Peak Oil - Long Range Preparation for a Slow Decline

Nov 04, 2007 18:20

Two years ago, a newspaper reporter interviewed me about peak oil. She asked me a question that caused me to feel a bit foolish ( Read more... )

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valuesystem November 5 2007, 03:15:36 UTC
Hmm...

I'll attempt to make a list from safest to least safe, for anyone that might be reading...

<< this is not a very pleasant answer... I think it can be called "tongue in cheek" >>

1. don't own anything, and live in a tropical paradise --- so that no one can steal anything from you, and you can live off the land -- perhaps find those "uncontacted people" in the amazon that don't have any words for colors or numbers, and aren't interested in you any more than you are in them

2. don't own very much, but own a very efficient tiny, tiny place with a slightly oversized piece of land --- that no one else pays much interest to... because it is a tiny little house on a lot that is too big

3. own a home outright, without a mortgage, but with enough land (or window boxes, or roof) to grow lots of veggies, and some nice celler or something for food storage

4. rent a small place that can be covered by only one income, and if both incomes are gone... move out after the eviction notice comes... and be homeless...

5. live in a home with a mortgage, and risk losing it when hyperinflation makes the ARM payments impossible to pay... or causes the employers to let us all go... so we can't make our payments... so the bank kicks us out on our keester... and still expects us to pay through the nose

6. buy a home with an ARM for the full amount the bank will owe based on two incomes constantly rising faster than inflation with 0% down in a place like California where the property values are going down like a snitch with cement boots in the Brooklyn River and then lose both jobs, have the bank foreclose, sell the place for a third of what you bought it for, and still expect you to pay the ridiculous ARM rates caused by the hyperinflation and the near fatal collapse of the banking system

Hmm... that was not a very nice response, was it? I probably should erase it, but then my dumb sarcasm would get lost in the self censorship.

I dunno for sure which would be better.

I kinda doubt that if the entire system collapses, that they'll be anyone to kick anyone else out of the house that they stopped making payments on. Too many homes, too few to do the kicking.

I certainly wouldn't feel comfortable if I couldn't grow food where I lived (it's bad enough that our soil here is about as rich in nutrients as the dust on the moon).

I do know for sure that I don't want to owe anyone anything, so that I'm not screwed when we all lose our jobs and can't come up with the payments. It's bad enough that we will still have to pay taxes, electric and phone... I suppose if it gets that bad then the phone will be dead, the electric with be down, and the tax man will be trying to find food for his own family...

So, having a place of ones own, with some land, seems like a good plan... as long as your financial situation is good enough that you are not in the first group to get screwed by the slow collapse before the big slide takes hold.

;-)

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