The New Wealth For A New Economy: PART 1

Planning for the uncertain economic future ahead…

 

So what is a health and nutrition practitioner/author/educator doing writing about the economy? 

No, I am not having delusions of grandeur.

I think it makes arguable sense to identify the current state of the economy as a health related issue, since we are talking about a massive source of stress for almost everyone, in addition to having implications about access to quality food, trustworthy healthcare, and how all of this will ultimately impact both mental and physical health in the long run. It’s a legitimate subject to address for anyone caring about their well being (or future), and there are ways of viewing the subject matter that can make a pretty big difference in both nutritional and health related issues, both short and long-term. I have been forced to think through many aspects of this for myself in recent years and given my signature capacity for unique dot-connecting, exceptional resourcefulness, out-of-the-box thinking and relentlessly exhaustive, in-depth research I think I have a potentially useful perspective to offer here, even if it is simply my own personal point of view.

DISCLAIMER: Keep in mind that I am not in a position to dole out financial advice, per se. All I am doing here is offering a personal perspective just that might provide additionally useful ways of thinking about things that you may or may not have considered. We all have a lot of things to think through right now, and a lot of hype to sift out. We all live in a hall of mirrors nowadays. I am hopeful that this humble (albeit obviously passionate) perspective can helpfully add to your arsenal of due consideration.

Unless you have been living under a rock (or with your head in the sand), it’s obvious to anyone not entirely self-deluded that the global economy (US economy very much included) is rapidly circling a rather epic, proverbial drain.  The US dollar is being dumped as the world’s reserve currency left and right.  The Hegelian dialect-based solution underway via the Bank for International Settlements (BIS), Wall Street and would-be overlords of the future economy are rolling out a soon-to-be gulag-like digital framework for all.  

CBDC’s, “FedCoin,” or “stable coin,” “deposit tokens” and/or other programmable and HIGHLY controllable digital currencies (however they cloak it and whatever color of lipstick they smear on that pig) will NOT be anything that could ever lead to any one average citizen’s prosperity, benefit or well being in ANY manner, shape or form. A 100% digitized monetary system is a permanent prison/trap from which humanity may well never, ever escape. The deployment of some promised “universal basic income” will serve as a final nail in that coffin, if we go along with it.

All this must be unequivocally resisted at every turn, at all costs. (So OK…I suppose we can call that “advice”)

I’m not into forcing red pills down peoples throats, but this is an important one not to skip.  

ALSO— Keep in mind that CBDC’s are unlikely to be called that here in the US, partly because the financial structures of Wall Street would be less compatible with the forms of digital currency presently unfolding all over Europe. Prepare for a declaration of false “victory” when the Fed tells us that we won’t be adopting CBDC’s. Hold off on popping the cork on that champagne bottle! Wall Street would instead be far more inclined to find their own means of “tip-toeing” and soft-pedaling the digital currency control grid into place here. Our “synthetic” version of the CBDC is likely to be issued via the “too big to fail” Big Banks, rather than some obvious government rollout, under the auspices of some “stable coin,” or deposit tokens. Hey…if it looks like a duck and quacks like a duck, and if it digitizes your money supply, then YOU need to duck.  

Is it necessarily any better to have Wall Street’s Jamie Dimon in control of your money and your every expenditure than Jerome Powell? Keep in mind that it was Jamie Dimon who suggested confiscating all private real estate as a measure to “help combat climate change.” Neither of these globalist, digital currency advocates are your friend.

In part, this tactic serves the purpose of cloaking/camouflaging the belly-creeping CBDC’s– which most Americans have become aware of as the very, VERY bad idea that it is. Meanwhile, big banks will be quietly rolling out their disguised equivalent(s). Unless you are conditioned to pay attention, you might not even notice the razor wire going up. 

As the unparalleled, utterly brilliant journalist, Whitney Web of Unlimited Hangout has astutely observed, the CBDC system is not going to be compatible with fractional reserve banking here in the US (where you, say, deposit $1000 and the bank keeps $10 on hand and loans out the other $990 or invests it somewhere else instead of simply holding it for you).  Fractional reserve banking is a corrupt “casino” cash cow for US/Wall Street “banksters” and also the very reason banks go insolvent quickly when financial panic causes people to run in and try to cash out their savings. Don’t expect to be able to get your money out quickly when things really start toppling or at all if things go straight south in the banking sector. 

IN THE MEANTIME… 

The time to rationally (please) think about what you want to do with what you have is NOW. The sick, twisted and Malthusian “World Economic Forum (WEF)” is already ominously warning of impending (if not imminent) “cyber pandemics” destined to hit the banking sector (and serve as both a predatory digital online ID and CBDC Trojan horse). Ummm yeah—It’s easy to be a psychic or prophet when you’re helping create events that work in your favor.

That said, I’ll bet some of you that clicked onto this article were assuming I was going to be focused on promoting Bitcoin (or some other form of crypto-privacy currency). Others may otherwise have assumed I was going to promote silver or gold. Or even the idea of stocking up on good old US cash. 

Nope. Not necessarily at all.

Am I opposed to these strategies for preserving wealth in a teetering and toppling economy? Well, not exactly…at least in principle. Precious metals have always retained meaningful value in every historic economic collapse, so there’s no reason to think that possessing physical gold and/or silver (including what is referred to as “dirty silver”) can’t be helpful to some degree at some point, long term. There is both a basis and a rational precedent for collecting and storing physical versions of silver and gold, if one has the means to safely do so. There are also other forms of “portable wealth” such as gemstones, fine jewelry and other metals such as copper and even platinum that can theoretically have some means of value at some point (as long as you have a means of reliably protecting and safely storing these assets, and have the extra capital to procure them). These strategies certainly make sense, at least on the surface of things. Not everyone is able to do so, however.

Good old, garden variety physical US cash is also arguably important right now from the standpoint of three things:

1) Not so much for it’s intrinsic value (which is, in reality, merely the paper it is printed on ever since the gold standard was abandoned in the ’70’s), but for its PERCEIVED value, and…

2) Cash does not require electricity or the internet for transactions, AND…

3) The #1 all-important fact that physical cash allows for privacy of transaction (as long as the marketplace and the financial institutions keep accepting it as legal tender, that is).  

Privacy = FREEDOM

Following even a total economic collapse, it is likely that cash will still be perceived by many as a form of either symbolic or intrinsic value for a time, but not likely for long. What good is it once the grocery stores and banks stop recognizing it as such? That said, it’s important to do our part to keep cash alive as a transactional currency for as long as humanly possible.

In the meantime, I personally mostly avoid $100 bills (which some merchants won’t take anymore mainly because of how commonly they are counterfeited).  Stick to mostly $20’s, $10’s and $5’s, since also the ability to give change in small purchases is becoming (and will be more so) increasingly limited. 

One thing that is 100% clear and certain at this time:  We all need to fight tooth-and-nail to keep the right to maintain physical cash as a form of legal tender.  

The day we allow the government, businesses and banks to de-legitimize cash as a form of payment is the day we concede to becoming slaves to a digitalized system of surveillance, fully abdicated privacy and totalitarian control. Right now everyone reading this (and everyone else) should ABSOLUTELY be using cash as much as possible to keep the demand and recognition of it’s legitimacy alive, and we should be confronting, protesting and/or boycotting businesses that do not accept it as a form of payment. They need to be reminded unequivocally that cash continues to be legal tender in the United States and that they are not conducting lawful business practices by discriminating against customers that choose to utilize it.  PERIOD.

BTW…Do not expect your federal government-based legislators to represent your interests, in this (or any substantive) regard. As you may have already surmised, the entire system is rigged, paid off, and stacked against average citizens like you and me: Big Government (and the corrupt, purple, people-eating “Uniparty” system running it), Big Tech, the criminally hijacked National Security State, Big Pharma, most NGO’s, the Central Banking System and Fed/Wall Street, the whole of mainstream televised, radio and print media (yes, including Fox Network, PBS and everyone else), both public and “higher” education, all universities, the mainstream medical system and “regulatory” (HHS, NIH, CDC, FDA, etc) agencies PLUS the whole of academia, the so-called “scientific” orthodoxy establishment and its increasingly bought-and-paid-for, largely ghost written “peer reviewed journals,” along with all the rest of it. Literally EVERY major institution in this country has been more or less captured/hijacked by organized (and certifiably INSANE) criminal interests, to one degree or another. It’s NOT just not good. It’s SERIOUSLY bad.

Your State and especially your most locally-based public officials are the ones you need to focus on and ride like Sea Biscuit. They are the ones that most directly control your quality of life and freedom and also are more likely to have to look you in the face in 3D on the street.  Your local sheriff is potentially your single most important official/human asset and you need to make certain 1) you have a positive, personal relationship with them, and 2) that individual is committed to the Constitutional principles they took an oath to, and that they are 100% committed to protecting, serving the freedom, safety, interests and well being of the local population that elected them to serve us in the first place. How do you know whether they are working for you?  You sit down and talk with them, ask questions and listen to your gut when they answer. And I highly recommend you do so. It might just be your local sheriff, alone, that will be the one individual (along with their deputies) capable of protecting you rather directly from Federal and State government overreach, unless you happen to live in a large city. Then all bets are off.  [For more info concerning Constitutional sheriffs and police officers, check out https://cspoa.org/] Our decentralized governmental structure here in the US is a very useful buffer in some (mainly rural) areas of the country right now, but DO NOT take that for granted. The price of freedom for ALL Americans (whatever your political persuasion) is Constitutional/Bill of Rights education, awareness and understanding PLUS perpetual vigilance and activism.

What is entirely clear at this point is that we cannot and will not be able to vote our way out of the mess we are in, even if your “favored candidates” running for high office manage to survive long enough to squeak past deeply entrenched and highly rigged voter fraud (and for the record, I did not vote for either primary candidate in the last election, and still feel good about that). I have friends on both sides of the aisle, and several on neither side of the aisle. I personally have little/no time for party politics, but I DO care about the basic underlying principles and quality ideals this unique country was founded upon. I’m absolutely not saying “don’t vote.” I am saying it IS NOT and CANNOT BE our primary solution to anything. DO NOT put all your proverbial eggs in that basket, either. Here in the US the actual citizens of the population (however unaware of this) technically ARE the government—ultimately responsible for necessary oversight and making the changes necessary if our elected representatives drop (or steal) the proverbial ball. We are a government “BY, OF and for THE PEOPLE.” And our ball has been stolen.

By the way, toward late 2024 there will be roughly 76 key elections happening globally (not just in the US). Expect significant shenanigans of all kinds. It merely stands to reason for anyone looking rationally at our circumstances. The bloated, desperate architects of this game are playing for all of the marbles.

OH–And BTW, cheeky multi-billionaires only come to humanity’s rescue in comic books and movies. I’m just saying.

Sober piece of advice here: Lose the word “hope.” It is a very passive term used to mentally lead one to the fanciful notion that “somebody” or “something” is going to somehow magically change the system for the better or rescue you. Don’t fall into that seductive mental trap. Instead, take and assume personal responsibility for the changes you want to see. Then DO something.

I’ve got news for you:  NO ONE IS COMING TO SAVE US.

So does this mean we need to take some black pill that just assumes we are all screwed, toss up our arms in futility and say….”So what’s the point? I give up!“

HELL NO!!!  ABSOLUTELY NOT!!!

I know some very aware individuals who keep up on quality alternative media and actual journalism, relying on well referenced, credible, independent sources surrounding any number of realities behind current events. They are well informed and understand what is happening in the world to a fairly conscious degree, and yet their attitude is one of being perpetually cynical. They throw their arms into the air, ranting angrily like hapless victims at everyone they like to blame for all the problems in the world, disavowing any faith whatsoever in humanity, are suspicious of everyone, and they seem to simply find fault/failure and express feelings of disappointment in, and/or bad-mouth everyone they “think” they know. Many folks like this have an above average IQ and they can be masterful at arguing against every possible solution or constructive thought as an exercise in futility. Yeah…they’re really fun at parties.  

We all know people like this. Since “everyone else is to blame” they are automatically absolved (in the back of their jaded minds) of their personal responsibility in the equation. And we need to distance ourselves from them as completely as possible. They cannot and will not help you. No one who thinks they can only trust themselves is going to be particularly trustworthy. They will also do what they can to poison every bit of good news you might come across, and they are frankly little more than a part of the problem. These are not the kind of people you want in your life boat.

NO. BLACK. PILLS.

RED PILL FACT (however trite):  WE (each of us) truly are the ones we have been waiting for!  

The change we want to see in the world is 100% UP TO US to create.  

FULL STOP.

I am talking about self responsibility and a willingness to clearly understand where our personal red line/ line in the sand is that we will never cross, never comply with, and never concede to. It’s as simple as that for everyone, at least as an indispensable starting place. The solutions to our problems are also both our individual responsibility, as well as our collective responsibility as a people group all sharing the consequences of whatever we all face. Beyond this starting point, we need to find and align with others similarly self-responsible who are able and willing to forge and contribute positively to constructive solutions-based thinking, needed change, community, localized systems of economy, food production, bartering, mutual protection and support. 

Think about the close friends, family and trusted neighbors you are aligned with in your area, and then make a few phone calls and plan a get together to talk things through. It’s a first step.

The only rational solution to a globalized, centralized system of governance, surveillance and totalitarian control (other than saying a loud and unequivocal “NO!” to every single imposed measure, every chance we get) is (IMHO) choosing a parallel path of decentralization, localization, community, alternative economy, alternative (both natural and allopathic) healthcare and making the bastards who like to think they’re in control of everything basically irrelevant. 

We also need to embrace “the analog” and increasingly reject the digital technology serving as our societal razor wire. Reject all mainstream televised news/media, anything made by Google, Apple or Microsoft, Facebook/Meta, Twitter/“X”, and Apple/Android cell phones. If at all possible, switch to privacy-based/open source and non-intrinsically predatory technologies like Linux computer systems and privacy based phones (I am personally partial to the Above Phone –  www.abovephone.com). Avoid AI tech as much as possible (i.e., “Chat GPT,” “Open AI” and the rest) and anything that collects data for predatory AI algorithms.  Reject the major banks like BOA, Morgan-Chase, etc. like the plague and instead find a small local community-based bank and/or (better yet) community credit union.

Humans have lived this way (localized, low-tech, community based systems) for nearly as long as humans have existed, and it is simply a matter of going back and reclaiming a simpler way of living that is based on personal choice, real human relationships (not “ Facebook friends”), freedom, sovereignty, self-responsibility, partnership with the natural world around us, self-determination and networked/coordinated community effort. The answers to how we create a future worth living in do not lie in consumerism or political collectivism. They lie in individual freedom, human creativity and innovation, self-responsibility, quality human relationships, honest hard work and community-based efforts.

A friendly piece of advice here: Base your motives on what you can contribute rather than what you think you can get from others or take if any one of your goals remotely includes a desire for happiness.

This is no time to dig a bunker underground and start stockpiling beans, rice, bottled water, MRE’s and ammo. It is a myth to think one can be a “lone wolf” hiding from the world, living in relative isolation, suspicious of everybody, selfishly motivated and expect to survive in any manner that makes living remotely worthwhile.

We are ALL at our core as human beings a social, tribal species—intrinsically needing one another— plus we need to be aligned with and recognize we are also very much a part of Nature. We are additionally meant to be CREATIVE and innovative, while building things that add to our quality of life and the quality of life for those around us. NOT sitting around, watching TV or playing video games. We are meant to operate in a healthy social system that includes healthy, trustworthy relationships, reasonable, shared divisions of labor, motivated by altruistic/humanistic impulse, mutual protection, embracing individuality, honoring privacy, personal freedom and responsibility, freedom of speech, thoughts and ideas, a sense of “family” (on any number of levels), plus a capacity for compassion, caring, emotional intimacy, and healthy curiosity, engaged in some way with art, music and pursuing/experiencing actual happiness. This is how human beings are meant to live. In other words, exactly in the opposite manner of all recently imposed dehumanizing efforts in the last few years designed to foment fear, division, isolation, separation (i.e., “social distancing”), escapism (via gaming, social media nonsense, television or drugs/alcohol) and interpersonal hostility. These things are a recipe for mass mental illness and societal destruction. All the bullying, “mandates” and the rest of it stops when we are no longer willing to put up with it and consciously, uncompromisingly choose a different path. Also, media and political efforts to “divide and conquer” us is the oldest trick and tactic in the book for fomenting interpersonal discord while conveniently distracting a population and diverting attention away from the actual sources of societal problems.

We are also truly meant to live our lives in connection to animals, as emotionally rewarding, non-human companions, as helpers on many levels and others as a key part of our healthiest ancestral food supply. We have always lived and have been wired this way in our essential DNA makeup—for the vast majority of our evolutionary history. Many of us witnessing the mass socially engineered efforts at disconnecting humans from animals underway are being reminded of where we came from and what makes humans human…and we need to pay attention to and honor that.

Our powerful capacity for social bonding is one of humanity’s greatest strengths (even as our altruistic, social nature is vulnerable to being weaponized by various agendas to be used against us—when/if we let that happen). And our inextricable relationship to and dependency upon animals is also arguably that which has served to make us human in the some of the ways that matter most. I cannot even begin to express how important it is we do not lose sight of this. Efforts are under way to separate us from that primal birthright. Don’t let it happen.

The early agricultural and more recent industrial revolutions enticed us into living in more highly condensed, compartmentalized spaces– in large, centralized (i.e., easily controlled) population centers. These ultimately served to artificially disconnect us from Nature. These trends have also left the majority of us rather dependent on centralized modes of generating food and energy production, as well as being able to readily access the availability of goods and services we rely on and take for granted. These are systems utterly ripe for despotic control (i.e.,”15 minute cities”). Humanity has willingly enslaved itself to the addictive drugs of “comfort, complacency and convenience.” No matter the cost.  This is one of the gravest and most short sighted mistakes ever made by our species.  

Animals, other than our pets, have been largely left to be managed (typically more poorly than not) by “someone else” in ways most don’t bother thinking about.  We have had our sense of their sacrifices and often unnecessary suffering on our behalf completely sanitized from view by a centralized food system that cares as little for their well being as it does for ours. It was never meant to be this way. Farms are mostly either highly industrialized operations, or are simply “out there somewhere” in square-plotted rural areas where few city folk bother to venture. This has ultimately removed us from self-reliant, cooperative, meaningful human community engagement and our direct alignment with Nature and its cycles, and has unplugged us from our understanding or caring about the role we were meant to play in all that.  

For instance, I see the strictly modern day misguided and/or heavily propagandized (soon to be forced by those profiting from it), delusional phenomenon of vegetarianism/veganism to be purely symptomatic of just how far removed we have become as a species from the natural world in which we actually evolved. These terribly naïve and misguided/malnourished, glassy-eyed utopians applauding these efforts (however well intentioned) are operating in pure ignorance and/or denial of our ancestral heritage and our inescapable and rightful participation in the web of life.  That said, let’s face it, anyone finding themselves with no money, out in the middle of wherever in the middle of the winter with nothing to eat, I promise you, is NOT dreaming of a salad. And NO ONE anywhere is dreaming of “cricket loaf.” 🦗

The centralized system of governance, authoritarianism (“trust the experts” – no thinking required!) and trans-national corporate, consumer-based commerce has largely divorced us from both our natural instincts and our senses (not to mention our common sense). Humanity has become its own “sitting duck.”  Furthermore, that which we have always called food, for which the human biological organism was exquisitely designed to consume and thrive healthfully upon, is being systematically controlled, adulterated, vilified and redefined by self-appointed “experts” who also, it just so happens, hold patents on the synthetic, GMO/highly processed or creepy-crawly alternatives:

https://www.drovers.com/news/industry/peanut-mms-are-healthier-beef-and-pork-bill-gates-funded-study-claims

Even everyday omnivores living within large population centers typically purchase their meat frozen or shrink wrapped, with no comprehension or appreciation whatsoever of where that meat actually came from, much less any awareness of their place within the planetary cycle of life and death. Soon many may even lose the discerning or even legal ability to distinguish between real meat or fake/synthetic meat being sold to them, or may be denied any purchase of meat altogether. Many cities are planning to ban meat entirely in the near future. Anyone living in these places committed to ancestral health principles will have to find back alleyway means of obtaining real food.

If you have the means to leave a city you happen to live in, by all means run and don’t walk to do so.

Omnivorous mainstream consumers (especially those living in cities) are also routinely robbed of the deeper spiritual meaning inherent in that firsthand knowing of where our food actually comes from, or appreciation of the naturally sacred gift of sacrifice by food animals that sustain and keep us alive. Such considerations somehow lie “beneath” the self righteous idealism of the virtuous vegan mindset, which of course is a willfully ignorant and self destructive illusion. I would argue that all this is its own form of impoverishment that diminishes our connectedness to Life (which can never be fully known or appreciated without an understanding and appreciation of the meaningful role of death in life’s perpetual creation on Earth). Sorry, but even a vegan has to kill in order to eat. And all living, thriving ecosystems are built upon the decaying remnants of formerly living things (plants and animals) that have come before it.  We humans are a part of this, like it or not.

But I digress.

BACK TO THE WEALTH THING…

SO… How are we to preserve our wealth when inflation is running amok, taxes are relentless (and relentlessly wasted), and real estate/land availability/prices and home interest loans are so far out of reach? How is it possible to experience wealth when so much is conspiring against our health, economy and and geo-political stability?

First, you need to start by clearly defining what it is you call “WEALTH.”  

If you are really honest with yourself, it isn’t money in and of itself. It’s the things we believe money can give us: a safe, stable roof over our heads, good health/healthcare, things that add to our sense of freedom, flexibility, happiness, enjoyment and security, the ability to feed ourselves, and the ability to know we are prepared for whatever lies ahead. When it comes to “the new wealth for our new economy,” it’s clear that very soon this is not going to equal that which we think of as “money.”  That said, in truth, humanity has lived without what we think of as money for most of our existence as a species.

Just for starters, seeing as the number one cause of bankruptcy in the United States for a good decade or more has been a “bad diagnosis” (and that has never been more true than it is right now), just think of the costs (financial and otherwise) you will ultimately save by focusing on naturally preserving and enhancing your health now! NOT focusing on your health is just about the worst mistake you can possibly make today. Trust me, the LAST place anyone should allow themselves to end up is in any mainstream medical facility these days, nearly all of which are irredeemably corrupt, profit centered, criminally co-opted, Pharma-controlled and anything but health or healing-driven. Too many of the best people operating within them have either already left the system, or are working with their hands tied by the profit worshiping bureaucrats actually running these facilities.  The mainstream healthcare (i.e., “disease management”) system today has devolved into being little more than an administratively run, profit centered meat grinder. Health in so many ways IS the ultimate wealth right now. Both mental AND physical health, as well as spiritual health—i.e., that sense of authentic, meaningful connection to something greater than ourselves. We will talk more about these aspects of “the new economy” in Part Two of this article in the near future.

THINK IN TERMS OF TANGIBLE ASSETS

I’m NOT saying don’t have one, but your “stock investment portfolio” is not a tangible asset. Neither is your bank account or online crypto wallet. 

Tangible assets are things you can literally hold in your hand and/or that can offer clear and immediate benefit to your life, helping to support and facilitate your survival and well being in the chaotic days and years to come. Health is tangible. Trustworthy relationships are highly tangible. Land is tangible. Your ability to produce food on your own property (or readily procure it) is tangible. Medical supplies are tangible. The equipment/tools you need to run your home or power it in the event of an outage is tangible.  Physical gold and silver as a form of currency or savings is at least manifestly tangible as potential value (though investments in these precious metals “on paper” are not).

One of the first things anyone needs to do is take out a notebook and just start writing things down. You’re literally 80% more likely to accomplish something you have written down, than whatever is just allowed to float around loosely inside your head. Make lists of all of the positive things you already have that you can rely on in a crisis. Things like camping gear, extra food and water (make an inventory!), first aid kits, extra fuel, cash, tools, etc. Then make a list of all of the things you need to stock up on (like frozen, preserved and/or non-perishable food, for instance, at least as a temporary buffer, or in case of an emergency). Think also about the other things you use every day that you take for granted. 

No need to hoard. –Just think rationally, systematically and plan ahead. Think like an Eagle Scout: “Be prepared” in practical ways.

Then make another list of some of the bigger ticket items you might need (i.e., generator, chain saw, chest freezer, small greenhouse, maybe livestock (and livestock infrastructure), power tools, firewood supply, etc etc.). Ultimately, you will want to prioritize all this relative to your own unique needs, but it’s important to know what you’re starting with, as well as what you know you need to add to your tangible living assets.

Also, just as an aside, not long before the time of the lockdown in Portland, I was more than aware that a lockdown was likely coming. Let’s just say that the writing was on the wall. So I made sure that my household had the things that it needed to get through an extended period where obtaining supplies and food might not be readily possible. I also recognized that people were probably going to go into a panic and into hoarding mode once the lunacy took hold. But I was also aware that many people I thought of as part of my personal community were not thinking in these terms at the time, and themselves were not going to be prepared for what it seemed was coming. So I made a point of stocking up on some extra supplies that I might ultimately need to share with people I loved who might need it. It’s good mind set to adopt.

There is no one that cannot take the time to think all this through and start strategizing toward their needs/goals in a constructive and productive way. Start writing things down that you need and that you need to do—then start doing it RIGHT AWAY!! Even the smallest step is vastly better than no step. Create your own momentum. Start brainstorming your own solutions. Be creative and be prepared to think outside the box! Keep your list of items you need to stock up on handy when you go to the grocery store, builder’s supply/hardware store, drug store or big box store. You don’t have to buy everything all at once. Just prioritize your list and pick up a few things here and there, every time you go. Check out garage sales, second-hand stores and flea markets for some of what you might need. You will never regret taking the time to do this.

Look, if I am wrong and the economy somehow manages to magically float past the challenges facing it, then at the worst you are simply prepared for “whatever” should there be some form of natural disaster or power outage, etc. in the future. Trust me when I say you would be happier in this scenario if I am wrong then if I happen to be right and you did nothing.

Also (small piece of extra advice), make a point as much as possible of buying good quality items you might have to rely upon long term that will LAST. –That you can better rely on. Don’t fall into the trap of buying, say, some marginal quality, generic piece of junky equipment, building material or tool just because it’s cheap or on sale. Do your homework, then “buy nice, or (else) buy twice.” Don’t ask me how I know this.

THE NEW WEALTH

What is real wealth going to look like in the “brave new world” ahead? Real wealth is going to mean having quality trusted relationships, being able to create your own self-sustaining system of food production and procurement, being healthy and fit, having a reliable roof over your head, alternative sources of power/energy, and setting up whatever you need to feel safe, feeling authentically connected to the people around you who matter, and creating/having an active system of localized abundance based on earned interpersonal trust, creativity and innovation, mutual support, sharing and security.

This doesn’t mean you have to try to go live like Grizzly Adams somewhere off-grid (like me 😉). It can mean all kinds of different things to different people. Maybe mobile, RV living is more your “thing,” or buying into some out of the way established “intentional community” of like minded individuals somewhere. Or maybe just holding tight and trying to bloom wherever you happen to be planted. But the primary needs human beings have are fundamentally the same.  SOME form of immediate, physical (as opposed to “online”) community will need to be a part of the equation, so don’t ignore that part while you are making your lists of “things.” Start assembling and nurturing your tribe. And start figuring out as a group who can contribute to what to help hold each other up when things are down.

And if we are still actual sentient, feeling human beings (an increasingly endangered segment of our species), and we are honest with ourselves, those things we value most of all are the things money can’t buy: Love, a connected sense of family, a feeling of purpose, healthy curiosity, inner happiness and some intrinsic sense of life meaning. 

Nurture all your relationships, including the one you have with yourself.  

TRAPS THAT TRIP YOU UP

Your biggest mental enemy is panic. Don’t make any major decisions or purchases from that mental state. Be grounded and calm. Think things through! PLAN. Weigh the positives and negatives of any move you think you want to make. Talk them through with a trusted, grounded friend and/or knowledgeable advisor who understands your circumstances. Yes, be cautious… But also be decisive and able and willing to take action when you know exactly what you need to do. Please don’t procrastinate or wait until the last minute! It is my personal hallucination (based on a lot of experience) that the forces of The Universe favor swiftness of right action. Procrastinating when you KNOW what you need to do could be the biggest mistake you will ever make.  

Your second biggest mental enemy is negativity and/or cynicism. Don’t go there. Be what I have often called a “Primal Ninja Warrior.” –In martial arts training, occasionally real life situations are simulated. One example would be a situation of being suddenly grabbed by the arm by some shady character in a dark alleyway. It is tempting to either panic or feel a tendency to freeze out of raw fear in the face of blatant aggression. In martial arts training one is taught to instead notice what is being restricted in the moment and acknowledge that…but then quickly shift your awareness to everything that is NOT being restricted: Hey–you have another arm, you have elbows you can strike with, a head you can butt with, two legs to kick and/or run with, a vocal cords that you can scream for help with to shift the balance of your circumstances and hopefully get away. In the face of any challenge, learn to face the moment honestly, become conscious of your strengths, think constructively, and then ACT.

ALSO (sorry to bring this up): Do whatever you possibly can to get out of debt. This includes your mortgage. I realize it’s a big ask for some, but debt enslaves you. Think about what you can sell to pay off those credit cards off and/or your remaining mortgage. If it’s simply too much, then maybe think about alternatives to your living situation, or other strategies for addressing this. There are many to consider (too many to cover in this article). Do a little brainstorming. I adhere to the personal philosophy of “There’s ALWAYS a way.” Do NOT allow any form of defeatist thinking to stop you.

ALL GOOD ADVICE…BUT WHAT ABOUT OTHER FINANCIAL “ASSETS” LIKE BITCOIN?   

The original idea behind cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin was at its best initially meant to be both some degree of transactional privacy and financial freedom. It was also intended to have built-in safeguards against the kind of abuse that created, say, the 2008 crash and other forms of banking fraud/predatory financial abuse. Decent ideals. Unfortunately, among many enthusiasts who popularize this type of currency, the enticement is too often billed as offering “investment and wealth potential.” 

If Bitcoin or any cryptocurrency is ever going to be remotely useful, we need to disabuse ourselves of greed-based motivations/hallucinations and get back to the basics: the core ideas of transactional privacy and financial freedom. By the way, it’s critically important that some form of physical cash always be available for low tech freedom based transactional use and privacy. But where cryptocurrency is involved there are a lot of technologically capable individuals within the cryptocurrency genre/space that have the potential to create tech and other strategies that can preserve that fundamental underlying value of Bitcoin and other decentralized, more privacy-oriented currencies. With any luck they can find ways to outfox the blood thirsty foxes circling that economic-freedom chicken coop. Personally, I’m not counting on it. Bitcoin is listed as a commodity by the U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) for a reason (who, in turn, is working with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission/SEC to regulate the crypto sector), and it is also being massively accumulated by certain elements of government (like the DOJ) because they clearly expect Bitcoin to be useful for their own (typically predatory) purposes. The future of Bitcoin isn’t necessarily as bright or idealistic as advertised by its enthusiastic proponents.

That said, with the dystopian new economy well on its way, Bitcoin literally offers no tangible value whatsoever. You cannot hold it in your hand, much less put it in your mouth and eat it. It is not even numbers on a bank’s computer screen….It is numbers floating in the ether, largely dependent on the grid and internet for their existence, life and value. It isn’t even BASED upon anything tangible.  Furthermore, there are all sorts of nefarious interests seeking to either make semi-privacy-oriented crypto currencies like Bitcoin illegal, HIGHLY regulated and/or nearly impossible to use effectively.  And if they can’t do that, then, say, Blackrock is going to do it’s darnedest too co-opt Bitcoin and corrupt it for its own interests, and has been working on this for a while.  

Can you tell I’m not a fan?

I will also say that it’s at least somewhat fair to consider the community environment you live in. Communities like, say, Austin, TX and some slightly outlying, hip, techie communities in CA, OR or WA or places out on the East Coast might be much more active with cryptocurrency exchange and culture. That said, the town nearest to me is extremely rural, and a bit retro. It’s like 1950 around here. In fact, there is paint on some of the signs in the nearest town that are probably a literal flaking, peeling relic of the 1950’s. Things/people are pretty black-and-white in their sensibilities around here and not terribly nuanced, high tech or innovative in their thinking. Things tend to be pretty straight forward. And by the way, I’m not saying this is all bad. But I know of no business within 200 miles of my location that will ever in a million years accept, trust or embrace something as abstract or intangible as Bitcoin as a form of currency or value. So anyone around here shortsighted enough to invest a bunch of their money in this utterly invisible and wildly volatile cryptocurrency will probably end up stuck making their transactions on the dark web, which promises to be tightly surveilled and regulated. And if access to petroleum and supply lines collapses (or if the grid goes down), good luck with that back alleyway mail order.  

In the meantime, while starry-eyed, idealistic, salivating and/or greed driven crypto “investors” are snapping up ethereal Bitcoin like popcorn, world domination-hungry oligarchs like Bill Gates are instead buying up farm land and gold.  I’m just saying.

When it comes to Gold and Silver in a collapse situation, in all honesty these aren’t likely to be of much tangible value at the outset. You are not going to go to the grocery store and fork over a gold or silver coin for a loaf of bread (or a healthy low carb snack). And that’s assuming that there will even be anything much on the grocery store shelves in some places at all in the not-too-distant future. That said, according to Constitutional law, there is a provision for transacting in silver and gold in all (or nearly all) states, so in time it may be possible to generate new, localized currencies based on a new gold standard or actually transact directly in these precious metals. But in the meantime…a lot of people are more likely to be hungry, if not desperate in the months and immediate years to come. The destabilized world will be looking much more at a “survival economy.” You can’t eat a gold coin. And even an extremely valuable, precious cold metal isn’t going to keep you warm in winter. But that doesn’t doesn’t mean not to buy gold or silver for some future time when it may be of more practical use…it just means to be careful about putting ALL of your eggs in any one single basket. And if you are limited in your capacity to afford purchasing precious metals, it’s not like there aren’t other things of value (maybe even better for your circumstances) to affordably invest your time and money in.

SO WHERE’S THE REAL WEALTH?

So in this sick, twisted new economy/“Great Reset”/4th Industrial Revolution rapidly racing towards us like a drunk, rabid dog, 1) having relationships based on well earned trust is BETTER and of far greater value than gold, and 2) the ability to establish a localized means of raising and procuring your own food has to be a fundamental priority for each and every person, wherever you are. Finding others that you can share this endeavor with will add immense food security and feelings of safety and support.  COMMUNITY is KEY.

Safety in numbers is also HUGELY important, now more than ever. It’s important to surround yourself with persons you KNOW you can trust who have your back and whose backs you have. Crime—petty crime and not so petty crime will realistically only increase. I don’t mean to sound so “Mad Max” dystopian, but the reality we have to face is that things are about to become much harder for many, MANY people here in the US and around the world. Mass illegal migration is having profoundly negative effects on the US/global economy, public safety and resources. Also, desperate people have a tendency to act out in desperate ways. Having established community support, a watch system and other shared security measures in place will help everyone sleep more soundly at night. You can’t even put a price on that peace of mind! Also, creating broader connections and networks between similar localization-based and self-reliance-focused communities amplifies potential resources and helpful information for all!

Many of you might be aware that I actively serve on the board of the 71-year-old nonprofit organization, the “Price-Pottenger Nutrition Foundation”/PPNF (no relation to Sally Fallon’s Weston A. Price Foundation). A recent, WAY overdue revolutionary overhaul of things within our organization has brought in some new, gifted talent. This has also ignited a renewed sense of purpose and has freed us up to becoming a much more activist-oriented organization. We are committed to speaking and sharing a broader, authentic Truth, and are thinking in terms of constructive solutions along with supplying real value while also helping to facilitate needed change. We recently created something called The Food Freedom Project, that we hope will ultimately help generate a vast network of localized communities committed to decentralized food production, community-based efforts at sharing in localized food economies and geared toward both food freedom and health freedom. We’d love for you to join us in those efforts. Check out https://price-pottenger.org/the-food-freedom-project/ and sign up (or better yet, support our efforts by becoming a new PPNF member! Some awesome things are coming in 2024 that will generate massive value for members and there has never been a better time to join!

That said…

OK…BUT WHAT ABOUT AFFORDABLE, TRANSACTIONAL WEALTH?

Key word: BARTERING.  

Anything that you can collect in bulk that might have worth or value to others struggling to get by is going to give you what is likely the most tangible sense of transactional wealth you can hope for, should we face an economic collapse: i.e., Batteries, toilet paper, bar soap, paper towels, ammo, medical supplies, extra blankets/clothing, tinfoil, garbage bags, ziplock bags, bungee cords, paracord, tarps, non-perishable food items you are willing to part with (like candy, snacks, etc), salt, duct tape, lighters/butane, matches, emergency candles, cooking/heating fuel (i.e., small 1 lb propane canisters)… And a couple of items the average health-conscious person might never think of as being valuable – and even potentially hugely valuable: cigarettes and booze. Vodka, say, could be good from the standpoint of having a wide range of applicability, from being able to be mixed with any number of things as a beverage to create a desired flavor, to producing home herbal tinctures, cleaning wounds, sterilizing surfaces, and even using as an emergency source of engine fuel or cooking fuel in a pinch.

BUT DON’T JUST COLLECT ASSETS….BE ONE!!!

Think about your personal skill sets and what it is you can contribute as a possible means of exchange. Do you know how to can and preserve food? Do you have medical skills? Bodywork skills? Building/construction/plumbing/electric skills? Sewing skills? Do you have large/small equipment that could be used in helpful ways in your trusted community?  Gardening skills you can either teach or help others with? Do you know how to cut hair? Cut firewood? Fix engines? Weld?

Your own ability to produce/grow/raise and store your own food or save seeds, etc. can also make you a highly valuable person in your community as an ongoing human asset.  

Numbers on a computer screen at your local bank might not mean a whole lot in the not too distant future. Numbers on computer screens are ultimately intangible assets and they can easily come and go (and may be difficult to quickly convert to cash in a banking crisis)…or can disappear altogether if/when some cyber attack (false flag or otherwise) hits unexpectedly, wiping it all out. Instead, seek to create TANGIBLE assets you and your family can rely on to feed, support or tide you over when centralized systems you have come to blindly rely on are no longer predictably available.

PLEASE NOTE that I am NOT telling you to close your bank account and withdraw everything in it and spend all that on toilet paper and batteries or something.  Hopefully you are common sense enough to recognize I am merely trying to help you expand your concept of what may constitute wealth and help you better plan for an uncertain future so many of us face.

The REAL wealth of the future lies partly in establishing trusted relationships, losing whatever debt you may have, further establishing a committed and aligned community, plus acquiring genuinely useful, practical, tangible assets of all kinds. Develop a first hand knowing of where your food actually comes from and focus primarily (if not exclusively) on localized sourcing. UNPLUG yourself from centralized, and digitized systems! Reject the technologies being used to control you.  And don’t underestimate your ability to contribute to your community. Adopt a mindset and practice of rational preparedness and community orientation.  Focus upon both physical and mental preparedness! Ground yourself spiritually and get out into nature whenever you can. Remember the powerful, spiritual being you are and the free, purposeful, creative and socially connected human individual you were meant to be.

Get started TODAY!

Part 2 upcoming soon will focus more specifically on key dietary/health considerations for better navigating our new economy that you might not have thought of!

Also, FYI— I offer consultation services for those wanting to make strategic life changes but may not be sure where to start, given their unique circumstances.  These consultations are 1/2 price as compared to my frequently intensive health consultations.  Click for more info or to schedule a session.

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