When we were looking for our prepper property, we set a goal of moving before Election Day. We missed it by about five weeks, but am I darn sure happy that I moved before inauguration day. I’m also glad I do not live or work in Washington, DC.
In yesterday’s book review, I talked about the lead character being slow to catch on and recognize the problems they were facing. I wrote, “You’d think a military vet would be able to see the writing on the wall and make better, faster decisions.”
I recommend that you look at the world around you and ask yourself if January 6, 2021 was a day that should have motivated you to act. If you don’t, you may one day look back on it and think to yourself, “That’s when the first domino fell. If only I had acted then instead of doing nothing.”
In case you have been living in a hole, what has been described as a mob stormed the capital and interrupted Congress and protesters swarmed statehouses across the country. It was also a day when it became clear that the Democrats would control the house, the Senate and the Executive branch. It was a day in which socialism sunk its claws deeper into the fabric of the American government.
What You Should Do Next
I’m not suggesting your protest in the streets; there will be a time and place for that, likely when the Democrats are considering some terrible, Constitutional-defying bill.
Neither am I suggesting that you declare war, start an “Unintended Consequences” style attack on politicians and bureaucrats you disagree with, although the time to fight back against an oppressive government may yet come.
I am simply suggesting you prepare like you have never prepped before.
Prepare for the downward economic spiral that is the inevitable conclusion of socialism. Prepare for inflation, hyperinflation, massive taxation, rising deficits, crazy market bubbles, and the inevitable economic collapse. Expect tax policy to punish companies who make a profit and stock exchanges to de-list companies that don’t meet government criteria for ownership and a diverse workforce. Prepare for worker’s rights legislation that make it impossible to hire the best qualified candidate for the job.
You should look at history books and see what happens when the government interferes with markets, when they rob the incentive from hard work, and when they use the tax to punish those whose politics they do not like. You don’t have to look back too far; just Google Lois Lerner and the IRS.
If you want to catch a glimpse of what the future holds, read Atlas Shrugged by Ayn Rand. Just as 1984 predicted our politically correct speech and the surveillance society, Atlas Shrugged predicts what happens when the government exploits those with brilliant minds, patents and the ability to get things done. And then remember that although the book was written about the United States, Ayn Rand grew up in Russia and saw communism from the inside.
Prepare by saving money, buying land, moving to somewhere you can grow food, and putting aside guns, ammo and precious metals.
Bread Lines and Food Shortages
Thanks to COVID -19, we are already seeing the modern equivalent of bread lines as people wait for hours for a hand out from foodbanks. This is just the beginning. The United States has a powerful, effective, efficient food production and distribution system that produces so much food that we waste much of it and sell the rest overseas. A socialist government will find a way to screw that up in less than a decade, just like Venezuela’s oil production sank from a high of 3.8 million barrels per day to 500,000 barrels per day, a decline of 87 percent.
So prepare for rising food prices and shortages. The shortages will be intermittent at first, and the government will make excuses and promise a cure, but before long you will feel lucky if you find rice and beans in the store on the same day. Expect foods with think are common to become luxuries.
Plant your orchards and berries now so they will bear fruit when you need it most. Dig your gardens and prepare you soil while you still have something to eat if your garden fails.
Look at anything we design, build or produce better than anyone else in the world and plan for that ability to go away. Consider anything we do efficiently and effectively and expect the government to find a way to screw it up, regulate it out of existence, or tax it to death. Look for anything that runs smoothly and fairly and plan for it to be corrupted, because that is what socialism does.
The Destruction of the Middle Class
The middle class — which we can define as people who make enough money to own things like cars, houses, and retirement accounts – will be targeted by the government, because socialists consider owning things when others do not to be inherently unfair. Small businesses that served a need and create jobs will be destroyed because they also make money and in some cases, make their owners rich.
If you own a small business, look for more rules, more regulations, more times in which the government will tell you what you can and cannot do, who you can and cannot hire, how much you have to charge for services, where and how you have to buy your raw materials, and other types of mandatory government interference. Before long, owning a small business will be unprofitable, get you in legal trouble, and earn you less than you can make staying home and collecting universal basic income, also known as a government check.
COVID-19 has already set the stage for the collapse of many small businesses, especially restaurants and bars. The very businesses that rejuvenated our cities are being crushed by arbitrary rules created by government officials who could not care less about your job. Expect this to behavior to spread, but without the excuse of COVID.
The best way to prepare for this is to buy and store items that have an inherent wealth or be able to produce things you can sell or trade for other needed goods and services.
The Underground Economy
As government tightens down and exerts even more control, people fight back in small ways that do not involve marches, protests or rifle fire.
They fight back by undermining the government, by foiling their tax collection strategies, by refusing to willingly comply with their regulations, and by rebelling in a thousand small ways that add up to have a large impact and inevitably lead to the socialist system collapsing under its own weight.
For example, when the government over-taxes and over-regulates, black and gray markets pop up. Like a rave held in a secret location, word will spread of where you can buy eggs and cheese. It will be here today, and somewhere else tomorrow.
Think about how you will fit into an underground economy, either as a buyer, a seller, or someone who barters with others in a way that is completely off the books and untraceable.
Think of it this way: Guns and drugs have been sold in American cities for decades, despite the “war on drugs.” Why not sell home-cooked meals, backyard vegetables, locally harvested eggs, haircuts, private workouts, dog walking, handyman repairs, home sewing, and other things that are traded without anyone in the government ever knowing. You’re not in business, you are just two friends doing each other a favor. Just keep it offline because big tech will be an eager collaborator with government.
They Don’t Trust You
The government has never really trusted you, but they have given you the benefit of the doubt. They expect you to pay most of your taxes, follow most of the laws, and as long as you don’t stray too far outside the lines, they leave you alone.
Under control-oriented socialist regimes, you will no longer be given the benefit of the doubt. Innocent until proven guilty may still apply in the courtroom, but not in the executive branch and their many tendrils that will quickly work their way through society.
The best way to survive in what I expect will be our evolving control-oriented socialist dictatorship, other than becoming a high-ranking officer or a respected cog in the socialist machine, is to appear to be unimportant, unworthy of attention, and unlikely to have anything worth confiscating. So keep a low profile, prepare, and await the day when one of two things happens: Republicans regain control of the Senate and can slow the socialist invasion or there is a revolution and what happened in the capital on Wednesday looks like a warm up exercise.
You may also want to read The Problems Socialism Brings and How to Survive Them.
