Bruce’s Poor Man Survival Bulletin
A Digest of Urban Survival Resources
For Independent Minded People!
ISSN
2161-5543
Every increase in the size of government necessitates a decrease in
an individual's freedom. - Christian Harold Fletcher Riley
From The
Smiling Dog Saloon Files
In
This Issue:
1. Make
your own apple cider vinegar-the health benefits of cider vinegar
2. Meeting
your basic needs for off grid living
3. Life
After Doomsday & Other Free Downloads from the Poor Man
4. DIY
SHTF Battery Recharging how-to/Business
5. College
degrees, are they worth the cost?
One day your life will flash before your eyes. Make sure it’s
worth watching.
- Unknown
Meeting Your Basic Needs for Living Off-the-Grid,
Homesteading, Urban Living
The Poor Man devotes a lot of space to creating multiple sources of income,
sideline income strategies and so forth.
It is a part of our overall plan for assisting those ravaged by the
economy and lack of decent jobs.
You cannot be self reliant
if you cannot pay your bills and/or plan and stockpile for the future. Having adequate finances is a priority for
most.
Every family should
consider developing circles of income which generate at least $200 or more a
month just to keep up with the rising cost of living. As the government prints more fiat money, the
less value it has. One trip to the
supermarket will wake you up to that fact.
Also, if one source of income dries up, you have other income. Most Americans have only a two week financial
window before they are insolvent.
After recent uninsured
medical expenses for my open heart surgery, we were pretty well cleaned out and
I seriously thought we might lose our mini-farm. All work on the farm has stopped but at least
there was no danger of foreclosure (we paid cash for everything).
For many families facing
financial challenges, friends and family come to the rescue. We weren’t so fortunate as our parent’s are
now gone. For awhile, we were spending
$200 a week for prescriptions and long distance drives to various medical
providers.
One aunt helped out quite
a bit until we were able to rearrange our financial affairs, cash in retirement
accounts, etc.
These are some of the
reasons I promote our Sideline Income
newsletter and resources as well. I was
shocked so few took advantage but then again, I no longer have a clue what
people want…certainly not extra cash!
Our Boot Strap Business
section offers dozens of practical ideas for you to create a value-added home
business (and don’t forget the tax advantages, one of the few left to the
little person).
Self employment, even as a
sideline, requires a do-it-yourself mentality in regard to work habits and
household finances. Most Americans have
lost much of that discipline. Indeed,
our slowest selling product is the one we offer devoted to Finances/Self
Sufficiency. Yet we derive income from
several sources including writing, lectures, eBay, our own website, auctions,
etc.
PM’s
Roundup of Useful Resources…
Get your free ebooks today –
Download these valuable resources:
Compliments of the Poor Man – Free ebook
downloads.
Click on the folder and get the titles you want!
-Capt. Dave’s Survival Guide,
Combat Survival/Evasion Guide, Outdoor Survival, Get Self Sufficient for 6
months, Secrets of Street Self Defense, Life After Doomsday…
Enjoy
the many health benefits using apple cider vinegar
(NaturalNews) Apple cider vinegar has been used in folk medicine for hundreds
of years. Apple cider vinegar has also been utilized to treat allergies, acne,
flu, pets, and dermatitis. Apple cider elevates pH levels, increasing
alkalinity in the body....
DIY Home
Apple Cider Vinegar
The EPA Takes an Ax to
Self-Sufficiency: Most Woodburning Stoves Will Soon Be Illegal
In the never-ending battle for total control, heating your home
self-sufficiently with wood could soon become illegal - or at the very least,
insanely expensive.
How
to Create Your Own SHTF Battery Recharging Business People Will Beg You to Use!
Years ago I took my first steps into creating my very own
off-grid solar power setup. Since then I’ve upgraded a bit by adding more solar
panels and deep cycle batteries and, honestly, I never feel like it’s enough. I
could, in fact, spend $20K and not have what I wanted!
Now, if you’ve never thought
about off-grid power there are plenty of resources available, from power-related videos I keep in the Video Vault to a variety of “how to” posts and even people
who know this stuff much better than I do. I’m sure there are plenty of other videos and
references I’ve found in the past if you wanted to search for them on my site.
And, of course, there’s all-knowing Google Search.
That said, having
some ability…
Creating your very own compost pile isn’t that difficult,
it just takes dilligence and sometimes a strong stomach because of decomposing
food waste. Regardless, here’s some good thoughts on how to make a good compost
pile this fall if you’ve never done so before: “There is no better time to get
loads of compost materials…
The Nanny State-We love our government
Government
Shutdown – Another Fairy tale…
The stroke of midnight has just passed and the
US government has turned into a pumpkin. Well, we wish. In fact the
US government like some eternal zombie continues to walk the Earth even without
the souls of taxpayers upon which to feast. And, even that isn't totally
true. Like any zombie it still collects the blood of its victims (taxes)
even while most of its zombie army (federal government employees) sit at home
on a paid vacation... and most of their oppressive "services"
continue on, like the CIA, NSA, ATF, DEA, Executive branch, police and more.
Government,
in order to control its population uses three main areas…
- Enforcement of laws – the more laws a
society creates, the more controlling it is
- Creating what is used for money for their
own riches and to pay minions.
- Media propaganda to “cover” these crimes.
It’s pretty obvious the Washington-Wall Street Cartel
has been achieving their objectives, even during the fairy tale shutdown…
Who Buys Our Politicians?
Click on the link
that says, "Who Funds Your Rep?" and you'll get a map of the country.
From there you can click on your state and look up the
contributions going to your representatives. When I searched our reps I found
that sugar companies give them a lot of money. In fact, sugar growers have
spent $3.6 million in campaign contributions for this election cycle, hoping to
maintain price supports that inflate the cost of our foods (of course they
portray it as an effort to preserve jobs, not to make bigger profits). Democrat
Bill Nelson received $42,000 in contributions, the largest amount so far, but
looking at the data from over the years, Republicans have received almost twice
as much as Democrats from the sugar industry. Apparently sugar company
executives are confident that Republicans are not really against corporate
welfare.
The
Parting Thought – Not to worry in the land of the free!
College Degrees – Are they worth the cost? You Decide!
Student debt is now twice
what it was in 2007 at just over a trillion dollars, surpassing credit card and
auto loan debt.
The college debt
fiasco we are currently in has nothing to do with the free market and
everything to do with government meddling. No one in their right mind would
loan money at 2-3% interest to an 18-year-old with no collateral or experience
to pursue their education in whatever they choose, unless of course you could
just create the money out of thin air and had some friends in the university
cartel. The GI Bill, federal grants, state grants and government
guaranteed student loans have made university tuition prices go into the
stratosphere. The once romantic idea of putting yourself through college by
waiting tables is now just a memory from decades past.
Reminiscent
of the housing bubble in which there was an underlying societal myth that
everyone should own a home and that all houses were good investments, this
bubble is fueled by the myth that everyone should go to college and that all
college is a good investment. Just like the housing bubble this is believed by
just about everyone until it’s not - and then it’s too late.
The
culture, and of course government schools, tell the youth (and older displaced
workers) that in order to get a good job one only needs to go to college.
Colleges, much like the National Association of Realtors during the housing boom,
take advantage of this combination of government subsidies, cheap credit and
free marketing (propaganda) to fuel a speculative bubble. In the past decade
college debt as a percentage of household debt has exploded becoming the second
biggest form of household debt outpacing credit card and auto loan debt
As with any time
that market forces are absent we see not only the price climbing but the
quality of the degrees themselves diminishing. The quality of most of the
degrees today are so removed from any type of marketable skills that in many
cases it could be seen as a negative for someone to have wasted so much time
and money to have gone to university at all. This hilarious video
by Peter Schiff (Preview)
Play
(Show link)
Is a college degree worth the cost? You decide.
Peter
Schiff
President Obama promotes the
myth that everyone must go to college. That if you don't go, your life will be
ruined -- that you will end up waiting tables, or trapped in some other mundane
occupation. The truth is, even with a college degree, you may still end up
waiting tables, you'll just begin your "career" four or five years
later, tens of thousands of dollars in debt. Here is an example of some of the
plumb jobs college grads were able to land during the Obama administration. Not
just liberal arts majors mind you, but graduates with degrees in mathematics,
robotics, neuroscience, engineering, accounting, business administration,
economics, biology, communications, graphic design, marketing, and linguistics.
Of course when it comes to education, it's not just the Obama administration
that deserves a failing grade. For years, politicians of both parties have
pandered to students by promising more aid in the form of direct or subsidized
student loans. As a result, colleges and universities are freed from competitive
forces that would otherwise keep tuition low. Easy access to cheap credit
enables students to bid up tuition, benefiting the educational establishment at
their expense. Politicians secure student's votes by promising relief from
skyrocketing tuition by providing even more loans. Ironically, the loans
themselves are the very reason tuition is so high in the first place. Before
the Federal Government got involved, college degrees were much more affordable,
and ambitious students from poorer families could easily work their way
through. In addition, as fewer high school graduates actually went on to
college, not only were college degrees much less expensive to obtain, they were
far more valuable to have. With so many high school grads now going on to college,
a college degree is actually less valuable in today's job market, despite its
inflated price tag, than was a high school diploma in the 1950s. The only
solution is to get the Federal Government completely out of higher education,
and let the free market fix what the government broke! For those of you who
feel a college degree is essential to financial success consider John D
Rockefeller, Andrew Carnegie and Cornelius Vanderbilt. Rockefeller dropped out
of high school and began working full-time at age 16. Carnegie didn't even go
to high school and began working full-time at age 13. Vanderbilt dropped out of
school at age 11, and by age 16 had started his own ferry business. All three
were born poor and became self-made billionaires, who attained estimated net
worths (in today's dollars) of approximately $670, $300. and $175 billion
respectively. To put those numbers into perspective, the richest living
American, Bill Gates, who dropped out of Harvard during his sophomore year, has
an estimated net worth of just $65 billion.
(Show link)
demonstrates
perfectly how utterly worthless most degrees have been to obtain the high
paying job that was said to come about by possessing one of these sacred
documents.
There have been
many factors that have been at play to cause this market to be perverted in
such a way. You could more accurately call most degrees “Union cards” as they
act as a state-sanctioned conditioning seal of approval for the union leader of
the specific field the student is entering. Although there are great classes
online for free, in order to get an accredited degree you must attend one of
the approved Universities. Getting a degree from one of these accredited
schools is of course a prerequisite for the next hoop you must jump through;
getting a license to practice.
Once the university
cartel has been established the only thing left to do is to hand out cheap
money. This has been done through a variety of ways but mostly through
federally guaranteed or directly issued student loans. Under the old federal
lending program loans were made by private banks with federally backed
guarantees. Many financial institutions wanted out of the market so in 2010
President Obama attached an overhaul of the student loan program to the Health Care
and Education Reconciliation Act. This overhaul was in essence a takeover of
the student loan market by the federal government by stopping the subsidies
given to the banks to make the “private” loans and instead have the government
lend the money to the student directly. Along with this they increased Pell
Grants and allowed students to only be liable to pay 10% of discretionary
income for loan repayment, the loans could then be forgiven after 20 years of timely payments. This excess of cheap credit
in this specific market has caused college tuition to rise dramatically faster
than the rate of inflation.
As the fundamental economic
conditions have not improved and with youth unemployment at 20+ percent the
delinquency rate of these loans have been on the rise. Some state the rate of
loans that are behind 90 plus days are reported as 13% while the Federal
Reserve itself admits that the actual number is probably more than double that.
Ben Vincent www.fiatvigilantes.com Gold and silver commodity and
mining investor, energy analyst, economic and financial commentator and student
of Austrian economics. As a graduate of Indiana University in business,
economics and public policy and of the Ludwig von Mises institute and former
communications analyst for the Economic Freedom Project he advocates free
markets, free people and free minds.
Is a college degree worth the cost? You decide.
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