This report was originally published by Chris Martenson at PeakProsperity.com
Most experienced investors know the four most dangerous words are: This time is different.
It never is.
And yet one of my key predictions here at Peak Prosperity is that The next twenty years will be completely unlike the last twenty years.
So am I saying that things really will be different this time?
Yes, I am. But to understand why, you have to look closely at the unprecedented moment in history in which we live, as well as how the Three E’s – the Economy, Energy and Environment – all tie together now in a way they never have before.
For those who prefer their conclusions right up front, the simplest summary I can provide is that everything we think we know about “how things work” is just plain wrong.
This explains why, among many other grotesque distortions, the stock and bond markets are spectacularly overpriced and overvalued right now.
This danger is important to be aware of because when things correct, as they inevitably must, the next crash will be incredibly damaging. It could be as profound as that which dethroned Spain as a world power, permanently.
Peak Prosperity user Gyurash put this risk in context within his comment to our recent podcast on Economics for Independent Thinkers:
The mention of Paul Volker was interesting. I remember listening to a lecture given by Mr. Volker played on public radio in the mid 80s. He talked about the Spanish empire in the 16th century and the easy money train they had coming from South American gold and silver. He said that although it seemed to create great wealth it also made for a false economy in Spain. In addition to creating price bubbles, the Spanish did not use it to build much of anything other than big villas, built by itinerant foreign labor by the way, so when the gold and silver flow slowed when the biggest mines were effectively depleted, their economy crashed so hard that it never recovered, even up to today.
(Source)
Delusional Thinking
What’s worse than wishful thinking? Delusional thinking.
The sort of ideas that harm rather than help those who hold them.
Of the many current policy delusions I could rail about, perhaps the greatest of them all is the quite-impossible belief that we can have infinite growth on a finite planet.
I know, I know, refuting this is so brain-dead easy to debunk that it seems pedestrian, if not childishly so, to raise it here again. It’s quite an impossible proposition.
Even the most cursory of reviews of mining data (just one of many possible examples), show that many critical ores and minerals are vastly more difficult and expensive to extract and bring to market than they were just a few decades ago. And the trendlines keep getting worse.
But let’s go through this once again, because it’s such an important point. For those of you already on my side of the boat, please bear with me. Perhaps something new will emerge for you on this next go around.
The Harsh Math
Exponential expansion requires not just some new minerals coming to market, but exponentially more.
It works out like this. Suppose that 100 units of copper were produced in year 1, and output (as demanded by economic growth) was expanding at a 3% rate. How long would it take for production to double? The answer is that after 24 years we’d find that 203 units were being produced. So a 3% growth rate means that it takes only 24 years to fully double production.
However, the more interesting fact is that over that same 24-year stretch, if we add up each year’s production into a cumulative total we discover that 3,546 units of copper had been produced. How much copper would you guess was produced over the prior 24-year stretch (the one that got us to 100 units in the first place)?
The answer is just 1775 units. In other words, half the amount produced during the next doubling. Going back further and adding up all of the doublings of copper production throughout all of history we’d discover that each new doubling produced (and consumed) as much as the sum total of all the prior doubling periods combined.
You can prove this to yourself by looking at a doubling sequence such as 0.25, 0.5, 1, 2, 4, 8, 16, 32 etc. Note that 4 is larger than (0.25 + 0.5 + 1 + 2) and that 8 is larger than (0.25 + 0.5 + 1 + 2 + 4) and that 16 is larger than (0.25 + 0.5 + 1 + 2 + 4 + 8) and so on — into infinity.
Again, each new doubling involves an increase that is larger than the combined values of all the prior doublings in history.
For the visually-minded, here’s that same idea expressed in an image:
How Many More Doublings Can We Possibly Have From Here?
Only the most delusional would argue that we can dependably double our extraction of key natural resources forever.
Every two decades (or so), will we always be able to use twice as much farmland, twice as much fish in the sea, twice as much oil in the ground, as has been used before throughout all of human history?
Of course not. Planet Earth is a finite system.
This is why I claim that everything we think we know about “how things work” is wrong. Our entire economic and financial systems, their associated monetary models and their current financial asset prices, are predicated on the principle of continuous growth. And not just any sort of growth: Exponential growth. Predictable doubling — forever.
Look, it’s ridiculously easy to prove that there won’t always be twice as much copper (or nearly any other key natural resource) as has been extracted throughout all of prior human history. Things run out. They deplete. They become more dilute as the high grades are exploited first.
At some point, doubling becomes impossible. That’s when you’re past the point where half has been extracted and half still remains in the ground. After that, there are exactly zero doubling periods remaining! That’s just elementary math.
Why care?
Because once the doubling periods are over, every single economic model and financial asset that is predicated on continuous expansion breaks. Our systems stop steadily growing; and instead start increasingly shrinking.
This not a hard concept to grasp, intellectually, for most people with an open mind. But in practice, because it challenges our comfortable understanding of the world, because it collides with an entire Disney World of incompatible social belief systems, it’s pretty much impossible for the many people to even begin to wrestle with. Forget about a mainstream economist or central banker, whose salary requires them to adhere to the status quo.
The warning here is that we our deluding ourselves as a society. We are herding ourselves, lemming-like, straight towards the cliff ledge.
Think Critically!
Our mission here at PeakProsperity.com is to Create a World Worth Inheriting. While we help people make informed decisions to imbue their lives with greater abundance and satisfaction today, it’s our dedication to the long-term picture that shapes everything we do.
Very few voices are standing about waving their arms in the air like we are, warning of the approaching cliff. We’re aware that the point of no return might still be several decades out into the future, but we also realize that it could already be behind us. It’s nearly impossible to know right now given the complex system that is our planet — but given the existential risks involved, our opinion is that everyone should be mobilizing in response to this arriving (arrived?) crisis.
We often get labeled as narrow-minded “Malthusians”. Or accused of failing to account for human ingenuity. (Neither is accurate, we think.)
But in reality, we’re simply data driven. The facts are what they are. Logic is what it is.
And we get it. It’s both a factual and a logical nightmare for the infinite growth crowd that the earth is finite.
But as Einstein famously quipped:
And as you wrap your brain around the limits to growth, remember that you’re subject to the same comprehensive programming that envelops us all. The messaging that constantly reinforces the idea that endless growth is what we need, and what we can expect.
This programming is subtle, reassuring and ubiquitous; which makes it hard to resist. Here’s a prime example:
(Source)
To an economist like Bernanke, there are only virtuous expansions. Of course, the sort of expansion he refers to is exponential growth. Which is absolutely destined to fail in the long run (and now, maybe, the short).
And when that happens, the fallout will be spectacular and highly destructive to the hopes and dreams of literally billions of people.
Make Your Choice: Change By Pain Or Insight
What’s unclear to me is if there can be any meaningful recovery from this next crash, whenever it happens and however long it takes.
To return to the opening piece of this article, while I know that this time is different are dangerous words for investors to believe, the impending collision between delusional infinite growth thinking and resource limits and other realities will appear to the average observer like a gigantic change. But, in fact, it simply will mean that humans are subject to the same limits as any other life form on earth.
In other words, it really won’t be different this time.
In boy-meets-girl story form, the plot line of the natural process for all forms of life is:
- organism finds tasty energy source
- organism expands exponentially into that energy source
- energy source dwindles even as organism continues into population overshoot, and then
- happy times turn into tough times, and organism population plummets
Given that literally everything we hold dear and take for granted, such as well-stocked supermarkets, 24/7 electricity, and an appreciating retirement portfolio are all themselves dependent on an economic model that requires perpetual exponential expansion, several questions emerge.
How can I protect myself, my family and those I care about? How can I secure a prosperous future? What do I need to do to develop the right mental models and belief system to deal effectively with the coming challenges?
You can either address these questions head-on now, while the world still works the way we’re accustomed to. Or later, under crisis conditions.
We’ve learned that there are two ways that people change their beliefs and then their actions: by pain or by insight.
Most people go the pain route. And in the process, they waste a lot of valuable time that could have been spent constructively. It’s only after the heart attack, the divorce, the backing over the family dog while drunk—moments of extreme pain—that most people will begin to actively face the idea that they need to make different decisions in life.
But it doesn’t have to be that way. Part of the beauty of being human is that we can learn from observation, reflection and experience, and can adapt. Critical thinkers have this ability to change by insight. They use new information to put new behaviors into practice until those practices become new habits. And with better habits, we achieve better destinies.
So which route will you choose? Pain or insight?
The story told by the Three Es is loaded with the potential for plenty of painful moments over the next few decades. Sadly, a lot of people will not take precautionary steps far enough in advance to matter. They’re just not focusing on the risks right now. As a result, much of the world will be forced to change its behavior via the pain route.
Use this awareness as a sense of urgency to prepare now. To secure your future prosperity, as well as to help those regretting that they didn’t follow your lead.
In Part 2: Steps For Changing By Insight, we lay out our prescriptive guidance what what to do now, in a world saddled with record debts, and a debt-based system of money that itself is utterly and completely dependent on infinite expansion, where something’s got to give.
If you believe in eternal infinite growth, then sure, stay invested in stocks and bonds and go ahead and buy the dips.
But if you don’t, take steps today to change your life by insight, secure your future prosperity, and serve as a model for others.
Click here to read Part 2 of this report (free executive summary, enrollment required for full access)
Can someone please tell me what the Luciferian genocidal treasonous criminal psychopaths from the evil vile disgusting inner pits of the bowels of hell in Washington DC are waiting for????
The dumbed down, disease ridden, addicted to everything, drunken bum, obese toxic dump AMERICAN COWARDS are ripe and ready psychopaths.
THE DUMBED DOWN AMERICAN COWARDS ARE READY FOR GUN CONFISCATION
THE DUMBED DOWN AMERICAN COWARDS ARE READY FOR THE FORCED VACCINATIONS
THE DUMBED DOWN AMERICAN COWARDS ARE READY FOR THE RFID CHIPPING
SO WHAT IN THE WORLD ARE YOU WAITING FOR CRIMINAL TREASONOUS PSYCHOPATHS FROM THE INNER PITS OF THE DISGUSTING VILE EVIL BOWELS OF HELL IN WASHINGTON DC?????
Get their guns, get them dumbed down more with forced vaccinations, and chip the dumbed coward pussies and the children they should of NEVER had in the damned and doomed Police State hell on earth of collapsing psychopath controlled New Babylon America!!!!
So what are your thoughts on the other 193 countries in the world?
A supernova from our own Sun sounds pretty great right about now.
I still like the Yellowstone super volcano going off. That’s a much slower and painful death, and much more emotionally rewarding to watch after all the sh*t these a**holes have pulled.
What are they waiting on? You still have a few pennies in your pocket that you call yours. When you have nothing left to give then they will go for it. Until then they will keep nickel and diming ( laws and rules ) you to death.
They are waiting for us older,danger-us types to die.
If it weren’t for the Haber process and subsequent “green revolution” we would already be there. This is why we currently can feed exponentially more mouths per acre than we could in the past. As it is, easily minable phosphorus deposits are rapidly dwindling and our agriculture will suffer. My gardening is organic with little outside input, but honestly you just cannot match the output of a fertilizer-heavy operation by organic techniques. This means that when the phosphorus runs out, the yield per acre returns to “organic farming” levels and we face mass starvation. Won’t be as much of an issue in first world countries (other than increased food inflation) but worldwide unrest as third world countries starve will make for “interesting times” indeed.
You really have no idea what you are talking about when you say such INSANITY as “you just cannot match the output of a FERTILIZER-heavy operation by “organic techniques”-you obviously have no idea about the SOIL FOOD WEB and how it operates to keep the earth alive. The only SUSTAINABLE FARMING for the future will be PERMACULTURE or basically how the Creator does things, and NO you do not have to destroy your soil with “heavy fertilizer” use or worry about the phosphorus running out with PERMACULTURE SUSTAINABLE FARMING. Our 56 acre AHRENS PERMACULUTRE SUSTAINABLE FARMING TRAINING FARM will be opening this Summer of 2018, and it sounds like you need to come and see the future of SUSTAINBALE FARMING for yourself and in the meantime please learn about the SOIL FOOD WEB and how it works, before insanely TILLING or DUMPING ANY FERTILIZER on our precious soil.
RA
Curious what systtem you folks are using for planting and such. Have been looking at planting starts into rolled or mowed cover crops or no till for corn and beans etc. the nutrient cycle seems to be sufficient as long as i keep the organic matter levels high enough, good success with broccoli and cabage, beans and peas and the last patch of sweet corn i literally did nothing to it beyond one deep watering right at seeding and got decent production. Same thing with pumpkins and squash,
Have real good results with hairy vetch for cover crop then mow it down with my flail mower then plant starts into the mulch. I just reseaded cover crops on entire property as we have been getting a lot of rain, so good timing, minimizes my inputs,
Area is a little large for compost, just takes too much so cover crops are where im at, usually a high biomass like sudan grass or oats followed by a legume like vetch, alfalfa is good too but is perennial so need to be careful what im planting into it, corn and squash do good though, i do use soft rock phosphate and Kmag as well as a OMRI approved 444 called perfect blend that has high micros in it,, can get production without all that though but need to streatch out the rotations more to increase nutrient rich biomass.
Hugelkulture, hugelkulture, hugelkulture…GET TO KNOW IT, because it is the future of Sustainable Farming around the world, and it should always be included in your PERMACULTURE SUSTAINABLE FARMING. Our Family will be doing training videos on Permaculture, hugelkultur, fruit trees which should also always be included in your garden or sustainable farming, and just about everything else, including MY TALK I give on:
HOW YOUR SOIL IS BEING DESTROYED AND YOU AND YOUR CHILDREN ARE BEING DUMBED DOWN AND SLOWLY MURDERED BY THE PYSCHOPATHS WHO TOOK OVER OUR FOOD AND DRUG SUPPLY.
Excellent!
Also, for pastures and large areas, start laying down 8-10 inches of wood chips, one small section at a time, with FREE WOOD CHIPS you can get from a lot of different sources. Try to get mostly RAMIAL WOOD CHIPS in Orchards though, look that up if you do not know where these chips come from. Cover cropping is good, but you sound like you know what you are doing with the soil, and I know you want to do the right thing by NOT adding phosphate or soil amendments-YOU DO NOT NEED THEY DESTROY THE SOILD FOOD WEB EVENTUALLY, so try to get those wood chips laid down and watch what happens in a few years to that soil. You are not going to be able to plant anything in that freshly wood chipped section for several years. With Hugelkulture raised beds you can plant IMMEDIATELY with awesome results and they keep getting better year after year as you grow that fungi in the soil. Check out the lady on YouTube who has a consulting company, she does a good presentation on the SOIL FOD WEB, just type that in YouTube and you will find her. Also, watch video’s about Paul Gautschi’s Farm in Washington State on the L2 Survive YouTube Channel, he has been doing it the right way, the Creator’s Way, for 30 years and the results are incredible to see.
Have actually studied hugelcuture extensively, lends itself well to clearing land over here as the breakdown of the heavy pieces is quite fast because of the year round growing.
Wood chips unfortunately are a premium over here, the guys who can supply huge quantities also want a huge $ for those loads, so for my goal of reducing cost of inputs not practical, but definitely would be an item i would use if i could get ahold of them.
Because our property had been farmed conventionally for so long the organic matter levels were quite low, because of the warm temps and high microbial activity green manures take quite a while to build up the organic matter, its getting there, the hardest thing is dealing with invasive weeds and grasses, without using herbicides cultivation is the only practical or feezible method to control them, so along with the rotations of various cover crops we have disced everything down occasionally to knock back these weeds, really the only way, believe me ive tried,,,
Solarization was one attempt but we dont reach high enough temps, hand digging is out of the question, way too labor intensive, and herbicides really are not any better than what ive been doing, they have limited success,
Most effective is establishing solid stands of cover crops and mowing them down into a mulch then quickly re planting a successive cover crop of a diferent species,
Ie
Sudan grass
Vetch
Oats
Alfalfa/ medic mix
Cash crop
Then repeat,
For previously cultivated land like ours it works really well,
The one thing i want to add to it is livestock, if i could rotate goats through the fields at least two or three times within a set of rotations i think would be a nice addition and move a diferent group of soil organisms into the rotation,
The biggest issues i faced when starting out were latent soil issues like fungal or bacterial but these seem to be getting better the longer i rotate away from crops that had been monocroped here by the tenant before i took the place over.
“Our 56 acre Ahrens permaculture sustainable farming training farm will be opening this summer 2018…”
?????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????
??????????????????
Where??? Richard Ahrens??? And don’t say “New Babylon America”. I mean city and state.
_
Durango, Colorado in New Babylon America
I googled Ron Aherns farm training. Not Richard, it’s Ron, sorry for that.
Found all kinds of videos. Got a nice one about bees.
Never knew what all you had going.
Awesome.
_
Sorry, you are just wrong. It is absolutely true that the intensive industrial farming techniques currently in use are not sustainable and are slowly (or not so slowly) killing the land we all depend on for food. HOWEVER, the calories per acre truly cannot be matched. Now, this is not saying I favor those techniques, I do not. But this is why we are producing record high amounts of food on record low amounts of farmlands. The majority of farms have been converted into subdivisions. The remaining land is being flogged to death, the soil destroyed, the microbiota on which all life eventually depends destroyed, the actual fertility of the land destroyed. If (when) we return to what is now called “organic farming” but was back in the day called “farming” the calories per acre will drop back to a more natural and sustainable level. Your random capitalization does not replace actual facts and knowledge.
Nobody cares what you think, you are dumbed down and clueless> you have been fed lies and you have NO ABILITY to even understand what the soil food web is and how it operates. If you can explain the Soil Food Web to me in a brief paragraph, otherwise I know you are just a bot or dumbed down drunk.
https://boingboing.net/2018/03/12/the-world-is-running-out-of-ph.html I know lots of folks will write off BoingBoing as a left wing site, and that is your right, but again, making facts subject to political whims is a recipe for disaster. I actually do understand the food web, enough to know that we CANNOT sustain the level of production required to feed 8 billion mouths without significant input of chemical fertilizer. I can feed my family off of my 2 acres of river bottom farmland using organic techniques. I can and do. That is not applicable to the vast majority of the world, though. Most do not have access to 2 acres of prime farmland, and if you really think you can deny the incredible increase in per acre productivity overt he last century, let me ask how you explain the fact that so much farmland has vanished beneath pavement and yet food remains plentiful? I support organic farming, but realistically you cannot feed the world with it, and the end of the other options is coming.
n the Arkansas delta. nothing will grow without irrigation and chemicals. Its Hydroponics on a huge scale. We grow most of our food. We ultilize all of our livestocks manure on our gardens. and it does work. but is very labor intensive. it would be impossible to do on a large enough scale to grow the amount needed to feed the world. There is a reason farms have become larger. That’s because its cheaper faster easier than the old methods. The profit margin per unit can be much lover when the volume is increased.
Yup, much easier to inject anhydrous ammonia at seeding than broadcasting a manure sludge then cultivating then planting,
I garden without fertilizers and poisons but it is a lot slower. My property is clay. Very little dirt. So I use my hiller furrower to make rows. Yes I till. Then when I mow I bag and use the grass clipping between the rows. Till it in the next season and start over. The mulch is my fertilizer. I grow great vegies but they are slower than everybody else’s garden that I know. I also start everything from seed, direct plant/sow. No transplant. Pick the bugs off by hand. 2 crops a year. I am in Florida so I grow my greens in the winter. My no grow season is July, August, and September. Too hot. You could use shade cloth to get a third crop but I prefer to let the soil rest a little. I also have 62 fruit and nut trees and vines.
Oral sex is causing an oral cancer epidemic in men is of greater concern.
Bert: Oh boy, I tell you, if it isn’t 1 damn thing it sure is another. My God, all of this shit just never stops. I think the Earth just needs to be destroyed 100%, as it is nothing but a massive cluster fuck to the tenth degree.
Like I said… Supernova.
Ah, Bert. Things aren’t that bad. They are worse.
These so-called authorities want everybody to stop having sex, just as they are changing all the free porn sites to “pay for porn” sites.
The poor “powers that be” have got to make a living somehow. [sarcasm]
Economy= Nothing you can do about it. Just have some gold or silver on hand.
Environment= Only God controls that.
Energy= We will figure out something we have been for around 100000 years.
Sgt.
Environment=Psychopaths destroying our soil, air, and water for their GENOCIDE and DUMBING DOWN of the human race, and complete destruction of the earth, and the dumbed down toxic dump Sworn COWARDS say “nothing can be done”, or “only God controls that” because they just want their doomed fake fiat money pensions, they just want to get drunk, they just want to eat their poisonous toxic GMO hell, they just want to suck down their soda poison, they just want to take their Big Pharma poison, they just want to watch their mindless violent sports, and pretend nothing is happening or can be done about it, because we all know they are COWARDS living in a
COLLAPSING GENOCIDAL POLICE STATE HELL ON EARTH CONTROLLED COMPLETELY BY SO-CALLED “DEEP STATE” PSYCHOPATHS.
Lighten up, Ronnie. There’s a ray of sunshine heading your way. All is not lost.
I know and that ray of sunshine is Citizen Tribunals for the criminal treasonous psychopaths who took over our food and drug supply long ago for their dumbing down and MURDER of our citizens during the PLANNED collapse of New Babylon America, and Citizen Tribunals are coming for their Luciferian psychopath allies in the evil vile disgusting United States CORPORATION Government from the inner pits of the bowels of hell in Washington DC, and ALL the Sworn COWARDS supporting this vile evil disgusting criminal treasonous GENOCIDAL MURDEROUS government.
That ray of sunshine is a Supernova that will cure all cancers of this planet instantly.
Ron: quit biothing and do something other that typing on your computer.
Those thing will happen if you don’t stand up and do something like the rest of us. I’m ready to Fight are you????
Sgt.
Coward Dale, I did not see you at the Malheur Refuge those freezing cold days in January 2016, I did not see you Coward Dale the entire 8 days I was there with Lavoy and Ammon…Do you remember the assassination of Robert Lavoy Finicum Coward Dale-murdered for his MESSAGE…ASSASSINATED by your criminal treasonous “DEEP STATE” controlled government sworn assassins, whoSe tortured souls are now damned for eternity???? and yes keyboard Coward Dale I am doing something that puts me in danger from the criminal treasonous Luciferian psychopaths controlling our criminal treasonous United States CORPORATION Government:
#1)Organizing Citizen Tribunals for the psychopaths who took over our food and drug supply
#2)Training Real hero’s and actual sworn officers on how to grow sustainable REAL FOOD fast at our Peace Officer Permaculture Training Farm, so when the Citizen Tribunals start for the genocidal murderous psychopaths, who took over our food and drug supply to WEAKEN, DUMB DOWN, and SLOWLY MURDER our citizens, the dumbed down public will NOT PANIC, because they will have REAL FOOD growing IMMEDIATELY in their communities.
So do tell Sworn Coward Dale…What exactly are you doing RIGHT NOW coward-to actually STOP the criminal treasonous Luciferian psychopaths from murdering the citizens you swore to protect????????
you use the word sustainable repeatedly, as if “sustainable” is in opposition to the establishment
“Sustainable” is in fact right from commie agenda 21- pure establishment, that is
https://tinyurl.com/yabyg89w
The answer is not what any one of us might choose; rather, it is the flaw of what a true democracy is – majority rule. Part and parcel why our own government is a representative republic. To attempt to stave off insane decisions dictated by mob vote. But in the end, humanity has always chosen to choose via the pain route. We equate ‘for the greater good’ to mean ‘based on the will of the majority’. We are trapped by our own living version of the movie “Idiocracy”. The stupid procreate with greater numbers than those with the intelligence to support that increase. Eventually, the clock runs out and the resources are destroyed in a snarling bout of chaos – war.
Heartless: I completely agree with you. Everything and yes I do mean everything is a genuine Cluster fuck! I can’t even sit here and go through the list of “what’s wrong” with people and society and gov’t and everything else…it is all a massive pile of steaming cow diarrhea.
Heartless, thanks for mentioning the movie “Idiocracy”. My wife & I watched the movie many years ago as a COMEDY. Two years ago we watched it as a DOCUMENTARY. If we don’t convince snowflakes that it’s important to think critically, we will someday see the movie as a historic commentary on our cultural elimination.
democracy, mobocracy, same thing
you imply that the mob actually is running the government
but wait- the (((mob))) is actually running things- into the ground, with malice aforethought
the fake money mob
What’s the old prepper adage? If you don’t have something on your plate that you produced yourself, you’re relying too much on the system.
People–don’t buy a zero lot line, HOA controlled place to live. You’re doomed at the end of the slide (think Venezuela).
If you can’t grow your own beef cow/pig etc, find someone who does.
Even chickens. We can’t have a rooster (city girl), but I know a sister at church that will give me fertile eggs. We hatch them out and if the SHTF hasn’t happened yet, we eat the rooster(s) and get another batch of fertile eggs. That’s a hedge to not being able to have a rooster right now. In the SHTF we won’t eat said rooster.
Preserve what you can’t provide for yourself. If it’s on sale, buy in bulk and can it (preserve it).
There are so many ways to get around the dangerous system that has been built into the way most people live.
The “pain” route is not a given. It doesn’t have to be that way.
The frustration that you might be hearing in my “voice” is from watching my own family headed for the pain route. 🙁
Grandee
You really just hit a nerve with me. I have family members who are alcoholics and a couple addicted to pain pills. The chocoholics seem to be ready to give up even there own wife and kids for beer and liquor. They are going to lose everything they have and begin the pain route before things go to shit it appears.
Then there are the family members who constantly want money. No one wanted shit from me when I did not have a pot to piss in. Now I have worked hard. 12 hour shifts for the power company. Had family members saying that electrical workers make too much. I finally said that we had had openings. Never once had any of you put in for a position. They responded that they would not work nights, weekends, or holidays. I said exactly. You all complain about my pay while you are drinking, home at night, and with your family on holidays. Guess my pay is correct.
Sorry about the rant and language. Just infuriates me.
I will not and cannot help those who are unwilling to help themselves.
1 Timothy 5:8
But if anyone does not provide for his relatives, and especially for members of his household, he has denied the faith and is worse than an unbeliever.
Get this verse ready. Hand it to them through the door!!!
I provided for mine–what about you???
I would never turn my family away.
But when I do help them, it will lessen the help for all of us because they have not tried to help themselves.
For some reason, they do not comprehend this.
I don’t need to worry about it. I sold all the kids for medical experiments so I could buy more preps 🙂
Grandee I understand what you are saying. Problem is it is more than just me not helping. Taking care of alcoholics and drug addicts puts my household at risk. Maybe the can will be kicked down the road and they will sober up before the shtf. If not it is there problem not mine.
Friends you can pick and choose. Relatives good or sorry you are stuck with. But Come SHTF WROL we can get rid of those sorry realatives once and for all. and if need be stab those friends in the back too!
I will gladly pass the verse to them through the door. It is not food they want. It is money alcohol and pills. That will not be passed through the door.
Ron Ahrens..I watched one of your vegetable growing videos in the past. I enjoyed watching and learning. You are somewhere out in the western US it appeared to me, maybe midwest. Any reasonably affordable smaller land for sale in that general area? There is not much more enjoyable in life than growing your own food and staving off your expiration date.
Not sure about land to buy, I do not own land or anything else and never will. I lease my land on a handshake from the owners-they know what our family can for their property, so we are in HUGE DEMAND.
Our family will be converting at least 10 farms in the Durango, Colorado area to Permaculture Farms, with at least 10,000 fruit trees and probably more, and thousands of berry bushes, so we will need lots of HARD WORKING PEOPLE-not drunken cowards living in denial of what is happening, so stayed tuned for more info on that.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-KTsXHXMkJA
To an economist like Bernanke, there are only virtuous expansions.
Pseudoscience.
It’s like fucking half-baked psychology except with Algebra.
But it IS in fact like psychology. A fact I neglected to account for. In other words, it’s presently exploitable.
How long is “presently”?
Old guy,
“How long is “presently”?
On my screen it is about 11 millimeters.
There will be billions that die. The trick is to not be one of them, but to be a survivor. The overpopulated “shithole countries” and big cities in the US will be hardest hit. So don’t be in those places.
Once the population drops enough, there will be plenty of resources for everyone. If the population stays steady, there won’t be a need for more resources, as everything will eventually be totally recyclable. Nanotechnology and cheaper energy will make that recycling easier. Theoretically, you can have all your waste go in one end of a factory and have cars, clothes, and hamburgers come out the other end.
The biggest problem with commercial farming is that the minerals are depleted by all the produce that is removed from the premises. If you are producing your own food and never remove a thing from your property, all the minerals stay on the property. The carbon, oxygen, and nitrogen come from the air, and the energy comes from the sun. Those won’t run out.
Ahrens is right about the wood chips. They slowly break down and enrich the soil. It’s a simulation of a forest floor. If you have enough property, cover a large part of it with wood chips. After it starts breaking down, you can pull some aside and put in individual plants. The surface layer of chips stops erosion and retards weed growth. I want to get a chipper so I can take my own trees and trimmings and make my own wood chips to cover part of my back yard.
Right about just the wood chips??? oh come now, I have a few more things right than just wood chips
Or use yer woodchipper to make fertilizer out of liberals!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LyPhsD1vHGk
There will be billions that die. The trick is to not be one of them, but to be a survivor. That’s my goal. I will only take care of me and mine. And for at least a year it will be a stone age existence. Hunkering down and enduring on stored preps. no gardening no foraging and hunting. The natural plants and wildlife will be very quickly hunted out. It will be extremely dangerious to venture out and interact will other humans. Come around and try and trade with someone like me. If I want what you have I will kill you and simply take it. Better for you not to venture into my domain.
I knew a Pot grower. He told me he grew three patches. one was mostly male plants. That one was for the county sheriff. They harvested it and burned it at the landfill in front of TV cameras to receive federal drug eradication money. The other was female plants he sold to a buyer in bulk. The third was really good female plants grew in a basement it was for his own use and for the local judge and prosecuter. That was in Pocahontas Ark. Randolph county. Google a killing in Pocahontas.
Loving the blogs! I have a real respect for fungi (especially mushrooms) and the role they play in nature. There is a real need for bioremediation of the soils and the mushrooms will play a major role in it. The “green revolution” was vital to supply food for the growing population but factory farming and the industrial pollution has devastated the soil. It’s interesting what is happening in China. They had the courage to survey the soils for toxicity and found they have serious problems. I know that the Chinese have been buying up agricultural land in other countries. These are supposedly “private” investors but I can’t help but wonder if the Chinese government will start the bioremediation of their farming lands. The produce from the foreign landholdings will be earmarked for export to China. I can’t help wondering what the overall condition of the soils in the US and other countries is like as to toxicity. Americans have always taken a strong agricultural sector for granted. We need more young people in agriculture and the life sciences and fewer lawyers. We need more of our best minds in soil science and agronomy.