Save Your Nickels, Beat the Debt Collector, Why You're Paying High Electric Bills

Bruce’s Poor Man Survival Bulletin

A Digest of Urban Survival Resources

http://www.PoorManSurvival.com

ISSN 2161-5543

A Free Press is the Guardian of a Free People

In This Issue:

1.       Why you’re paying higher electric bills

2.      The moral underground

3.      Dodging Bill Collector Tricks

4.      Using DropBox and TrueCrypt for added security

5.      Wireless fingerprinting, Save your nickels

Will Rogers
Alexander Hamilton started the U.S. Treasury with nothing and that was the closest our country has ever been to being even.

Why you’re paying higher electric bills

On December 13, 2011, USA Today released the results of a comprehensive review of government data and discovered that electricity costs have gone up faster than inflation for 5 years straight.

And that means the average household now pays $1,419 for electricity each year -- an extra $300 per year compared to the year 2006.

To put this in perspective, major household appliances now use less energy than ever before. For example, a new refrigerator will use HALF the electricity of a fridge made in 1996.

The same is true for many appliances and devices. They've become more energy efficient with every passing year... yet the price of electricity continues to rise rapidly.

You Can Blame It on Politicians

So why are overall electrical costs skyrocketing even while appliances are using less energy than ever before?

The problem goes straight back to Washington, DC.

High energy taxes coupled with government mandates that require perfectly good coal-burning power plants to be replaced by brand new clean-energy power plants have caused electricity prices to spike.

Our PoorManSurvival.com site offers many DIY energy savers and you can get this guide too…

Get your free copy of this 100 page how to guide,
Getting Started Living Off The Grid
Get your copy here
http://www.off-grid-living.com/living-off-the-grid-volume11-book.pdf

Clean glass and mirrors with coffee filters - they work better and are cheaper than paper towels.

PM’s Compendium of Useful Resources

Wal-Mart has launched an "American Idol"-like contest to find the best new products.

For the first time, the world's largest retailer is giving any small business, entrepreneur or individual inventor a shot at winning a spot on its store shelves nationwide and virtual shelf space through walmart.com. The contest is called "Get on the shelf."

Similar to the popular reality show "American Idol," Wal-Mart (WMT) said contestants can enter any product category that it already has -- ranging from toys, electronics to clothing and household goods. They then can create and submit videos of their latest inventions at www.GetOnTheShelf.com.

The discounter said the public will then vote online for the top three winners at GetOnTheShelf.com. The three will be sold on walmart.com. But the top winner will also automatically get shelf space in select Wal-Mart stores around the country.

Jefferson War Nickels (’42-‘45) are 35% Silver…
Nickels are the last premium-free hedge against both a stronger dollar and a weaker dollar. The copper/nickel content of these little beauties will go up in value -- like pre-1964 silver coins did -- should the dollar weaken. If the dollar gets stronger, then the value of the metal content may fall below face value... but you'll still be able to use the coins at face value!

As a test, I sold 10 of these on eBay for $18

Dodging Debt Collectors’ Tricks

It’s common for debt collectors to use scare tactics to get folks to ‘pay up.’  Often, the debt isn’t even owed.  Here are some of their tricks and how to beat them:

Collectors Play the Name Game

Even if a debt is legitimate, it may not be you that owes it.  It might be someone else with the same or similar name.  Collectors use public sources to track down debtors and hope you’re the correct party.

Make sure you ask the collector for their address, then send them a certified letter requesting verification the debt is yours.  By law, they must send proof.  If they don’t respond or the debt isn’t yours, they cannot bother you anymore.

They Hope You Don’t Own a Calendar

There is a statute of limitations on debt which varies by state.  The time frame is usually within three to six years, which begins 180 days after the account is officially delinquent.  Find the statute of limitations in your state at:

CreditInfoCenter.com/rebuild/statute limitations.shtml

Then, send them a certified letter saying their time for collection has expired.

They Harass Until You Give In

If the debt is yours and is recent, they may stop at nothing to get payment including threats of actions not legally allowed.  Since many of them purchase old debt at a fraction of the original debt, they’re often happy to make a settlement with you - 25% of the original bill isn’t uncommon.

Keep in mind, if you are harassed with bogus claims of “we’re sending the police to get you,” you can report them and/or sue them for financial damages.  For more information on your rights, go to:

http://www.ftc.gov/bcp/edu/pubs/consumer/credit/cre18.shtm

The Moral Underground: How ordinary Americans subvert an unfair economy…book by Lisa Dodson which offers a collection of stories of middle class managers and professionals  who refuse to be complicit in an economy that puts decent life beyond the reach of the working poor…

Whether it’s a nurse choosing to treat an uninsured child or a supervisor padding a paycheck…unsung heroes at the heart of a national state of economic disobedience.  Something more of us need to be doing.

http://lisadodsonauthor.com/about.html

Using Dropbox And TrueCrypt For Maximum Privacy
Privacy of your digital files is simpler than ever. Not only can you store files somewhere that has no relationship to your own computers, but you can encrypt all of your data so that it will be extremely difficult and expensive to break into if it is found.

http://www.howtovanish.com/2010/11/how-to-use-dropbox-truecrypt-transfer-files/?awt_l=9mqfI&awt_m=1jHd3EE1XCxNxm

A wet pumice stone will clean a dirty oven faster than a spray-on product.

The Nanny State Updates…

Higher Fuel Prices - again…yet Obama nixed pipeline deal  Gas prices are at a record high for January and are 28.5 cents per gallon higher than a year ago. And that's expected to go even higher--some analysts predict that the national average for a gallon of regular unleaded could hit $4 to $4.25 per gallon by the spring.

One might think that given the high cost of energy, the President would be seeking to increase domestic production, especially given Iran's threats to block the Strait of Hormuz, thereby cutting off a quarter of the world's energy supply. Think again. Under President Obama, oil and natural gas production on federal lands is down by more than 40 percent compared to 10 years ago, 2010 had the lowest number of leases issued for oil and gas production on federal lands since 1984, and the Administration held only one offshore lease sale in 2011.

The Parting Thought – Don't we love Big Brother

Wireless Fingerprint Scanners & other new anti-citizen technology

A new technology being pushed by high tech firms to law enforcement.  Some federal bureaucrats already want to register everyone who travels in order to prevent a major terrorist attach…or because they fear riots from angry, out-of-work people who’ve lost their homes, a dollar collapse, etc.

The US government spends $75 billion on high tech providers, usually focused on American citizens as opposed to real terrorists.  As noted in Forbes magazine, the Department of Homeland Insecurity is developing pilot programs to broaden the use of security type scanners to “allow them to take these technologies out of airports and into contexts like public events, special events, and ground transit.”

The Poor Man previously reported on DHS’s VIPR program, which the government is now using to spy on, stop and interrogate and otherwise harass citizens at highway rest stops, train terminals, bus stations and subway platforms…not even a squeak of protest from the “lamestream” media!

According to InsideDefense.com, the military is preparing to intervene domestically in response to a global collapse of the dollar.  A number of ’non-lethal’ weapons have been designed to be used against citizens.  Those include the new Next Generation Taser (a Taser shotgun with extended range and electronic projectiles); a ’pain ray’ known as the Active Denial System; the “Shockwave Area Denial System,” and the Long Range Acoustic Device (already tested in Pittsburgh).

Federal officials are already implementing SOPA style rules by ordering You Tube to take down videos which display cops-out-of-control situations.

The government has also developed a widely used domestic intelligence gathering unit known as Fusion Centers, which local authorities use to identify anti-government malcontents throughout the country.

Our country is broke and citizen discontent at an all time high, yet using the unPatriot Act and other anti-citizen “laws”, we’re wasting even more of our scarce resources to violate the basics of the Bill of Rights.

http://insidedefense.com/

“Until the next revolution”, the Poor Man

Remember, remember the 4^th of November…

Get your “We don’t need another election” Protest T-Shirt Now

http://poormansurvival.com/RevolutionTShirt.aspx

Follow us on Facebook

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http://twitter.com/poormansurvivor

Keep our services free, visit our sites…

Check our Resources

New self sufficiency books added weekly

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A Shallow Planet Production

How Americans Waste Time and Money

Bruce’s Poor Man Survival Bulletin

A Digest of Urban Survival Resources

http://www.PoorManSurvival.com

ISSN 2161-5543

A Free Press is the Guardian of a Free People

In This Issue:

1.      How Americans waste time and money

2.      Wilderness Survival Training

3.      Free help with farm leases, etc.

4.      A town which lives off-the-grid

5.      Homemade self-defense weapons

Dr. Laurence J. Peter…
America is a land of taxation that was founded to avoid taxation.

How Americans Waste Time and Money…

Why do we spend so much time on things that simply do not matter?

Americans spend about 15% of their household incomes on things that they do not need to satisfy their vices or to keep themselves amused.


Americans have certainly not cut back on vices because of the recent difficult economy, with the exception of casinos which were hurt badly by the slowdown. Money spent on alcohol and tobacco is about the same as it was two decades ago. Sin and vice apparently has not suffered because of hard times.

Real incomes have not risen over the course of the last ten years, something that has not happened in any decade since the Depression. Over the course of the last two decades the increase in real income was only 10%.


In the U.S. we waste an unappetizing amount of food (while somewhat ironically still adding to our waistlines). Estimates of how much food we toss vary, but according to Jonathan Bloom, author of American Wasteland: How America Throws Away Nearly Half of Its Food (and What We Can Do About It), we’re wasting around 40 percent of the total.

Or take this from an article in The Economist published in late 2009:

The average American wastes 1,400 kilocalories a day. [Kilocalories is another word for what Americans generally just call "calories."] That amounts to 150 trillion kilocalories a year for the country as a whole — about 40 percent of its food supply, up from 28 percent in 1974. Producing these wasted calories accounts for more than one-quarter of America’s consumption of freshwater, and also uses about 300 million barrels of oil a year.

Despite the dismal economy and an increase in credit card debt, Americans increased their spending this holiday season.  Indeed, shopping for non-essentials accounts for an average of $8000 annually per household.  Shopping, it seems, remains our number one hobby.

So where else do we blow our money and time?  The number one time waster is spent on celebrity gossip and unproductive activities such as facebook.  (Celebrity gossip includes so-called reality TV shows such as Survivor).

Alcohol, drugs, entertainment equipment and tobacco top the list for non-essential money wasters. 

Although “I need more time in the day,” is a common lament…keep in mind we have more labor and time saving devices than ever before in history, yet much of our time is wasted anyhow.  Turning off the television and other electronics, getting up an hour earlier, planning out the day the night before, etc. would make our lives more productive and could save a lot of money.

Cooking spray can damage the coating on nonstick pans, which could cause food to stick. Very high heat can also break down the coating.

PM’s Compendium of Useful Resources

WANT TO LIVE OFF-GRID?

Many people fantasize about moving "off-grid," and getting back to a simpler, saner way of life. If this might be you, check out Nick Rosen's website here.

The UK-based Rosen has specialized in off-grid advice for years. Besides his site, check out his book, Off the Grid: Inside the Movement for More Space, Less Government, and True Independence in Modern America.
http://www.off-grid.net/

Enviro-Tech International Wilderness Survival and Safety Training

Training programs for desert, tropic and cold weather survival, wilderness medicine, fall protection, climbing safety and rescue, and snow cat safety.etisurvival.com

Best Google Alternatives

Going Google-Free: The Best Alternatives to Google Services on the Web

You might want to move away from Google entirely, whether you're tired of things like the Google Plus-ification of your search results or the fact that Google's mining ridiculous amounts of data and selling you to advertisers, or maybe you're just plain tired of Google creating services it doesn't actually improve over time. You may scoff at the idea of using Bing or other less popular competitors, but they're quite good—sometimes even better—than Google. We've just become too entrenched to notice.

If you want to take a serious look at the alternatives, we did some digging and a lot of experimentation to find the best alternatives to Google's most popular services (and we also asked you guys to share your favorites). Most of these services are still from big companies, like Microsoft or Yahoo!, but we've tried to include a few services off the beaten path as well.

www.Lifehacker.com

Help with drafting farm lease agreements-Free

Small farmer or land owner, learn the ins and outs of lease agreements, cash rentals, crop share, pasture rental agreements and more. 

www.AgLease101.org

RipOffReport.com

Report and learn about scams and frauds - their motto is “Don’t Let them get away with it.”

Homemade self defense weapons - Resources

http://www.imakeweapons.com/make-homemade-weapons

http://www.instructables.com/group/homemadeguns/

http://brainz.org/ultimate-guide-making-homemade-weapons/

Placing aluminum foil directly on the bottom of your oven can trap heat and throw off oven performance, and might even void the manufacturer’s warranty. The foil can also melt, which can damage the oven or even cause a fire.

Instead
Use a sheet of heavy-duty foil (a few inches bigger than the cooking pan) on the rack below the one you’re using. It will catch drips and allow heat to circulate.

The Nanny State Updates…

Edible Microchips being created - 1984 Accelerated…

The use of implantable RFID chips in humans and animals is rapidly spreading. A lot of employers now require that their employees take them for identification purposes. Some cities in the U.S. are actually making it mandatory to put microchips into your pets.

IBM is aggressively developing new biometric identity systems that could significantly change the way that we live our lives. The following is from a recent IBM press release....

You will no longer need to create, track or remember multiple passwords for various log-ins. Imagine you will be able to walk up to an ATM machine to securely withdraw money by simply speaking your name or looking into a tiny sensor that can recognize the unique patterns in the retina of your eye. Or by doing the same, you can check your account balance on your mobile phone or tablet.

Each person has a unique biological identity and behind all that is data. Biometric data – facial definitions, retinal scans and voice files – will be composited through software to build your DNA unique online password.

Referred to as multi-factor biometrics, smarter systems will be able to use this information in real-time to make sure whenever someone is attempting to access your information, it matches your unique biometric profile and the attempt is authorized.

When biometric identity systems become widespread enough, authorities will pretty much know where you are and what you are doing at all times.

War On Bank Privacy: US Extends Its Influence
Some foreign countries used to protect the fundamental right of bank privacy. The US has thrown its weight around to make formerly banking friendly countries far less friendly.

http://www.howtovanish.com/2009/11/war-on-bank-privacy-the-us-extends-its-influence/?awt_l=9mqfI&awt_m=1p33PMOGnCxNxm

Bar Keepers Friend has rhubarb as its active ingredient and will really cut through grease and grime on just about any surface.

The Parting Thought – Oh, this will never happen!

Sowing the seeds of our own destruction…Are We on the Verge of a Devastating Global Recession?

America’s middle class, or what I call the ‘Whittled Class’ has fallen by 10% in less than a decade.  No elected politician has had the cajones to push for real solutions!

Signs of discontent with growing income gaps and economic problems stemming from the global debt crisis were already on the rise in 2011, as evidenced by the Occupy movement that began on Wall Street and quickly spread to other cities in the United States and around the world

A decade ago, the United States was ranked number one in average wealth per adult. By 2010, the United States had fallen to seventh.

According to one study, between 1969 and 2009 the median wages earned by American men between the ages of 30 and 50 dropped by 27 percent after you account for inflation.

The number of middle class neighborhoods also continues to decline. In 1970, 65 percent of all Americans lived in "middle class neighborhoods". By 2007, only 44 percent of all Americans lived in "middle class neighborhoods".

From a recent article by Paul Craig Roberts....

In the first decade of the 21st century, Americans lost 5,500,000 manufacturing jobs. US employment in the manufacture of computer and electronic products fell by 40%; in the production of machinery by 30%, in motor vehicles and and parts by 44%, and in the manufacture of clothing by 66%.

Americans are becoming really desperate. For example, a recent Mother Jones article detailed how large numbers of formerly middle class Americans are now actually growing marijuana in an effort to make ends meet.

Meanwhile, government schools continue to dummy down the population…

Approximately a third of all U.S. high school students did not know that the Bill of Rights guarantees freedom of speech and freedom of religion.

The following is from an article written by reporter Mark Morford in which he described his conversations with a longtime Oakland high school teacher that was nearing retirement....

It's gotten so bad that, as my friend nears retirement, he says he is very seriously considering moving out of the country so as to escape what he sees will be the surefire collapse of functioning American society in the next handful of years due to the absolutely irrefutable destruction, the shocking — and nearly hopeless — dumb-ification of the American brain. It is just that bad.

As a result, the average person today has a limited understanding of global politics or global economics. They fail to grasp the big picture of what is taking place or why or how the system is breaking down.  Why it’s no longer working.

Ed Yardeni, an independent economist in New York, lists this as one of his “four horsemen of the apocalypse” for 2012. The others, cited in a note to clients, are: a severe global credit squeeze stemming from the crisis in the euro zone; social upheaval in China and India; and a severe global recession emanating from Europe.

All of the long-term economic numbers are progressively getting worse. The seeds of revolution are being planted and watered by government stupidity and a loss of confidence (worldwide) in the system which no longer seems to be serving the people.

Few people want to hide from the world in a cabin in the woods while life goes on in the mainstream, but nobody wants to get caught once the gates clang shut on the police state the US is becoming…

Will the stupid inherit the earth?

“Until the next revolution”, the Poor Man

Remember, remember the 4^th of November…

Get your “We don’t need another election” Protest T-Shirt Now

http://poormansurvival.com/RevolutionTShirt.aspx

Follow us on Facebook

www.facebook.com/PoorManSurvival

 Twitter

http://twitter.com/poormansurvivor

Keep our services free, visit our sites…

Check our Resources

New self sufficiency books added weekly

http://www.OldBookNook.com

A Shallow Planet Production