but, venezuela! 1 of 2

BUT, VENEZUELA!

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note: a YouTube channel I'm quite impressed with so far, Black Pilled.
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Don’t you just love those people who are so dogmatic they are incapable of utilizing logic?  Hey, you say, like those stinking liberals!  Well, fine.  But how about those Libertarians, also?  When you look around and all you see to every problem is one solution, sorry dude but you are dogmatic.  There is no real difference between a Liberal and a Libertarian, insofar as paradigm imprisonment.  If liberals have a problem, why, Big Sister Hilary has a solution!  If Libertarians have a problem, why, nothing a little free market won’t solve!  Well, guess what, chumps?  Both of them have more in common than ill applied dogma.

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Both are elite apologists.  Think about it.  Both solutions enable the current system.  More government and regulation help large corporations strangle competition from low level players and more free market enables corporations to ignore the regulations and taxes they do not care for.  Not that they are fighting government on this, the government is complicit in it.  Oh, what’s that Mr. Banker?  You want to have unlimited Derivatives exposure?  Sure, let me rewrite that law and then instruct my enforcement agency to ignore you altogether.

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Just the act of agitating and voting helps those in power, no matter what side of the political spectrum the voters are on, as any laws passed help the elite.  They don’t get there by satisfying a consumer nor a perceived public need.  The elite get there, stay in power and gain riches by gaming the entire system.  It is as simple as that.  That is why I don’t vote.  Previously, I didn’t vote so that my vote was I refused to enable my own imprisonment.  Now I don’t vote simply because collapse is baked into the cake and it is a complete waste of time.  However, discussing this is NOT a waste, because by looking at reality, and doing the viewing without the visual aid of dogma, opens up other possibilities.

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When you practice logical thought, problems become easier to solve.  The thinking is just exercise, even if the subject is irrelevant.  Thinking anything will change is stupid.  Thinking about how your thinking was flawed is NOT.  Once you realize that your model is outdated, viewing other issues becomes clearer.  And the paradigm of the free market is deeply flawed.  There has never been a free market.  Ever.  It is a philosophy or religion, as in you cannot prove its theory.  Doubling down on your belief is not proving anything other than your illogical thinking.

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No one is saying that socialism is good and freedom is bad.  What I’m trying to get at is that what you have been taught is a lie and that you believe it at your own peril.  Let’s take health care, a ridiculously easy target by now.  What we actually have in the medical industry is a state protected monopoly, with state mandated purchasing, with a state sanctioned ability to rise prices at will.  But what the public is sold is a “free market health care system, where you don’t have to wait in line for treatment”.  Okay, let’s take the Libertarian math to poke holes in this.

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Supply and demand is a pretty good natural law.  Hard to refute it.  When the demand is high and supply is low, prices rise.  In countries with public health, the only way to “rise prices” so to speak is to triage patients.  That is what the military in combat does, since everyone is equal and nobody has to pay.  When the military does it, it is okay but when other countries do it, it is communism.  Yet our “free market” health care system has already triaged the poor with rising prices.  I cannot get any kind of medical treatment without pledging most of my future earnings.  That is of course supposed to be much better than waiting in line.

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But, of course, the Libertarian will just claim I need to work harder and longer.  Because, you know, declining energy supplies don’t fit into the Libertarian paradigm.  There can’t be a shrinkage of jobs or wages, not in their fantasy world.  So, let’s go to another example.  Birth dearth.  This is never a problem for the Libertarian.  If medical prices go up ( even though they are not supposed to because, you know, free market and stuff ), you have less kids.  Supply and demand.  But what if you NEED more births?  What do you do then?  In a Libertarian world, the population shrinks and everyone is rich and there aren’t many people in this rich little enclave. 

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Then something strange happens.  Your small professional private army is defeated by a large only semi-professional army.  All your concealed carry machine gun toting freemen are napalmed by the invading armies.  Sorry, but all that the insurance company could provide for protection in this Libertarian paradise was cut rate obsolete weapons ( after all, other firms had undercut the well stocked militarily ones and cheapened out on price ) that didn’t last long in a fight with a nation state army.  But, forget that for a moment.  What about population itself? 

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Ever since the Agricultural Revolution, population size has had strategic implications.  There is no getting around that, regardless of your type of economy.  If you don’t believe that, just look at how Latino’s are taking over state after state from the Whites.  They didn’t even need an army.  We paid them to do it.  In any territory if there isn’t enough population, invaders take over.  It really is that simple, even if details and timetables differ.  In Russia, ethnic Russians are decreasing in numbers.  Even with vastly shrinking landmass, the population never recovered from the West’s coup and resource theft which killed off vast numbers ( de-funding the public health care system, alcoholism and a few other variables ), and the population hasn’t recovered.  And as the system gets more free market like, the birth rate tumbles. 

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What happens when the Russian birth rate gets too low?  China.  You know, their neighbor that needs more energy and raw material.  What is going to reverse that?  Only government intervention.  Only by socialism, by making children free, or even paying people to have more.  But!  But!  But, Venezuela!  Yeh, the dreaded S word.  Better to be invaded and defeated by socialists than become one, right?  Believe it or not, in a lot of instances money should be sacrificed, rather than everything else except money.  I’ll continue tomorrow.

END ( today's related link http://amzn.to/2FYOYoz )

 

Please support Bison by buying through the Amazon ad graphics at the top of the page. ***You can make donations or book purchases through PayPal ( www.paypal.me/jimd303 )

*** Unless you are in extreme poverty, spend a buck a month here, by the above donation methods or buy a book. If you don't do Kindle, send me a buck and I'll e-mail it to you in a PDF file.  If you donated, you may request books no charge.   My e-mail is: jimd303@reagan.com  My address is: James M Dakin, 181 W Bullion Rd #12, Elko NV 89801-4184

*** Pay your author-no one works for free.  I’m nice enough to publish for barely above Mere Book Money, so do your part.***my Bonus Material blog*** junk land under a grand *  Lord Bison* my bio & biblio*   my web site is www.bisonprepper.com *** Wal-Mart wheat***Amazon Author Page
* By the by, all my writing is copyrighted. For the obtuse out there

 

you're the dead one

YOURE THE DEAD ONE

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note: from a caring minion:

Here is a link to The Survivalist movie you were talking about. You might like to pass it on to minions. Word of warning – there are multiple links to different streams & whenever you click any link a window will open. You just gotta bear with it

 http://sockshare.bz/watch/zdK370d1-the-survivalist.html 

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There is a saying that goes something like, “two people can share a secret if one of them is dead”.  The question becomes, do you want to be the one that is dead?  Now, I don’t know about you.  Perhaps you were born with a micro-penis and you embrace the sweet prospect of death.  Me?  I don’t really care if I die-after a certain age it just becomes embarrassing if you don’t acknowledge the Grim Reaper is stalking your ass-but I’m not going to make it easy for the bastard, am I?  Sharing a secret is all about making yourself vulnerable.  And while sometimes that is a perfectly acceptable compromise, sometimes it is anything but.

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Look, I’m all for having a tribe.  But you cannot offer a black and white choice to everyone along the lines of “tribe up or die”.  That is just silly.  Hell, I’ve already lost a quarter of my potential tribe through his inability to adjust to living locally ( a rather social chap who left most of his lifelong friends down south, he couldn’t make good friends here-so he went back to wince he came-and I’m a bit jealous as he is just as isolated but in a much smaller town one tenth as big ), and there is a chance my in-laws might move if a local job doesn’t pan out.  My last “tribe” left much to be desired, the ex-in-laws.

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The advocates for tribal organizations are either anthropologists ( myself, of an obvious hobby amateur variety ), are extroverts that see no other way, or are selling you something that requires a tribe ( Yuppie Scum Survivalist Guru’s selling books, or vendors selling bulk items such as the $2k ghost gun milling machine ).  I might see an inevitability of tribal organization post collapse, but I’m also happy to admit I’m an introvert who sees ALL the bad in people, even if I have to invent some.  I can see the need to go alone until social order is restored and before the Industrial Age surplus stockpiled items are gone.

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The items substituting for people, obviously ( wheat in lieu of a group to raise oxen and tend fields or mechanics and biofuel experts to tend tractors, as an example ).  But there is another component always ignored by advocates of tribalism.  And that is cultural conditioning.  Almost all of us were raised as semi-autonomous individuals trained at solitude ( the TV ) and relying on the nation state for most of our needs ( we’ll see how well these rugged individuals oozing Libertarian principles fare once the oil import valve is shut off ).  There is certainly nothing wrong with attempting to tribe up and change our conditioning.  Folks from cult members to survivalists try it every day.  I only warn of too high of expectations.

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And here is another reason to be leery of a tribe, IF and only IF you have no luck and that ideal just isn’t working for you ( and if you already have a tribe, feel blessed ).  Guerrilla warfare.  This is where we return to the Two Can Keep A Secret.  While having comrades to fight with certainly is a good thing, it can also prove to be a vulnerability.  The autonomous cell does indeed fight well without being vulnerable.  But you also live and die by your cell.  I’m NOT saying this kind of fight is bad.  We are social creatures and we evolved to fight in close knit groups.  You’ve seen this for yourself.  Past your partner alongside you in a cruiser and a couple of buddies also on the force, or past the folks in your immediate squad, there is little fraternity.

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You might wear the same tribal colors, and mouth the same slogans and pinky swear allegiance, but where the rubber meets the road you’ll usually only risk you life for a very select few.  So, while a small band of brothers to fight with is effective and realistic, if you DON’T have that available option, at least you can console yourself with the fact that tactically you are much safer.  A solitary man out and about with mischief on his mind is going to be far harder to find or stop ( setting aside the initial issue of rank amateurism ) than a group.

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I’m not suggesting you fight this way, I only suggest that if you never have time to tribe up you aren’t necessarily at a disadvantage militarily.  Being a loner does have its advantages.  As a survivalist being a loner is the ultimate OpSec.  And as a fighter, it does the same.  And I can almost guarantee that if the waterfall tip over journey lasts too long, there will be prolonged combat ( as opposed to combat until that short time hence when all the supplies are gone ).  And while conventional wisdom preaches strength in numbers, there is also weakness in numbers.

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In time, after acquiring experience assuming you don’t die, a squad of civilians works out a rhythm and can very effectively work together.  Until that time, there is arguments, variable levels of commitment, zero skills posing a danger to others and in general other problems crowds represent.  And yes, training is a solution.  But finding dedicated individuals willing to train at that level is part of what makes finding a decent tribe so problematic.  More likely, your tribe is from family that had zero prior commitment, and hence no training.  Ancient tribes grew up together.  Group dynamics came from a lifetime of “training together”, just from sports and hunting and other real life on the job training.  Even the introvert had enough training to function.  Today?

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Given all the hurdles of both preparing for the future and learning to fight there, going solo might not be the worst solution.  Far too often our Hollywood melted brains confuse what is ideal and what is realistic.  We somehow think we are Tony Robbins wishing success into being.  A less than ideal plan that is realistic is the better plan all along.

END ( today's related link http://amzn.to/2u4l68J )

 

Please support Bison by buying through the Amazon ad graphics at the top of the page. ***You can make donations or book purchases through PayPal ( www.paypal.me/jimd303 )

*** Unless you are in extreme poverty, spend a buck a month here, by the above donation methods or buy a book. If you don't do Kindle, send me a buck and I'll e-mail it to you in a PDF file.  If you donated, you may request books no charge.   My e-mail is: jimd303@reagan.com  My address is: James M Dakin, 181 W Bullion Rd #12, Elko NV 89801-4184

*** Pay your author-no one works for free.  I’m nice enough to publish for barely above Mere Book Money, so do your part.***my Bonus Material blog*** junk land under a grand *  Lord Bison* my bio & biblio*   my web site is www.bisonprepper.com *** Wal-Mart wheat***Amazon Author Page
* By the by, all my writing is copyrighted. For the obtuse out there

 

 

64 sq ft

64 SQ FT

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note:good cheap knife sharpener

I bought all of them out, but they sell similar:
https://www.ebay.com/itm/263056836275
The minions were telling me how they are buying from E-Bay rather than Amazon, but I had no idea the number of useful shipped from Chinese items such as this I could get.  And I can pay with PayPal, which makes this fun and easy.  I'll highlight other prepper items like this as they occur to me.  PS-the sharpener is for getting an edge back on a dull as dirt knife, then you use your Rada for a fine finish.

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( note: this is going to be included in my forthcoming Hermit Survivalist book, but I thought it could double as a stand alone article )

When you are poor, and/or old, the last thing you want to do is build a huge dwelling.  You can’t afford the construction material and since you are no longer a spring chicken you need to minimize the work you undertake.  As a deluxe bonus, smaller dwellings are much easier to hide ( and heat! ), from both the Zoning Nazi’s and the post-apocalypse looters.  When most people think of tiny houses, inevitably they consider travel trailers.  Those suck.

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There are two reasons for this.  Height and mobility ( there are other reasons, but those will do for now ).  Since you need enclosed latch-able cabinets and you can’t have a high ceiling, all that extra space past 64 square feet STILL feels cramped and vaguely akin to car camping.  But in an eight foot cube, you can place half the floor space up in a loft and things are simply just better organized because of it.  There are Murphy Beds ( the bed is in the wall and folds down to use ) or Hide-A-Bed couches which can be surprisingly comfortable, but I think lofts are just a better idea.

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Sixty-Four square feet are of course arbitrary.  It can be a bit less or a bit more.  The cube shape is just easier as you don’t do as much trimming with store bought lumber.  I screwed up on mine, as I made it 6x12, and when I stretch out at night sleeping I need more than six feet.  But I can fix that, too.  All I need is lumber to replace a floor plan where everything is flat on the ground on wheat buckets.  My biggest flaw was NOT placing a Laz-E-Boy chair down there prior to enclosing.  Sitting all day on the bed blows compared to a recliner chair.

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Hey, what can I tell you?  In one years time I took two and a half grand and paid off my land, paid off the last six months of child support for about the same, and bought all the lumber and insulation needed for the underground hovel, all on minimum wage.  I ran out of money and supplies.  Then I spent a year buying all the prep supplies I had denied myself the last twenty years.  Stuff like, you know, extra food and ammo.  This year I’m going back and finishing it all up, as it seems likely I’ll be forced to move back there soon as the economy implodes for good this time.

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 ( I won’t dwell on this, but suffice it to say 80% of our domestic oil is extremely low EROI fracking oil, deep water and other sludge, not to mention ethanol.  Not to mention the question of how long fracking lasts-a money loser from Day One ).

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My point here is that I was living in a poor design and it isn’t something you should willingly choose.  Both in RV’s and in a crappy cube.  When the sun is shining I can go upstairs from my hovel and move around and stretch my arms.  When it is cold and overcast, I’m stuck downstairs.  And when you get stuck down in a poorly designed dwelling, the days are long, frustrating and just plain suck.  The best design is to have other dwellings where you can store most of your belongings, and the one you live in as uncluttered as possible.  But you can still put a lot of stuff in the primary dwelling if needed.  Just keep that in mind, however.  Sheds serve a very good purpose.

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To the design.  It would be better to show a picture, but I am a wordsmith, not an illustrator, so I’ll do my best.  Take your cube, with the door to one side.  As you enter that door, you are in a five foot wide “hall”.  That wall separates your kitchen and your bathroom.  The bathroom is on the other side of the entrance, and three foot wide.  It is only the shower and the toilet, so there is no sink to clutter things up.  You do your business and then exit the bathroom and do a U-turn to the sink.  It is a couple of steps.  The kitchen is a counter with sink and stove.  A board covers the sink for food prep.  Everything else is below that counter and up above on shelves.  Shelves cover the opposite wall.  The door will need to slide or open outward.  That comprises half the room.

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The other half of the room is the loft with the mattress.  Underneath the loft is your reclining chair and a desk with its own chair.  When you want to use the recliner at night to watch TV, have the flat screen mounted on the wall swing out to its place in front of the recliner.  The bed can be as high as possible, resembling an old sleeper railroad car or a navy bunk.  I would have a dowel above the desk and recliner, and slide your hanging clothes to the side you aren’t using at the moment. 

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Now, yes, things get a might complicated with two people.  You want the privacy roomette for the toilet and shower even if you are alone.  Looking at the crapper all day is stupid and depressing and reminds you that you are a poor hobbit stuck underground.  You need all the other walls anyway, so at least have a curtain to close off the space.  If a second person is there, the privacy is required.  Seating is going to suck.  While a lawn chair is great for lounging outside sucking in fresh air and getting sun, they are NOT comfortable to use all day inside.  You will need a couch that starts underneath the loft and goes right up to the bathroom entrance.

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You could place another recliner in there, one between the end of the kitchen and in front of the desk, or you could do without the desk underneath the loft.  Instead, you have a folding down desk and a folding metal chair.  They offer them now with a cushion, or just place a pillow on it as needed.  I work a good many hours a day at my desk, but I also love my recliner chair, now that my bones are getting old and achy.  I think I’ll be going for side by side recliners.  Both my exterior and interior doorways can be, albeit messily, temporarily widened as they are not load bearing.  Thrift stores always have recliners.

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In my case, I have some storage space.  Trailer up top and down below the entrance way is four by ten.  The only thing I had done with it was tack up a crude shelf for canned food.  Once I enclose that we have a lot of storage.  Don’t discount the amount of crap you’ll accumulate.  Try to build that into your design.  But you don’t actually need all that much living space.  Most folks combine the two.  If you separate them, you’ll probably find you use less for living than storing.  We do love our piles of crap.

END ( today's related link http://amzn.to/2FKEpt5 )

 

Please support Bison by buying through the Amazon ad graphics at the top of the page. ***You can make donations or book purchases through PayPal ( www.paypal.me/jimd303 )

*** Unless you are in extreme poverty, spend a buck a month here, by the above donation methods or buy a book. If you don't do Kindle, send me a buck and I'll e-mail it to you in a PDF file.  If you donated, you may request books no charge.   My e-mail is: jimd303@reagan.com  My address is: James M Dakin, 181 W Bullion Rd #12, Elko NV 89801-4184

*** Pay your author-no one works for free.  I’m nice enough to publish for barely above Mere Book Money, so do your part.***my Bonus Material blog*** junk land under a grand *  Lord Bison* my bio & biblio*   my web site is www.bisonprepper.com *** Wal-Mart wheat***Amazon Author Page
* By the by, all my writing is copyrighted. For the obtuse out there

 

nonstranger danger

NONSTRANGER DANGER

I’m going to sum up all the necessary survivalist advice in one paragraph and then you never have to bother with me again ( if you keep reading, its just details ).  One, food first.  Nothing is simpler than that.  Everything else is just about eating.  No one has an excuse to not store food.  Two liter bottles are free and everywhere, trash looking for a home.  Number two, everyone wants your food and everything else not food related is about safeguarding your food.  That includes “stay away from crowds”, living off grid, the arguments over the best arsenal, etc.  Number three, nothing is worth spit if it isn’t a food accessory.  There are your three rules of survival.  The only reason I cover anything more is, simply, because the devil is in the details ( plus, this is like my job, and stuff ).

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Today I’ll cover non-stranger danger.  The danger of family, to include the wife.  Look, this isn’t all that complicated.  In societies that have almost no access to money, family matters.  It is the security blanket everyone needs which supplements tribal organization.  But in a money society, family doesn’t matter a thimbleful of warm spit.  It isn’t worth the dingle ball hanging from the pimple on your ass.  Only money matters because money is everyone’s security blanket.  Anything you think or hear to the contrary is wishful thinking, denial and propaganda.  I’m NOT trying to diminish anyone’s feelings or contributions here.

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I’m stating that when the times get hard, where the rubber meets the road, in complex civilizations money trumps personal connections.  Not what people say but what they do.  Allow me to demonstrate, yes?  Off the top of your head, name two demographics that still retain strong family values.  Anyone?  Bueller?  I’d say Blacks and Hillbillies.  Now, obviously that isn’t so simple as that.  Black families are tight knit, but only in a matriarchal sense, not as a nuclear family. 

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What the two have in common are extreme poverty that has no outlet.  Poor urban Whites can ( or could ) work their way up and out, but the backwoods South and the Black communities are dead ends culturally for the most part.  Don’t point out Oprah or a redneck author living in New York City.  I’m talking about the economically oppressed generally.  The groups the ruling Yankee Scum exploit by default.  Just because they pimp out the exception doesn’t disprove the rule.  What I’m getting at here is that everywhere else, family has been supplanted by money.

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But, ohh, Mr. Carter, Mister Carter, what about the Leave It To Beaver happy little families way back when the economy was wonderful?  Yes, exactly.  Functioning economies allowed for functional families as there were the needed energy surplus to do so.  I can’t understand how so many of us still think the economy is going to crash in the future.  It ALREADY did, way in the past.  I know you think the world revolves around YOU ( it doesn’t, dumb ass, it revolves around ME ), but just because you still have a job doesn’t mean little brown people aren’t starving overseas or that we aren’t yet in collapse. 

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Dysfunctional families became the norm the same time our economy went to crap as our per capita energy availability started declining ( don’t look at the barrel of oils pumped, look at the net energy they delivered, now sprinkle on population growth ).  It was about money back before then-there is enough for everyone to have a surplus-and it has been about money ever since, and as we became as crowded as some bubonic plague infested Indian city, family and clan and tribe has lost all importance and money has gained in that. 

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I know you are resisting me right now.  Luke, come to the Dark Side!  You either were raised in a family of the persecuted class, the 9% straw boss class, were extremely lucky or sheltered, or are just being stubborn and don’t like reality ( ooohhh!  That’s a good trait for a prepper! ).  If you’ve ever been through a divorce or a fight over inheritance, you’ve seen monetary prioritization.  I’m not saying there wasn’t love or obligation, I’m saying they might have survived in spite of money, not because they were paramount themselves.

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Latch key kids?  Cha-ching!  Parents left to their fate in a retirement state?  Show me da money!  Kids used as bargaining chips or trophies in a divorce?  Payday!  Family disowned over money matters?  Loyal employee of nineteen years discarded for a 10% salary savings?  College tuition used as leverage?  It used to be you disowned family over clan/tribe/loyalty issues.  Marrying another religion or race, teenage pregnancy, etc.  Now, squabbles over money.  For the simple reason the pie is shrinking.

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It isn’t greed or idiocy as much as it is security and desperation.  But by now, it is also institutionally engrained.  An infrastructure has been built for family disloyalty.  Any family you have which has not demonstrated loyalty and suffering over money is your potential enemy.  You cannot slather lipstick on that pig.  Obviously, money isn’t worth spit after the apocalypse, but if they were money hungry and disloyal prior, they are parasites and dangerous afterwards.  Because there never was loyalty, only a recon for wealth.  They might not actually in fact murder you in your sleep, but they might as well with their otherwise life threatening actions or inactions.

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And they will be the first ones to cry “family” in defense.  As I’ve said before, they offer no fealty but demand yours.  They are users and haters.  The wife might not stab you in your sleep, but she can open the door for her lover to do so.  Your daughter might let or encourage her husband to depose you as the leader of the retreat, and then as none have any balls they will do you the “favor” of letting you leave alive, with nothing.  And yes, I know most of you are doubting me.  After all, this isn’t supposed to be how family acts. 

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Just do yourself a favor.  Be wary, and make a back-up plan only you know about, if you have the slightest doubt.  A $150 shotgun and a hundred bucks in food ( 300 pounds of wheat and a grinder ) is a pretty cheap insurance policy to safeguard yourself as you test family loyalty after the collapse.  If you don’t need it for that, there are other uses for that stash.

END ( today's related link http://amzn.to/2HHx0aJ )

 

Please support Bison by buying through the Amazon ad graphics at the top of the page. ***You can make donations or book purchases through PayPal ( www.paypal.me/jimd303 )

*** Unless you are in extreme poverty, spend a buck a month here, by the above donation methods or buy a book. If you don't do Kindle, send me a buck and I'll e-mail it to you in a PDF file.  If you donated, you may request books no charge.   My e-mail is: jimd303@reagan.com  My address is: James M Dakin, 181 W Bullion Rd #12, Elko NV 89801-4184

*** Pay your author-no one works for free.  I’m nice enough to publish for barely above Mere Book Money, so do your part.***my Bonus Material blog*** junk land under a grand *  Lord Bison* my bio & biblio*   my web site is www.bisonprepper.com *** Wal-Mart wheat***Amazon Author Page
* By the by, all my writing is copyrighted. For the obtuse out there

 

using less

USING LESS

Using less.  Sounds un-’Murican, doesn’t it?  But didn’t it used to be this way as a matter of course?  I mean, I’m way too young to remember per se, although I imagine there were certain habits my parents practiced I’m not remembering, or misremembering as being related to lack of consumerism or credit.  But weren’t less well off folks used to using everything less so that it lasted longer and it didn’t need to be replaced?

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You kept your leather shoes polished and cared for so that at most they needed a new sole once every great while.  You only wore your best clothes to church.  The kids went barefoot all summer so they didn’t go through shoes as often.  The mythical grandma that only drove her car once a week on Sunday ( I mean, every myth is first based on reality, right? ).  To this day, when I see someone has folded over the corner on a page in a book I mentally condemn them to the hottest corner of Hell. 

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Today, though, the unspoken, unthinkable norm is to waste the crap out of everything.  Don’t take care of that computer, it won’t be supported after five years.  I’m paying so much on the car I might as well get all the use out of it I can.  I’ll just get another one down at China-Mart.  It’s only money, I’ll get more in two weeks.  It’s fun, let’s go shopping!  All these attitudes are normal, and grumpy old men who are still wearing the same disco era suit after almost fifty years are to be pitied and frowned over.

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Now, I’m not saying that this is completely the fault of consumers.  Shoddy made goods are NOT a free market response by companies ran by fair and just men only trying to provide for their families.  Hey, dumb ass, that stereotype was obsolete before VHS tapes were.  Big Box Stores, asset stripping using Other Peoples Money, the take over of the economy by the central bank-the only thing left is corporate evil.  I’ll remind you that Wal-Mart prices increased as the quality was sacrificed.  That was the derivatives market biting the bankers on the ass, not poor old free market Walton’s responding to customer demand.

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But, consumers WERE responsible for the evil companies being able to get away with that crap, because people were already wasteful and greedy.  We were already driving longer commutes prior to the car companies introducing the Gremlin.  That wasn’t exactly the “car crazy” crap like today, it was White Flight, but I would submit for your consideration that the mindset of consumption for its own sake had already taken hold.  Toffler wasn’t writing about The Throw Away Society because he just made that crap up-it was an observable phenomenon.   But it wasn’t a continuation of throw away items as he envisioned ( from throw away plates and cups as in a fast food joint, throw away clothes were a linear move ), but a “planned obsolescence” of every single thing from cars to homes to appliances.

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They started making parts designed to break back in the Fifties or Sixties.  Crap cars came immediately after the first Oil Embargo.  2008 onward Quality Dive isn’t exactly new.  The only thing new was the extreme contraction in time that failure was now built in for.  Shoe laces breaking after a month, rather than a year.  A dozen uses rather than a hundred.  Thirty year roof shingles that wouldn’t make it to ten.  Of course, shingles were themselves a throw away item on a throw away home.  If we hadn’t been programmed from birth to consume and discard ( diapers ), we never would have thought to buy a throw away home, valuing appearance over function.

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So, can we consume less in a throw away society?  Of course.  Nobody is forcing you to buy disposable diapers.  They still sell cloth diapers.  The only thing you must do is front the $200 investment, rather than settle for a $20 box of disposables.  Folks honestly with a straight face explain that they don’t have time to clean cloth, that it is more sanitary to use disposables.  Have these people every actually changed a diaper?  The kid just exploded a diarrhea bomb.  There is NOTHING sanitary about cleaning that mess.  It is no more  gross scrapping turds off a cloth diaper.  And every disposable you buy is another bit of time earning a paycheck.  A cloth diaper pays for itself in, literally, two weeks.

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It is more a change in mentality.  Nothing too strenuous in the doing.  You just seek to not waste, and to use everything less.  Don’t shop every day, using the car.  Two hundred thousand miles on a car should last a lifetime, not the length of the loan.  Shop once a week, or ideally once a month.  Don’t wash your clothes so often.  Never dry them in a machine.  Try to get them to last longer.  I buy my shirts at a thrift store, then I’m still wearing them as they get holes in them and the collars wear out on the crease.  I just rip the collar off.  If I’m going out into the world I put a newer shirt on for that hour.  Once home, the old shirt goes on.  Along with sweats.  You don’t need to change those every single week ( dependent on sloppy eating habits of course ).

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Does the cloth napkin smell?  Then don’t put it in the wash.  And why are you getting that cloth napkin so nasty?  Lick your finger clean before wiping with the napkin.  Why did you just throw away that toothpick?  Lick it off and use it again, until it splinters into unusable fragments.  This is all a combination of using things more, but also using them as little as possible.  You can’t reuse toilet paper, unfortunately, but you can make your own bidet. 

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One wipe for solids, the next batch of clean TP soaked ( the sink is right there, most of the time you don’t even have to get up ) and then applied.  Yes, your fingers might touch nasties.  The TP disintegrates on contact.  But your next dry paper wipe works much better at removing wet than dry.  You always clean your hands thoroughly anyway, right?  Do this, than actually install a bidet attachment to your regular toilet.  Gross to plan, talk about and do, but you are saving a lot of TP.  To dry the front after using the bidet, girls, just use baby cloth diapers cut into smaller squares and wipe the water off and have a canister to hold until wash day ( I’d imagine nobody is going to want to reuse that cloth, even if it is just water residue-the fish smell might offend visitors ).

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Of course, that deviates from the focus.  Again we talk of non-disposables rather than Using Less.  Do you leave your shoes on inside your home?  Just taking them off every time you enter means you use the shoes less and wear out the carpet less.  And you are letting your feet breath.  Cooking two nights worth of meat means you use an appliance half the time.  Some folks cook once a week and freeze all the meals.  I’m only opposed to this as it means I cannot buy as much meat on sale, but it is a solid plan for using the kitchen equipment a fraction of the time.  Just like mom used to bake bread once a week.  Once you start thinking along these lines, it is easy to see how you can use most of what you own, poor quality or not, much less.  Lasting longer towards the apocalypse is always a good thing.

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*** Unless you are in extreme poverty, spend a buck a month here, by the above donation methods or buy a book. If you don't do Kindle, send me a buck and I'll e-mail it to you in a PDF file.  If you donated, you may request books no charge.   My e-mail is: jimd303@reagan.com  My address is: James M Dakin, 181 W Bullion Rd #12, Elko NV 89801-4184

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waste money

WASTE MONEY

Today’s lesson is, don’t be afraid to waste money.  Now, we all understand that the economic end is nigh.  We all know your cushy job is on the chopping block.  Inflation will return with a vengeance as the PetroDollar is sodomized.  Rent and medical costs are going up double digits yearly.  It IS time to worry about money while it still buys something.  It IS a good idea to get your preps over and done, your debt paid off and your junk land fixed up for habitation.  All that said, you STILL need to not be afraid to waste money.

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A minion made mention of getting wheat in #10 cans.  He understood my view on them ( you are paying an insane amount for the can itself ) but preferred them.  Hey, I get it.  They will last forever after a light coating of something to prevent rust.  You can stack them up much higher than plastic pails.  The mice will NOT get in them under any circumstances.  Nor will insects.  They are preferable for barter.  My only concern, because for all I know he has money coming out the wazoo, is whether or not he can afford to buy all of them in time.

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You know, since you cannot time the collapse and all, so it is prudent to assume it happens tomorrow.  Is buying a case of wheat every payday going to get you prepped in time?  Isn’t there a military dictum about perfection being the enemy of any plan?  If you wait for the perfect anything, you end up with exactly nothing.  I’ve know guys who wouldn’t start a relationship unless the gal was perfect.  So they were alone.  And, guys, really?  It’s all pink inside.  Anyway, I’ve harped on this before.  Saving up your money to buy the perfect rifle or diet in the end could leave you starving with no protection, with a pile of worthless cash.

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So my solution to you is to just buy the crap you would never consider worthy, then after a time as you are saving money you upgrade to the initially approved item.  The usual response to this is something along the lines of, “but that is just wasting money”.  Well, yes, it is.  So what?  That is the excuse folks use when buying a house.  “I’ll save money by buying now, rather than paying rent”.  Well, no it isn’t.  Because debt is never good.  Debt might, and I stress the MIGHT, be cheaper, but probably not.  It is probably going to be cheaper to waste money renting, saving up for a cash purchase, and waiting for the perfectly under priced sale item.

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But even if it isn’t cheaper, you have purchased peace of mind.  Nothing is free, especially not serenity.  You might have wasted ten years paying rent, but now you own an acre with a mobile home without a mortgage ( or whatever-fill in the blank.  I think we can all agree that a $200k house in the suburbs is a bad bet all the way around ).  You want the perfect wheat storage container?  Fine.  Nothing wrong with that.  Just buy all the wheat you need NOW, put it in a crappy container ( $25 will get you a metal trash can and enough diatomaceous earth for the 200 pounds of kernels inside a thick plastic bag ), and that can later be your daily bread or future barter item after you have gotten all of your #10 cans.

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It isn’t even a waste of money as much as it is an extra expense, but let’s assume you still think of it as a waste.  Don’t we all have stories of prepper gear we bought that is a complete waste of money?  That silly convenience item that looks so cool and wicked and met your needs perfectly, then turned out to be far worse than you expected after an alternate was learned of.  Mine was the Volcano type camp stove ( small AA battery powered fan to burn the debris fuel efficiently ) that is easily replaced by a free Dakota hole or near free coffee can Hobo stove.

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How about all those Lee-Enfield no.1’s ( the WWI models ) that looked fine in the gun shop but were crap in low light, the sites being nearly useless even when painted, then replaced by the no.4’s ( the WWII models, with peep sites and far more accurate )?  The no.1’s were of course a complete waste of money.  I didn’t know enough about the models I needed.  I didn’t even realize until lately that the one is twice as accurate out the factory door than the other, until recently.  I had just been in awe of the better iron sites.  But, do I regret buying the no.1’s?

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No, not really.  If I had gotten the 4’s right away, they might not have survived my moves or divorces and I would have needed to buy them all over again anyway.  At the time a refurbished one was $120, a beat to crap $90.  Really no harm or foul and I was at least always armed with a battle rifle ( you, yes you, standstill laddy.  Do you have a battle rifle?  Or are you still saving up for that “perfect” M14? ).  Do I regret the stove?  No, I still have it and it can still come in handy.  Do I regret buying that Katadyn camping water filter for an insane amount for Y2K?  Even though I can now buy Sawyers all day long with far greater capacity?  Do I regret buying all that land I turned around and sold at a loss since I finally settled on Nevada as my home til death?

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Why should I?  It is all just an education.  But more importantly, at the time I was prepared.  Fully prepared, even if it was a lesser desired degree of preparedness.  Even if it was a Better Than Nothing.  I’m one of the worlds greatest tightwads, a mantle I proudly fight for, and I don’t mind wasting money on important things.  I might lament the waste, but I’m not afraid to do it again.  Like buying a book that turned out to be total worthless crap, it is just the cost of doing business buying those books that are priceless life savers.

END ( today's related link http://amzn.to/2FHxmNT )

 

Please support Bison by buying through the Amazon ad graphics at the top of the page. ***You can make donations or book purchases through PayPal ( www.paypal.me/jimd303 )

*** Unless you are in extreme poverty, spend a buck a month here, by the above donation methods or buy a book. If you don't do Kindle, send me a buck and I'll e-mail it to you in a PDF file.  If you donated, you may request books no charge.   My e-mail is: jimd303@reagan.com  My address is: James M Dakin, 181 W Bullion Rd #12, Elko NV 89801-4184

*** Pay your author-no one works for free.  I’m nice enough to publish for barely above Mere Book Money, so do your part.***my Bonus Material blog*** junk land under a grand *  Lord Bison* my bio & biblio*   my web site is www.bisonprepper.com *** Wal-Mart wheat***Amazon Author Page
* By the by, all my writing is copyrighted. For the obtuse out there