should I stay or should I go

SHOULD I STAY OR SHOULD I GO


Thankfully, a food fight broke out between two other blogs so attention was briefly taken away from anything wrong I might have been doing. I like both of their creators, as far as one can of this species, social rejects toiling away in obscurity, the rapid tap of the keyboard masking the primal scream ( The Primal Scream (A Delta Book) ) of pain, so I won’t rehash or play favorites. But there was a comment about writing original material interjected which I would like to ONCE again respond to. See, even responding to the critique of non-originality I must rehash the same information. All survival writers rehash. Not just me or Creekmore, but Rawles and everyone else. Look at Kurt Saxon ( The Survivor. Volume 2. ), my primary inspiration. If you look at his thermos cookery, that idea came from a cookbook published ten years or whatever prior to that. Which most likely was inspired by a university published book on heatless cookery from the nineteen-teens ( the name escapes me, and I wouldn’t know which CD I have it on, sorry ). Even fiction writers, over hundreds of years or longer, recycle the same skeletons of plot. Presentation is all we can claim for originality, and even then we most likely tweaked it from another. I’m sure at least one of you could think of a rude, cynical, paranoid writer that I sound like. So don’t get all uppity over a blogger not having “new” or “original” ideas. What you really mean is you want new to you, or ideas that have been recycled less often than others. And if anyone pulls that crap on me, I’ll remind you that at the beginning of the year I went to once a week publishing for a time, fresh out of new presentations to the same old ideas. When I went back to Monday through Friday, the implied contract was that I couldn’t be non-repeating all the time. I can try for new(er) stuff, but I can’t guarantee it. I’m glad we got that cleared up, as I know it was bothering you.

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Should I stay or should I go now,

If I stay there will be trouble,

An if I go it will be double.

The Clash ( London Calling ), ladies and gentlemen.

In the spirit of the above discussion, rather than talk about bugging out as everyone else does, we’ll discuss moving now. Or not. Bugging out is easy. Wait for a disaster, put on a 300 pound backpack ( it can’t weigh much less, the absurd length of the presented lists of equipment ), or drive your Hummer2 ( Hummer Badlands ) towing a semi length trailer full of crap to a retreat hundreds of miles away. On the way, if you can get through traffic, and if zombies don’t attack, and if your fifty-five gallon drums of gasoline on the roof don’t rain down an explosion of fiery death, and if you don’t run into a roadblock of State Troopers ( Super Troopers ) then you can celebrate your brilliance on staying in a large urban area. But the question of leaving NOW is a lot more complicated. A few years ago, it was easy. You packed up and moved, and at worst you took a small pay cut. But now, as with all things prep related, it is not so easy.

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Before, guns and ammo were affordable. Before, there were a surplus of everything from restaurants with food buckets to building material being thrown away. Before, both grocery store items and prep food were very cheap. Before the banks started to fail and before the oil started drying up, prepping was easy. Now, it sucks to be a prepper. Everything is hard. Oh, the basic concepts are easy. Stock the necessities by any means necessary as time is running out. But it is harder to execute that directive. Not only is it a good idea to prep for system failure, but now we need to anticipate the economy and try to stay one step ahead of that calamity. Basic wheat/bean/filters/bolt guns are needed yesterday, but then the next step is being out of debt with a paid for shelter. Not because you’ll be able to keep that long term, but because if you allow yourself to become homeless in the short term, all your options and strategy are gone. And a paid for shelter is easy. But what you have to give up to get that is the hard part. A piece of junk land you can move to is a better than nothing strategy. Until you become more paranoid, and then it doesn’t look so inviting. Travel could become impossible with gas rationing or simple prohibition ( Uncle Obammy forbids carbon emissions- stay where you are! ). You might become unemployed and have to sell the car. Or even the land. Anticipating the recovery, you gamble things get better. Then they get worse and you are stuck with being one mortgage payment away from homelessness and the inability to travel. Obviously, far away junk land is better than nothing. I still think everyone needs a junk lot or a rock solid dependable place to go. But back to the question, should you leave now?

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Leaving now means a drastic reduction in rent/mortgage costs, a head start on becoming a local ( bug outers won’t be welcome unless family is already there ) and peace of mind. If you can talk the wife into it ( you just know I’m itching to do another article on anti-prep wives, but I’ve restrained myself admirably ). If everyone is on board, you make the move. Then, as you should have guessed because the land was cheap for a reason, you can’t get a job. Don’t move if you can’t anticipate that. Yet, if you stay you retain the old debt/potential homeless problems. As in, eventually you will be jobless and then homeless ( My 30 Days Under the Overpass: Not Your Ordinary Devotional ). We’ve covered this before. You might as well anticipate unemployment and choose to do it without your current debt. By staying, you bet that the banks aren’t failing and that hyperinflation will get the economy moving again. By going, you stay in control of at least that aspect of your life ( homelessness ). So my answer to you is, do whatever it takes from bankruptcy to asset dumping to allow yourself to move, then do it. I can’t guarantee which way things will go, but you know I think they will just keep getting worse. I wouldn’t gamble on things improving. But perhaps that is just me.

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Here’s my suggestion. Buy a piece of junk land at your desired location. Tell the wife you have a job offer. And, spare me the whole honesty debate. If the wife is ignorant to world affairs and thinks nothing bad will happen, it is your duty to protect her against herself. Liquidate everything and move. Then, tell her the job offer was rescinded. I would go into town without her and pick a closed up business you can point out to her so she can’t ask your “employer” the truth. Then settle back for a life of leisure on welfare. When the wife leaves you, you might get lucky and have a reduced child support payment since you were unemployed. For the judge, don’t try the same job story. Tell them you were going on “reliable rumors” of work being available. It might work. Or you might end up in jail for lack of support payments. Hey. You get the advice you pay for. Don’t complain to me if it doesn’t work out. But I still think it is a good concept, even if it needs a bit of work.
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