Saving our future

This last weekend my grandfather and I sat down and discussed what would happen and how to survive if the economy collapsed. He made sure to remind me at the start that I don't know what hard times are, and he's right. There's always been a program around to help people out weather it be welfare, unemployment, or even food stamps. No one in this country really knows what hard times are like compared to what the people during the Great Depression went through. They had one thing going for them, they had land and knowledge to grow food along with most of the public not really being city dwellers. Today it's quite the opposite. The majority of people are city dwellers, what's worse is we have gotten away from our agrarian roots.



There are two models to look at to decide what the possible outcomes are for us in the event that there is a major crash of our currency and economy. When Russia collapsed their two main exporting partners were North Korea and Cuba. When trade was cut off with North Korea the government just let their people starve. Now most of the people in North Korea are either government employees or cannibals. Cuba on the other hand did things different. Cuba sent out a mandate and loosened up their rules to require that every person start growing their own food. Any available land was to be used for gardening, people in a way had property rights, but this was the key to their survival. The main difference between North Korea and Cuba is that North Korean's are starving while Cubans started prospering more than they had in the past. Looking at this example, we need to start thinking about following the Cuban example.


There is a big possibility that we may not even have a collapse, although my opinion is that it's already happening. If there is no collapse, we could get accidentally rich, if there is a collapse we're prepared and will have a greater chance of survival. We as a society need to start pulling together now instead of waiting for the collapse to happen, then react. I think by pulling together we could actually save our country and bring it back into prosperity and in line with the Constitution again.


If you own vacant land you can do many things and this actually puts you in a better position than most. You have the opportunity to turn that land into a Liberty Garden (Term used during the Great Depression for gardens within the cities). 1 acre of land could feed up to 5 people including yourself if you manage it just right, think of share cropping. Another idea is allowing those who are dislodged from their homes the ability to camp on the property. I think 1 acre could fit up to 5 families, but it would allow them to have a place to stay and have security in numbers. They could even grow mini gardens. I'm not saying let people live there for free or that their entitled to have a piece of your land, but what I am saying is there are many barter deals that can be worked out such as giving a small portion from each garden to you for usage of the land. If there is surplus, you can either donate or sell the remainder, but several people would be grateful and this would be a step on a positive direction for our country, but I'll let you work out the details.

If you don't own land, but you own a house with a small yard, there's many possibilities there too. There are plenty of people in apartments that would be willing to do a little work to have a garden, me being one of them. For example, I would be willing to rototiller and buy the seeds myself if I just had a place to grow a garden if I were to be able to grow in someone's back yard. It would only be fair that we both work the garden, but I'm willing to do the hard work in order to get a reward that I would otherwise not have. If things got really bad, being able to camp in a back yard next to the garden would be most beneficial because I know that I would safe and I could do work around the house to pay for being able to have a place to live. In a collapse money will be worthless, so barter is the only way to go. The good thing about barter is it will weed out the crooks really quick so that you'll end up dealing with mostly honest people within a year or so.


Right now the U6 unemployment rate is around 20% which is just over 60 million people out of work. There is about another 20% or 60 million people who are underemployed. There are a total of around 120 million people hurting in our society and trying to make things work, so even if there's not a collapse, there's a lot of people who could benefit from a hand up under the current conditions. The most important things that people need in the hardest of times are food, water, and shelter. The great thing about being a Christian nation is knowing that we're all in this together regardless of religion, race, or creed. There's a reason why Glenn Beck is going to Wilmington Ohio, which has partially inspired this article.


There are those who do not have property or a house, but you have knowledge. It's a good idea to make sure that you take the time to teach us city dwellers how to garden. There's a lot to gardening such as soil, planting, and drying out seeds. Instructing people is just as valuable as having property or a house, so don't be shy.

There's no point in doing any of this though if you don't get the word out. There are plenty of community engagements where you can make announcements and let people know to get prepared or at least get them to pull together to help the people in the community. This brings to mind what my grandma told me about Apple Valley California where she just moved from. She has told me that there are so many people there that are out of work and most of them are over 40. She's told me stories of going to the grocery store and buying them a couple bags of groceries, but she's also fortunate to be well off as well.


I think we as a society have forgotten what made us great. I think the older generations in our society have a great role to play because they've got the life experiences the younger generations don't have. This is a chance for us to come together and change the tide of things to come. What made the Depression generation so strong is that they banded together and realized that there are more important things in life than life's distractions. What will save use from our utter destruction is our pulling together. I've been taught through mentors over the years about people having roles in society and its time to step up and accept our roles because we've gotten away from that and that's what's been hurting our society for the last 20+ years.

My American Dream

Over this weekend my whole family came down with the flu. I began to think about the “American Dream”. I remember when my wife and I met, she was living on top roman and I became homeless two days after meeting her. I never asked her for a place to stay, but out of kindness she offered me a place to crash if I needed it. After a couple of days she was in hot water where she lived and had to move out by the end of the month. I was waiting for the sale of my stocks so that I could actually afford a deposit on a place to live. She helped me out with a job by referring me to her place of work. We were both in College, that’s how we originally came to meet.


Since she needed to move and I received my stock sale money, we moved into a 10X12 room in China Town, that’s one of the most unsafe neighborhoods in Portland. Unknown to us, we moved into a building where it was the last resort for some people like pedophiles, murderers, and felons. Even people on SSI lived there. Since we both worked at the same place and almost the same schedule of 4am-1pm we would have to take the bus to our place of work and take a cat nap in the break room because the next bus wouldn’t arrive until 6am. We used to live on 4-6 hours’ sleep every other day because of school and work. This was when I asked my soon to be wife to marry me. At one point we were so poor that all we could afford was rice, but things were soon to change.

I ended up finding a good paying job petitioning to get initiatives on the ballot. Since I love politics this was my dream job, and it paid well too. My soon to be wife quit her job to be able to focus on school while I worked to pay the bills; our rent was only $365 a month. Since the building had rats and roaches in it we were finally able to get a cat to combat them both. The only thing we had to our name other than our clothes was the laptop I was able to purchase with leftover money from school which I bought on clearance for cheap. This was the life for us though. I still look back and think how happy we were with nothing but each other and the cat.

About a month before we got married I found a job doing Tech Support which was what my field of study was in college. Just a few weeks after we got married, we found out she was pregnant. We were given a notice by the building manager that we had to move out before the kid was born. We would have anyway; no one wants to bring their kid into that environment. We were even extra motivated considering one of our neighbors just received a 106 year sentence for many counts of rape, attempted murder, assault, and many other things on top of this being his 3rd strike.

Things were finally looking up for me and the wife. I had a good job; she just landed her first job that wasn’t a call center or grunt labor as a data entry clerk. We, not knowing, lucked out to get into our apartment where we lived. We moved into the yuppies neighborhood on the West Side, the West Hills. We thought we had died and went to heaven.

Right before my son was born, another stroke of luck, or so I thought, came our way. As a way to prove to my wife that there were jobs out there, I randomly applied to 3 jobs on craigslist. I landed one of them which paid enough to be able to support our soon to be 3 person family so she could stay home with our newborn son. As soon as I took the job she was able to quit her job because she was having complications with it because she over extended one of her ligaments.

Our son just turned 1 about two weeks after I got laid off from my job, but he’s been really lucky. Although mom is working now, dad gets to stay home with him and take care of him. Our son has not had to want or need for anything. We’ve given him a better life than we ever had and he’s only a year old at this point in time. Unlike how my wife and I were raised by our babysitters, we’ve been fortunate through circumstances to have been home with him the whole time.

When I started off I said I was thinking about the “American Dream”. There are two parts to the “American Dream”. The first part I have relayed to you in a story of me. The “American Dream” allows a person to go from nothing to something. The things that are important to me in life are my wife and my son, that’s my “American Dream”. I can look back and see where I was, where I am, and where I’m heading. The same can be said for America. We know our history of where we came from, we know where we are, and we know where we want this country to be for our children. Knowing my history makes me grateful for what I have in the present. For the first time in my life I have a top notch bed, pictures on the wall, a TV and DVD player, and my first couch set. It’s easy to forget where we came from, but sometimes we need to take the time and remember.

The second part of the “American Dream” is shaping our country through our political system. So many people only want to do part 1, but forget about part 2. An example would be that I want my son to be self-reliant, open minded, and a kind person. Without me taking my time to be involved with him, all I’m doing is procrastinating hoping it will be done on its own. Weather you feel that the government should have a big or small role, deficit spending is ok or it’s not or you trust your officials or not, you still have to fulfill your part and your oath to your fellow citizen. Without the political arena we wouldn’t even have the ability to participate in the “American Dream”. Think of politics like an inventor, without ideas being pushed around so that everyone can come to a consensus, nothing would ever be invented, and politics is the same way.