I have ALL the volumes of Foxfire as @DrZarkov99 suggests.

i am already raw vegan and grow my own food...not in the best location for survival...the beach in ft lauderdale...trying to convince girlfriend to move...

You will find the answer in Part 3 Chapter I, "Atlantis" on page 690 in the standard paperback edition. Midas Milligan quit when the courts ruled in favor of the Hunsacker gang. It was the same case that prompted Judge Narragansett to resign the bench.

Mulligan was a banker in the context of the American society described in the book. We can only assume that the banks were fractional reserve and the traffic lights were red on top and green on the bottom.

I expect gradual, too, for a while. Then, I expect there will be a "breakover" percentage of decay that, once reached, will result in rapid collapse. Picture a garden decoration like a bronze sundial on a wooden tripod. The legs begin to suffer a parasitic rot and all looks and seems to work well. Then in a moment one of the legs loses its ability to support and the whole thing collapses. The rot reaches a certain percentage and suddenly bye bye! What is the breakover point of the great welfare state when it just collapses? The breakover point of fiat currency? The breakover point of loss of individual liberty? The breakover point of when a people are just too stupid to realize why things are going bad or to even realize things are going bad at all?

Edit: The only cure as I see it is to identify the rot and repair it before the collapse. I always hope this is possible.

we would all need to be able to survive on our own for a year or so while some infrastructure was restored. This means feeding ourselves, getting water, getting around at least somewhat, and restoring power (solar and wind ??). It is possible to live off vegetarian foods, although it would take a bit of restructuring of our diets

I think the decline will be caused by the currency being destroyed, and the wealth we all thought we had being eliminated during the economic reset. Import pricing would skyrocket unless the world undergoes simultaneous devaluations. The dollar would be replaced by a NEW dollar and we would have to turn in our old dollars for 100 or 1000 of them to 1 of the new dollars- like happens all over the world over the years. I suspect that loans would be reset so the wealthy don't lose, but savings accounts would not reset.

I recommend the Foxfire series of books, with lots of good information on how to survive, and thrive, in an era of limited resources.

Midas Mulligan always--always--had something at the back of that credit. His was a full-reserve bank--not the fractional-reserve bank with which you are familiar.

I just looked up The Road. It sounds terribly depressing. Not my thing.

I agree that we are likely to see a gradual decay rather than a sudden crash, which will make it more difficult to deal with.

Jan

First, pay off everything you can and keep a good hunk of savings in cash. Pay off the house, the car, and as many big ticket items as possible. Unless you're a financial Wiz, don't try any get rich quick stuff.
BUT: (There's that big but again) in doing that you might survive, but the guys with courage will be doing the opposite and gambling with the lower prices. They may lose all, but then, they may become jillionaires.

You may have a muscle-mystic view of wealth. Many people here do; and they are not alone: conservatives are goldbugs. Gold is fine, for what it is, but America was not built on gold.

Credit moved the world out of the paleolithic era.
See here: "Debt - the seed of civilization"
http://necessaryfacts.blogspot.com/20...

If you read Atlas Shrugged the same theory is in there, also, actually. While gold stands symbolically important as wealth in private hands, the motor of the world was not gold. Midas Mulligan extended credit to the engines of creation.

in the last 3 economic collapses in America caused by the Fed, we were an agrarian economy and we recovered fairly quickly...
in today's complex economic society, we will be thrown back to the 1800's...it will not be pretty...we are already economically beyond the point of avoiding a collapse..the only unknown is the timing of the collapse...prepare now and be ready to survive...

With this difference. The world has rebuilt a society on empty credit. And they've overextended that credit. Pretty soon everything stops.

The only way to recover from that, is to rebuild your own economy, bottom-up.

The first paragraph is all you need to read. The cause of the economic collapse is the government of the usa or any other country on the planet. The other problem WE face happens to be the people who put the civil servants in their jobs who are basically to dumb to know they are therefore the supporters of the civil servants causing the collapse. They are their own destroyers. Therefore, there will not be any recover from economic collapse!

First there is the ability to address immediate needs: food, shelter, heat, medicine. Those can be procured now and stored for future use, but will eventually give out.

The bigger question is the one posed by the author: recovering from a more long-term and debilitating crisis. If the power grids are offline for an extended period (months+), our dependence on such for virtually everything will make recovery a slow process. Many people will attempt to move to places that have power, such as those supplied by hydroelectric dams like in the West. The biggest problems will come in areas dependent on shipped power (like high-population areas dominated by eco-nuts: see California, New England).

After that comes food production, which is highly dependent on fuel. The areas of the nation which have not only oil production but refineries will be able to continue to serve their populations.

The other major consideration will be monetary and trade value. You can bet that the US dollar is going to be worthless, not only because there will be little if any functional national government, but because most of it is virtual anyway. Precious metals and coinage are going to be the tool of trade.

One major result will be that there will be no time or ability to allow for moochers. Everyone will be reduced to subsistence living and what little they may have left over will go to trade with others. Those who are accustomed to others paying their way are going to be in for a rather major shock - one that will lead to rioting, looting, and destruction.

You can run a hell of a shell game on a cashless society.

I concur

Hello UncommonSense,
According to this article, it would seem that I am in good position. I own a versatile tool and die business. The question of power is of concern though. Gone are the days of water-wheel driven overhead shafts and leather drive belts...
Respectfully,
O.A.

This article reminded me of the movie, "The Road". Anybody else see that? Powerful movie.

America won't experience a collapse like many say it will - a sudden onset of strife. It will be what you're seeing now - a slow, controlled, gradual decline. A technological spark may reverse it. We'll see. A step toward a cashless society, though, plays into the system controlling the decline further.

Blah... blah... blah... Economic collapse is the pipe dream of haters. The global capitalist future is an open door to many new horizons. "Space is the place; Come to the high frontier."
"No one in the 17th century who knew only the British East India Company and the Dutch East India Company could have foreseen the Cunard Line, the Northern Pacific Railroad, or TransWorld Airlines and the immense profits made by carrying very ordinary people on very personal missions. The goal then was to haul raw materials (especially gold and silver) back to Europe. No one in 1620 or 1720 could have seen the world of 1820 or 1920. "
http://necessaryfacts.blogspot.com/20...