Cantharis Posted February 20, 2016 Posted February 20, 2016 I will refer to it as The Collapse. We are facing two historical events crashing into one apocalyptic crescendo, one is the migrant crisis and the other is the deduction for which Hayek was awarded a Nobel price, the end of a business cycle, misallocation of resources as a result of central banking, jobs and projects without real market demand that must be wiped out. It should be obvious that these two will affect the societies of the whole world from west to east, some more and some less. In the quasi-socialist states of western-europe the boost button on government spending shall be pushed to "save" the economy, while the migrants will start looting and wreaking havoc until the whole landscape descends into a bloody civil war. The far east will be lucky this time. The US... well, who knows. I'm from eastern europe, we don't really have migrants. But to be completely honest with you, this is not how I planned my life. What I wanted to be is a professional science-fiction writer and I started studying philosophy in the university half a year ago. Naturally, I have very few skills for which there is market demand. Even though I speak two languages, I have translated several books (from Stef and Rothbard) and made them into audioformat, have almost finished my first novel, I am still far away from being able to survive in the marketplace. I wanted to devote my uni years to writing and producing different contents, and therefore I have not developed any social relations in my new city and know basically only my girlfriend. My plan was that by the time I end my education I would have landed my first - or maybe second publication - even though I am now starting to realize that I would never be able to live off selling anarcho-capitalist science fiction novels. To add even more, I have no connection with my abusive mother apart from her supporting me financially - meaning 150$/mo which includes bills - because she gets vast tax breaks if I study. Now, I almost certainly feel that I will not make it through The Collapse. I could create rationalizations but the fact is that I am dancing in a razor's edge existentially and I feel - and fundamentally it is but a paralyzing dread and not a fact-based knowledge - that I will not survive. I know what will come. I have studied enough praxeology and disciplines regarding how societies and groups behave especially in and before crises to know what is coming and it is called the grand reaper of souls. And in the last days I've been grieving my own. Maybe I should not, maybe I am completely wrong and maybe nobody else feels like that - which would be the greatest relief of my life. But I really want to know whether I'm alone in this or not, and how do others deal with this dread that should come only in nightmares, and that makes me think of the much less painful and daunting path of suicide.
TheAuger Posted February 20, 2016 Posted February 20, 2016 No, I don't feel that I will die in the collapse. What I feel is immaterial, though -- I could be dead tomorrow; the collapse could occur the day after. How to deal with dread? Learn new skills. Meet new people. Develop a plan. Acquire new resources. 2
J-William Posted February 21, 2016 Posted February 21, 2016 I don't fear a collapse because I have options in the event of something bad like that, or say a major war... I'm not betting on that happening, so I haven't put much time and effort into preparing.
circa1874 Posted February 21, 2016 Posted February 21, 2016 It wouldn't be a bad idea for you to learn a trade skill or survival skills in your free time. Study something that will hold value even in the worst economic circumstances. Carpentry, masonry, farming, hunting, trapping ect. I just wouldn't let fear hold you back. Use the fear as a motivator for personal growth. Good luck!
utopian Posted February 21, 2016 Posted February 21, 2016 The only thing I couldnt survive is a nuke. We wouldnt be told if it was coming. The closest we have come recently, I think, is North Korea threatening to nuke California some time ago. The scientific community put us at three minutes to midnight on the doomsday clock, citing deteriorated relations between the US and Russia. Outside of that, I am fairly well prepared. It's possible enough to go on living your life. I am sure a lot of people here could give you great advice for anything youre concerned with.
Qwent Posted February 21, 2016 Posted February 21, 2016 While your concerns are justified your fears are counterproductive. Even if you are doomed to die you should not live your life as though that will be the case. Do not allow fear to consume you but rather use the fear to spur yourself into actions that will alleviate the need to fear.
Cantharis Posted February 23, 2016 Author Posted February 23, 2016 Right, I must learn new skills, I don't know what though. I should do some research on similar phases of history to see what skills had high demand. I'm also trying to do some damage control in my country, started a new blog about free market, I think mine is the third of this kind in the whole place, wanna start podcasting aswell. I'm not hoping to turn the tides but maybe I can reach out for some who want to survive using reason and not violence. I also want to liquidate most of my assets, have hundreds of books I could hopefully sell. Thank you guys, I actually started to see hope.
utopian Posted February 24, 2016 Posted February 24, 2016 I seem to have forgotten America is not the only country in the world like a typical American. What country are you in rotten? What's going on there that's got you concerned?
Cantharis Posted February 25, 2016 Author Posted February 25, 2016 I'm in Hungary, which is an eastern-european country that successfully dodged the bullet of the mass migration. However jobs are extremely hard to get, especially in my area, and you need papers of qualification for the most trivial of jobs; people oppose very strongly any kind of free market and the corruption of the state is extremely, extremely high. We have gypsies everywhere, who has been living off of welfare for three generations, and generally, everyone is massively hostile and violent towards one another. And the mob is steering towards socialism once more. Not a nice place to be.
utopian Posted February 25, 2016 Posted February 25, 2016 Hm. Well it seems like you are in a populated area. That can be one of the worst places to be in a disaster. I apparently live in one of the top 5 places you don't want to be during a global breakdown. I have access to a boat and am fairly close to it at all times, I plan on bugging out to a nearby island with supplies if anything gets too bad. Hungary is fairly land locked, but I bet there is some wilderness near you that you could go survive in if people started freaking out. Somewhere with water preferably. Take a little camping trip maybe, get to know your local wilderness, test yourself and see what it might be like to have to survive alone for a while.
welcometothedarksyde Posted February 26, 2016 Posted February 26, 2016 Carpe Dium man. I'm still a teenager and I live in this crazy world. I might not even reach 20 before the world tears itself apart. It sucks, but I've found an inbetween. Somewhere between going on with my life, and preparing for the worst. I mean you never know, We know that these economic fallacies can't go on forever, but that doesn't mean they won't go on for a little while longer. The one thing I would recommend is get to know some people, have some social capital. That'll probably go a long way in an emergency
Cantharis Posted February 27, 2016 Author Posted February 27, 2016 Oh yea, I live in a terrible place. You can drive for hours and all you see is plain fields with nowhere to run in the case of an emergency. I terribly miss my old home, the safety I felt by looking at the mountains and the forests around the small town for that I knew I could always find safety there. Here, it is only the concrete and the empty horizon I can see and it makes me feel even more anxious. I guess I should get to know people. I was thinking about creating some group exactly for the purpose of helping each other in case of emergency (maybe it would even make a good business model) or looking up survivalists or preppers nearby. But then again, these are most likely a bunch of statist child abusers or insane conspiracy theorists and I lived by the principle of not having crazy or evil people in my life anymore, and cutting contact with all who is harmful. So hard, so hard to survive... maybe I should just sell my anal virginity on the internetz and move to acapulco with the price.
Cornetto97 Posted February 27, 2016 Posted February 27, 2016 If you have the money, try putting your money into physical gold, when the economic crisis reaches it's climax - gold historically has made up for the value fiat currency has lost and the huge inflation of central banks - the value will skyrocket. Could be a good cushion to have. Also I would not doubt the prospect of governments attempting to confiscate physical gold so it's best to buy now. They're beginning to slander large physical notes for being used by criminal organisations in the media narrative, who knows in the face of such turmultuous economic and societal times, what they may do.
KarlJay Posted March 1, 2016 Posted March 1, 2016 If you plan on staying in that country, I would look at the needs of the people around you and find something that requires a skill that isn't so easy to obtain and easy to go underground with. One of the basics of economic is doing something that improves the market value of something. Your ability to make gains is based on your ability to produce more value than you consume. Market value is in part based on supply/demand and how hard it would be for someone else to do the same thing you are doing. If the taxes and regulations are high, look for things that are taxed and find a way to avoid consuming them. If it's food, grow your own, etc... Look for things that might be common now and short later. Find a way to store those things or and alternative to them. The way I like to think of things is to think of the start of America. We started without much of an economy (if any). Think of the people that packed up and headed West. They just went out and made things happen. Wasn't much need (if any) to have a government. Humans have been doing these things for a very long time. Some times a highly specialized skill is of great value, sometimes general skills are best, you can have both.
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