Our economy seems to be doing ok at the moment so maybe that's why the survival forum has been pretty quiet lately.  

Here's an interesting perspective from Venezuela and stocking up on food....sort of.  

http://latino.foxnews.com/latino/news/2016/07/19/middle-class-venezuelans-drain-savings-to-stock-up-on-food-so-dont-go-hungry/

Tebie Gonzalez and Ramiro Ramirez still have their sleek apartment, a fridge covered with souvenir magnets from vacations abroad, and closets full of name brand clothes. But they feel hunger drawing near.

So when the Venezuelan government opened the long-closed border with Colombia this weekend, the couple decided to drain what remained of the savings they put away before the country spun into economic crisis and stock up on food. They left their two young sons with relatives and joined more than 100,000 other Venezuelans trudging across what Colombian officials are calling a "humanitarian corridor" to buy as many basic goods as possible.


But lately, her salary is no match for Venezuela's 700 percent inflation.

Beyond the reception line, folk music played and kiosks sold products that have become treasures in Venezuela: rice, toothpaste, detergent, and sacks of sugar.

Can't enjoy my retirement if BLM starts burning cities and Obama doesn't step down and China invades..

It's summer  aren't snowed in looking at cpu screens. Happens every year.



But on a serious note. Amazing how simple easy to buy commodities are scarce......I remember reading 10 years ago how it was stupid to stock up on such things. But here we see people migrating just to buy simple products and rations.

For those on a budget, it wouldn't be too expensive to stock up on minor stuff like that. We aren't close to Venezuela's problem level of socialism yet....but we are slowly headed in that direction. I think we as Americans have gotten so used to being able to just run down to the store and buy what we need without a thought that one day it's possible that those things might not be available.

 
I agree. 20$ is a ton of discount brand soaps..toothpaste etc. And yes..the convenience age is our downfall.

Look at how people cry about ammo. Now equate that to crackers...soap...feminine pads......

Our economy is on life support.  At 6:01 in this video, our current status in the world is explained.

I'm not saying the economy is great but it's much better, at least where I live, than it was a few years ago. I've also been around for awhile and many so called survivalists have been predicting doom and gloom disaster for years. I certainly think a Venezuela type financial mess is possible but that level of disaster is not very likely in the US.....at this time. It could certainly change in the future. But, in spite of all the doom and gloom that preppers and survivalists love so well, the economy is doing fairly well at the moment.

It's all on borrowed time.  Tick tock.  

Food For Thought

People have been predicting the coming collapse for a long time. I have some books from the 70s and 80s that were predicting disaster. Well, we are still here. I agree that this country has future problems but we all really don't know what that will look like. And, I'm happy to enjoy the current decent economy....good reason to use the current economy to make extra money to prepare for the unknown.

Well, and realistically what is there to do besides live, raise your family the best you know how, treat people the way you want to be treated, and shore up your weaknesses.

Doc

Most folks I know count on the smart phone to make it thru the day, if it quits they panic. I do not have one so I am not worried about that. But I know people that live and breathe on the smart phone they can't do any thing with out one. So I figure the closest thing to SHTF would be if all the cell phone system went down for more that 4 hours this county would be screwed!

I think one of the biggest signs that the economy is doing well is traffic in this survival forum. When there are disasters or the economy is looking shaky we have lots of posters asking questions and others making comments. It appears to me that traffic on this forum is way down at the moment and has been for awhile.

The linked article still points out what people are wishing they had in a major disaster....major disaster including out of control socialism.

I seem to recall that Venezuela made it illegal to store or "hoard" things. I wonder how many good Venezuelan citizens/socialists got in line with that government directive and are now regretting it.

Eventually that economic can will no longer be able to be kicked down the road. Rice and beans are cheap. Having a garden is rewarding and great exercise.

Our economy is far from OK. We are likely in the worst economic position in our history.

https://fred.stlouisfed.org/series/GFDEGDQ188S


We have just been racking up on the credit card so it seems ok. Joblessness (not the totally BS unemployment rate the fed publishes) is sky high. The markets and real estate are in a bubble. It may look ok but it's not (I'm happy to expand on this if people want). The financial sector is highly leveraged and more consolidated and fragile. The EU is in trouble. China is in trouble. Japan has been in trouble. Many central banks have NEGATIVE interest rates (think about this for a while) which is unknown to the world after a millennia of finance.  It will come to and end one way or another, possibly, if not probably in a massive catastrophe. It's not pessimism or philosophy, it's math.

We had tons of traffic pre-prepper movement....

Lol .


Hot topics spark debate and discussion(at least when folks are mature enough to do it vs click the bitch button).  I'm shocked that there's is not a bunch of election themed threads. Economic crisis threads are like the waves in the ocean. If it's rough folks talk..if pm tank or spike folks talk.

It's the way it is. Plus. Again. Summer time has always been a slow time in the SF.


I don't think our economy is getting stronger..or weaker...it's crippled. Hobbling along. The current Government and it's BS is not helping matters. Which is why I'm shocked there isn't much speculation on "what if X gets elected " how will that effect AB and C.

Or

The BS going on in Turkey.

I. Know many have it on the scope....

It'll have bigger implications than just nukes... trade routes..oil..military pressence...russia....etc.