Thursday, August 30, 2018

...T-shirt 2 of 4


AND ALL I GOT WAS THIS T SHIRT 2
Yesterday, with all due modesty, I related how even wasting about half of my working years as I was unfocused and sleepwalking I still managed to reach a nice 4% of my income in savings and assets.  Real savings, not some 401(k) that was available to the banks CEO as Hooker And Blow money ( wow!  Slept much through the ‘80’s?  Saving & Loans fraud ring a bell?  None of this crap is new nor should it be surprising ).  Real assets, tools needed to reduce your need for more money.  How many folks have that much to show for a life of working?  Or is the sum total of their efforts just in the ownership of the T-shirt?
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It took me a dozen years to save all I have, out of 35 working.  In my defense, this includes a secondary source ( now primary ) of income, the building of a skill set AND doing so while under the burden of the child support payment for eight of those years.  So you should have no problem doing the same thing in far less time.  I don’t think two years would be unrealistic for anyone, to get out of debt, into rent free low tax land and shelter, with much better preps.  No, Spanky, you can’t keep your middle class lifestyle or prep Yuppie Scum Survivalist Style. 
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Anyone can drop out of the Rat Race and prep really well, but nobody wants to because they want to stay Pampered Pretty Princess Pony Preppers.  They are weak.  Worthless and weak.  Girly Men.  You think you are a manly man, and yet need the soft comfort of a auto, the climate controlled cubicle, the expertly crafted Fake Food from the supermarket deli?  Dude!  Being prepped is learning to be poor, because that is all of our destinies.  If you think the Media And Government Industrial Complex is always lying to you about Political Correctness, History, Race, War, The Economy and everything else, you are correct.  Guess what else they are lying about.  The 200 Year Fracking Oil Revolution.
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We may never completely run out of energy, but we are already running out of enough that is needed to continue our modern economy.  I’m going to get much poorer.  You are going to get much poorer.  Everyone but the 1% is going to get much poorer, and even some of them will be victims of economic cannibalism as the number of the elite shrink by necessity.  In short, if you cannot embrace being poor now, while you have the resources to choose Genteel Poverty over the Abject kind, you are double dog dingus dry humped.  Stick a fork in you, ‘cause you are done, bro.  And yet, as horrible as less money sounds to you, it also frees you ( at this point ).
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Choosing to be poor now allows you to invest in needing far less money later.  That is your only option besides going down with the ship.  Sure, making more money will accelerate the process of retiring debt and investing in a less-money future.  But for the average bear, you are going to need to spend a lot less to free up the diminishing amount of money you do have.  I write for the average bear, not the rich humper like certain someone’s who is hoping to share in the wealth of the last person to see a shrinking pie.  Nut up and start giving up your luxuries, if you want a quick turnaround from paycheck to paycheck vulnerability to a less unstable future.
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As a quick aside, I’m watching a video on one of the big box warehouse groceries, Sam’s Club, which epitomized dumb asses focusing on the rich for business, like aforementioned Yuppie Scum Survivalist Guru’s.  No matter what Sam’s was trying to do, every decision they made resulted in losing yet more money and market share.  The latest brainstorm from some idiot making millions a year in salary to steer another Titanic into the iceberg was to “focus on the upscale customer”.  This is Orwellian Speak for chasing the dwindling upper income segment because they can’t do anything to satisfy the shrinking income folks, which is most of us.  Just like Wal-Mart gave up being the Low Price Leader ( except in items few folks buy because everyone is busy eating out, such as $1.20 flour, $1.37 sugar and $2.98 shortening-prices won’t last long, stock up NOW ) trying to chase after the customers Target already had.  Jesus weeps.
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Giving up luxuries is the simple formula for a quick escape from the golden handcuffs.  And you need quick, because lord knows how much longer we have prior to a quicker slide into the magical world of crap.  I know, everyone always says The End Is Nigh, and everyone is always wrong.  Yet, one day that will be right, and your chance to prep is gone.  Prepping is a resource dependent activity.  You can’t do it after.  If you look at the last six thousand years, the number of empires that rose to extreme riches and fell to depopulated and denuded landscapes is astonishing.  Some were wiped out so thoroughly no one remembered the first thing about them.  They ALL imploded, and every single one of them thought they were exceptional and were destined to beat the trend ( well, except the first one-duh! ).
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‘Murican empire is already failing.  If nothing else had happened just invading Afghanistan would have cemented our demise ( you know-Graveyard Of Empires ).  But a lot more did happen, didn’t it?  Your window of opportunity is fading.  Act hastily.  Take not a scalpel to trim the fat, but a chainsaw.  Your home is too big.  At this point, anything over the size of a tent is too big.  Living in a tent now, or a tent size auto, is nicer with propane and solar panels will be than if you wait and are forced to live in a cardboard box with a Hobo Stove ( coffee can rocket stove )  and a candle.  If you can afford the candle.
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Stop your pathetic sniveling.  You can later build a small Unibomber cabin to upgrade from a tent.  God!  What a baby!  You’ll be able to afford insulation which is more than Ted ever had.  You didn’t hear him crying.  And he was trying to help everyone.  I’ll bet everyone who is censored from the Internet wishes his bid to halt technology was more successful.  What did relying on the Web really get us in the end?  A busted and broken Post Office that we might have to return to using one day.  Who benefited more than big business who was able to save a lot of money through Just In Time Inventories, and the banking industry?  You should have known better, because it was the only infrastructure built since the Interstate System, and it wasn’t built to benefit Average Poor Joe.
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If you are lucky, tomorrow I’ll cover more than just downgrading housing.  If you are unlucky I’ll cover how the Digital Revolution screwed us with few benefits.  Now there was a magical bus ride where you left with nothing but a T-shirt.
( .Y. )
( today's related link https://amzn.to/2PCNPYU )
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note: free books.  Not sure about this one, it looks bizarre.  But he has a lot of other books so this might be gateway  https://amzn.to/2NChD6Q 
Normally the kind of book I'd pass on but the author was a ghetto cop so perhaps there is hope https://amzn.to/2LGozOc .  Meh, zombies https://amzn.to/2PO55KW .  
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31 comments:

  1. A little tough love from Lord Bison today, I like it. Looking forward to your take on the Digital Revolution, I've been saying for years that we as a socitey were sold a bill of goods on that front. Why is it with the advent of computers my work days got longer, the regulatory requirements have gone off the charts and I slide deeper into the life of a pauper with every "upgrade"?!? We were all told for years that computers would make everyone's life easier, but Im still waiting...maybe "easier" was code for unemployed?

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    1. You got it in one. As you'll suffer through tomorrow, digitalization was just a public works project for the elite to send everyone's job overseas or robotize.

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    2. jl - I'm away from my notes however I can paraphrase what I wrote down. A US senate sub-committee (in the 60's?) was told that the average work week would be about 20 hours before 2000 thanks to technology (dates could be wrong but you get the gist)

      Another tidbit - during the start of the industrial revolution the output in a factory skyrocketed and the workers could work a couple of days to produce the required output. When asked if they wanted more money or more time off they chose time off. This of course doesn't suit the bosses who need people slaving away not having time / energy to think / cause trouble.


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    3. I'm surprised the 12 hour work day hasn't been forced back into effect. Well, not now with ObammyCare rules, but prior to that.

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    4. This has come true, just not in the hopeful way you wanted to read it. Your 20 hour work week is the MEAN work week of 200M workers where 100M are not productively employed. The rest of the population is too young, too sick, too old, too addicted, illegally-present, in prison, in an institution, or too stupid to be productive in any kind of job. The hundredmillion workers support the hundredmillion non-workers as well as the hundred and fifty(?) million not-workers. Enjoy your 2 weeks of vacation (paid time after year 5 on the job). Nice deal, eh?

      pdxr13

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    5. Where the heck did I read it? I think Raconteur Report. A society needs to be able to employ the unproductive for stability ( I've said it before, but the recent mention was more poetic than I ). That ship sailed long ago.

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  2. "Being prepped is learning to be poor, because that is all of our destinies."

    Well that might be YOUR destiny but it is not mine.
    I've been poor, didn't like it, never will again.

    Being poor is largely a gov't image construct meant to pit groups against each other. If the gov't says you're poor then bygod you must be poor and there is no other way to look at it.

    I don't have a lot of gov't made legal tenders but I am not poor.
    I have spent a lifetime building an environment in which I am as free as I know how to be. As I learn more I become more free. And comfortable. Now that I'm older being comfortable is more important to me. I don't need a NEW ride to be comfortable, but I need A ride to be comfortable. Nobody in their right mind is going to try to ride a bike 9 miles for a loaf of bread, period. No ride will last forever so I have some gov't legal tenders stashed to fix it when it breaks. That's comforting cause I won't have to go into debt when it breaks.

    Our house and acreage are paid for but we do pay about $800 per year in property tax and another $400 a year in insurance, so we each have multiple methods to earn legal tenders to pay for such things.

    Notice, "multiple" methods. If you only have 1 way to make money your are poor. Poorer than you can imagine. You will also become very uncomfortable.

    Gov't construct aside, poor is how you frame it. I frame it as overall comfort. It has little to do with money, unless that's the way you choose to see it but be advised, that is a losers view.

    My greatest 2 steps toward overall comfort was the day I paid off my last debt, and the day we bought this house with cash. The 3rd step was many year earlier when I started earning money through a variety of sources so that if one or more dries up I still have money coming in while I try to find more sources. I have one source of income that has put coin in my pocket for over 30 years and I'm getting ready to cut it loose cause it is becoming more trouble than it's worth. Remember, comfort. This source has been uncomfortable for some time and it's days are numbered. But I'm not worried cause I have lots of other sources.

    I drive about 1000 miles per year, eat about 1500 calories per day, drink mostly water, spend less than half of what I earn, and I'm constantly on the lookout to trim further, while maintaining my comfort.

    This planet can go straight to hell and I'll do whatever I can go go over, under, around or through the difficult times cause I WILL make it through to the other side. Comfort.

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    1. I'm not going to disagree with you, because we look through different paradigms. I see "poor" as a coming lack of choices and constricting lifestyles. As in, Venezuela without any middle or upper class. A rapidly shrinking energy supply will lower all boats. Your vehicle will soon be worthless without imported oil. But I understand my doom and gloom isn't a given with all, so I hear where you are coming from. Your model may actually be more realistic and only time will tell.

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    2. Jim,
      There will always be _some_ oil, and some ng, in some places of the fUSA, just not enough for the 95% to keep going how they are. Even at (days wage) per gallon, there are times/jobs worth burning expensive/scarce fuel for in your vintage operational machine (purify water/process food/winter battery charging, not joy-ride in the 240D).

      pdxr13

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    3. Without the joy of Happy Motoring, what shall live be worth living?

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    4. The City of Portland has developed an alternative to Happy Motoring. They won't give it a name, but it should be called Misery Transport or Public Fairness of Movement. They hate cars, parking, gas stations, and drivers but love to spend millions on "complying" with ADA on-roads. Enjoy the electric scooters (too fast for sidewalks, too slow for traffic, banned in SF).
      pdxr13

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    5. The city of Portland would ban common sense if they detected it anywhere in the metro limits. Be careful.

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  3. Been talking to someone that can get me a deal on 2 horses. 2 big female gingers, nothing fancy. About $1000 for both, up front. Then another $1000 to supply them for the next year. Maybe another $1000 in other things regarding maintenance.

    Horses, the ultimate all wheel drive all terrain vehicles. It's been decades since I rode a horse. But riding is just one aspect of having 1000lb animals. They can do other things. Like pull wagons, drag trees, etc. The vet is a good friend and lives about 2 miles from here. The guy with the available horses is about 3 miles the other way. Horse food costs way less than gas. I've been thinking about this for some time and the time for thinking is almost over. Then I might get serious about chickens.

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    1. I imagine the hay is local. Next step, get a car frame with the engine pulled like the picture from Kuntstler. :)

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    2. Lots of animal food growing around here. Every other year they grow corn and soy beans and timothy. Big field right behind our woods is corn right now, was timothy last year. My neighbor across the road has 2 horses and a tractor and he mows some of the smaller fields for the free proceeds which he feeds to the horses, and sells to his friends for $25. I'm talking those big 6' diameter bails. He says his 2 horses each one bail a month throughout the winter.

      The car frame sits too close to the ground and would require serious modification though in some circumstances it could work. A more universal design uses larger tractor wheels and the whole thing sits up much higher, which is mandatory for difficult terrain. I'm a woodworker so I think I can come up with something when the time comes. A prairie schooner would be cool. Our makeshift crib if everything goes to hell. Rather than a round roof, have an angled roof with solar panels. LOL

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    3. Don't forget the weapons pod for the crew served gun, as in Wolf And Iron:
      https://amzn.to/2N5ClyD

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    4. daughter favors a gypsy caravan should the time come. they are really nice inside, well thought out plan.

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    5. And it would probably look something like this:

      Snakefinger's The Man in the dark Sedan

      https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zW_r4Z8lL3g

      This is what the kids our age that took too much LSD listened to at the time Jim :D

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    6. Sometimes quality decline works to your advantage. LSD by the 80's was so reduced in potency that it was mild and fun. Like the video!

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  4. It's a minions birthday.

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    1. Is there going to be crying involved?

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    2. Only if there isn't a free weeks access to Bison Plus blog

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    3. The masses love free. I'll have my own communist revolt ( kidding! Geez, algo's, relax )

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  5. My favorite bit from the Druid Dude, “Collapse now and avoid the rush.” You need to practice and learn how to have some quality of life without oil age toys to play with.

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    1. One of his best Rules. "Stairstep Collapse", not so much.

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  6. Yes! Digitalize this! It was, was a tech tool for acedemics, corporate techno-managers, government beauracrats, military, to funnel and control info-data for their paticular operations. There was a profit route discovered and exploited to the hilt. People, being the heavy in the brain mass, but not smart generally, got sucked into that sensory pleasure vortex. The key is to be that Minion outlier. The guy that only uses minimal tech to function with-not-in society. That and having working hands with a solitary attitude to flank around the nonsense and be good to go. I like the Luddite with a good rifle and sharp knife meme.

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    1. Luddites were tight! Misunderstood like Malthus.

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  7. The Rules of Malthus are still in effect. A mere 200 years of delay due to free unlimited energy will only keep working if a similar scaling of resources and habitat is done. That means off-planet human colonies and zero-point/cold fusion (almost-unlimited power). Holding my breath!

    pdxr13

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    1. Malthus is as a god and billions of mere mortals should quake in their plastic peasant shoes at the mere mention of His Greatness.

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    2. An Essay on the Principle of
      Population
      An Essay on the Principle of Population, as it
      Affects the Future Improvement of Society
      with Remarks on the Speculations of Mr. Godwin,
      M. Condorcet, and Other Writers.
      Thomas Malthus
      London

      http://www.esp.org/books/malthus/population/malthus.pdf

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    3. Thank you! Not sure why I didn't think of that.

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