Also been thinking about this topic in terms of Jeanne's vision of a $50 apple. I wonder if that has more to do with a worthless dollar, rather than a scarcity of food.
Haha! Was just thinking we should all learn how to be farmer/gardeners! :)
I really hope to someday have my own garden, and perhaps a greenhouse too. But I sense that if that happens, I'd be part of a community in which we helped each other and traded food. Psychic Kyra Oser wrote this about surviving climate change: "People will develop self-sufficient homes with indoor, above-ground, and possibly underground greenhouses with vegetable gardens, complex refuse systems, meetinghouses, and waterways. I don’t see the practice as being solitary, as most of this looks community-based. Even individual plans also have an overriding local community plan that most people in each town will know about and agree to." http://kyraoser.com/climate-change-predictions-2017/
There is a precedent for this idea from WWII - Victory Gardens. The idea that everyone should plant a garden and learn how to preserve their fruits and vegetables was thought of by the government as a way to help people feel invested in the war. To their amazement, fully 1/3 of all fruits and vegetables were grown in Victory Gardens within a year. Like I have mentioned, we garden just a little but very much enjoy using our own peppers, onions, asparagus, tomatoes, cucumbers, etc. as we cook.
Found this article, it's warning about china matches a dream I had few weeks ago.
Asian, thank you for this information. In addition to learning how to live in a self-sustainable way and engaging in community, do you have any thoughts or future sights on where existing money could potentially be safeguarded? (Realizing no one will be making any in the financial markets for quite some time.) You mentioned digital cash, any sense as to whether that could be a place to safeguard current assets? I can deal with the economy stalling out (while it'll be awful), but my biggest fear is losing everything we have worked so hard to earn already.
Becoming self-sustainable is the key here. Don't expect anything from the govetment when situation really starts to turn towards bad. I don't think there are many places where money could be safeguarded except hard assets.
This is not a normal stock market crash or recession. This is far bigger than that. Unlike 2008, this time there will be social instability and political crisis in many countries. There will be trade war, there will be real wars(in asia). All of this is going to turn the whole picture really messy. Not a good time for financial and commercial activities. Something like 1930's but not quite the same. Elites know what is coming. The system is crashing, they have taken protective measures. In the right moment they will dump the market. It's the normal public who is clueless and bickering among themselves regarding political & religious ideologies.
Anyway, my advice is to get out of debt, start gardening because food prices will go up steadily in coming years, convert wealth from stock, bonds, money market-funds into hard assets like land, precious metals and private equity where you have written records instead of digital records. Because this time govt could freeze your accounts to stop money fleeing from the country like greece in 2015 or cyprus in 2012(A desparate measure to save banks, depending on the situation).
The first sign will in be in late-2017(probably a crash in US stock market) then afterwards a discouraging 2018 situation will start to turn serious in spring 2019(probably turned into a recession). By 2020-21 this is a depression. The crisis period runs upto 2026(not only economy). Situation starts to go for better slowly. I still don't have the full picture in economy, when I will have that I will post it.
Asian, thanks for the update. I would also point out to our US readers that during the darkest days of the Great Depression a number of US states limited bank withdrawals (like Greece did a few years ago). In the last several weeks before FDR's inauguration the US banking system was near collapse and the entire state of Michigan did not have a single bank that was open for business. I would also point out that, as bleak as these scenarios were, people survived.
Great advice about debt btw. All financial planners will tell you to avoid debt during times of uncertainty.