probably best to get out of the big city as the gangs will be kicking in doors and stealing anything that isn't tied down. Calling 911 will be useless as everyone else will be dialing.

Most ATM machines will be down, the gas pumps will not work and the grocery store shelves will be CLEANED OUT.

This sounds like the gold guys trying to scare up some business since the economy is doing a bit better and gold is going to be dropping for awhile.

OTOH between me and my friends we have enough firepower to give a 3rd world country a run for its money. With the raiding of an armory for some good stuff we'll form our own gang!

Besides hording is useless, cause than a well armed group could just take it. He who has the guns makes the rules.

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2016 Corvette Stingray 2LT
1969 280SE
2023 Ram 1500
2007 Tiara 3200

I was watching CBC last night and they were talking about debt ratios and stuff like that. I think the debt to GNP is something like 36% in Canada. It's around 96% in the USA.
We pay about 15 cents in interest for every dollar produced as part of our deficit. Not sure what that would be in the US but it has to be a lot.


BTW, if everyone moved out into the country during a collapse in the economy where would the millions of citiots go? Would they simply take over country folks houses and throw them out or worse? How long do you think you could live off the land before there were no rabbits to hunt and eat?

Normal reaction during any economic decline since the bottom is not known there is generally pessimisim. When the economy is really moving upward optimisum reigns instead. The yo yo like cycles usually find an average at some point. One issue of a cycling economy is it does tend to destabilse people to some extent.

It is a generally accepted fact that the food chain is in difficulty if seriously interupted for more than seven days. The chance of social breakdown typlified by events like rioting and looting depend a lot on the individual area.Especially the type of attitudes of the areas population. Law and order as visualised by individuals is important in determining events.

Places like Detroit for example are higher risk. No doubt the military keep their eyes on any developing situations. Everyone is aware events now anywhere have to be supressed rapidly.

The true stupidity is that once riots have occured investments in those areas are no longer likely to occur. The population have almost permanently shot themselves in the foot. Many existing companies will at that point make plans to leave the area. Ghetto type mentality becomes factual at some point.

One has to attempt to remove emotion from personal considerations or at least as much as they can. Thirty years ago we as a family made a decision to locate in an area that basically was immune from the economic swings.
Although nowhere is going to remain totally unaffected if the swing is too large..

Yes I did observe the industrial base was being erroded even then. I also could not buy into that it could totally be replaced by the service sector. There was no doubt the industrial errosion was going to continue and accelerate. This has happened and continues to occur.

Based on there being no real wealth created by the replacement service sector. This ideal it was a valid replacement was and is bull**** in my opinion. The never ending and growing deficits plus the amount of personal money owed by far too many people has grown exponentially over the last thirty years. Has to be some form of proof in itself. The future may have been already spent for at least the remainder of my time.

Where we live today has a pretty static economy. When times are good locally it gets a tiny bit better. Conversly when times get bad it only deteriorates a very small if noticeable amount. The swings are absent.

Since I was born in a very large city and lived there for most of my life until the time of departure. It really was a quantum leap to relocate. Kind of like entering an alien world.

In otherwords my crystal ball back then led me to believe that over the remainder of my life and the wifes. Especially the growing up period of the children the influences upon them and us would be better here. This has proven to be so in spades so far.

Income has always remained fairly stable, health care access and quality far surpass larger population areas. There is no crime for all practical purposes.

We still have no real reason to lock anything up but for the last five years do lock our front door when retiring for the evening. Plus the educational system functions much better.

Virtually no imigration of foreign nationals although I am not really biased. Except so many flooded into the Toronto area it disrupted too many constants in my opinion. Changed the whole character of the city but not in good ways is my belief.

Cost of living here is a joke compared to larger cities. The governments have no reason to concentrate much effort here so there is much more freedom as well. Almost universally governments control people with regulations. I have not ever gotten a traffic or parking ticket from the police since arrival.

My wife did manage one though when she neglected to mention to me her tags on her car had expired. I really think people get trapped into believing larger cities are in some way good when the reality is otherwise. Here I have had so many more choices when going at anything. There are far fewer constraints.

It certainly was not utopia here but in comparison to the current state of the city I grew up in it is now. Percentage wise there is no comparison when it comes to the general happiness of the population. Missfits and unhappiness that the pressure cookers cities are and produce in too much abundance are far far less as well.

The subconcious and concious stress people are under do strange things to people. Stress is scarce here. It is as if the local people were wise enough to realise it is not a healthy thing and developed methods of living in ways to avoid most of it. Simply it is a matter of not buying into all the hype propagated in densly populated areas.

Real estate of all types was at givaway prices for our first fifteen years here. Anyone could not only buy a decent house but they could pay it off quickly as the principal amounts where so low. There is a real sense of community and interrelationships between people seem to be both much easier and more involved.

People have learnt to get along really well and are quite flexiable. It is not every person for themselves. There are never any traffic issues. In our case we are able to have a total enviroment change by just going 17 miles to the cottage. There are less than two million people spread over the four eastern provinces.

The next most likely change in general may be in food prices. There is becoming a world wide food shortage. This will drive prices seriously upward in my opinion. May be tough on the younger family if incomes become stagnant.

I do not think this is manipulated by intent. The other thing I notice is there is too many places in north america now where people expect the government to signifigantly change what is.

I think today perhaps more than ever it is the individual that should make decisions to change their situations if the need is there. That way if the economy should come back they will be in better shape anyways. The old but true expression nothing ventured nothing gained is more relevant today than ever.

Barry- agree with most all you say above. Please stop telling everyone about the superior quality of life that comes with living in the country though, or they will come and f#@k it up like they have done with everything else.

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1984 300TD 1981 240D

No they will not come. We have a suttle form of brainwashing in north america in my opinion.

When you are a sheep in a herd since it is all you know you think it is good. Or an individual is totally risk avoiding. There are a thousand perceptions that are wrong.

The one I like is they think the locals are backward in comparison. Examining the locals lifestyle over time carefully proves otherwise. Generally not many live at the level of their means. Their families are better structured as well.

Historically people originally gravatated to the large cities because of the expanding job basis of an industrial society. Well times change as the job base is shrinking there. Wages where once better in the citys as well.

Areas like ours retained the employment and since the population density did not change wages held up better. I put out far less effort to buy something or work far less hours to obtain it than my city equivelant.

Our minumin wage law for example is higher than what it is in Toronto. We still frequent large cities and notice now we always have our hands in our pockets reaching for money while there.

It will take something special to get people in great numbers to return to smaller towns and the surrounding countryside. At some point in the future I do feel it will occur. Large cities have and are developing more public safety issues and once crime passes a certain percentage people will want to get out. There are just too many upsides away from larger cities for people to ignore indefinatly.

Ethics in business was the first major thing I noticed. If I do business with someone here they depend on me for repeat business. Or me on them. There are not a million other people to scam in some fashion. Plus since everyone is known either to you personally or to a friend of yours this forces better behaviour.

Even today through the net we have access to all the goods to serve our needs and interests at our fingertips. Plus communication in general is cheap now no matter where you live in north america. There was a time not that long ago where there was some form of partial isolation. Not today.

I visited NS some years ago, and was struck by the general calm; not a rush rush rush.
I was also struck by the size of wood piles lining EVERYONE'S driveway,from the road to the house and often beyond.
Since we had (accidentally) timed our visit to the every-fourth-year, Highland games, I was also pleasantly surprised that the sound of bagpipes is rather pleasing.

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1982 300SD " Wotan" ..On the road as of Jan 8, 2007 with Historic Tags