Tuesday, March 22, 2016

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.

END

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20 comments:

  1. True Dakin attitude here. The third paragraph was hilarious.

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    1. Glad to see I still have the touch. I don't sit down and instruct myself to be bitter, cynical, funny and sarcastic, it has to flow organically.

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  2. I think that it's still possible to a point to beat the system James. But one has to be willing to live outside of the system to do so. No mortgage, off-grid, etc and so on. This is something that you are already familiar with since you have lived this exact life style previously. Most will consider this a hardship, and comparatively speaking, it is. But the question that you have to ask and answer for yourself is, is it worth it for the freedom?

    This is a much easier goal to accomplish for a person with no familial attachments. If you have a family, then it's going to be a lot more complicated, as well as costly.

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    1. Well, not really more costly, at least per person. Cheaper by the dozen, right? Although little consolation as you try to foot that bill.

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    2. I think the biggest problem James, is that by the time you make the retreat female friendly, you may as well just buy a home in the country and call it a day, since that's what you're going to end up with anyways. You might get lucky and find that one in a million hippy chick that will live in a trailer in the desert, and shuns material possessions, but we're talking about the law of averages here.

      With regards to children, it's probably only a matter of time before some do gooder determines that they're being neglected from having a proper “upbringing” (indoctrination) and turns you in to CPS for child abuse. Not to mention that the kids will hate your guts when you are unable to purchase for them the latest and greatest Apple or other high tech product on an annual basis.

      That's what I meant by it being far easier to go it alone if you're composed of such stock, and admittedly, almost no one is, which is why practically no one does this sort of thing as long as they still have other options.

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    3. Oh, I completely agree. I thought shelter from the weather and a financially secure squat was wonderful and I couldn't even get an alcoholic from way down the socio-economic ladder to agree with that. And, yes, some bastard coated bastard with creamy bastard filling will turn you in to CPS. No, my comment was solely about the economics of off-grid living. The more people, the less the cost per person. Four people per septic rather than one, etc.

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    4. “Four people per septic rather than one, etc.”

      Septic? We don't need no stinkin septic! All kidding aside, I actually wish that I could afford to have one, so that I would worry a lot less about harassment from the county. Even if I could afford to have one installed, the increase in taxes would probably kill me, and there goes the frugal survival plan, which is by necessity more so than choice.

      Elko minion here James. It will just be me living there (unless I can find a crazy enough female from back east to come join me, from where all the surplus females seem to reside? ) and I'm a pretty low key kind of guy, so I'm hoping that I won't get any visitors from the county?

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    5. As long as you don't have an illegal one, you should stay cool. So, don't have one, period.

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    6. What was kind of funny James, is that in that book about living without a salary by that Long fellow, I think I recall him making a comment about how his wife and kids would love nothing more than to put him to work earning a salary. He was in Canada, which is probably even less free than America, but he pulled it off with having kids. Of course this was in the 90's and it wasn't quite as totalitarian there as it is now.

      They have no equivalent of the 1st amendment up there. You can actually be charged for a hate crime and jailed for saying something politically incorrect. We're probably not too far behind I'm afraid?

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    7. Long had a conventional house on-grid, but just needed a casual income. That's how we pulled it off with kids, by greasing the correct palms prior.

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    8. “That's how we pulled it off with kids, by greasing the correct palms prior.”

      I don't recall reading about this in your previous writings James? Possible article idea?

      Also, I know that you've touched on it before, but I know that I wouldn't mind seeing another rehash of your do it yourself, economical, Earth sheltered abode, perhaps with more in depth construction details?

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    9. Well, I was so focused on building to avoid increased taxes I never really covered building with kids ( saving them from official kidnapping, which is exactly what is being done-fees to not take kids ) in mind. Every time I wrote about keeping the wife happy out there off-grid I was generally poo-pahed. Almost afraid to do an in depth issue with kids.

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    10. I have three kids. I will think about writing of our experiences off-grid.

      Idaho Homesteader

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  3. HA! Made me laugh, good article.

    Nice hair!!!

    Al

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    1. My hair is nice, thanks! Hey, so was my article-double thanks!

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  4. I don't think gun prices are lower today. Almost all my guns were bought in the late 1980's and cost less then today.

    My Marlin Lever Action 357 Mag was $187.00 in 1987, today in good used shape it's $1,100.00. My brother wants one and found a beat up one for $900.00. I have a Savage mod 24 that was $60.00, now they are $500.00


    As far as living off-grid I plan on it within a year or so. But the hard part about off-grid is city and county governments are making it illegal as off-grid people don't generate the tax money they need.


    Chuck Findlay

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    1. Okay, I think you are comparing specific models that are no longer manufactured. I'm just going with cheapest, for instance a .45 then and now. Then was a Springfield, what was available, and now that would be a Taurus. It could be slightly off as my '80's prices were mostly Californian.

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  5. Gun prices are also regional.
    A rifle will bring good money in the west,in the east the shotgun is king.
    Regional prepping,sounds like the start to a good Dakin prepping series.

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    1. Hmm, sounds a bit of a stretch to be made into an article. Not enough info.

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    2. +1. Gun prices are VERY regional. Consider the differential in availability of decent semi-auto's, or "standard cap" magazines in California/NY/NJ/CT. It's hard to buy ammo if you have a Los Angeles address. Price fixes this shortage.

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