Going ghetto or going Galt?

Many years ago I realized that you should pay more attention to the business press than the mainstream media. Businessmen have to make payroll each week. They read the newspaper with an eye on risk management: they are interested in the new regulations, the new tax situation and employment law. They are less interested in what dress the starlet of the hour is wearing (or not wearing) in Cannes or what the political spin is.

So I started reading the NBR. It comes out once a week. I then scan the ODT for university and hospital news, and I can cheerfully leave the mainstream media alone.

But when one looks at the current situation, particularly in the US and EU, then it looks dire. The Federal Government is bankrupt (in effect) in both the European Union and the United States. Moreover, companies are starting to turn retirement funds into scrip factories.

Now the question is what to do. The immediate steps are obvious, very direct, and follow the prescription Alte suggests.

Here’s a general plan of action, by priority:

Store enough non-perishable food for three months. Don’t waste money on freeze-dried inedibles, or go broke in a shopping panic. Rather, slowly purchase the things you usually eat in double-quantities and store them in your pantry. Just keep buying them whenever they’re on sale, and put the new ones in the back, and take the older ones from the front, and rotate that way.

Same with bottled water. Don’t just store up the water, you need to drink it so that you aren’t left with 20 gallons of nasty-tasting water. The only thing worse than eating and drinking out of storage is eating and drink old crap out of storage. We’ve been consuming our stored goods in preparation for the move, and all of it was still in good condition.

Start an herb garden, even if it’s just in pots on your windowsill. It’s the best source of vitamins and trace nutrients, it’s completely dummy-proof, it’ll make your bland stored food taste delicious, and it never runs out. If you have a garden, switch to raised beds, composting, and self-harvested seeds.

Store booze, even if you don’t drink it. Not joking. Especially hard-liquor, as it lasts forever and makes a useful trading. Prices on alcohol have been going up, up, up. Also makes great gifts because even people who don’t drink can make use of it through trade. Best are: vodka, tequila, rum, whiskey. Avoid more unusual-tasting booze because it’ll have less utility. Buy wine if you have good storage in a cellar.

Invest in lead. Don’t buy a gazillion weapons. Concentrate on ammunition instead, as that’s what tends to run low first and it’s what the .gov is throttling the supply of. Even if you don’t use it all, you can trade with it.

Stock some gasoline and/or diesel in containers. Electricity will get wonky, and when the power goes out, the gas station pumps fail.

If you have some extra money, invest in energy-saving appliances and in renewables, like a manual or solar well-pump, solar hot water, windmill, wood-burning stove, etc. Insulate your house (especially the attic!) and get new doors and windows installed (even at 90 degrees Fahrenheit outside, my air conditioning doesn’t need to run when it’s set to 76, as long as I keep the windows closed during the day). Make sure south-facing windows have awnings. The Germans are doing this like crazy because they have a long memory and high energy costs.

Liquidate your investments and move everything to cash. Asset prices will eventually plummet and you can buy things up in a fire-sale before the cash becomes worthless. (BTFD) That’s how we’re going to get into property in Germany, if all things go according to plan. Which they never do.

Forget about retirement savings. Just forget about it. If you want to retire, you need unleveraged investments in tangible assets.

And only after doing all of that, buy yourself some plain gold jewelry or silver coins. Focus on jewelry with a high melt-value, so nothing with intricate designs or inlaid stones. Don’t buy too much of it, as cash will be more useful in the medium-term, but do hold some for FU money.

In short, be a good ant and have enough stuff stored away to get you through the bad times. Have multiple sources: two becomes one and one becomes none. Ensure your medications do not run out… have enough food, and so on.

Some variations will occur. I don’t have firearms or .308 ammo because guns are really regulated in NZ. I use less herbs than Alte does, and my house is insulated — but it never gets below -5 (celsius) or abouve +30 here, so this is less of an issue.

However, I use farmer’s markets, local networks of suppliers and deliberately buy goods from the artisan bakers and cheesemakes and butchers because it is better and I want those companies around. I take part in a church, an orchestra, and the local community. I want my bubble and society to survive. I chose to live in Dunedin, in part, because society here still has a level of resilience in it which means that I don’t have to do everything myself and can instead rely on a community.

But we (still) have rule of law, a sound currency (being small, we could not print money — quantitative ease — without developing hyperinflation) and fairly sensible rules. None of these lasts over generations unless society continually makes hard choices.

If you live in a larger society, and the rules are changing (as they are) in ways which will harm you, then what to do?

One way is to go minimalistic. Aaron Clarey is a good example of this. He does not collect stuff, but instead collects experiences. He lives on a small income, tries to take at least three months a year off, and ensures he has a motorcycle ready to get him out of Dodge and into the wilderness he loves whenever things get squirrely. He’s gone his own way or gone Galt.

But it is very hard to raise children or keep a civilized bubble going that way. I would suggest that it is equally hard to keep civilization going as a survivalist — particularly if you are doing this alone.

You need a community. Within a community, you can have rules, accepted behaviour, and then shame, shun or expel those who will not pull their weight. It worked for the Amish (despite them being pacifists) and it would work for the greater church. We could ghettoize — living in the rural hinterlands (from the Wairapapa to Moravia), staying away from crowds, and keeping a low profile. That kind of rural ghetto is viable. The urban one, however, is not: in tough times it takes very little to incite a mob to steal, or worse.

My worry with this is that it denies the mission of the church. We need to take our communities and move outwards. We can take our gardens and turn them into an urban forest or grove, sharing our excess (and canning it for winter is coming). We can use the fact we have to rotate food to send our excess to the local food banks. And we should, in the church, be reaching out.

Pray that we will not reach the depths of the depression, where people worked to eat. And all who can work, should be working: the time when you could retire for two or three decades is gone.

The world would love us to go Galt. They would love us to shrink back into the ghetto. But we should be using the church as an outreach. We can worship on Sunday, and use the same area to feed, to care, and to heal the remainder of the week.

For our governments may fail. Historically, this happens more often than not. But the church continues to have a duty to the mad, the broken, the starving, the homeless and the bereft. Regardless of the economic state or level of oppression we find ourselves under.

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Chris Gale