It seems there’s an elephant in this forum. I’m hope we’re not talking just about power outages, earthquakes or losing unemployment insurance (UI), but more lasting and inclusive crises, with complex combinations of causes. Thus we need to look at long-term as well as short-term goals. In effect, most all of us are on various forms of ‘welfare’ (defined as the community contributing to the welfare of needy individuals). For a lot of us, this includes “make-work” welfare. UI, Social Security and others aren’t just about putting in money and getting it back, but putting it in when we have it, when we’re ‘rich’ and (supposed to be) getting it back when we’re ‘poor’.
I think I’m pretty well prepared, if conditions get severe while I’m still functional. My parents lived through the (soon to be former) Great Depression, one summer barely surviving by panning for gold in Northern CA. But they eventually found jobs and came out of it with a comfortable farm in the backwoods, shortly before I was born in '35. “Comfortable” means all the necessities, but no road, electricity or running water, only horse trails, a spring, a partly-built house, kerosene lamps and simple farming and carpentry skills. They finished and expanded the house (with some help and equipment from neighbors) and put in running water, but no indoor toilet. My father got work sometimes on local trails. We’ve generally considered those the best years of our lives. Come WWII, we moved to an Oakland suburb where they and my older brother worked in the shipyards, then to a more modern farm. Along the way I got a pretty rounded survival education, but also learned to think for myself, which tends to limit involvement in communities.
At first I thought the article was going to be only about financial security. I’ve never tried to make a lot of money, but I’ve never felt poor, maybe because I avoided financial dealings when possible and haven’t owned a car most of my adult life, when single. Haven’t had one for 15 years now, mostly ride a bike. Yes, I keep extra cash on hand, though only planning on it’s use for the short term, while it still has value. Gold and silver will also lose considerable value, especially if you live near someone with a lot, which also applies to most everything else.
Instead, I gather things I think will be useful and have good trade value, such as diversified craft skills, needles and thread, cord, rope, fishhooks, .22 calibre bullets, quart jam jars for canning (not mayo jars I’m told, because they’re not tempered for sudden temperature change and will crack). Being a handyman, I also save for reuse, hard steel, aluminum (in two varieties), polyethylene (which, like Al, can be melted, carefully, and remolded), containers of all sorts and possibly useful shapes of most everything I think won’t otherwise get efficiently reused. And yes, my apartment looks like a small version of the local reuse/recycle business, though not as neat. The trouble is, there’s too much stuff in the category of miscellaneous. A paradigm for the not too distant future is going to be “Reduce, reuse, repair, reuse, rethink, reuse.” Then start again from the beginning. Plastic used and not casually discarded at least represents petroleum consumed and carbon sequestered, kept out of the atmosphere, which may be the main solutions we’ll actually use against global warming.
Though I consider myself a “generalist”, a recent specialization I’m developing is in tying simple but useful knots, well beyond what I’ve found in books. One thing I’d like to learn more about is making thread/string/cord/rope from wild fibers, of which we have several possibilities here in western Oregon.
I never was very enthusiastic about farming. The most I’ve done in recent years was a small patch of potatoes (easy if you can keep the gophers out) in practice for Y2K. Some early cultures depended mainly on corn, beans and squash. The beans climb, as they need to, on the corn and the squash gets the shade it needs from both the others, as I understand it. The combimation furnishes energy, complementary proteins and vitamins. For the longer term, also plant fruit trees, but learn early about grafting and pruning. I’ve wondered also about the possibility of growing wood in needed shapes, such as at least the framework for furniture.
I recently joined a “Transition Town” group based on “The Transition Handbook” by Rob Hopkins. But I find the book mostly about getting in the spirit and having meetings. I prefer “When Technology Fails” by Matthew Stein, about actual survival skills.
My definition of “good” tends to be what’s good for the greater community, whether Gaia, humanity, nation or local. Since we’re mortal, our individual lives are not as important as what we can pass on to the greater community and it’s potentially infinite future. But I’d like to be passing it on in the growing phase, not just the collapsing phase.
I don’t know how often I’ll get back here, so please copy responses to danrob@efn.org.