State Failure

[Injin]

It's becoming obvious now that the western states cannot fund themselves and are going to financially collapse over the next few years.

This means they are going to shrink in size, causing all kinds of trouble - layoffs, riots, disruptions. Will hospitals fail, will the army not get paid, who will put out fires....who knows? What is certain is that something has to give. It's not a good time to be working for the public sector, that's for sure.

The purpose of this thread is to have a look see at positive things you can do to plan ahead for you and yours. Barring a dictatorship of some kind, this will be needed because all kinds of stuff will still need doing and there are even chances to make a few quid/euros/ounces. With a dictatorship it will still need doing but idiots with firearms won't let you .Here are a few thoughts.

1) Get healthy and fit.

2) Use the NHS while it's still around.

3) Download copies of stuff you find useful.

4) Study other recent collapses - Argentina, Russia for example

5) Have some stored wealth - "yellow stuff"

6) Move nearer (reliable) friends and family.

7) Out of cities, out of countryside, into market towns. Cities to much potential trouble, countryside to few people to be safe. Balance is key here.

8) Stash of food.

9) Get some time off while you still can enjoy it.

I got more but it's your turn.

[Bloo Loo]

i rent, therefore in the event of a universal default, me landlord wont be interested in it and itll be MINE ALL MINE.

And a warning,,, if you venture up my drive, that green and black painted face you see in the crack in the curtains is me lining up my M16 on your chest.

Edited April 12, 2008 by Bloo Loo

[babesagainstmachines]

Learn carpentry

Build gibbets

Big growth area

[Injin]

Learn carpentry

Build gibbets

Big growth area

[RajD]

Drop that PhD in Software Systems and try to learn about life in third world countries. How they live - sustainable agriculture, how they get clean water supplies, how to build a home from basic materials, etc.

This sort of knowledge might be very useful to you a few years from now

[winkie]

It's becoming obvious now that the western states cannot fund themselves and are going to financially collapse over the next few years.

This means they are going to shrink in size, causing all kinds of trouble - layoffs, riots, disruptions. Will hospitals fail, will the army not get paid, who will put out fires....who knows? What is certain is that something has to give. It's not a good time to be working for the public sector, that's for sure.

The purpose of this thread is to have a look see at positive things you can do to plan ahead for you and yours. Barring a dictatorship of some kind, this will be needed because all kinds of stuff will still need doing and there are even chances to make a few quid/euros/ounces. With a dictatorship it will still need doing but idiots with firearms won't let you .Here are a few thoughts.

1) Get healthy and fit.

Goes without saying, long walks with a faithful dog in an area of beauty.

2) Use the NHS while it's still around.

Get a full service check up...see your GP most are very obliging.

3) Download copies of stuff you find useful.

Many useful downloads here on HPC.

4) Study other recent collapses - Argentina, Russia for example

Have a contingency plan, another country.

5) Have some stored wealth - "yellow stuff"

Handy, but not essential.

6) Move nearer (reliable) friends and family.

Or take them with you.

7) Out of cities, out of countryside, into market towns. Cities to much potential trouble, countryside to few people to be safe. Balance is key here.

Agreed, but choose carefully, know you business.

8) Stash of food.

Always have something to fall back on.

9) Get some time off while you still can enjoy it.

Take a sabbatical if you can, you know you are worth it, and you won't regret it.

I got more but it's your turn.

[Bloo Loo]

Move somewhere warm near a river and a cave.

Plenty of places in Dordogne would fit the bill.

[winkie]

Move somewhere warm near a river and a cave.

Plenty of places in Dordogne would fit the bill.

But I found it first.

[OLDFTB]

"It's not a good time to be working for the public sector, that's for sure."

I've worked in the Public Sector since 1976, through several recessions and financial crisis.

And believe me it's never let me down.

Always had a job, always been paid on time and never been close to being laid off.

Ok, wages have not always been great, though much better recently, but for pure job security you just can't beat it folks.

[tazer]

It's becoming obvious now that the western states cannot fund themselves and are going to financially collapse over the next few years.

This means they are going to shrink in size, causing all kinds of trouble - layoffs, riots, disruptions. Will hospitals fail, will the army not get paid, who will put out fires....who knows? What is certain is that something has to give. It's not a good time to be working for the public sector, that's for sure.

The purpose of this thread is to have a look see at positive things you can do to plan ahead for you and yours. Barring a dictatorship of some kind, this will be needed because all kinds of stuff will still need doing and there are even chances to make a few quid/euros/ounces. With a dictatorship it will still need doing but idiots with firearms won't let you .Here are a few thoughts.

1) Get healthy and fit.

...

I got more but it's your turn.

Inventory of your and your friends assets, skills and weakness. Start Building a closed mini territorial based economy. Check out what the anarchists were about.

[Injin]

"It's not a good time to be working for the public sector, that's for sure."

I've worked in the Public Sector since 1976, through several recessions and financial crisis.

And believe me it's never let me down.

Always had a job, always been paid on time and never been close to being laid off.

Ok, wages have not always been great, though much better recently, but for pure job security you just can't beat it folks.

Yes.

I don't think this will be a period of uncertainty however. I think this will be millions of state workers kicked out of their jobs more or less overnight and then those jobs never ever returning. The only question is which ones. The possibly false sense of security is one reason why I wouldn't be in the state's employ right now. (Leaving aside my usual moral caveats).

Good luck to you though, there is no right answer in survival, just what works.

[cartimandua51]

Peruse a few suicide sites, in case it all gets too much. You might be one of the survivors, but are you sure you'd want to be....?

[shindigger]

Inventory of your and your friends assets, skills and weakness. Start Building a closed mini territorial based economy. Check out what the anarchists were about.

Have thought this for years. Even in "the good times".

Think Janet Street Pawta thinks the same. If that helps

[dreamOn120k]

Apply for job as a PCSO.

Much as I dislike this New Labour policing innovation the last thing the Government will cut back on is law and order.

Although I don't subscribe to the future implosion of society implied by the original poster I can imagine a 2 day seize up in the banking system occurring before widespread public administration of retail banking. This in turn would cause a run on supermarkets before measures that limited baskets to £30 per visit and no more than 2 of any item.

So I think it pays to keep 4 days of non perishable foods at home and a wadge of cash at hand.

[BoomBoom]

Abandoning the West altogether might become necessary before too long. The only way back from the debt fuelled collapse we are facing will be a North Korean type setup. Every citizen little more than the property of the state, worked almost to death for no pay, and then disposed of when their productivity starts to drop.

[babesagainstmachines]

Abandoning the West altogether might become necessary before too long. The only way back from the debt fuelled collapse we are facing will be a North Korean type setup. Every citizen little more than the property of the state, worked almost to death for no pay, and then disposed of when their productivity starts to drop.

How do you work that out? We can just go bankrupt, out credit rating will be cleared in 1 year. Either that or Ocean finance

[RidiculousPrice]

Today, I read 2 news in this website, one is "Be afraid! - he now wants to use taxpayer’s money to subsidise mortgages!"

It's very clear that Brown and Darling are trying to give our taxpayers' money to irresponsible lenders.

How dare they do this again?! Using our money to force our whole family become slaves of lenders!

However, in another BBC news, "Will mortgage queues return?", you'll find the real power is actually in our buyers' hand!

"Potential buyers are prepared to gazunder - undercut the asking price at the last minute - rather than meet the original asking price, so that's creating problems in individual transactions," he says. "That's going to impact transaction numbers in the coming months."

"The next three to four months will be critical to see the effect of the tightening of mortgage supply," he warns.

Once buyers begin to believe that house prices will fall further, many will have every reason to delay their purchase, and lenders may become even more cautious about their lending.

This is really excellent news for our buyers (or potential buyers), which means no matter how much money Brown and Darling give to the lenders, if we buyers just hold on for another 3 months, the house price will definitely crash!

Although I browse HPC everyday, I did not leave any comments before, but I can't help to set up a topic today!

Several months ago, all of us should have the similar feeling: if you want to buy a property, especially a nice property, you have to BEG the agent, the owner, the lender and almost everyone else in this chain to give you a slave ID from the lender, what a sad future for our buyers! But now, all things are changed: I find even I drop an offer 15% lower than the asking price (in outer London! less than 300k), the agent still look me as his god! Because they know once ALL buyers believe house prices will fall, they have no any chance to change it!

So we only need a little more patience (3 months’ waiting) and we must unite together, if we loose this chance, most of us have to become slaves of lenders, and you’ll leave nothing to your kids! We need spread this information to every buyer, for your and our own benefits! Let’s put this last straw on the camel's back!

If you agree with this, please do reply to this post to make it the most read one, you can also send it to all your friends and post it on other forums.

If you do not agree, please please also write down your suggestions and we may find a better way.

It is the best chance for us and we must do something!

Do not look down on the power of Internet and us! Act now!

[oracle]

Apply for job as a PCSO.

Much as I dislike this New Labour policing innovation the last thing the Government will cut back on is law and order.

So of course they piss off the existing ones by employing plastic plods on more money than them,and giving the boys in blue a sub-inflation pay cut/rise.

nice way of keeping the troops morale up??

same with our soldiers....they could get more stacking shelves in tesco's.

these guys are big on psy-ops and short on enforcement.

lets just pray this shower are out of office before they twig....otherwise we'll all be living in some god awful demolition man/gestapo hybrid state.

Edited April 12, 2008 by oracle

[Injin]

Timely bump.

[Concrete Jungle]

Re read Sniper One. Obtain a L96 PM 7.62mm and practice.

[Shrink Proof]

Yes.

I don't think this will be a period of uncertainty however. I think this will be millions of state workers kicked out of their jobs more or less overnight and then those jobs never ever returning. The only question is which ones.

I'm sure they'll keep the Patient Care Pathway Co-Ordination Facilitators & kick out the nurses.

[Bloo Loo]

Re read Sniper One. Obtain a L96 PM 7.62mm and practice.

Message received bravosierradeltaecho.

Bravo Lima

[Injin]

Message received bravosierradeltaecho.

Bravo Lima

Whiskey tango foxtrot?

[Bloo Loo]

Whiskey tango foxtrot?

lima oscar lima

[sossij]

It's becoming obvious now that the western states cannot fund themselves and are going to financially collapse over the next few years.

This means they are going to shrink in size, causing all kinds of trouble - layoffs, riots, disruptions. Will hospitals fail, will the army not get paid, who will put out fires....who knows? What is certain is that something has to give. It's not a good time to be working for the public sector, that's for sure.

The purpose of this thread is to have a look see at positive things you can do to plan ahead for you and yours. Barring a dictatorship of some kind, this will be needed because all kinds of stuff will still need doing and there are even chances to make a few quid/euros/ounces. With a dictatorship it will still need doing but idiots with firearms won't let you .Here are a few thoughts.

1) Get healthy and fit.

2) Use the NHS while it's still around.

3) Download copies of stuff you find useful.

4) Study other recent collapses - Argentina, Russia for example

5) Have some stored wealth - "yellow stuff"

6) Move nearer (reliable) friends and family.

7) Out of cities, out of countryside, into market towns. Cities to much potential trouble, countryside to few people to be safe. Balance is key here.

8) Stash of food.

9) Get some time off while you still can enjoy it.

I got more but it's your turn.

Excellent list Injin. It's grim to think about such things but here goes...

Re your item 2): Stock up on vital medicines - if you're asthmatic make sure you have a plentiful supply of inhalers. Check the dates regularly and use the oldest first. Ditto any other chronic illnesses.

Definitely agree that both city and country living are non-viable. Well defended small towns may possibly be the only solution, where the everyday folk will have to secure protection from a warroir caste in return for food.

MTPW:

Get your teeth fixed now.

Medicines, bandages, disinfectants, paracetomol etc.

Silver coins.

Seeds and learn urban farming. Stashes will run out so need to know how to be sustainable.

Learn skills that will be useful, e.g. engine/generator repair, first aid.

Solar battery charger, radio and mobile phones.

Laptop + solar battery charger and 3G modem for internet.

Batteries, batteries, batteries.

Razors, soap.

Candles and matches (dipped in wax to keep dry).

Condoms.

Obtain rape alarm and pepper spray.

Body armour, e.g. stab vest.

Things to swap/exchange:

Chocolate - can be used as currency too, i.e. large denomination bars can be broken into smaller pieces for exchange.

Cigarettes.

Spirits.

"Ladies things" - tampons, lipstick, stockings.

Emergency back up plan - escape route to countryside, maps, dried food kit, compass etc.