we have a choice?

WE HAVE A CHOICE?


“There is no moral virtue in being Spartan when you are selecting equipment on which you may have to rely for food and protection over an extended period of time.”

“The fact that some people might be able to muddle through with nothing but a .22, a 30-06 and a 12-gauge shotgun does not mean that such arms are enough, any more than driving cross-country on a set of bald tires can be regarded as sound practice.”

Mel Tappan, “Tappan On Survival”

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There are of course a few weasel words to the effect that “if you can at all afford them…”. Nonetheless, the above two quotes are basically the holy mantra of most survivalist teachers/gurus/writers. Yes, of course the above is true. It is also true that an uneducated prisoner incarcerated at Alcatraz devoted years of his life to understanding the birds he observed and at the end was regarded as one the worlds foremost experts. All it took was his undivided attention and a lot of time. You, too, can have the perfect survivalists set-up. All that is required is devoting your entire life and financial resources to it. Okay, this kind of devotion isn’t necessarily a bad thing. Your job most likely either sucks disease engorged monkey testicles or is as worthless as a Twinkie at a bulimia convention. Having an extracurricular activity will give your life some meaning. But financial it is almost impossible. Granted, I could almost do it on minimum wage ( given enough time ). But I have better control over my finances than many. Most people can only halfway control their wages, due to spouses and children. Nothing wrong with that. To speak nothing of their previous commitments given before their understanding of the unraveling. No blame there, either. You weren’t stupid or uneducated. Rather, you were lied to all your life.

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I can’t remember who did it, but not too long ago someone made a list of a conservative budget. I’ll try to largely duplicate it.

Two incomes, $15 an hour each. Forty hours a week, less 30% taxes ( federal and state ). Call it $44,000 a year take home. $3500 a month. A modest home mortgage will be at a minimum of $1500 after taxes and insurance. Two grand left. You don’t get $15 an hour without college or Union. Since there are few Unions left, let’s assume two sets of reasonable student loans. $400. You need two cars to commute to work. The cheapest Korean compact will be about $200 a month each in payments. Add in $200 for insurance and registration. We’re down to a grand. Gas at $3 a gallon, even at a reasonable small commute is $120 a month for both. Even if little eating out is in the budget, count on at least $400 a month for food. Two cell phones, a cable bill, telephone are at least $200. If they live in a warm climate, they can still expect to pay $100 in electricity, gas, trash, water and sewer. This leaves basically a hundred bucks a month discretionary income. Before any kids come along. For a professional couple not wasting much at all in the way of money, not even factoring in entertainment beyond the glass teat. No hobbies, no vices such as cigarettes or drinking. On a gross of over sixty grand.

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This is what they went to college for, to work for all the other parasites out there. College is only a paying proposition for a few select jobs ( and those are perilous, such as a doctor paying a hundred grand in malpractice insurance or an engineer seeing all the jobs go over to China ). It is certainly not the path to riches. It is a path to unplayable debt and wage slavery. Anyone shrilling for collage-as-salvation is either room temperature IQ stupid or out to screw you ( more often than not- I’ll admit to some exceptions ). At one time, the middle class way was a comfortable existence for those that paid the price. Now it is just a faster way to the unofficial debtors prison. And even if you worked your way up to college level wages without the school, just substitute tuition debt with credit card debt as the norm. It is easy enough to do, quite quickly and with almost nothing to show for it, just like your liberal arts degree. No one blames you for being duped, but the problem with it, besides its own limitations, is that once you wake up to the dangers coming at us, you are stuck. You have no way to do anything other than “choose a Spartan path” or “muddle through” with inferior equipment. You already live without much entertainment, and the bills are largely fixed. You are already living pretty basic. If you cancel the cell phone the prepayment penalty bites you in the ass. And usually the same with a cable bill, anymore.

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None of this would matter if you had decades to prepare. You would do whatever necessary to cut one expense then use that freed money to pay down another, etc. Eventually you get back on your feet and can prep well. And, hey, since this worked for the Yuppie Survivalists the last thirty years, it must be okay to recommend this to you, right? Wrong. Take the US oil production since its peak, apply it to the world and we don’t have another thirty years. If we hadn’t imported our oil, turned half our corn into fuel, found oil in Alaska or the Gulf Of Mexico or outsourced our economy to China we would be at African craphole status right now. We wouldn’t be killing each other with rocks, but we would be starving in slums while the secret police tortured the survivors of helicopter gunship attacks. Most would be living next to an open running sewer, at best. Our oil supply would be far below what it is today. The world peaked in oil. There is no more finds like Alaska to save us. We can’t go from manufacturing to financial manipulation on a dominant currency like we already did. We are already seeing a return of food riots like in 2008. No more food will be turned into fuel, at least not without it being mixed with blood. What other rabbit can be pulled out of the hat?

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In short, you have wasted your life for The Man, and he won’t leave you any resources to prepare for a collapse of His making. You have little choice but to prepare Spartan. And he won’t leave you much time to do it.

END
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