How Prepared Are You for a Long Term Crisis? (Page 6)

I think one of the big things that could put us at risk is the disparity between the 1% and the 99%. Like you say, it is a political/financial issue (which unfortunately have become essentially one and the same in this country). There are huge gaps that I believe those in power exploit between the top and the bottom, between the young and the old - gaps which are magnitudes of order greater than they were even as few as 15-20 years ago. And the sense of community and obligations to one another have often evaporated. 

I was listening to an old interview with Ayn Rand on the radio today, from the 1950's. The interviewer commented how her philosophy of self-interest ran counter to the prevailing American mindset of being one another's keepers. I also read an interview with some of the authors of de-regulation under Reagan (who was one of the people who obviously took Rand's ideas and ran with them) who stated they thought that the free market would self regulate out of a sense of duty to community. But the idea of a local merchant who supports his community is, in many places, an outdated and dead idea, replaced in most places by a believe in maximizing the profits short term and preserving the golden parachute under what is often a rigged game.

Locally, there is a modestly successful chain of department stores. The last family member who ran the place had sold it to retire, and the chain started to go under. He came out of retirement and has restructured and stabilized the business and was and is a strong supporter of the community. This is the exception, not the rule, and I suspect that it is part because he comes from an older generation that values the community along with (if not above) the profit margin (and yet, he has managed to be successful, and unlike many of the Wall Street people, has actually created actual jobs and provides actual goods and services which are actually accessible to majority of people in our region.)

I suppose the real question in looking at the future with potential disasters is whether we believe that fundamentally we are a nation of individuals whose only goals are our immediate self interest, or whether we are a nation of people who mutually support one another for the most part. I would hope more the latter, but a lot of the rhetoric I hear seems to support the former.

What was interesting about the Ayn Rand interview was that she seemed to be of the opinion that neither the government nor the individual should take any interest in caring for others. She was strongly of the the opinion that religion was a bad thing because it tries to get people to care for others, rather than taking care of themselves. She stated baldly that no one should live their lives to serve others, but that "each man must live as an end in himself" and that the "highest moral purpose" is the achievement (not pursuit) of one's own happiness.

The interviews are on youtube, in 3 parts. What I find fascinating is her strong opposition to religion (almost like Marx, but with the views on capitalism turned 180 degrees), as well as how many of the people who most strongly support her ideas of "objectivism" are also tending to be religious.

I think it is far too simplistic to ask whether we are a nation of individuals or communities. Fact is that in Man's entire history... we have never been HERE. 6 billion people and growing. Everything we do is more decentralized than ever before. All in the name of efficiency, production and yes profit. Those same people with that "we are the World" mentality also shipped plenty of jobs overseas for profit. It's all about that "global economy".

Sure we can point to trends and statistics. The disenfranchised, the left behind, the culture of me... yet time and time again this nation has shown it's character when it counted. Large parts of our country routinely face calamities... earth quakes in the West, hurricanes in the East, tornadoes on a regular basis in the middle, and those communities all pull together when they need to... they also know they are isolated and that there is help from the "outside"

I have no doubt that if everything fell apart, we are not as lost as it seems. I believe we would pick up the pieces and start from square one. And yes lawlessness would be a part of that, but I don't think as bad as some may think. Cities would be the worst... cities only run on energy and power, you can't have that concentration of people without it. People would leave in droves because of no food and no safety... that mass exodus would put a huge strain on outside communities that have banned together and they would not be thrilled with a influx of people that "don't belong there".

If we truly lost our food supply, a huge part of the population would starve to death, but eventually, thing would balance once again. People would figure it out. Life would continue to roll along. So a few people loot short term, they will figure out pretty quick that didn't do much good. But at every level, there would be those trying to organize and govern. Get on with the business of living. It really just depends on how long is long term

You made the comparison to Reagan and Rand - not a good one to make.   But make no mistake, were we to tip over the edge (and it will happen quickly, if and when it does) it will mainly be a govt caused solution.   Deregulation is not the problem.    There is no free lunch.    The govt has ripped the heart out of the nation - but at the same time, its the people that allowed it.

We are headed for a MAJOR financial crisis...either we pay now or pay later.    There is no more money.   There is debt that is owed and only money or assets-in-kind can satisfy it.   Look at Europe, they are trying to use "time" which is restructuring the debt which will not work without a growing economy which they do not have.    And once this doesn't work, they will find a way to create a EURO printing press because this is what we do.

The problem is its going to be painful for Europe and the US to do the right thing  - IOW, in order to right size govt they have to spend much less which will send our economy into a depression till it all clears because so much of GDP is govt spending, I don't see anything in our recent history to suggest a political will to do this.    So instead, we will crash and it will be much more painful.

So the idea of storing food, water and protection really is just common sense.   We have history time and again showing us what happens.   

Its the arrogance of men that think we have "evolved" to a point that history will not repeat itself - its called a normalcy bias.   Crazy times.  

My vote is to take our medicine now and come out stronger because of it versus letting the crisis just happen to us.