Rising Costs and Rising Uncertainties are causing me to alter my lifestyle
This column presents a conservative viewpoint about items of interest in our community and our lives. Focus is on items impacting your pocket book, your personal freedoms, and your rights. I hope you will read the column regularly and it occasionally influences your opinions and actions. Now, on to the subject of the week:
Many Americans are experiencing a belt tightening for the first time in their lives.
The delicate budgets of most American families are being bombarded with a perpetual onslaught of costs increases in the face of static or declining revenue flows. The constant escalations in the cost of utilities, gasoline, property taxes, groceries, entertainment, restaurants, travel, education, licenses, fees, permits, building materials, services, and almost everything else we use and enjoy are beginning to take their toll on the lifestyle of the average citizen.
Add to this costing problem, the tremendous losses many families have experienced in the financial markets as their lifelong savings for retirement has been eroded by 40% or more. Then add the constant gnawing in the psyche from the realization that things might soon worsen…..and you have the situation, or dilemma, which we all are in. The presence of these constant and real dangers is naturally impacting many of our daily choices of behavior. I call our existing, uneasy, uncertain environment Phase I of what may be the three phase downfall of our American Way of Life.
Do you catch yourself being sure all unnecessary lights are turned off more frequently?...I Do!
Do you catch yourself setting the thermostat to a little more uncomfortable setting?...I Do!
Do you catch yourself driving with the window down instead of turning on the AC?...I Do!
Do you catch yourself monitoring the gasoline prices at each station more often?...I Do!
Do you catch yourself grilling pork chops and hamburgers more often and steaks less?...I Do!
Do you catch yourself consolidating trips to town and not going as many times per day?...I Do!
Do you catch yourself not even considering a major vacation, such as a cruise?...I Do!
Do you catch yourself eating leftovers more frequently and throwing out less food?... I Do!
Do you catch yourself monitoring the stock market more frequently?...I Do!
In this phase the unemployment levels will climb toward 15%, more and more industries and major companies will declare bankruptcy, more and more banks will fail, putting great strain on the FDIC, the stock market will fall below 7,000 as more companies lose profitability and fewer people have investment capital.
More and more people will remove funds from markets and banks and will buy non perishable commodities and precious metals as they desperately seek safe haven for their accumulated wealth. Oil will soar due to speculation and restraint of availability by Mid East oil cartels, further negatively impacting the American economy and the struggling American household……..and ……downfall ….worsens…
I have had conversations with other people who have taken things a step further, changed their lifestyles even more, all out of a realization of a tightening of funds and/or a growing fear for the future. These additional measures some citizens have taken, which I have named the PHASE II lifestyle include:
● Buying a mini farm with a small pond. Beginning to raise chickens, catfish, a few cattle, and a garden in order to assure a food supply in a drastic economic failure.
● Stocking attics and pantries with canned food and non-perishables for the same reason.
● Buying gold.
● Installing solar power panels.
● Walking to work instead of driving.
● Hiding cash and valuable minerals.
● Separating two ply toilet paper into two rolls.
● Turning off all power to their house when they leave each day.
● Discontinuing cable TV and internet.
● Eating more hotdogs.
● Only eating one meal per day.
● Cutting your hair at home instead of at a shop.
● Going to a movie much less often.
● Eating in a restaurant less often.
● Buying a gun and/or stockpiling ammunition.
● Discontinuing home telephone service, using only cell phones.
● Selling large home and buying much smaller because of reduced living cost.
In Phase II of our national downward plunge, unemployment will climb to over 15%. More and more hard working citizens will lose their jobs which will result in more foreclosures from banks and from tax delinquencies, more and more people will qualify for government entitlement programs such as food stamps, Medicaid, housing, retraining, extended unemployment benefits, and many other programs. This added burden will create greater budget shortfalls for state and federal operations. States and cities will begin to go bankrupt, further endangering the national financial structure.
In Phase II the impact of all of these negatives finally reaches the hallowed halls of government. Bureaucrats experience lay-offs in a manner usually preserved for employees of industry. Wasteful, unessential, unneeded, overstaffed, politically sponsored, government positions, government programs, and government regulations will finally be cut down to minimum necessities. This will move toward a 25% reduction in state budgets, and 15% cuts in county budgets. The federal bureaucracy will be the last to yield to these revenue pressures, resorting instead to increased printing and artificial input of funds into the economy. This action will further heighten spiraling inflation…And…things...…worsen...
I have not yet encountered anyone who has moved into the next phase of altered lifestyle, which can be termed as PHASE III reactions. I pray to God we do not reach this level of despair. Life in Phase III will include:
● Federal funding of social security, unemployment, welfare entitlements, Medicare, Medicaid, disability payments and other social programs will cease. This will plunge millions into a desperate living situation.
● Unemployment exceeds 25%
● Converting as much money as possible into commodities, food, and other necessities.
● Hoarding these items in secret storage areas.
● Using bicycles, scooters, motorbikes, or motorcycles instead of a car.
● Establishing communal living with friends or family members.
● Living from self subsistence- hunting, fishing, gardening, raising stock for slaughter.
● Living without electricity.
● Using bartering as the primary means of purchasing.
● Families and individuals who have lost their homes, their jobs, and are struggling for survival will become nomadic, moving to areas where work and better conditions are rumored to exist.
● The National Guard and U.S. Army will replace local and state police as gangs begin to dominate and control areas of the country. A warlord-cartel culture will begin to form much as what exists in places such as Afghanistan and Columbia, South America.
Bull Hockey! Things could never get that bad in the U.S. of A! You might be saying this to yourself. Well, it can! Just throw in a corrupt, inept government and give it total power for a decade or so, and good can become bad…heaven can become hell.
I have worked in places not very far away from our shores where similar lifestyles exist….AT THIS MOMENT. Just go spend a few days on the streets of Port Au Prince, Haiti, or go to Somalia, Cuba, Zimbabwe, or Nicaragua. Corrupt governments, bad management, and self serving leadership can destroy a nation in a remarkably short period of time.
I am very uncomfortable with the direction of our nation at this moment in time. If we merely sit quietly and watch while our nation self destructs, we will be among the guilty. Now is the time to become active, to support causes and directions you believe in, and to participate at a personal level. Do these things and perhaps we can “Get it Right” again.
Rudiments: Odds and Ends Worth Mentioning –
● Lee Miller, our Superintendent of Schools went up several notches in my rating of him this week. By appointing his previous political opponent, Danny Sims, to be the Principal at Cottondale, he demonstrated the fact that he is placing the best interest of the school system ahead of protecting his political turf. One of the worse aspects of having elected School Superintendents is that the school system usually loses some of its most talented personnel after they run for office and fail. Ensuing politics usually gets them dismissed. Lee Miller has risen above that level of thinking.
● Everything can change in the “Blink of an Eye”…but don’t worry, God Never Blinks!
Note: The opinions stated in this column are solely those of the author and do not necessarily represent those of Hatcher Publications.
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