What would be your weakness? Your job/occupation? Not enough supplies? Live in a large city that may become extremely dangerous? Medical issues?

For me it would be my debt. The house is paid off, but we lived on credit cards for a few years while I was un-employed, still paying them off (should be debt free in 2-3 years). I could go bankrupt I guess, but that would be hard to deal with if business dropped off.

House and truck are paid off, car will be paid off later this year.
Anything more than a minor recession will cost me my job.
Savings for maybe six months, pantry good for 60-90 days.
Health OK for now, but life without medical insurance would suck.
Not immediately bad, but not great either.

Absolutely ready.
The issue with this exercise is that a potential 2.0 depression will not be blue collars standing in line for soup and work. It will be far worse and ugly.
Many forget that the US was not the only Country affected.in the 30's. 2.0 will be a Global issue.
You better be able to defend yourself and eat.

We're already a decade into GD2 and few folks can recognize it...

Even being right in front of their nose...

Have debt -just bought this place four years ago. But even with house..cards and car we are well below 80k total.
Job -wife is self employed...her accounts may drop off slowly. Mine. Its hard to say.

Thered have to be a severe housing flop. Where occupancy of rentals goes tits up.

My skill set and credentials will help keep me on longer or open up opportunities.

Commute will be the issue with gas prices and security.

Pantry is over flowing...then there's my hiking/mre food stash...then the 1+ years worth of junk in buckets...plus our gardens and livestock.

No medical would suck....but that's life.

Security would be hard but low population here means I won't be in Mogadishu every day.


And yeah...folks need to look back to the 30s...the US wasn't the only country that had problems.

night watch and a back hoe..
great depression and you're broke, unemployed etc, Maybe collecting unemployment? maybe living off savings(big minority there)
so
make minimum payments..$10 a month if that's all you have, they may turn you into collections then
line up cease and desist letters for your debtors, if they roll your debt to some one else, send them a C&D letter etc
phone calls will stop soon enough
debt bad enough, no jobs, barely scraping by? declare bankruptcy if it gets that bad, even if FedGov is in dire straits, file a state bankruptcy but file
once the turn is made and life settles down..you will be forgiven and quicker than you'd think. You'll pay higher interest for a while but
getting a car, a house etc..5 years post bankruptcy, you've a decent chance if that's your concerns.
C/C maybe about the same time and reestablishing credit isn't a HUGE issue or the black spot it once was.

in the mean time
keep the lights on
keep your belly full
learn to work it till it breaks, fix it and wear it out again
learn to sew, repair, patch,
lean to glue new soles on your shoes
learn that salvation army and good will are your friends
Pray and know that day light is around the corner no matter how dark it appears..
and
stop buying needless shit today
spend a weekend with out...one meal, no lights, no phone, no water and minimal comforts, like heat and NO A/c
Learn a minimalist lifestyle..do you need a boat to fist 3 weekends a year? or can you rent, do you need a new car or maybe a "newer" car
or is it worth keeping it running one more year and pay myself that $400 a month?
The majority of We first worlders have no clue what it's like in much of the world and the only way to make ourselves and others understand it is
live it a bit..

My job, my mortgage and the location of my house are all big liabilities.    

My family would have to move into the MIL's house, and I would have to work, wherever.    


The Gov. And Fed, has demonstrated that they will print whatever is needed, so Inflation is a much bigger threat.

We would be having a tough go here. Wife and I both work in aerospace so we'd probably get the ax.We just bought the house, but we have some vacant land quite a ways out and an RPod we paid off, so at least we'd have somewhere to go if we lost the house. Although we would be way too far out to commute to a job.

Makes me feel like there's so much to do.One step at a time I guess.

Still, I'd wager we are all in a MUCH better position than most of the unwashed masses out there. I think the worst part will be seeing friends and family that didn't take anytime to prepare. Seems like way too many don't see that balloon going up.

Realistically, biggest weakness at this point:

Old Age

and nothing I can do about it.

Getting old sucks.

Well, it means you won.   You survived.  

But I agree.  It's the worst......    Except for the alternative.

For what its worth, my wife was born very in late in life to her parents.  They were very late forties.  So, her parents were, in effect, very much the age of everyone else's grandparents.   The inlays were also very much children of the depression.

It's interesting to hear the family stories.  My father in law was one of five kids.  The family was relatively well to do, with two homes:  One a village home, quite nice really, and the second a farm just outside of the village.  Along comes the depression, with reduced income.  And combined with debt, they lost the village house, moved to the farm, and struggled....

The biggest issue, in my mind, is debt.  Most people take on debt and assume tomorrow's income will at least equal or exceed today's income.  When reduced hours, layoffs, pay cuts or job loss comes, then the debt becomes a big issue.  While a lot of people claim "better to take debt today and pay in tomorrow's cheaper dollars", experience has shown that debt usually becomes a MASSIVE issue when economic problems show up.  And economic problems seem to be far more common than other SHTF issues like hurricanes, floods, earthquakes, zombies and invasion by aliens.

History provides some interesting information.  Many of the local families who did okay during the depression were families who had little or no debt, lived outside urban areas (where they could grow/raise foods), and had some form of extra non-job income.  I know one who had a small gravel quarry and they sold stone to the town highway dept.  Another ran a small saw mill.  some form of extra income helped.

Do it yourself skills mattered:  Today many americans rely on everybody else for everything.  They don't fix anything.  They don't make anything.  Heck, many americans don't cook, clean or even make coffee:  They rely on starbucks to make it for them.  They trade cash for services.  In a low cash or no cash environment, they are screwed.  Skills like gardening, food preservation, basic home and auto repair and maintenance, etc are all valuable.

Preps help.  But really, how much can you store?  A depression is measured in YEARS, not weeks or days.  I seriously doubt  anyone is prepared to eat stored mountain house for the next 48 months...  And many preppers are storing items like MRE's.  I doubt that is going to help much over the long run.  In contrast however, stored every day items can help.  I bet the Mr.s has a three supply of soap, feminine hygiene items, toothpaste and toilet paper in the house.  And food preps are more along the lines of rice, wheat, etc.  So stored items aren't so valuable for their "we got something to eat" so much as their "now we don't need to spend what little cash we do have on everyday necessities".    The stored wheat, along with the grain mill, makes for some nice biscuits.  Combined with the homegrown currants and berries, and our food preservation skills, the homemade jams and jellies really make for a mic breakfast.

I've seen something first hand:  Low debt often begins to transform into "no debt and substantial cash on hand".  When everyone else is scrambling to keep the house and feed the kids, and you have actual stacks of cash on hand, things get cheaper.  People start selling off stuff and businesses run sales.  If you are one of the few with no debt and surplus wealth, depressions can be a great opportunity.  How many times have you seen a new, barely used generator for sale the week after hurricane season ends?  How about the fairly rare firearm that goes up for sale in January when the post-christmas bills come due?  You get the idea.

When the economy goes to shit, living off a credit card isn't a good idea.  Its adding debt at a time when debt is bad.  Having cash on hand, in the form of an emergency fund, makes more sense.

Yes

I'll share some family insight from my wife's side. Her Dad's mother grew up in the depression as a child in the country, her mother's mother grew up in town during the depression. While things were tough all over, her Dad's mother was much better off. They struggled, but never went hungry. In town, her mother's mother did go hungry some days. In town, you HAD to exchange cash for goods and services. In the country, you at least had the opportunity to grow your own. Her Dad's mother is now passed, but her mom's mother is still alive. The depression affected her for the rest of her life. She became extremely frugal, lived very modestly, and still hides money and food in random hiding places around the house . It really did scar her for life. Her Dad's mother came out of the depression and lived a normal life.

 

On my side, specifically my Dad's side, during the great depression my something great grandfather was quite wealthy going in. He actually started buying up farms that went under. At one point he owned some 80% of the entire county, which was all sold after the depression, making him exceedingly wealthy. What I have been trying to find is what happened to the money: it disappeared. He did start the telephone company for the area, but when his kid took over, there was only $27 left in the company account. It all vanished. My Mother's side were always farmers. Things got tough, but the farm was paid for so it was business as usual. She says that WW2 was harder on the family with the rationing.

Depends on the kind of debt. While morally I would want to pay my CC debt and other unsecured debt, realistically that would just fall off and Go to bankruptcy or charge off. Is it Ideal, no, but they'll not have too easy of a time collecting. I would make it right when I could.

Secured debt, like my home and at least 1 car if I had payments, would be what I tried the most to keep solvent.

I like the cash Idea, and I keep as much as practical, but really, unless you keep 50k in a shoe box buried in the back yard, your cash will run out as well.

Skills I think is what folks will need to sustain themselves long term. If your a computer programmer, mortgage banker, service trade like a waitress or actor or retail with no other skills, your in trouble....deep trouble. And if you live off of the government cheese, well, the nanny state will pay you what they can for as long as they can, but eventually that will not cover basic necessities. Their only recourse will be to loot and riot.

If you have mechanical skills, medical skills, farming skills, or other grass root skills, you'll have more of a chance, but no guarantees.

Fact is many, many GOOD citizens will suffer and die due to illness and violence that we can even imagine.

The old, well, we're just properly "fucked" unless you can peddle some knowledge and someone is willing to pay you for that knowledge (which won't be a high percentage)

We're in pretty good shape.  Not enough physical cash on hand, but other than that, not bad.  No debt to speak of.  Tons of equity in the house.  Money in the bank.

My wife's business would get hit, but probably not killed.  They make a dental product that is popular for temporary fixes, so there's a built-in safety net there.  My profession (CPA) is pretty recession proof.

The big hit would be to our investments, but we'd be in good company.  Retirement is a historical anomaly anyway...

I've got a wheelbarrow, a.22 pistol and a book on ambush tactics. So yeah, I'm set.

In reality, no, not really.   Though I do have a lot of ammo.

Have worked on this for over 20 years. In good shape. Plenty of food and the ability to make more. A good store of cash and metals. Couple alternate sources of income, they depend on other people having money though......Health is good. Low debt that matters (have some investments that have debt but that doesn't affect me personally)...Have invested heavily in myself in terms of skills. Have a large collection of good tools that I know how to use.

Not much to worry about.

True,
I have survived so far.
Prince was my age, he didn't.

and medical issues that require a variety of prescriptions......
I have VERY little debt and live on a large (30,000 acre) lake.....I'd be OK for a while.......

Unless you live on a subsistence farm, have livestock which you feed from the farm, a well/spring, all the skills and enough people in your family or group to cover all the tasks....

No, you're not "ready".

Might fare better than most but I wouldn't say "ready".

Prepared, yes
Never ready.

Agreed, you can never be truly ready.

 


Even though we do our little homesteading live off the land thing, I still need tractor parts, fuel, etc.




My business will still be in business, but revenue would be drastically cut. I would say at least 70% drop. It would suck. I don't think anyone WANTS it to happen, but it will.




As was pointed out, we are already IN trouble. Our country's status can be compared to a middle aged family man loosing his job. Instead of tightening the belt, gutting expenses and fixing the issue, we bought a new car, quad, boat, re-modeled the house, and decided to support our drunk cousin to give him time to pursue his art career. Next week we have a 2 month vacation scheduled for Disney Land (no job to hurry back to). We have doubled down on retiring from eventually winning the Powerball (after all, we spend $500/week on tickets so it has to happen), so may as well spend the money now.




Its only a matter of time before the credit card companies cut us off, and the repo guys come out and we get a cold, hard dose of reality.


 

Correct me if I am wrong, but I feel like it happened.Much like the oil spill in the gulf which went away like magic, the depression was diluted and absorbed by generations to come.

Well shit, if this is what passes for a Great Depression, I'm good with it.  

Um, you do know that there are 48 MILLION people collecting food stamps, right? If we didn't have EBT cards, there'd be lines at the soup kitchens that would make GD1 crowds look positively skimpy by comparison. Same with the number collecting their 99 weeks of unemployment and, when that runs out, they immediately jump on the SSDI rolls because they have a mental issue that keeps them from working (clearly if they've been unemployed for almost 2 years something must be wrong with them, right?). Odumbo has managed to almost triple the number of "disabled" Americans. New business starts are, for the first time in our history, surpassed by the number of business closings and failures. The percentage of working age folks starting a business is at its lowest since the number has been recorded. So, yeah, we are already in GD2 but the .gov has tried to cover it up by borrowing mo money to give to those who are not working.

My dad grew up during the Depression. He and the 5 other kids would get sent out of the house in the morning to go collect the coal that would fall off the trains hauling it so they could heat their house. He used to say that a loaf of bread only cost 25 cents, problem was nobody had a quarter. My dad lived a very frugal life, retired at age 57, lived a long life of 84 years and still managed to leave us "kids" a nice inheritance, including a farm. He had a philosophy that if you didn't have the cash for something right now, you couldn't afford it and you just didn't buy it right now. Most Americans think credit cards changed all that. Not so.

I would not be in great shape although we have "liquid" savings as well as 401K monies. I just bought a new vehicle (first one in 15 years) so I've got that debt. The house is less than 3 years from payoff. We'd be OK for a while if both of us were unemployed but it wouldn't be pretty. Luckily, my wife and I work in very different industries so hopefully both industries won't collapse simultaneously.

You'd be surprised what you have to worry about...

I've been prepping in one form or another since my teens, something in my genes




I'm as ready as most ---but that level of readiness means little in the worst case scenario.


Fortunately, that level of scenario is about as likely as Jellystone blowing up


My biggest worry is losing my savings/investments to .gov theft, altho that's hedged, plus my skills are tradable

Another liability is bad health, all the Ammo Forts and MRE's in the world won't do shit in the event of losing health.


I'm teaching my SO who's quite a bit younger a lot of the things I know, but even then, she will be at the mercy of what she faces to a large degree.

Besides teaching her how to run construction machinery [ running the forklift to put stuff on racks today, however, she's run it for years] I task her with water purification, actually everything, from helping changing transmissions to letting her handle most of the financials.

[One reason, cause I'm lazy]


Still, when I go, and if the SHTF badly, she's in tough dodo, like most everyone else.  She has some things going for her, a great personality, good health, attractive, no addictions, folks have respect for her, plenty of resources if the .gov hasn't stolen them, street smarts to keep financial vultures at bay, hard working, fairly simple tastes, and she adapts easily.

Nice story abt your father Plane...  My parents lived thru it too and had a similar 'careful' lifestyle.



That's what I meant about GD2 staring folks in the face and them having no clue.

See my sig line...

They have no understanding that if it hadn't been for QE and the .gov spending money---

THAT DOESN'T EXIST...



They'd be standing in a bread line somewhere...

They don't call the American People -Sheeple- for nuthin...

Our biggest problem would be location.  We live in the Daytona Beach, FL area.  Currently number 28 on neighborhoodscout.com's top 100 most dangerous cities in America.  We are in a good area, but a mile North of us is pretty bad.  Also the yard is lousy for growing anything according to my green thumb wife.  To many rocks and sandy soil.  We have a compost pile, but a rotating composter is something I want the next time I see them at SAM's Club.

No debts and lots of basic skills between the two of us.  I work security at the local level 2 trauma center.  It is not the best paying job, but it pays the bills and lets me put a little into savings each month.  And I am pretty sure that is one of the last places in the area that will shut it's doors.  I am close enough I can ride a bicycle to work if need be.  My wife works at Wal-mart.  Again lousy pay, but the world's largest retailer is going to weather a depression better then most employers, and she is in easy walking/biking distance as well.

Our biggest positive is my wife.  She grew up in the Philippines in an area that is poor even by the standards of that country.  She knows how to make do or do without and she has a ton of knowledge that would be useful.

This, I am 49 but I'm not getting younger.

Just a comment about the EBT/food stamps comment.  There is a LOT of abuse of food stamps.  TONS of people have sufficient money to live on but use food stamps and then use the money that you and I spend on food and they spend it on toys.  The "poor" that collect food stamps and REALLY need it is a minority.  The remainder believe that society is responsible to feed their children for them.  

I don't think the numbers of people on food stamps is a reliable gauge of how the economy is doing.

Move west dude. I lived in shitona for years...work there still. Moving 40 minutes west is night and freaking day on what you see daily.
My work had me in that Mason/Derbyshire Area everyday .... ugghh.
Hopefully your wife doesn't work at that ghetto China mart off Nova and beville..that place is bad.

Anyway ....Daytona ain't getting any better....and like I did when.I lived there..plan to de ass ...and have a aggressive ROE.

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We're not even close to the level of depression in the 30's

The people in the bread lines of the 1930's and the people on food stamps/govt assistance today are vastly different subset of individuals. There is a need for those welfare programs, but the abuse and corruption in the systems is at such a level that all of it should be considered just an outlet for lazy people who need money/housing/food/phone/transportation and don't "feel" like working that hard.

Fot one thing, a depression is a specific thing, and by definition we are not in one.

For another thing, it is insulting to the people like your father who lived through the Great Depression to claim this is anything like it. The people on food stamps aren't starving, millions of people are choosing not to work. Unemployment is nothing like it was then even if you shifted all the people who dropped out of the labor market into the ranks of the unemployed.

Obviously, things aren't great, but its at best hyperbole to claim that we are in another great depression.

We're in a DEPRESSION

RIGHT NOW!

The only thing between full bellies and breadlines is...

$$$$$ the .gov is spending...


To PROP up this economy-----

$$$ that doesn't exist








Keep spending it .gov,  not looking for the PAIN once the $$$ and party ends

Just because we are IN a depression, doesn't mean are are in a DEPRESSION

 

I would argue we are NOT in a depression of the American citizen. The country is. Our wonderful politicians have decided to kick the can down the road. Like you said, the pain doesn't begin until the centralist bank runs out of tricks.

I am stuck where I am to take care of my mom.  No matter what I am moving out of here before my kid (3 years old now) gets into middle school.

If one were to take the statistics at face value, we are certainly in a Depression. In theory, people on food stamps <are> starving or they wouldn't be on food stamps, no? Oddly enough, the head of HHS spoke of the fact that only a third of those <eligible> for food stamps are actually collecting them. So, by that measure, nearly 150 million Americans are "eligible" for .gov assistance. Personally, I think that's absurd in the extreme but those are the facts as they are presented by the .gov.

One could argue that the "eligibility" for food stamps, SSDI, Medicaid, unemployment, etc. are too lax, giving people who are not really needy the ability to become professional slackers. Unlike GD1, there are 10 times as many .gov programs at the Federal, state, and local levels for "the poor". Note that many of them are duplicative (last I read something like 187 different means-tested programs at the Federal level). This encourages waste, fraud, and abuse.

But, don't think for a minute that the US hasn't lost millions of jobs, many of which are not coming back until we get our house in order. Just the fact that small businesses are closing faster than they are being created spells yuuuuge problems since typically small businesses create 65% of new jobs. Choke that goose and no more golden eggs are forthcoming. "Recovery" is said to be anemic because it's bogus. When the .gov prints money into existence, the GDP "grows" by that amount. Never mind that "money" conjured into existence by the Fed is immediately use as filler to try to paper over the massive insolvency of the large banking institutions and produces neither goods nor services. All of the Fed's tricks put together have succeeded in doing is delaying the needed economic "cleansing" of malinvestment and horrific debts levels. Sadly, the .gov put on the taxpayers back the cost of private sector folly. So, it's not a huge surprise that the economy is taking it on the chin.

But let's face it, the gun and ammo industry is thriving so it's all good, right?

You are quite simply, Wrong.    It just goes to show how clueless and brainwashed people are.  

The Stockmarket, and the entire economy is driven by 1. Low interest rates.    2. Free Government handouts.

Be honest with yourself, and think about where things would be, if not for Deficit spending and the tricks being played by the Fed, to keep interest rates low.      Literally Everything floats upon it.    Here in the US, and Worldwide.  

Tomorrow, we revert to 1929 level Government spending.   What happens?

Please provide the definition of a depression that you are using since it appears to be different than the ones generally agreed upon by pretty much everyone.

 
Got ya. I was held down there because of work. We searched for a few years before buying. And school was the biggest issue. None of them in that area sans the north Ormond ones are worth a damn. We send ours to CCA up off 95 and 40...it's private..but  to much over flow from Daytona areas. but way better than public.Tried to go to river bend but can't afford that just yet.

They gotta be bussed out to schools from where I'm at now. Iirc it's two choices deleon springs or Pierson. But since we commute in it's pretty straight line routes..good and bad shtf.


It was all about bug out when I lived there..and being where I worked/lived wasn't where I wanted to be if things got sporting.

Good luck...

Thanks need all the luck I can get right now.

The Depression lasted a significant length of time.
I am sure that if a second great depression lasted as long, once things got a bit tough for everyone, older guys like me would be "encouraged" to retire to save remaining positions for younger guys
That's how the whole retirement thing got rolling during the Great Depression.
So having a career that could outlast the span of the first Great Depression would be an issue
Location-wise, house-wise I'm OK.
Having a mortgage will continue to be an issue if income gets affected.
No one had enough supplies back then to last through the Depression.
Luckily half the population back then was still farming and more or less rural.
We wont be so lucky the next time.

The $$$ exist.  They are electrons.  

Seems like GDP might be under 0 longer than they might want you to believe.  

Exhibit 1


Exhibit 2


Think for yourself and question authority.