Poor Man Survival
Self Reliance tools for
independent minded people…
ISSN
2161-5543
A Digest of Urban
Survival Resources
Why Democrat-run
cities don’t work?
Yet, far-left
Socialist-Democrats want to allow thousands more into the country without
vetting, or placement policies
All
over America, large portions of our major cities are being transformed into
stomach-churning cesspools of squalor. Thousands of tens cities are
popping up from coast to coast as the homeless population explodes, even the
New York Times admits that we are facing “the worst drug
crisis in American history”,
there were more than 28,000
official complaints about
human feces in the streets of San Francisco last year alone, and millions of rats are currently overrunning
the city of Los Angeles. And yet the authorities continue to insist that
the economy is in good shape and that everything is going to be just fine.
Perhaps
everything may seem “just fine” if you live in a heavily sanitized wealthy
suburban neighborhood and you only get your news from heavily sanitized
corporate media sources, but in the real world things are getting really bad.
The
other day, LZ Granderson authored an
editorial in
which he described what life is like in Los Angeles right at this moment…
LA
spent nearly $620 million in tax dollars last year
to address the issue, and yet the number of homeless people increased by 16%, reaching nearly 60,000
people.
As
a Los Angeles resident, I am among those who wonder what the mayor’s office is
doing. When I lived downtown it was virtually impossible to walk a full block
in any direction without seeing a homeless person. In Silver Lake where I live
now, there are tent cities. On my drive to work I see people living underneath
the highway overpasses. It’s no longer Skid Row here. The skid is everywhere.
Of
course that phrase, “the skid is everywhere”, could also apply to San
Francisco, Portland, Seattle, Denver, Minneapolis, Chicago, Detroit, St. Louis,
Memphis, Cleveland, Baltimore, Philadelphia and countless other U.S. cities.
But
without a doubt, L.A. is particularly disgusting at this point. In fact,
last weekend a columnist for the Los Angeles Times admitted that “Los Angeles has
become a giant trash receptacle”…
A
swath of Los Angeles has devolved into a wasteland with rats scurrying among
piles of decaying garbage and squalid tent cities, according to a series of
stomach-churning photos that the Los Angeles Times says depict the “collapse of
a city that’s lost control.”
“The
city of Los Angeles has become a giant trash receptacle,” columnist Steve Lopez
complained on Sunday.
We
are seeing this happen at a time when we are being told that the U.S. economy
is still relatively stable.
And
I will concede that point. Right now, the U.S. economy is a whole lot
more stable than it will be in the months ahead.
So
if things are this bad already in our major cities, what are those cities going
to look like once we get deep into the next economic downturn?
On
Friday, the Labor Department reported that 75,000 jobs were added to the U.S.
economy in May. That number is consistent with the extremely
disappointing figure that ADP reported a few days earlier, and it is well below the number
of jobs that we need just to keep up with population growth each month.
Prior
to this latest report, there were already more working age Americans without a
job than at any point
during the last recession,
and now things just got even worse.
But
the government conveniently categorizes the vast majority of working age
Americans without a job as “not in the labor force”, and so officially the
unemployment rate is “very low” right now.
What
a joke.
The
truth is that the middle class has been steadily shrinking
for an extended period of time,
and all of the numbers that have been rolling in seem to indicate that an
economic slowdown has begun.
For
instance, when economic activity is expanding demand for key industrial
resources such as copper, zinc and lumber increases and prices tend to go up.
But
when economic activity is contracting, demand for those key industrial
resources diminishes and prices tend to go down.
Copper
prices have fallen 6% in just the past month while zinc is down 8.5%. Copper
and zinc are big components for many industrial and technology companies.
People pay so much attention to copper as a barometer that traders jokingly
call it Dr. Copper, as if it has a PhD in economics.
Lumber
prices are falling as well, plunging about 10% in the past month. That could be
viewed as a sign that the housing market — particularly new home construction —
is weakening.
If
you were looking for some exceedingly clear indications of where the U.S.
economy is heading in the near future, you just got them.
But
most Americans will continue to live in denial until the very end. And
even though 59 percent of the population is living
paycheck to paycheck, people continue to rack up debt as if there was no
tomorrow.
In
fact, we just learned that the average size of a new vehicle loan in the
U.S. just hit a brand
new record high…
People
buying a new vehicle are borrowing more and paying more each month for their
auto loan.
Experian,
which tracks millions of auto loans each month, said the average amount
borrowed to buy a new vehicle hit a record $32,187 in the first quarter. The
average used-vehicle loan also hit a record, $20,137.
People
ask me all the time about how they can prepare for the next economic downturn,
and one of the key pieces of advice that I always give is to not take on more
debt.
The post “The
Skid Is Everywhere”, And We Just Received More Confirmation That The Worst Is
Yet To Come appeared first on The Economic
Collapse.
If you want to find a nation which is cheaper to live
or have given serious consideration to expatriation, read the following
primers:
Is
considering expatriation or foreign citizenship right for you?
A growing
number of Americans are frustrated with the way in which their economy has been
managed and are becoming increasingly concerned about future measures the
government may take to keep its coffers full. A question that's arising with
increasing frequency is: does expatriation offer a viable protection to those
concerned about a more financially intrusive US system? The answer is 'yes', it
does offer a completely legal solution for ending your obligation to pay US
income, capital gains, and gift taxes on your worldwide income. But it is
certainly not for everyone and should only be pursued after lengthy and
diligent consideration.
Expatriation:
The Basics
Once
you’ve obtained a second passport and qualified for residence in another country,
you can begin the legal process of expatriation. To do so, you must make an
appointment with a U.S. consulate. You generally cannot expatriate within the
territorial boundaries of the United States. The consular officer will explain
the consequences of expatriation and have you sign some forms. Two or more
appointments may be necessary to complete the process. At the end of whatever
sequence of visits applies at the consulate you choose, you’ll then hand in
your U.S. passport. Anywhere from several weeks to several months later, you’ll
receive an official document called a “Certificate of Loss of Nationality”
(CLN). With the receipt of this document, you will have officially relinquished
your U.S. nationality.
Income
Tax Consequences of Expatriation
Once you
give up your U.S. citizenship and passport, you have no further obligation to
pay U.S. tax on your worldwide income. However, U.S. law imposes an...
Bruce, the
“Poor Man”
Additional News of Note…
Scouting Urban Survival Resources Before SHTF
While on
a recent trip to Dallas, Texas I took the opportunity to hike a set of
electrical main feeder lines. These lines are large towers that are well over
100 feet tall and supply enough
electricity to power a city.
Using Google Earth to figure out where the power lines
ran and intersecting streets, a co-worker dropped me off two neighborhoods away
from where we were staying.
The first thing that became evident was the width of the power line
right of way; rough estimate would be 400 feet or so wide. This is more than
enough room for entire neighborhoods to farm. Since the power lines
ran for hundreds of miles, length is not a problem.
Disaster
Analysis
Cities,
countries and even world community all complete regular disaster analyses and
take steps to prepare. Your family should be no different. An individualized
risk assessment and plan will help you stay ahead of the curve. Here’s a simple
process to help you complete your analysis and take action.
Identify Threats Clearly, while we all face many similar
threats, we are also subject to different threats based on our geography, personal
situation, etc. Identify threats that are specific to your family, as well as
those that are common to all of us. Here are some ideas to get you started:
- War
- EMP
- Weather emergencies
(hurricanes, tornadoes, snow storms, spring floods)
- Other natural emergencies
(mudslides, earthquakes, volcano eruptions)
- Social threats (strikes, crime,
mobs if you live in an urban area, etc)
- Personal threats (Is there a
neighbor that doesn’t like you? Crazy family member? Take these into
account.)
- Health emergencies (think if
there are chronic, life threatening conditions in your family, such as
asthma, diabetes, heart disease, etc)
- Work related threats (if
someone in your family has a risky job, such as mining, chemical factory
work, military employment, etc take these into account)
Find Recurrent Patterns In Weather
Emergencies. If you live in an area
susceptible to certain weather emergencies, take note of patterns. For example,
tornadoes and hurricanes happen on a pretty regular schedule annually.
Determine the schedule that is applicable to your area and make a plan to
prepare. Annual spring floods? Have sandbags ready by a certain date.
Tornadoes? Make sure your basement or shelter is stocked with water, food,
blankets and a change of clothes. Address each weather emergency in this manner
and make a list of items and activities that will help you be better prepared.
Find Preparedness Gaps. There several kinds of preparedness gaps. The
first one involves a general lack of awareness in your family. For example, a
family member may not be aware of a certain threat. The second gap involves a
lack of supplies to address a particular emergency. You may be missing
essentials like food, water and first aid items or less essential items, like
certain tools.
Address The Gaps. To address preparedness gaps, you must
take 4 steps with your family:
- Train. Complete emergency
preparedness education and training (this can be a community training or a
highly informal family training). Be sure to raise awareness with you
family about various emergencies, what the conditions of these emergencies
are and what consequences come as a result. Train your family members how
to respond to these emergencies properly. This includes finding safe
places to be, providing first aid to self and others, protecting and
defending yourself and others and so on.
- Purchase. Purchase necessary
items (if you found gaps in your disaster preparedness supplies, fill the
gaps as you can afford to do so).
- Practice. Conduct family
emergency drills to practice appropriate survival skills. These should
involve weather emergency drills, fire drills, home invasion drills, first
aid drills and other practice that is appropriate to your family
situation.
- Schedule. Once you have your
threats figured out, schedule times to practice, times to check your items
(like the water and food in your shelter or your sandbags). Having a
reminder set in your phone, tablet or Outlook calendar will help keep you
accountable and ensure that certain critical activities don’t slip through
the cracks.
Complete
your family disaster analysis today!
A Final Note…
Contributors and subscribers enable the Poor Man Survivor to post 150+ free essays annually. It is for this reason they are Heroes and Heroines of New Media. Without your financial support, the free content would disappear for the simple reason that I cannot keep body and soul together on my meager book sales & ecommerce alone.
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2 comments:
Dems seem clueless about a lot of things especially our border where hundreds of thousands mainly illiterate, un-vetted illegals storm our border often bringing diseases not seen in decades here-all in search of free stuff [our government is absolutely stupid in providing welfare for illegals along free medical, schools, housing, etc. when we barely take care of our poor people or homeless veterans, etc.]
CA leads the way in Dem-run disasters-just look at what's happened in San Fran & LA: piles of human waste, homeless galore, & now the idiot governor Newsome wants to extend free healthcare to illegals. Hell, CA is already broke & many continue to leave that state in droves so how the hell does he plan to pay for this; by sticking taxpayers, many of whom have a tough time affording their own healthcare, with more taxes. Dumb & dumber! Seems almost all Dem-run cities have problems [Baltimore, NYC, Detroit, etc.] have been run into the ground by Democratic mayors and/or city reps.
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