Michael Janzen

I saw this CBS video the other day that focused on Obama and the economy. One of the things he said strait-out was that he’s working to avoid total economic collapse and a depression. This is not news of course but to hear him dance around the d-word was a bit of an eye opener. It’s one thing to hear our media talk about it and another to hear him say it.

I hope the work he’s are doing today will actually help us avoid more trouble. But I’d argue that we the people shouldn’t wait for the official announcement of a full-blown depression or our own personal financial demise. We should change our lifestyles today, live frugally, and prepare ourselves for the possibility of harder times. Here are some things you can do right now to prepare:

• Always work to improve your personal health.
• Buy bulk dry food (beans, rice, grains) and always have a reserve.
• Learn to cook creatively with beans and rice.
• Learn to bake from scratch.
• Switch from coffee to tea, it’s so much cheaper.
• Plant a victory garden.
• Raise chickens, if your community permits them.
• Downsize everything you can.
• Sell possession you don’t use or need via craigslist, garage sales, and ebay.
• Create additional revenue streams by monetizing hobbies, blogging, etc.
• Prepare a worse case scenario plan (job loss, homelessness, etc).
• Build a tiny house on wheels.

For optimism’s sake lets say we’re not headed for the second great depression. In any event this advice is good advice. By preparing for the possibility of a depression today the worst result is that you’ll be better positioned for the future.

“It is not the strongest of the species that survives, nor the most intelligent that survives. It is the one that is the most adaptable to change that survives.” – Charles Darwin

I was just reading the news this morning on Google and ran across another sad story about our collapsing world economy. This time it’s Nissan announcing major cutbacks. 20,000 jobs will be lost. But that’s not the part of the story I wanted to point out. Take a look at what the CEO of Nissan said:

“In every planning scenario we built, our worst assumptions on the state of the global economy have been met or exceeded, with the continuing grip on credit and declining consumer confidence being the most damaging factors.”

Get it? Even the people running the most successful corporations are getting blind-sided by the collapse. Their worst case scenario planning is being surpassed. Has your worst case scenario planning been surpassed yet? Do you have a worst case scenario plan? No matter what your plan is, or your prediction for the future, you might want to spend a few minutes thinking about what you’d do if you lost your income.

I know that’s a dark topic, so don’t dwell on it, just ask yourself what you’d do differently today if you knew that you might loose your job or house in the near future. It’s not paranoid anymore; it’s prudent.

I ran across this little post on Inhabitat via materialicious this morning. I’m glad more people are beginning to think that less (consumption) is more (freedom). It’s too bad it’s taken the worst recession since the great depression for many people to figure it out.

I don’t think boycotting the holidays is the answer though. Why rob ourselves of tradition, memories, and time with family? Why not simply choose not to exchange gifts or better yet make/do something for each other! I bet Christ would approve.