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Skills For An Uncertain Future
July 14, 2010
There was a time, not so long ago, when only one household member would have to work full time while the other would stay at home to raise a family, and maybe participate in the local community. Enough money was earned by one to pay the bills and live a decent life. Today, it seems that two household earners are required to make ends meet, while the children are shuffled off to day care or relatives during the day. The money we receive today in exchange for our work isn’t the same value as it once was not too long ago – not even close. In addition, we have been programmed by the mainstream to live beyond our means, further adding to the requirement of two wage earners per household.
For most everyone in developed countries, time is traded working for others in exchange for money. That’s nothing new and no surprise. “So what”, you might say… what’s the problem with that? To most folks, this exchange is just fine and works well enough in the system we live in today. We are schooled, specific careers are chosen, we work most of every day for someone else, money is earned, necessities and ‘toys’ are bought, loans are received, the bills are paid, and we reward ourselves with a vacation once in a while. We go to work, return home for a few hours, and repeat. Round and round. What’s so bad about that? Nothing really, so long as you are happy and ‘the system’ keeps on keeping on, jobs are plentiful, and the current economic system doesn’t crash.
Problem is, during the upside of an economic cycle excessive consumer spending is seemingly ‘good’ for the economy, but eventually and always must lead to a downturn while the debts must be paid, which is where we are now. What governments often do in this situation is to inflate the currency – which in essence reduces the value of the debts owed (the money is worth less). Deflation or Inflation, really doesn’t matter with regards to the pain we must endure. The financial planning and investment choices are different for each, but for those who aren’t wealthy enough to take advantage of the situation, they will suffer either way. This amounts to the vast majority of folks. Consumers cut back, business and government revenues decrease, businesses squeeze and trim, jobs are lost, less money flows, consumers cut back more, repeat. The government while trying to avoid the inevitable, borrows and spends trillions of your future tax money to keep the system afloat awhile longer, only making the end result worse.
There are growing numbers of people recognizing the situation and they are beginning to prepare themselves for what could be a long and bad ride ahead. People are realizing that their job may not be as secure as they once thought (and a huge number have already lost their jobs), and that the particular skill set of their current job may not be transferable to a lifestyle that requires more self-sufficiency. Learning a broad range of practical skills and learning to do-it-yourself while using one’s own hands and time, will help pull many people through hard times. There is also a certain satisfaction and comfort knowing how to do these things, knowing that if it became necessary, we would survive and be at peace while the majority of others who only know their one chosen focused career specialty, will likely suffer worse and be in turmoil (unless of course, their skill involves a practical necessity of life which will be in demand during hard times).
It is certain that a broad and practical skill set will be much more valuable in a post SHTF world than many of the existing jobs and career specialties of today. Things like basic construction, plumbing, mechanical, basic electricity, gardening, horticulture, cooking, food preservation, food storage, first aid, hunting and firearms, just to name only a few. Basically, I’m referring to skills, any of which would be useful, valuable, or trade-able in a time of self-sufficient living, or community living where like-minded people are working together to create a working local system. These mostly aren’t skills that will make you rich in the context of today’s system of fiat currency, but they will make you rich in self satisfaction, peace-of-mind, and could save your life in the event of regional catastrophe.
General knowledge and know-how of the underlying fundamentals of day-to-day survival has unfortunately been lost by a great many over the past several generations as modern day technology has mostly eliminated the requirement. If the economies of the world, or your own country, falls into a long and painful cycle of recovery, these do-it-yourself skills will be even more valuable than they are today. If there ever is a catastrophic disaster scenario such as complete financial meltdown, electric power grid failure from an X-class solar flare or EMP weapon, nuclear war or other earth shattering event, then these skills will be absolutely essential to your very survival. If you want to insure yourself against these types of possibilities, then start learning some of these skills today, before it’s too late.
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