Changing Times

Alright, so this year is shaping up to be something. A year when you realize prepping would have been better off starting earlier, and year that you are seeing the fall of the U.S. and a year to start preparing if you have not yet. I have felt that the payments made by the government was to ensure you had enough for the long run. We are also seeing school districts distributing funds to families of the free and reduced lunch programs. I have not yet gone shopping since these payments were made, but would assume that people are buying in bulk with their new found temporary wealth.

Other issues plaguing the current timetable is the potential end of unemployment bonuses, I mean, whatever the proper term is. I have been at my job for 5 years, received a promotion, and am still taking home less than the unemployment bonus in and of itself. That being said, I have health care, dual retirements coming out, an internal savings account and such. Our states governor is talking about hazard pay for many industries that have not been shut down due to the initial Covid-19 spread. The problem is that it only extends to certain jobs, and certain wages ranges. Again, I am personally not covered in either way here.

What is upsetting is that we, the current and inevitable future working class, will be the ones paying for all these handouts for generations. Whether we are talking about additional payments to the unemployed, reparations or hazard pay, the only income our government receives is through tax-payed dollars. The only people who pay taxes are those who are working. Even if you are receiving unemployment and UE bonuses, which are taxed, that really isn’t doing anything to offset the expenditure.

Meanwhile, there are coin shortage. This really doesn’t make sense. The explanations are that there are less shoppers using cash. Their should still be the same amount of coins out there. No one is eating their pennies. The word is that they are just not being moved around. Whatever, not as big a deal for me, personally. There is talk of removing the penny. What is more concerning to me is that there are pushes into a cashless society. That is definitely something to be said about the direction our society is moving.

If we look into the past and the future, we never learn. There was a little experiment put on for college kids. They were asked about what they thought about socialism. They all seemed to love it. Everybody is taken care of, nobody is sitting their needing anything, pretty much the works. Then they were asked about a socialist GPA system, where those with the highest GPA gave part of their GPA away to those with the lowest GPA, and everyone graduated basically with a 2.0. The response was very interesting because not a single college kid thought that was fair. Why should I work hard for my grade and share my work with someone who partied through college?

When this was compared to wages, some kids realized this was stupid. Others proved their lower IQ by suggesting they were totally different, and that the super rich did not work hard for their money, that it was generation wealth passed down or earned on the stock market. Either way, those who had the money, whether through hard work, generational or risk in the stock market, the money was earned by the people who have it or those that came before. Basically, why should I study really hard in college if I will lose the value of my own work? The quality of work diminishes, and overall GPA drops, and the value of college drops while more people are going because why not?

So, Covid-19 pandemic, economic closures, job losses, increased government spending, civil unrest, policy changes and an election year. Does anyone miss the simplicity of the 1990’s? My family has been planning ahead all year, when we can. Our most recent preps have been buying some meat and canning it. 9 lbs of pork and like 6 lbs of beef. We are now reaping the benefits of our garden, getting green beans, some potatoes as the radishes and carrots are growing and the peas are vineing.

Although it seems late to plant, if you have not, get food in the ground. Get some livestock. Even in the city, most places allow you to have a few hens, which allows eggs. Prepare your food. Make sure you have toilet paper before their is another run. Plan ahead. Remember what happened just a few months ago, and what you were short on. Buy things like pasta and sauce, mashed potato flakes. Last time we had issues with supply chains and such, I went to the store. I was decently prepared, and paying attention to what was gone. Meanwhile, I ran into a guy from work, and he was looking for rubbing alcohol. He had not known that the shelves were bare for around 6 weeks at this time. Pay attention, stay vigilant and be prepared.