I am naturally pessimistic. I try to pretend that I am an optimist, and try to look at the positive aspects of negative situations. But deep down this is all denial, at my core I expect the worst, and usually surprised when things turn out better.
If you put your ear to the ground now, you are hearing all sorts of grumbling and swelling fears about hundreds of things Global Warming, Subprime, Gas Prices, and worst of all, the increase in the price of food.
This is all stuff that doesn’t shock me. It pretty much is par for my mental and emotional course. Luther called this anfechtung. It doesn’t really translate into English very well, but it is basically a sense of overwhelming dread and consternation.
The thing, though, that I am thinking about is what happens in the worst case scenario. Let say oil prices go to the $10 that people are whispering, that rice crops fail, and there is a global food shortage (which, in reality, will be caused not by the lack of food, but the effed up government and global ag policies - this isn’t something I am making up since I lean politically one way or the other – PJ O’Rouke and Michael Pollan would both agree).
What happens when Safeway and Costco stop having everything we need to eat on demand? Unthinkable, right? can’t happen.
What happens when Taco Bell and Arbys can’t buy their product for reasonable prices because of a wheat shortages and a quadrupling of energy costs to ship their fixins to the local franchises, and the cost of a Beef ‘n Cheddar goes from $2 to $8?
That is what I am wondering about.
People stop going because it costs too much, and then they close, right?
But how many people today would know what to do if they don’t have access to that food. There is no sense that anything like this can happen. Food is magically produced by elves and shipped to the store for us to consume.
But we’re thinking worse case. Those elves may all die, and then what do we do? Can’t go to Arbys.
Home Economics class in 7th grade didn’t teach me how to cook or store food, how to can vegetables or grow them. I was taught how to make pancakes from pancake mix and how to make peanut butter cookies. No survival.
The Depression happened because people were stupid, they made horrible economic polices and decisions that, combined with an poorly timed drought, caused a decade of hardship and decades of mistrust of finance.
We have heroes like Bernake and Greenspan who are there to make sure that this won’t happen again. But they are human, and the tendency of those who are in the business of making money is to tear down any barriers that impede profits. It is like taking out a supporting wall in a house because you want to have a more open space – it will look cool for a while, until an unexpected and inevitable earthquake shakes the house and roof falls in and kills everyone in their Lazy Boys sipping high balls and watching Dancing with the Stars.
People haven’t changed since the 1930s. We’re all stupider in different ways. We have become so gluttonous that we have articles in the news about people making sacrifices about how to afford the new Grand Theft Auto game. Instead of taking that $600 from the government and putting it toward a rainy day plan, most people have noticed how much it appears to be the same amount as a new TV.
The whole point of this is rant is that I think people should be taught how to survive. In the 30s, people could still remember that they could grow crops. During The War, people planted Victory Gardens.
Lets bring that back. It isn’t hard to grow food. It is easy.
Ever kept a potato in the cupboard for too long and noticed all the sprouts that cause you to throw them out? You know what? That is because they WANT to grow. In a plastic bag, inside your house, they are growing! Imagine what could happen if you actually intend for them to grow!
Corn? It is grass, and grass grows fast.
Lettuce? I literally had some errant lettuce seeds that sprouted and thrived in the crack of my cement patio. (no, I didn’t eat them, but I let them grow because it was fascinating)
I have rototilled an artichoke plant 3 times, and it keeps growing back year after year.
No one expects a worst case scenario. It isn’t pleasent to think about gas at $10 a gallon when you make $7 an hour and are only taking home $4 of that, and driving 20 miles each way to get to that job. The last thing you want to worry about is that you can’t get a Gordita for at a reasonable price.
But I think it is time that we start remembering that we are capable of making wise choices - we’ve done it before. I am negative, but I want to be positive. That is why I am also preparing for the that craptacular stretch where we are forced to make drastic sacrifices whether we are ready or not.
So, people, I will try to post my thought about sustainable and cheap living here.
More soon.
Onward!
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