IT'S ONLY TREES
My old Army buddy recently reminded me of one of my old quips, "it's only trees" ( actually it could have been, "it's just trees", but no matter ). While I had no recollection of having uttered such a profound statement I'm willing to believe I said something so grand. What can I say, I consumed a lot of alcohol back then. In other words, you might as well spend it because it is only worthless paper. I know you don't give me the love that is due me, so refer to your hero Rawles for the same message, get out of paper and into tangibles.
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The great thing about paper currency is that in two weeks you will be getting more of it. But they certainly are not making more land, the inventory of war surplus rifles is fixed. Evidently they aren't making much more ammunition. It is just a matter of time before most Chinese imports dry up. Already, they have raised in price and fallen in quality ( for the cheap stuff, as they cut back on rising material costs ). Since we shipped all our factories over there, sometime soon we won't have affordable underwear/socks/shoes/vitamins anymore. To say nothing of the dangers of holding cash and having hyperinflation kick its butt. Obviously you need a little bit of cash cushion for emergencies, but you should be converting most of your cash to prep supplies. Not because the likelihood of suddenly collapse tomorrow is all that great but because the value of money is falling and the scarcity of all goods is going to rise and soon.
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For a variety of reasons, grain prices doubled. And they never fell again ( okay, rice did, but not the staples of the US diet, wheat and corn ). Every year produce prices rise. Energy prices rise. Metal is now an ever increasing commodity. The supply of salt water fish has crashed. Auto prices are insane. Even with a thirty to fifty percent equity fall, real estate prices are still too high ( inflation met massive immigration for the bubble ). Everything is rising in price or pricing itself out of your ability to purchase. Stop dithering and just buy. Buy the junk land, even if it only becomes a crappy vacation spot. Buy some kind of shelter if needed. Buy your arms and ammo. Stock up on your grains and beans. I can't imagine much not going up in price substantially very soon. Junk land might fall some before hyperinflation kicks in, mainly because people won't have shelter and so compete for whats already here. I imagine for a time it will be harder to find a cheap room to rent than it will be to find junk land. Already you can buy some that is cheaper than two months rent for a room ( Elko has rooms no cheaper than $400 a month and you can buy land as cheap as $700 after E-Bay fees ).
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I wouldn't bet against the economy though. Buy what you will need now, don't take a chance on sudden price hikes or unavailability. Even if you never use a lot in west Texas or a thousand pounds of corn or two thousand ammo primers, it is simply a form of insurance. They might not be for sale in two weeks, but you will get another paycheck. I don't know what the normal thought process is for most people. But I never sweat an old paycheck. I over think every purchase, but once I've spent the money I never have any regrets over spending it. Because it's only trees. More is coming. Investment or blow money, I don't add it all up and wish I had done something different. I kind of look at relationships the same way. Even if I just spent one, two or ten years with one person, I don't look at that as relationship equity. #4 would argue "we've been together ten years, we have to make it work". I reply it hasn't worked for five of those and I ain't sticking around for any more years. Money is the same. No matter how much you have wasted, it isn't worth throwing good after bad. So what if you have ten years payments into the house. If it ain't worth another twenty in payments, jingle mail it. I've read about military personnel getting out of the service after eighteen years just to deny a spouse half of their retirement pay. I agree with that totally. Tomorrow is the first day of the rest of your life. Don't be tied to the past if it ain't working. Don't worry about your last paycheck, worry about your next one.
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It might seem I'm kind of mixing my Aesop's Fables here. Basic point, you are running out of time to prepare. Jettison past investments that haven't worked ( anything paper or promises-stocks, retirement promises, home value, corporate job ) or soon won't work, buy your tangibles now even if you never use them. Even if they are a waste, it is such a cheap healthy sleeping pill. You might think I'm a total paranoid, tossing and turning in my sleep worrying about how many ways we are all going to die. No, I sleep good. Once you have your basic necessities it is hard to get worked up about much. Oh, I'll think differently once I'm running from cannibal hoards. Then I'll wish I had fortified concrete and squad automatic weapons. Until then, even though I worry I don't let it effect my health because I have my security blanket. Even if I'm wrong and we don't collapse for ten years, so what. Be ready now just in case. Then you can stop worrying. Be like the Chinese, hurriedly changing worthless American dollars for commodity stockpiles.
END
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4 comments:
Well said. If you dont have food buy it now. Its better to have and not need than to need and not have. Most people have no idea what its like to be hungry. Try not eating for four days. Excepted dogma is anyone will steal after three days and kill after six.(without eating, to get food)
Excepted from what?
Your future
The Army began the distribution on time. The two men and one woman who manned the machine guns didn’t even get on their guns until minutes before they began. I had watched as one of them handed out a couple of cigarettes to people in line.
How it worked was you, or you and whoever you were with, would go forward and present your identification to an officer who sitting at a table. He handed it to an enlisted man who did something with it involving a computer. At the next station they asked for any weapons you were carrying and handed you a claim ticket for them.
Here was where the friction began to develop. No one wanted to hand over their weapons. Yet here you were, you were no longer in line where you could just walk away. You had already been moved down the chute. It was still possible, but you had invested your time, shown your identification, and were now just steps away from picking up your food.
The nice Army man was reassuring, so you reluctantly hand over your weapons and take the claim check. You walk up the ramp into the semi trailer, and the nice army woman reads you the three main entrée’s they have, and asks if you have a preference? You are starting to get that loving feeling back, this is actually working out. They give you, based on how many of you there are, your case or two of MRE’s, and then out the other side of the trailer you go.
You walk down the ramp and there a couple of soldiers in the real television style battle suits with armor to meet you. You look around. The Humvee gunners are no longer recognizable, as they are now wearing a helmet and sunglasses for some strange reason. You realize that the machine gun is pointed at you, and you also realize what a vicious looking weapon it is from this perspective. Nobody is smiling at you. No more loving feeling. In fact, a little alarm bell is ringing in your head.
You ask the soldier “Where do I get my guns?” You already have a feeling you know what the answer is going to be. You are right. “Sorry sir. Your guns will be made available to you at a later date. Please move along.”Behind you the people who were behind you in line are standing there listening to this.
“Sir, I need you to move along.” Out of the corner of your eye you see more soldiers drifting over. Your woman is tugging at you, telling you “C’mon honey we will get them later.” You look down, your daughter is looking up at you, and her eyes are wide. You would rather give in and go but you know that if you do you will be lucky to make it back to where ever it is you are sleeping tonight, or this week with the food. You do not even want to think about what will happen to your wife and your daughter if word gets out that you have nothing to protect them with other than a Chinese stainless steel steak knife that stopped being sharp the second time you used it.
“No, I am not leaving without my guns!” You start walking. You plan on going around to the front and cutting through to where they took your guns. A soldier stands in front of you. He isn’t alone. You can’t see his eyes because he is wearing sunglasses. They all are you realize. “Sir, I need you to leave the area.” “No! God damnit! I am not leaving the area! Give me back my guns!”
Meanwhile the people who were processed behind you, that turned in their weapons, are getting the same answer. They are becoming very unhappy. A couple that had either come unarmed, or is willing to give up their weapons, walks past. They look at you. You recognize that look. It says “You are a dumbass for trusting them.” You flash back to how you had trusted the mortgage broker, the attorney, your boss, and you realize that once again you, and your family, are going to get fucked.
You hear someone yelling to the people in line waiting to be processed “They are taking our guns!” The people behind you are now totally enraged. The soldiers are pulling out plastic restraint cuffs, and they take the guy behind you down. You hear your daughter’s voice, so clear that it is as if it was being beamed directly into your ear through the crowd noise “Daddy!” A soldier is reaching for her. You see the plastic cuffs. You snap. You punch the soldier in his gut. You think to yourself “Shit, fucking body armor” and then your world explodes.
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