Preparedness for when

GreyQueen

What a b*mmer, Doveling. Must be making you feel low. Have a Dodgy Group Hug on me - :grouphug:

I agree with Frugalsod; you can't cover everything, so you must aim to cover the most probable. Unemployment is a pretty likely probability, it's a rare person these days who gets through a working life without bumping into this at some point. Sensible to expect that the State will leave you swinging in the wind for 8 wks or so without funds, and to salt away some dosh to tide you over.

Some live in places on eroding coastlines, or near or at sea-level. Or by rivers which are prone to flooding. There is also the growing problem of horrendous rainstorms causing surface water flooding. It happens in this city as the existing surface water drainage is inadequate to deal with water in this quantity. If you have had experience of this before, you may want to put a flood plan in place now, including having pre-filled sandbags nearby as when these things happen, they happen very quickly.

I was walking with my Dad in their neighbourhood. He's a map fiend, too, and pointed out where the 100 ft contour line runs by the house. The nearest river or stream is over half a mile away and much lower. Down in their town centre, it floods every few years, so the people there will have different concerns.

Earlier today I had a wicked thought about those who wanted to carry gas masks on public transport and the likely issues this might cause if discovered. Just add a fetish magazine or a couple of other 'entertainment items' to your everyday carry and, if questioned about the gas mask, make out it's part of your private life.

Better to be thought a touch pervy than a terrorist, n'est-ce que pas?

daz378

just moved my 2016 tins from kitchen to 2nd bedroom about 70 tins, emptying kitchen slowly for when i get my new one , ill do 2017 tomorrow similiar amount... about 40 for 2015 and another 40 for later years.... hardly the excessive hoarding amount the HA accused me of, although i do have about 6 boxes of salmon as well and i have to move about 50 litresof rotated water from the windows as they are working on them as well ... no rush think i have a few weeks

daz378

doveling yes i got an 180 pound write off his bill but i need to ring the water again because this as only had the effect off reducing his monthly payments from 44 to 41 pound a month... i have told them he cant afford more than 25 month .... may ring them monday ive told my dad to just pay 25 im keeping an eye on his meter readings also.....thanks for asking

moneyistooshorttomention

Good point FrugalSod that we can only prepare realistically for what we think might possibly affect us personally.

For years now I have been/am accumulating a collection of books with alternative remedies in - as I have watched the NHS having cut after cut and have visions of being told to wait for (or even do without) any treatment I might require. Add in my distinct suspicions about side-effects from drugs etc. All round - I would rather take good care of my own health and have figured out my own remedies for any problems that crop up. Even things that are thought of as easy to deal with (eg hip replacement operations) and that is something I always thought of as "Very bad luck if you need one - but they work" and then I walked down the street here numerous times and finally found out the reason why I see so many older people here lurching along from side to side as they walk (ie rather than walking normally) and apparently a lot of its down to 1 or 2 people in the NHS locally being very poor standard surgeons. Each to their own on that - but personally I'll deal with my own health thank you very much.

Even planning on a holiday to get away from it all can cause unexpected problems. I can very rarely afford holidays and that would have been one holiday lost when I cancelled it and I'd probably not get a refund for it - ie if I'd got one booked in Kos right now for instance - as I certainly wouldn't go there with all that going on there. The unexpected emergency situation, of course, for the Kos islanders is they are about to lose all their income from tourists and that must be something that came out of the blue to most of them.

As for "sleepwalking to World War 3" I don't actually think wars as we know them are going to be fought to any great extent from here on in. Why would a country bother to fight another country - when they can just hack into their computer system and create havoc whilst sitting there cosily in an office in their own country? Why would they bother to openly invade any more?

I think the era of wars as we knew them is substantially over and actually the set-up we now have is a good deal worse.

All it needs is for some madcap country to have a hacker sitting there attacking our nuclear power stations, for instance, from afar via computer (North Korea apparently talks about it....). All it needs is invasion by stealth by just a few people....

So - we do what we can personally. For holidays, for instance, I gave up flying by plane some years back for altruistic reasons and wouldn't fly anyway for my own personal reasons now (courtesy of having read an uncomfortable amount of stuff re whats in the air in many planes - courtesy of getting polluted by the engines). Add the sardine squeezing-in of passengers and its not a pleasure anyway. Personal preps on that front, for instance, are living where I can "holiday" any day I please (if the weather is good enough:cool:).

Karmacat

Frugalsod wrote: »

My pleasure. The problem is that to prep for everything you would need a large personal fortune and personal warehouse to cover every eventuality. It is also very unlikely. Prepping has an element of risk assessment and so you should prep for things that are likely to happen to you personally and that can be alleviated by some form of prepping.

Risk assessment! Thats the one :j I was going through the updated government document and this one leaped out because no one talks about it in terms of "nicking a medical instrument and creating chaos" - but I got a bit sidetracked by the shiny stuff online

The things that I am prepping for are financial collapse of the banks again, which is certain but just a matter of when, since absolutely no effort has been made to reform the financial sector, and because it is possible for individuals to make some plans for this.

I've just read a zh article http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2015-05-30/good-luck-getting-your-money-out that made sense for me, for the first time, of this push to cashless society that we've been hearing about. Very useful reading.

The other thing that they should be prepping for is climate change. It is now almost certain to happen, just a matter of how fast and how it will impact us. My plans are to try and reduce energy consumption and create a small way to power what I want from solar power. This also eliminates personal impact from power cuts, and rising energy prices.

And I agree with your assessment on the economic situation and climate change being the most problematic, absolutely.

GreyQueen wrote: »

What a b*mmer, Doveling. Must be making you feel low. Have a Dodgy Group Hug on me - :grouphug:

From me too - thats so disappointing

Earlier today I had a wicked thought about those who wanted to carry gas masks on public transport and the likely issues this might cause if discovered. Just add a fetish magazine or a couple of other 'entertainment items' to your everyday carry and, if questioned about the gas mask, make out it's part of your private life.

Better to be thought a touch pervy than a terrorist, n'est-ce que pas?

I like your thinking :j :rotfl::rotfl::rotfl:

GreyQueen

I have been accused of having a [STRIKE]warped [/STRIKE] err vivid imagination before now, karmacat.

This whole war on cash scares the beejeezus outta me, frankly. And so many people have effectively been conditioned to use technological means of payment that they will probably assent to it without a murmur. I've spoken to a fair few and they look at you blankly when you suggest that there might just be a few problems attendant on this.

It seems to be a generational thing, in my personal RL observations. The over-40 cohorts hate the idea, including some I know who have, within the present generation or the previous one, escaped from police states. The under-30s are complaisant and cannot seem to see a problem.

If physical cash is removed, we can kiss goodbye to any privacy about what we own, where we are, who we're with, what we're doing. If you want to make life difficult, if not impossible, for someone, shut down their accounts. If you want to levy a 'one-off emergency tax' from the whole population, just help yourselves. If you decide that persons who are members of a certain political party, trades union, social grouping, religion, whatever, need to be stopped or watched, you have them by the purse-strings.

Think of all the transactions which mostly escape the attentions of the tax gatherers. Anyone here ever bought or sold at a bootfair, jumbly, garage sale, card at the newsagent or supermarket, to a neighbour? Through the freeads or gumtree? Selling stuff you already own, having purchased it with post-tax income, or flipping used goods for a small profit? Ever babysat, dog-walked for a bit of cash, given someone a lift for a bit of petrol money? Taken a little consideration for helping with DIY or gardening or dressmaking or knitting? Given your kids some pocket money?

Spending a bit too much time and electronic cash in the pub or at the offie? The betting shop? The tanning salon? Could be held against you by an employer, by the NHS (you brought your disease on yourself), by DWP (you spent your last tenner at the pub, you waster, no more government cheese for you).

One thing which chilled me about Margaret Attwood's dystopian novel The Handmaid's Tale was how women went to their banks one day and found they had lost control of their own money, just because of being female. If you think that's far-fetched, you should know that women in some parts of the world can't travel without the permission of their male head of household. I know of several Brit women married to men from middle eastern countries who had to get out when the marriage went sour, and trying to flee a country where you cannot travel without your (abusive and controlling) husband's permission, where he can lock down your comms, where the State routinely interfers with post and steals packages. Hell, I was a bystander in one of these escapes and it'd make a damn fine movie but it was terrifying for the people involved .

We need to keep using cash whenever we can, and resist any attempts to limit or outlaw it. You might not have a problem going cash-free now but, human nature being what it is, TPTB will make damn sure you have a problem with the cashless society in the future.

Frugalsod

GreyQueen wrote: »

If physical cash is removed, we can kiss goodbye to any privacy about what we own, where we are, who we're with, what we're doing. If you want to make life difficult, if not impossible, for someone, shut down their accounts. If you want to levy a 'one-off emergency tax' from the whole population, just help yourselves. If you decide that persons who are members of a certain political party, trades union, social grouping, religion, whatever, need to be stopped or watched, you have them by the purse-strings.

Think of all the transactions which mostly escape the attentions of the tax gatherers. Anyone here ever bought or sold at a bootfair, jumbly, garage sale, card at the newsagent or supermarket, to a neighbour? Through the freeads or gumtree? Selling stuff you already own, having purchased it with post-tax income, or flipping used goods for a small profit? Ever babysat, dog-walked for a bit of cash, given someone a lift for a bit of petrol money? Taken a little consideration for helping with DIY or gardening or dressmaking or knitting? Given your kids some pocket money?

Government declares war on pocket money!

Some parents will use this as a means to economise but it will cause problems at home. Will they allow kids bank accounts to have debit cards where they can get into debt to rescue the economy? Who will be liable for such debts and will such sweetie debts be held against you when applying for student loans at university?

Also when you have a fascist state in control and you are trying to hide people from the government how would you cope? You could not give money to sympathisers or supporters. Anne Franks diary would have been much shorter if they had this sort of control over the population.

GreyQueen

I cringe on those occasions where I see teen children (I'm talking under-16s) using debit cards for small purchases. It's conditoning people to spend without much thought. I also encounter people in their late teens and early twenties who are having difficulties because they have blown their credit ratings out of the water by actions taken when there were barely of legal age to make a contract.

It's no joke if you have to go on a prepayment meter because you're a poor credit risk, if you can't get a private sector tenancy or any of a number of other things.

People need to be able to exercise monetary freedom without every last penny being overseen and accountable to the State. To have anything otherwise is to be reduced the status of a dependant child or a slave.

I like to have privacy about what I buy, which I why I mostly conduct my business in cash. I also thing the State has enough of our money and are only liable to do things with it which will cause distress both at home and abroad - you need to extract a lot of spondulicks to finance the military-industrial complex, for example.:(

Perplexed_Pineapple

I couldn't agree more GQ. It's easy to envisage a world where benefit recipients had "approved vendors". You could have sponsorship deals for example - incapacity benefit by Asd@, has to be spent in their stores only. Deflation would be rewarded with compulsory negative interest rates. Capital controls could be absolute. No despot in history dreamt of such power over the population. Alternative currencies and even barter could be suppressed if TPTB desired. Now to be honest I can't see this ever happening but it is disturbing that it is even being discussed by serious economists.

GreyQueen

The minions of the State (i.e. the tax people) have got themselves exercised about LETS schemes before. If only a few of the alternative hippy set (I quite like this group btw) use an alternative currency for shopping at the health food shops and buying vegan footwear, TPTB won't get too involved. If sufficient numbers/ sums start 'going alternative' there will be strong clampdowns.

And you're right; dictators down the millenia would have loved to have had such powers. Even the Romans allowed their slaves to accumulate cash in the form of gratuities with the view to buying their freedom from their owners one day, fer cryin' out loud.