paper is paper

PAPER IS PAPER
Before we start, a few words. I know that most of you are waiting breathlessly to discover my latest adventures with installing the new propane system. I was tired of wasting money on the disposable propane canisters, especially after I found out I couldn't refill them. I didn't want to make a hole in my trailer wall to feed in a line from a big refillable tank ( the hole in the wall for the heater fuel line was already there from the previous occupants TV cable, I just enlarged it ). Well, once I got to playing around with it, I found that if I crushed the old original copper line I could squeeze the new flexible line through the opening in the back of the oven and feed it through the side access door. So now I have a proper propane tank to cook and heat water with. I thought that Wal-Mart sold the line with the large adaptor, but I was mistaken. You need to buy the line, and then the adaptor. So instead of $20 it is going to be closer to $30. Still, it will pay for itself in four months and from that time onward I can deny a small amount of profit to Wal-Mart. Yes, I know. Sour grapes. Wal-Mart used to screw everyone else over to sell low which benefited the poor. Now they have abandoned the working poor and are sucking up to those with more disposable cash. So it is now my turn to feel their betrayal. It still hurts, scorned by those I loved.
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I got around to reading "Survivors" by Terry Nation. I think it was Rawles at Survival Blog that mentioned it. I didn't expect much, but it turned out to really be good. A bit pricey, but I think one very underrated apocalypse fiction piece. It does once again point out that there is nothing new under the sun and that most of my writing is overblown and unnecessary. Look at the bright side, you spend far less time reading it than I do writing it. The story isn't original as far as how the world ends. The Black Plague comes back and with jet travel everyone dies. What I really liked about the book was its main point that even with everyone dying, the supplies left over would still only last so long and then everyone needed to relearn the old skills to survive. Pretty much what we do now, stockpile enough supplies to see us through reading up on and mastering the old ways. Because of how well that central lesson is taught in the book ( nothing specific, just the insight ) I think this should be one of the better fiction books that you recommend to friends and family. Not a necessity, rather a nice "something extra" if you have the funds. And speaking of funds, on to our main subject for today.
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Although well meaning, the recent comments to other articles are misguided. Yes, it would be swell and groovy to haul butt to the perfect foreign country and have an income not dependant on the failing American empire and be able to assimilate into your adopted culture. It would also be nifty to have a concrete bunker on top of a mountain full of thousands of cases of MRE's and millions of rounds of ammunition and perhaps even a stockpile of gold, a harem and a killer robot sentry. But it ain't going to happen. We Are Poor!!!! If you advocate spending tens of thousands of dollars on anything, go over to Rawles Yuppie Survival site. Let me help, www.survivalblog.com . There you go, please don't let the door hit you on the ass on the way out. Who doesn't get that this site is about helping the bottom of the barrel financially speaking to survive the coming collapse? The lowest on the economic ladder need to survive also. Tens of thousands of dollars per family member to bug out? Thanks, I'll file that advice under my Impossible Dream file. Yes, some of you can cheaply and safely bug out of country. Great. Most of us cannot. So we do what we can to survive. The first priority is to survive the economic crap storm ( notice that I'm high class and thus restrain from using such vulgarities as "shit storm" and I would never say "We're All Going To Fucking Die!" ). That is where dirt cheap land and cheap shelter and Alpha Strategy consumer items come in ( and cheap guns, hint, hint, no semi-autos, hint, hint ). Prepping past that, such as stockpiling years of cheap grain and beans ( Hunger is the best sauce in the world. [Sp., La mejor salsa del mundo es la hambre.] Author: Cervantes (Miguel de Cervantes Saavedra)Source: Don Quixote ) helps with problems after that.
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Granted, mobility might be a better answer. As I have been trying to point out to the bunny food worshipers, gardening/farming might be the best answer but you can't ignore the dangers involved. But high dollar mobility is unrealistic. And, let us not forget that IT IS ONLY PAPER. In the end, paper currency is very pretty toilet paper. Every currency, every time, all through history. The Continental was inflated to uselessness after the Revolutionary War and the Confederacy currency didn't even hold much value in the few years it existed. Because there was no value behind it from day one. The same point the dollar is at now. I would rather have a pile of dollar store crap that can't be duplicated in a primitive society than piles of currency right now. Stuff can save your life, paper is only paper. Yes, that pile of crap keeps you tied to one spot. That can be dangerous. But at least you have the option of leaving it. With paper, your only option is to wipe your ass with it. So, option one, a pile of crap that has value and that can be left behind if you need to flee for your life. Or, option two, a pile of paper that loses value every single day. A pile of crap isn't a perfect option, but it is the less evil choice.
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Volunteer poverty is one thing, it just means a partial removal from the money economy, but voluntary simplicity and denouncing material goods means you don't have the equipment needed to survive.
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