If you have a bit of land, get good at gardening. Many families survived the Great Depression because of the fresh produce they obtained from a small vegetable garden.
Stock up the pantry with non-perishables. Legumes are a good source of protein. Rice is a nice complex carbohydrate (and there are several recipes available online for preparing them in ways which are flavorful). There are other foods suitable for long term storage. Have a reserve of them. Beans and rice may not be as appetizing as steak and lobster, but it beats the hell out of hunger every day of the week.
Open a savings account. The one positive of Powell's interest rate hikes is savings accounts should at least for the time being be generating some interest, which will help preserve cash from value erosion due to inflation. A six-month reserve at current price levels (based on your own observations of price levels at your local grocery store--inflation metrics are useful explanatory and analytic devices but are no match for direct observation of the prices for the goods and services you purchase most) is a good baseline--more if possible.
Conserve cash and every other resource you can. What's spent is gone. What's husbanded is preserved.
If you're not already, get good at home economics--all those little skills they used to teach in Home Ec back in the day (yes, I'm dating myself horribly here): how to sew, how to cook, how to plan meals, et cetera. Those are the little skills of self-reliance, and the ability to repair a torn item of clothing can extend that cash reserve considerably. These can also be handy skills for helping out neighbors and friends. It's the little gestures by which communities are built and sustained.
Pay attention to the local news. The Biblical admonition that we will hear of "wars, and rumors of wars" should be updated to the modern environment to "riots and rumors of riots." As places like Sri Lanka and Peru have already demonstrated, and as the Arab Spring demonstrated a decade ago, economic privation is frequently a prelude to civil unrest. Know what's happening in your area.
"Bug out" preparations are probably not practicable for the most part: if where you are seems to be devolving into an increasingly precarious and violent situation, look for a safer community before things get really bad and move there. If you wait until "bugging out" is necessary, you've waited too long.
However, if you're in an area where hurricanes, floods, or other highly destructive weather events are a possibility, having an evacuation plan for getting out of the way of Mother Nature when she wants to tantrum is usually a wise idea.
Be a good neighbor. Build up your community network of friends and neighbors. I've been through a number of natural disasters (hurricanes, floods, even a couple of blizzards), and it is the efforts of the community that gets people through tough times. Now is the time to work on building up your community. Being a good friend and surrounding yourself with good friends will be invaluable in times of crisis.
Start asking yourself "what's the worst that can happen?" Then plan for whatever answer you come up with. Then ask yourself that question again and plan for anything new that you see becoming probable. If that means attending to job security, paying off debt, dealing with car repairs or home repairs, or whatever needs doing to endure whatever crises are most probable in your immediate situation, do that. Even if you don't anticipate every potential crisis (which you can't, ultimately), simply adopting the mindset of planning and preparation will make adapting on the fly that much easier.
Pray. How the future unfolds is never in our own hands. That's just how it is.
We're facing syncrhonized recessions/depressions across the major economies of the world: Europe, North America, China, and even Russia.
The synchronicity will have an amplifying effect everywhere--i.e., because these regions are all going into recession more or less at the same time, each region will be a further drag on the other regions.
America's recession will be made worse by China's recession and vice versa.
This is an indirect answer. "Official" dealings with other countries will always be a mistake. Tariffs. Sanctions.... all a mistake. Private citizens should always be able to do business with each other regardless of whether a country is an "adversary," or whether its leaders abuse human rights or are war criminals. "Official" dealings will always backfire and cause harm to all citizens of all countries. And, sadly, the worse it gets, the worse it gets. Until war ensues.
Politicians always make most situations worse. Domestic politicians, foreign politicians...avoid them like the plague (which they basically are).
Now is the time to focus on community. Look around where you are. Those are the people who will need your help and whose help you will need to withstand whatever crises erupt in the future. Building up your community network of friends and neighbors will make whatever comes that much more bearable for everyone. Governments don't build communities; people do.
What should the average American do to prepare.
Thanks
If you have a bit of land, get good at gardening. Many families survived the Great Depression because of the fresh produce they obtained from a small vegetable garden.
Stock up the pantry with non-perishables. Legumes are a good source of protein. Rice is a nice complex carbohydrate (and there are several recipes available online for preparing them in ways which are flavorful). There are other foods suitable for long term storage. Have a reserve of them. Beans and rice may not be as appetizing as steak and lobster, but it beats the hell out of hunger every day of the week.
Open a savings account. The one positive of Powell's interest rate hikes is savings accounts should at least for the time being be generating some interest, which will help preserve cash from value erosion due to inflation. A six-month reserve at current price levels (based on your own observations of price levels at your local grocery store--inflation metrics are useful explanatory and analytic devices but are no match for direct observation of the prices for the goods and services you purchase most) is a good baseline--more if possible.
Conserve cash and every other resource you can. What's spent is gone. What's husbanded is preserved.
If you're not already, get good at home economics--all those little skills they used to teach in Home Ec back in the day (yes, I'm dating myself horribly here): how to sew, how to cook, how to plan meals, et cetera. Those are the little skills of self-reliance, and the ability to repair a torn item of clothing can extend that cash reserve considerably. These can also be handy skills for helping out neighbors and friends. It's the little gestures by which communities are built and sustained.
Pay attention to the local news. The Biblical admonition that we will hear of "wars, and rumors of wars" should be updated to the modern environment to "riots and rumors of riots." As places like Sri Lanka and Peru have already demonstrated, and as the Arab Spring demonstrated a decade ago, economic privation is frequently a prelude to civil unrest. Know what's happening in your area.
"Bug out" preparations are probably not practicable for the most part: if where you are seems to be devolving into an increasingly precarious and violent situation, look for a safer community before things get really bad and move there. If you wait until "bugging out" is necessary, you've waited too long.
However, if you're in an area where hurricanes, floods, or other highly destructive weather events are a possibility, having an evacuation plan for getting out of the way of Mother Nature when she wants to tantrum is usually a wise idea.
Be a good neighbor. Build up your community network of friends and neighbors. I've been through a number of natural disasters (hurricanes, floods, even a couple of blizzards), and it is the efforts of the community that gets people through tough times. Now is the time to work on building up your community. Being a good friend and surrounding yourself with good friends will be invaluable in times of crisis.
Start asking yourself "what's the worst that can happen?" Then plan for whatever answer you come up with. Then ask yourself that question again and plan for anything new that you see becoming probable. If that means attending to job security, paying off debt, dealing with car repairs or home repairs, or whatever needs doing to endure whatever crises are most probable in your immediate situation, do that. Even if you don't anticipate every potential crisis (which you can't, ultimately), simply adopting the mindset of planning and preparation will make adapting on the fly that much easier.
Pray. How the future unfolds is never in our own hands. That's just how it is.
I was already doing a lot of the above suggestions. I was wondering specifically how a severe China collapse might affect us in particular.
Thank u for the comprehensive response.
We're facing syncrhonized recessions/depressions across the major economies of the world: Europe, North America, China, and even Russia.
The synchronicity will have an amplifying effect everywhere--i.e., because these regions are all going into recession more or less at the same time, each region will be a further drag on the other regions.
America's recession will be made worse by China's recession and vice versa.
This is an indirect answer. "Official" dealings with other countries will always be a mistake. Tariffs. Sanctions.... all a mistake. Private citizens should always be able to do business with each other regardless of whether a country is an "adversary," or whether its leaders abuse human rights or are war criminals. "Official" dealings will always backfire and cause harm to all citizens of all countries. And, sadly, the worse it gets, the worse it gets. Until war ensues.
Politicians always make most situations worse. Domestic politicians, foreign politicians...avoid them like the plague (which they basically are).
Now is the time to focus on community. Look around where you are. Those are the people who will need your help and whose help you will need to withstand whatever crises erupt in the future. Building up your community network of friends and neighbors will make whatever comes that much more bearable for everyone. Governments don't build communities; people do.
Yikes 😳
Thanks for all you do.