Wow! Have you been following the roller-coaster gyrations of the stock market today? There were huge drops in markets around the world reported over the weekend, and I heard a projected drop of 500 points predicted for the Dow as soon as the market opened this morning. When I tuned in, the numbers were down 385 from closing figures last Friday, but within an hour the market had corrected to 191. Now, at about noon EST, it is at 140. Did you see that huge spear-like spike in the graph when the Fed lowered the interest rate? Maybe it will make it back into the green before the market closes.
I know very little on the subject of finance, but it seems to me that tinkering with the base interest rates can't control this recession for long. There are hard facts beyond the hopes and fears of the general public driving the economy down. Unwise mortgages is one. The price of oil is another.
Although gas has been over $5 in Europe for a long time, the rapid rise to over $3 in the United States, is cause for all other basic living costs to rise faster than the average family can afford. In Europe, people were persuaded to buy smaller vehicles and rely on public transportation. In America, however, we keep living as if there were no tomorrow. We have even abandoned our forefather's custom of saving a certain percentage of our income for the future, or for 'a rainy day'. We just acquire more credit cards and live it up, losing track of the difference between necessities and luxuries. By necessities, I mean water and food, shelter, and clothes. Then we need to secure a means of ensuring we can provide the same for our families and ourselves on each succeeding day.
So, my friends, as survivor and witness of the Great Depression of '29, I think it's time to take stock of our best way to survive these interesting times. I always thought I would buy five to ten acres of good land, and put a 400-sq. ft. house on it. You could double the size of the house later by adding a second floor. Then, get some chickens and a goat or two for milk, and plant a big garden of at least a half acre. Seeds and tools would be high on the list of survival equipment. For transportation, get a horse and wagon. Horses are cheaper than cars, and hay is cheaper than gas. Also, you might not have to buy insurance on a horse or have a license to drive him.
Then you would need to consider how to protect your wealth from other, hungrier people.
If you don't want to go for the land and animals, at least choose one of the many survival manuals currently offered. You can get advice on subjects ranging all the way from protecting your portfolio, to how to snare rabbits for your next meal.
Does anyone out there in Gatherworld have any other ideas on the subject of survival?
<address>I think watching the Bloomberg channel is too depressing. I will switch to books. I just finished a good audio book called "Thirteen Moons", by Charles Frazier. (He is also the author of " Cold Mountain"). "Thirteen Moons" is a novel about the Cherokee Nation in mountains of North Carolina from about 1838 to the time of telephones as seen through the eyes of a 12 year old bound boy who was sent to the frontier to tend a general store. I liked it very much. Now I'm about to start a book called "Havoc", by Jack DuBrul. It promises to give me "an experience of a blend of history, exotic locales and unparalleled action". Sounds like my favorite kind of book, and it sure beats today's reality. Reading about the problems of people in historical times is more fun than facing the terrors that are coming our way.</address>
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Comments: 20
Your books sound good.
I am - for the first time since high school - taking history courses this semester... one is the History of Children in Canada, and the other is re: European women... I'm finding them both WAY more interesting than I expected.
As for me, I am just trying to diversify the investment of my modest retirement savings to minimize the damage caused by economic troubles like the current ones. Two years ago, I pulled almost everything out of dollars. That has worked up to now. As the dollar declined, my holdings went up. But now, foreign markets are being hit, so I will give back at least part of those gains.
There is no risk-free place to put savings these days. Even putting it in the mattress exposes you to inflationary erosion. I am just trying to minimize the damage.
I'm not buying any chickens though. Ugh! Well, not yet. I have memories of being pecked too many times.
Ruth, this is a great article. Mother is an avid reader and escapes daily into her books which the library delivers to her by mail. For me it is the computer! :-)
Mother grew up in the depression era, and in her sixties she still canned and gardened. I do worry what is to become of the two of us. We have no savings and only our Social Security checks . . . we just bought a home . . . wish it were out in the country . . . but neither of us is able to garden any longer. Sometimes I have trouble just taking care of our house plants. I hate to think that the economy instead of our health will be the deciding factor that sends us to a nursing home. It IS scary!!! :-(
The chickens are next here, BUT consider this... we are being MANIPULATED into a mindest that EXPECTS this..
a 300, or even 500 change in the market is reported as horror over a spread of Eleven THOUSAND points..
hmmmmn.
As such an old person, I think worry too much. Guess it's because I am a history nut, and I know my limitations in the face of historical disasters. In the end we can only follow our best judgement and pray we and the people we love will be spared pain and suffering.
Interesting article. I could care less about the stock market as I don't have any stocks. But I do admit it is a barometer of what's happening to our economy.
I once knew a lady that had lived in the great depression. She warned me but I have been in a depression all of my life.
Out of the mountains of Idaho, I never had electricity until 1971. Hauled water all of my life. I have grown a garden for over fifty years. Most all years it was a dry land garden and if one knows how I've managed to grow tons of potatoes, corn that sell at the farmers market. Supply friends and neighbors with tomatoes and threaten them bodily harm if they refuse to take zucchini.
Wrangled cattle for thirty years and twenty of them by myself. My sons grew up and moved away.
Built my own house, the one I live in now. the third one I built in my time. this one I poured the footings on my 60th birthday.
Our first Christmas in the new house I chortled at the family dinner that my neighbors thought I had lost my mind when I began the house.
My sons meekly confessed they had also thought that!
Nearly starved as a ragged kid raised by alcoholic parents. We beat a porcupine to death with clubs and ate him when I was fourteen and our parents had been gone for two weeks leaving no food.
Lived in a shack in the woods with no furniture, no electricity and pretty ragged cloths.
I'm a survivor and intend to live to be a very old and cantankerous old lady.
Maybe I already am?