Resilience Economics

FNORD

Useful Resilience Economics needs more than theoretical responses to scenario sketches. Thought experiments will not be enough to get you moving towards a more secure economic status today.

The current economic collapse appears unique within the history of economic collapses because we have lost our inherent safety net that traditionally cushioned downturns. The very same so-called “Masters of The Universe” who drove the current economy into the wall have already cannibalized our ability to weather failure gracefully especially in the United States and Europe.

The decades of economic attacks upon family farms leave us vulnerable to a very hard landing in which millions will suffer death through the deprivation of essential food and shelter. During the Great Depression of the 1930s many of the urban homeless and unemployed factory workers found sanctuary on the family farm.

We may now only look back with fond nostalgia at how we lived a couple of generations ago. In hindsight the wisdom of Raw Material Economics proves itself.

As long as we have adequate food and shelter the micro-production of goods and intellectual content can provide for the rest of us. Gone are the days of relying upon those “too big to fail” for our well-being.

The current crop of academically educated economists only argue about how to best preserve the current financial system with all of its structural inequities and invitations for fraud. They are not prepared to consider an egalitarian diverse decentralized distributed economics that possesses intrinsic resilience.

Unfortunately, current administration policies continue the practice of punishing family farmers for the benefit of the financial services industry. Unless you have income from off the farm, you will have to wait until the current economic collapse deepens before re-establishing family farms becomes feasible.

Until then, it promises to be a very bumpy ride and expect to see a great deal of volatility in all markets. Still you have options over the short term and while they exist now would be a good time to explore them.

First, if you now depend upon those “too big to fail” for your income, including all branches of government, the dominant banks and the multinational corporations, now is the time to act on an exit plan. While some employers may be able to restructure their businesses to offer a measure of economic security to employees, these smaller companies will be targeted by government taxmen eager to take away profits and hostile takeovers by predatory corporations.

Second, traditional passive income from investments will become increasingly unreliable and ultimately insufficient as the current economic collapse deepens. You must find a way to become productive while maintaining control over your pricing to be able to respond to deflation, inflation, stagflation and whatever other curve balls the banksters throw.

Of course, a total collapse or even near total collapse will have us all scrambling for food and shelter while those who have stockpiled and continue to hoard will be faced with increasing physical security demands. Police and the armed forces will be the last elements of the status quo to collapse and they will be looking for stockpiled food themselves.

The issue remains of determining what to do between now and a very possible then. Without a doubt having an independent income based upon your own productive capacity will likely become necessary.

While climate change, resource depletion and unsupportable population levels will certainly complicate the issue, realistically there seems very little you or I can do about that. At least if you maintain the capability to produce at parity, that is the sale of your production not only supports your existence but also allows you enough profit to begin another round of production without debt while saving enough to survive unexpected events, then you may have a future.

Maintaining mobility ability is a bonus that could literally become lifesaving. For example, areas of the Oregon coast that once appeared desirable because of the local abundance of seafood are now adjacent to growing oceanic dead zones devoid of any sea life at all.

Expect volatility in all aspects of life. With all of this in mind, an online business seems to be a good bet to me.

If running an online business seems to be beyond your capacity then you owe it to yourself to honestly investigate it because all sorts of people have learned how to run an online business. Now would be a good time to start.