily removing the smeared matter. But I'm STILL relying on TP.

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Another example would be the dozens of LED's and the boxes full of rechargeable batteries, for illumination. When I suggest SUPPLEMENTING, not replacing but supplementing, some of that with the ToobLite reusable green glow stick, I'm met with dismissal. I'm not saying my solution is ideal, far from it. I only suggest it is an example of the proper mindset needed, to embrace SOME bulk buying elimination by going more primitive. I think the TP question is a good indicator to someone's willingness to change their thinking, planning and expectations.

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I would not DARE to suggest that for eliminating semi-auto. I realize I sit sad and alone on that. But if you can plan ahead and accept the lack of TP, even if you do try to postpone that day with stacking the pile higher, I think you are okay for the coming poverty. Because even entering Spice Times with a huge surplus, why not try to make that last a very long time indeed, stretching out the supply with poverty substitution?

( .Y. )

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