shelter in place

SHELTER IN PLACE

I used to mock the whole concept, even the very mention, of Sheltering In Place.  After all, being the official spokesperson of junk land real estate incorporated, what could possibly be said of staying in your worthless abode to justify such a poor decision?  You had to have and live on, or at least own within reasonable distance, poor boy land.  And of course I still think this is the case.  Alas, I can’t claim with much conviction that this is realistic for most people.  Not working is scary, and fear dictates you stay with the devil you know.  Says the guy who stayed with the same douche canoe wife for a decade past the relationship pull date, and is still using Windows computers.

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I preach my convictions, and my own personal experiences being ravaged economically dictate that I can approve no other lifestyle than living on junk land.  But I also have survived on not much past whole wheat for years at a time, and I can get very few minions all that excited about stocking little more than wheat kernels.  Nor could I convince all that many that the Lee-Enfield rifle was the best battle implement ever devised.  I mean, come on!  Patton was a really humped in the head dude.  Reincarnation?  We make fun of female movie stars who believe in that crap, but don’t use it to discredit a Army general?

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The M1 Garand was a special kind of rifle, granted ( I had no idea until now that the Garand was actually designed to use the BAR magazine but the brass at the Ordinance Corps insisted on the 8 round clip so as to conserve ammunition, a stance they never abandoned since the War Of Northern Aggression ).  Yet troops who had a choice seemed to prefer the Carbine, if not completely than on a wide scale.  So Patton might have been a bit off when he claimed the Garand was All That And A Bag Of Chips.  I contend that the Lee-Enfield was a much better rifle by the time the no4 came along, but you all understand my bias.  Nonetheless, I ranted and raved about the perfection of the firearm for the survivalist and was soundly ignored.

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I could pretend that I was hurt, but I take all the facts I have on hand and I stubbornly dig in my heels on an issue once I make up my mind about something, and I need zero validation from others by this point.  But I’m not so stubborn to realize nobody else is listening or heeding my advice polished to perfection.  I’m used to it.  I know I always end up right eventually.  The only rolling I’ll do in my grave is laughing uproariously as all my naysayers are punished for their own stubbornness.  But part of recognizing that my advice is being foolishly ignored is to make suggestions so that your choices are less sucky.

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Sheltering In Place is the lazy man’s survival strategy, and yet I perfectly understand that unemployment is scary crap.  Voluntary unemployment is exponentially worse.  I didn’t pull the plug on my regular day job for years after I didn’t need it, for the simple fact that I couldn’t conceive of going without the security of a paycheck.  Yes, I made it work.  After I squirreled away so much cash savings that the thought of losing it to inflation ate away a good chunk of my stomach lining.  The uncertainty of a paycheck was worse than knowing how much purchasing power I was going to lose.

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So I understand perfectly well that you cannot just say to your loyal loving minions, suck it up and move.  It isn’t as easy as that.  And yes, I understand working for a paycheck is a suckers game.  You save or earn your employee dollars and receive pennies in return.  Except.  Sometimes you earn your boss pennies and earn dollars.  No, in the end it doesn’t perfectly even out, but I think at times it can be close.  During business downturns, you can cost your employer money.  The trade off is you don’t get to earn as much of the profits in good times.  Just because self employment works great for most who try it doesn’t mean it is for everyone.  Some folks prefer safe over potentially rich.

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So anxiety over a lack of paychecks are a valid concern.  You can’t just dismiss that anxiety by claiming “but it’s good for you, if there is a collapse”.  Because while there WILL be a collapse, and all indicators point to soon, you still cannot guarantee it is going to happen in your life.  Because trying to time the collapse is what snake oil salesmen do.  Which includes trying to convince you the collapse is guaranteed to NOT happen until a certain time.  If I tell you we are already in Peak Oil, I have warned you to take extra heed that problems are worse than you thought.  If I try to tell you that official government statistics and the mainstream media have “proven” that it won’t happen until 2027, I have endangered you by trying to convince you all is well and that you can relax.

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Looked at in that light, I think Doom And Gloomers are far less evil than Optimistic Ollies.  But people don’t listen to the boys crying wolf, do they?  Only if it profits them to do so.  That is just reality.  If your current situation dictates you deny danger, more often than not you do so.  It was profitable for me to panic and “know” I needed to move to junk land because rent was taking three quarters of my take home pay ( and that was after working overtime AND my writing income ) and was increasing ten percent a year.  If staying in the city is what you need to do to keep working, you’ll naturally be inclined to “know” that you are safe to do so, at least for now. This is NOT a judgment, but rather a observation of human behavior.  We continue tomorrow.

( .Y. )

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