What do you do when/if the global economy collapses?

[Dajenarit]

Where do you go? How do you plan to survive?

These guys drop heavy questions and insights that I've been thinking about for the last year or so....

Opinions, personal plans of action, advice or even more questions are welcome. Or you can just tell me to polish my tinfoil hat and kick rocks.

[Simon]

BRICS is killing off the petrodollar so it won't be long now until theories get tested in usa.

I would head out of western countries towards the BRICS countries but that's me. Otherwise enjoy the collapse.

Listen to some jim Willie on the future collapse.

[Dmitri]

I wish there was a website that would track, chronologically, how many times in the past it was said that we only have a couple of months, and then all hell will break loose... Over, and over, and over, and over, and over, and over, and over, and over, and over again. Months go by, nothing happens, but nobody seems to notice that all the predictions fell on their paranoid faces, and it comes up again. And years go by, and nothing happens, and it comes up yet again. And here it is now, again, for the umpteenth time. It doesn't seem to matter that there is no solid evidence whatsoever of any such definitive threat (not talking about a "possibility of a threat"). It will always come up; people seem to enjoy these "potential scenarios"... I have a couple of friends that do this all the time. I guess as a psychological mechanism for coping with it if it were somehow to ever happen? I dunno.

[Azer]

It would be interesting to see the figures for USD in foreign exchange reserves over the past few years and months, should show how USD is being usurped by other currencies. This has been happening for quite a while as far as I am aware, so I doubt its impact would manifest abruptly. There should be enough time for people/government/economy to adjust to some degree. Though, I think the US increasingly and openly using the USD and related financial infrastructure as an economic weapon, as well as recently cracking down on large banking operations who were skirting US sanctions, will accelerate the necessity of many governments and major corporations to limit or avoid USD transactions.

EDIT:

Some old figures here, up to 2011:

http://blogs.piie.com/realtime/?p=2805

I assume the trend has continued.

[chud]

I wish there was a website that would track, chronologically, how many times in the past it was said that we only have a couple of months, and then all hell will break loose... Over, and over, and over, and over, and over, and over, and over, and over, and over again. Months go by, nothing happens, but nobody seems to notice that all the predictions fell on their paranoid faces, and it comes up again. And years go by, and nothing happens, and it comes up yet again. And here it is now, again, for the umpteenth time. It doesn't seem to matter that there is no solid evidence whatsoever of any such definitive threat (not talking about a "possibility of a threat"). It will always come up; people seem to enjoy these "potential scenarios"... I have a couple of friends that do this all the time. I guess as a psychological mechanism for coping with it if it were somehow to ever happen? I dunno.

Math is an unavoidable (and inconvenient) truth; the day will come.
My estimate is 15 - 18 years from now.
It will be bad.

[yeniseri]

It would be interesting to see the figures for USD in foreign exchange reserves over the past few years and months, should show how USD is being usurped by other currencies. This has been happening for quite a while as far as I am aware, so I doubt its impact would manifest abruptly. There should be enough time for people/government/economy to adjust to some degree. Though, I think the US increasingly and openly using the USD and related financial infrastructure as an economic weapon, as well as recently cracking down on large banking operations who were skirting US sanctions, will accelerate the necessity of many governments and major corporations to limit or avoid USD transactions.

EDIT:

Some old figures here, up to 2011:

http://blogs.piie.com/realtime/?p=2805

I assume the trend has continued.

Market forces and its manipulation can only go so far. You tell a lie enough times and it begins to have a life of its own but reality steps in with the yuan, BRIC economies balanced with economic malaise then you have China holding US debt instruments, etc so that turns the variables. There is time but that time favours the corporations (look at what they are doing.....moving out of US institutions while it hurts the US consumers since the money that would be used for US concerns now benefits overseas institutions so no revenue for local US infrastructure development. Plus, you bribe enough people and they see you have no 'face' or personal integrity, they go elsewhere.

[Azer]

Well if it does happen, and abruptly, I guess you would have a similar situation as to what happened in the former USSR in early nineties, i.e. savings become worthless, hyper inflation, prices changing daily/hourly, shortages of certain goods, glut for others, spike in violence/crime/organised crime, increase of substance abuse, collapse of social welfare/programs, emigration and border problems. People still got by though, most had some foreign currency stashed away or something of value (jewellery/tech) to trade/pawn in the immediate term and had to scrape/hustle after that . Of course not an ideal situation, but some also benefited enormousness from this, entrepreneurs, oligarchs and such.

Eventually things stabilise and people learn, rebuild, develop. It would be painful, but I don't think it would be a 'Mad Max' sort of scenario, though considering the quantity of private gun ownership in the US, there could be some odd stuff going on. Also, I'm guessing people who live outside urban areas in the US are probably pretty adept at growing their own food, hunting and general maintenance. The urban populace which is most dependent on managed public infrastructure/logistics for day to day things would likely have more problems.

I guess another thing to consider is whether the union would splinter and what sort of impact this would have. The thing with USSR is that it was a union of republics with their own ethnic make-up, cultures and identities, the US is more homogeneous from what I gather, so I'm not sure how much appetite there would be for this. If anything, I guess a split would be on a ideological and/or racial lines? Just guessing..

[emptycloud]

I am directly involved in trying to develop food security for communities. The most empowering thing a community can do is to take control of its food production and distribution. Currently I am helping rehabilitate old walled gardens and establishing community groups to run the walled gardens as organic food banks. The produce is distributed amongst the growers and we organise free community meals to those who need it.

We are in the process of trying to push through a community empowerment bill which will enable us to force the hand of landowners and councils to relinquish derelict, abandoned and underused land for the sole purpose of community food production. Our primary ambition is to acquire a city golf course and turn it into food and culture hub.

Our mission is to provide free organic food to those who need it, our thinking is that the sanest thing a human can do is feed another person with highly nutritious food unconditionally.

Thats one of the things I am doing to weather the storm....

Rich

[Azer]

Good stuff Richard, sounds very decent and practical. Wish you the best of luck with it!

[chud]

Gardens are definitely a good way to go.
I just planted vegetables for the first time, I hope to make it a regular thing.

[Steve James]

I am directly involved in trying to develop food security for communities. The most empowering thing a community can do is to take control of its food production and distribution. Currently I am helping rehabilitate old walled gardens and establishing community groups to run the walled gardens as organic food banks. The produce is distributed amongst the growers and we organise free community meals to those who need it.

[Dmitri]

That's awesome Rich -- regardless of the possibility of zombie invasion.

[I-mon]

Exactly!

Organic gardening, permaculture, foraging and hunting, co-operatives of all sorts, salvaging and repair of everything from engines to axes and knives, learning to make clothes and shoes, build shelters and houses like earthships or rammed earth or straw-bale, weatherproofing, homebrewing beer, winemaking, cheesemaking, distilling spirits, growing medicinal plants, and building local and regional networks for sharing and trading food, crafts and skills.

The whole point is that even if the current economic system doesn't collapse in our lifetimes, these activities massively improve quality of life, and these networks will help our communities and future communities through whatever good or hard times we face in the future.

[Steve James]

Organic gardening, permaculture, foraging and hunting, co-operatives of all sorts, salvaging and repair of everything from engines to axes and knives, learning to make clothes and shoes, build shelters and houses like earthships or rammed earth or straw-bale, weatherproofing, homebrewing beer, winemaking, cheesemaking, distilling spirits, growing medicinal plants, and building local and regional networks for sharing and trading food, crafts and skills.

True, but societies have always come into being and continued precisely because individuals rarely have all of them. Agricultural societies are all based on sharing resources and produce. Collective work is necessary. The blacksmith doesn't have the time to be a farmer. This results in specialization. Pick any pre-industrial society, and that's pretty much how we can predict what a post-apocalyptic population society will look like eventually.

Of course, this also depends on the exact nature of the "apocalypse."

[I-mon]

Organic gardening, permaculture, foraging and hunting, co-operatives of all sorts, salvaging and repair of everything from engines to axes and knives, learning to make clothes and shoes, build shelters and houses like earthships or rammed earth or straw-bale, weatherproofing, homebrewing beer, winemaking, cheesemaking, distilling spirits, growing medicinal plants, and building local and regional networks for sharing and trading food, crafts and skills.

True, but societies have always come into being and continued precisely because individuals rarely have all of them. Agricultural societies are all based on sharing resources and produce. Collective work is necessary. The blacksmith doesn't have the time to be a farmer. This results in specialization. Pick any pre-industrial society, and that's pretty much how we can predict what a post-apocalyptic population society will look like eventually.

Of course, this also depends on the exact nature of the "apocalypse."

That's why I mentioned "building local and regional networks for sharing and trading food, crafts and skills". It's probably the most important one of all, rather than "self sufficiency".