Friday, October 8, 2010

This is what worries me

Here's an AP article called "Midnight grocery runs capture economic desperation."  It encapsulates perfectly my concerns about our country's economic instability and dependence on outside sources for our basic needs.

The article details how people who depend on food stamps start shopping around midnight at large retail grocers such as Walmart and Krogers.  The writing captures how close the shoppers are to destitution and desperation.

And it got me thinking.  What happens if the money dries up?  Or worse, what happens if the food and other supplies don't get delivered to the stores?  These people are utterly, totally dependent on both - food stamps and regular deliveries - and quite literally their lives would be in danger if there were disruptions.

Our - and by "our" I mean "America's" - dependence on other people to supply us with life's basic necessities is a trend that has gotten more and more extreme in the last hundred years.  Most people used to live on farms, and for those who lived in towns their food was still fairly local (farmers would come into the cities and sell their produce).

Today, local economies are virtually nonexistent.  And the few places that DO have local economies are in danger (once again) of being shut down by our own government.  As a result, everyone - our family included - is dependent upon unseen faceless people and entities to supply us with our daily needs.

It scares me.  It scares me because I don't like seeing innocent people suffer because of this dependence. If there is a wide-scale disruption in society - say, an EMP weapon taking out the national power grid - then few people have backup resources or skills, and a lot of innocent people may die.

So what can be done? I don't know. Perhaps we've gone too far and there's no turning back. Thoughts?

20 comments:

  1. There's always turning back, but i think what keeps folks from doing the turning is the pervading cloud of nothing-really-really-bad-will-really-ever-happen-to-me-'cause-i-live-in-America philosophy. I have the same thing floating around in my head even though i know better.

    ReplyDelete
  2. And this is the plan from the "higher ups" who actually run this country... :(

    ReplyDelete
  3. Not an easy thing to answer. One prepper cannot save the world at least not on three days notice which is the estimated amount of food we have available at any given time.

    Depending on the season there maybe nothing you can do but protect your own and raise your own production accordingly.

    ReplyDelete
  4. My eyes were opened to this precarious situation after Huricaine Katrina...seeing all of those people without food, water and so forth was frightening to me. It was shortly after that I got into being more prepared and to help stop any minor disruptions for food for my family, I began buying some freeze dried foods, storing pales of rice etc. We also started a small garden to begin learning how to garden things that could help...radishes etc that have fairly fast growing time frames. We also started keeping extra cash on hand for power outages.

    Wish everyone would take some of these steps so that if it did come to pass, there would be some time to recover.

    ReplyDelete
  5. I don't think there's too much we can do about it now. Most people are content to drone along and I've found that when I point out certain things they shut it out and seem wilfully ignorant.
    Maybe if the right people were voted in... but then I'm sure that would be set up by TPTB to never happen.
    Unfortunately I think the best thing for the moment would be a step back. Every state or county should be alot more self reliant, focusing on local produce and skills.
    If the federal government was not going to step in and help (or hinder)in the running of a place then I'm sure those places will become better off.
    Want to write more on this but bub is awake. Please follow the thought process...

    ReplyDelete
  6. *sigh* I'm the only person in my workplace that has livestock or even knows how to butcher anything.

    ReplyDelete
  7. It worries me, too, Patrice. Over 40 million Americans now receive food stamps. It's not likely to get better any time soon. November may hold some hope, but we still have a long way to go to get back to what our Founding Fathers envisioned for us.

    OK, I admit it openly right here and now - I'm a fan of Glenn Beck. I'm also a fan of Pastor Arnold Murray. Both are controversial figures, but I think for all the right reasons. These 2 men have restored my faith and my hope. I truly believe that to change the country, I must change myself first. All of us must. I must be honest with myself before I can be honest with others. I must be patient with others before they will be patient with me. And even if the country fails, I still have my relationship with my Lord. My faith is the source of my hope. These things I learned from Beck and Murray. In my opinion, people like those two men will do more to help Americans than any politician of any stripe could ever do. Just as charity begins at home, so must change begin at home. So, I'm changing myself - it's a difficult process, but I'm not going to stop until the day I die. I've made the personal commitment to change myself in the hope that America changes, too. And if America doesn't change, well I will always have my faith to guide me through the troubling times.

    When people recognize their foolishness, that putting their faith in the government instead of in God is foolish, then there will be a much larger awakening to truth in this country. It's happening now, but it must happen in larger numbers and in places that are currently full of despair. When that happens, America will become the nation God meant her to be. I have faith this will happen, by some event great or small, but it will happen. I have hope because I have faith.

    Keep the faith! (And keep your pantry full.)

    Anonymous Patriot
    USA

    ReplyDelete
  8. You think about this stuff to much. If I thought about it like you do I would truly lose it! So put away some food, sleep good, work hard, and enjoy the day. I'm voting republican for the most part if that tells you how I feel about things. Try not to think so much or you'll be sick. Just put away what you can and save what you can.

    ReplyDelete
  9. I believe "Ignorance is bliss" sums up the mentality of most Americans. They just don't want to believe it can happen here. So they decide to not listen or look at the warning signs and go about their lives as Sheeple allowing the government to be their shepherd. It depresses me some days to think of the unneeded suffering that could happen if a catastrophic event occurred. allot of these are good people with closed eyes.

    ReplyDelete
  10. charity begins at home....

    ReplyDelete
  11. Seems most people don't feel they have to prep because they think if anything really bad happens that the government will be there to bail them out. Now that I think about it, sounds much like children that have been coddled and never allowed to feel the natural consequences of their actions.

    Have you seen this movie trailer? http://www.iwantyourmoney.net/

    Tanya

    ReplyDelete
  12. Adam in Florida, I don't agree. People don't have their head in the sand, as it were. They're just overwhelmed and falling further and further behind on the treadmill. Young people are trying to find jobs and keep their children in shelter, food and clothing. Older people are getting laid off and find that there is no job market. They (we) feel helpless and hopeless.

    ReplyDelete
  13. I think on any given day we're just one event away from martial law and life as we know it is only as good as the power companies' ability to deliver. Color me cynical, but there it is.

    I read a lot of Ayn Rand as a teenager and have long since seen the writing on the wall. I marvel and celebrate each and every day that life continues to be so easy and food and supplies remain so abundant. Having lived in 'the third world' I have a pretty good sense of the fact that many, if not most folks on the planet today live in conditions more akin to the way life was two or three hundred years ago than to how we Americans presently live. And most Americans seem totally oblivious to it all. They live in their predominately urban world, seemingly blind to their perilous disconnectedness from the source of their survival, unable to produce, and ripe for the picking. And I believe this description applies to no class or group more than it does to the people who currently control Congress, the media, academia and the White House. Deep kimchee, but we cannot and must not give up. This is America, and we overcome stuff.

    A.P. I'm an avid Chapel student, too.

    I also appreciate Glen Beck's work and I really like Sarah Palin.


    A. McSp

    ReplyDelete
  14. I want to temper my previous post by saying I understand and appreciate that not everyone living in an urban area is there because they particularly want to be or or that they lack the smarts to realize what's really going on. I know a lot of folks would dearly love to get out of the cities and towns in which they live and escape to small towns and rural environs...just as I did until I got to move back to the woods.

    ReplyDelete
  15. That the birds of worry and care fly over you head, this you cannot change, but that they build nests in your hair, this you can prevent. ~ Chinese Proverb :)

    ReplyDelete
  16. Sorry to join the conversation so late...

    When we lived stateside in our house, I had (at times) put away extra food/water. I felt that we would be OK since my husband can/would hunt for us if needed and that having a subsistence garden would be possible. We're not afraid to do without and work HARD. We've done both already and for long periods of time - as have many of you.

    Now that we are a military family stationed overseas (and living in an 18-family apt. building), I have no extra food or water :( Not only is there not room for anything (very small quarters concerning storage), but I have no land for a garden. And unfortunately, we live paycheck to paycheck while our house is still on the market.

    I like to think I'm not a sheeple, but I feel the panic that many of the dependent sheeple feel. I do worry since it seems our hands are tied over here. There's not a lot I can do for us in terms of prepping. I'm embarrassed to say that we'd probably be a family in need of 'rescuing' during a calamity.

    I'm definitely not looking for pity, but just want to give a real-life example of a family who's working hard (the hours the Army has from my husband is high and he's not even deployed...yet), being frugal (I'm a stay-at-home, homeschooling, volunteering mom), and yet might be thoroughly in trouble in a crisis.

    KatieJ
    Germany

    ReplyDelete
  17. Swampie, you are absolutely correct. I should not have used such a broad characterization. I agree many are overwhelmed and falling behind. I see it first hand in my own family circles. My 18 year old daughter just got a job (20 hours a week) after 18 months and my mother (a nurse in her early 60's) has been looking for 14 months.

    So yes, its an unfortunate circumstance for most who work so hard in every aspect of their life only to have the harsh reality of this present day dilemma shatter their spirit.

    If the time ever comes, I hope to be in a position to offer my skills and my charity to any one with an honest need.

    Thank you for your comment. Some times tend to generalize my posts.

    ReplyDelete
  18. I don't wait until midnight for food stamps, but if I wake in the night early Saturday morning the first thing I do is look for Patrice's weekly article on WND.

    ReplyDelete
  19. I'm afraid not every American can live on a farm and own animals to butcher. It doesn't mean we are drones... (we are a military family and we must move a lot). We also have very limited space for storing extra food but we do what we can.

    Anyways, you are very blessed for what you have (and I love your writing)!

    ReplyDelete
  20. That's my point, Selene. It's not that city folks are drones, it's that city folks are vulnerable. Historically not every American lived on farms, either (though more did than do today). But cities-dwellers and farmers were more connected. To use a "green" term, everyone was a "locovore," meaning they ate, by necessity, only what was produced locally. It was an infrastructure that suited everyone. Farmers had a built-in market for their products, and townsfolk had a built-in source of food.

    Today that infrastructure is gone, with the exception of the farmer's markets found in many cities - and these are under fire from S510.

    And *that's* what worries me.

    - Patrice

    ReplyDelete