The following article has been contributed by the ever insightful and always informative Daisy Luther of The Organic Prepper. Daisy is the author of several books, including her latest The Pantry Primer: A Prepper’s Guide to Whole Food on a Half-Price Budget.
Did you hear the news? “Greece Says No to Further Austerity Measures!” Did you shake your head and say, “Wow, the nerve of those people refusing to cut their expenses in the face of all that debt”?
I’m no financial expert, but I don’t think that tightening up the budget was really what they were turning down.
I think that they were turning down the opportunity to continue under the tyrannical rule of the EU. They were breaking free.
What they were actually turning down was another series of huge loans that would put them further in debt and further under the oppression of the European Union loan sharks. They said no to another entity controlling their finances and destiny. Collapse or survive, the voters loudly stated that the Greek people want their country back.
This weekend I wrote about independence: it comes from not requiring anything that another person has to provide for you. And I believe that is exactly what the Greeks decided this weekend when they voted to discontinue allowing foreign entities to control their financial affairs, regardless of the cost.
So here’s the big question:
Is this the collapse of Greece
It will get worse before it gets better
The banks aren’t going to take this lying down. Already, the access of banking customers to their money has been strictly limited. The banks have been running on electronic funds for more than a week now, only allowing small withdrawals and online banking to take place.
This was in preparation for the very vote that occurred. Now that the Greeks have refused bailout money, a bail-in is going to occur, right from the customer’s accounts to which they have been denied access. Mac Slavo of SHTFplan wrote:
With the very near possibility of collapse, amid a shortage of cash and short term money, banks in Greece are poising themselves to “bail in” during financial emergencies by seizing customers bank accounts…
…It should be a stark reminder who will carry the costs of failure – the people. Once again, it is the public who bears the losses, and the private clubs who enjoy the profits.
There’s more. The country runs almost solely on imports. More than half of their food and nearly all pharmaceuticals are brought in from other countries. Fuel and other supplies come from far away. With the ban on monetary transfers outside the country, they can’t pay for more imports and the shortages have already begun.
People are unable to access life-saving medicine. They can hardly even acquire aspirin. Store shelves are bare as Greeks rush to purchase as many staples as possible while there are still a few things in stock. It seems to me that the kiss of death for a country would be to stop providing for its own necessities because that simply gives too much power to others.
Watch and learn what an economic collapse looks like
We are getting a bird’s eye view of an economic collapse. This is Economic Collapse 101, so I hope you’re taking notes.
What are the things that stand out in your mind the most? Here are the two major takeaway lessons that I see:
1.) Any money you have in the bank is not actually yours.
2.) The inability to produce is going to be a death sentence.
This is not the first “bail-in” we’ve seen. A couple of years ago, Cyprus “taxed” deposit accounts and helped themselves to half of people’s savings in order to salvage the system’s debt. Laws have been passed in both the United States andCanada making “bail-ins” legal and the first probably course of action should the S hit the F.
There are a lot of similarities between the United States and Greece.
We are encouraged to put all of our wealth into the hands of others through checking accounts, savings accounts, direct deposits, automatic withdrawals, and retirement funds. This means your money is just sitting there, safely tucked away for the rainy day on which the government and/or banking industry decides they need a bail-in – with YOUR hard-won savings.
Secondly, our debt is astronomical. We are a country that has been running on a deficit budget forever, since the late 1700s. Our nation was built on debt. But since 2008, the debt level has increased so astronomically that continuing on this course is highly questionable. We are riding on a bubble that has gotten so large, it’s going to pop, and bursting of it will be dramatic.
Finally, statistics in 2011 showed that we produce about 80% of the food consumed here in the United States. That’s the good news. The bad news is that since then foreign trade agreements have seen that number plummet. What’s more, our society is consumer-driven and it relies mostly on imports that were made with slave cheap labor overseas. Because of this, we could easily find ourselves in a similar position as the Greeks should everything go down hill in our own economic situation.
What can we do to prepare for a Greek-style collapse?
The answers can be found by observing the goings-on in Europe.
1.) Get your money out of the control of others. It’s probably obvious by now that the phrase “money in the bank” no longer rings with the same certainty that it used to. Your money is ONLY yours if you hold it in your hand. Your retirement and savings accounts can be plundered. We watched it happen in Cyprus and we’re about to witness it in Greece. Keep enough to pay expenses like mortgage, property taxes, etc., and put the rest into different types of assets. Hold precious metals and tangible goods. Learn more about financial strategies for preppers HERE.
2.) Prep by stocking up on things that may not be available tomorrow. Right now, the folks in Greece are learning the same difficult lesson the people in Venezuela have learned. Shortages in necessities closely follow economic crises. Now is the time to stock up on tangible goods like food, seeds, ammo, and personal items. Learn how to build a pantry on a budget HERE.
3.) Start producing. It’s time to channel your grandparents and learn to provide for your own basic needs. Self-reliance is the key to surviving an economic collapse. If you don’t already possess these skills, learn to garden, preserve, sew, and build. No matter where you are, there are steps you can take to produce things for yourself. Check out this roadmap to self-reliance.
4.) Learn to be less reliant on public utilities. We’re already seeing this happen in cities like Detroit, where thousands are living without running water. I’m not suggesting that you invest in expensive generators – because it’s unlikely, should an all-out collapse occur you’ll be able to acquire fuel to run them. You need to learn to live with less energy. Invest in renewable items like solar lighting. If you can, have a well installed on your property. Learn to stay warm and cool without electrical power. This is not about the grid completely going down – it’s about that moment when your budget is so tight you have to make a choice between keeping a roof over your head and keeping the lights on. Being able to greatly reduce your usage could mean the difference between being able to afford your power bill and sitting there in the dark.
5.) Be prepared to defend your home and family. As the situation becomes more critical, you can expect chaos to ensue. First, there are the rioters who pillage and destroy as part of the mob mentality. When everyone is focused on survival, you can’t expect cavalry to arrive in the form of 911. Secondly, as supplies become more difficult (or impossible) to acquire, it’s a pretty sure bet that people will want what you have. We need only to flash back to any number of “Black Friday” sales to see what a determined mob of shoppers looks like – and those folks aren’t even hungry. Here’s how to get prepared to protect your supplies, your homestead, and your loved ones.
When collapse is the question, self-reliance is the answer
The Greeks have chosen to take back their power, now that they are on the eve of complete economic devastation. They’ve voted not to be dependent on hand-outs from the European Union, because they’ve learned the hard way that with those handouts comes a life ruled by others. Of the two paths available to them, both are rocky, but by turning down the latest bail-out, it appears that they’ve finally had enough of the manipulation and control. They just said no to debt slavery.
As every prepper knows, we can’t expect to be rescued. Waiting for FEMA, 911, or welfare is not the answer during a crisis. We can learn a lot from what’s going on in Greece. It’s the height of arrogance to think it can’t happen here. We can wrap ourselves in the American flag all we want, but it’s not a magical protective garment that somehow insulates us from the results of our tax-and-spend economy.
Being gloomy isn’t my thing, but I predict a serious financial crisis for our country in the months ahead. Since the beginning of this year, I’ve been writing about our impending economic issues. Watching the situation unfold in Europe only makes me feel more certain that our way of life is about to shift dramatically.
As long as our society has more dependent people than self-reliant people, we are on a clear course to economic disaster. There’s still time to insure yourself against a future of hunger and desperation. But don’t wait. If you try to make a bank run when the intentions to raid accounts becomes clear, you’ll have missed your window. You’ll be standing there in the long lines with everyone else, watching your life savings vanish into the government’s pockets. If you try to stockpile as the shelves become increasingly bare, you will be battling everyone else who has just realized that restocking isn’t going to happen.
If you wait to prepare, you may be sentencing your family to a life of desperation. Once it all starts to crumble, it will happen fast, and it will be too late. We are witnessing our future. What will you do to prepare for it?
Source:shtfplan.com
I don’t even need to read the while article. The major point you left out her is the Greece is a socialist country. Have have voted over and over for big socialist programs and freebies from the government. By taxing the rich. Again we see that the problem with spending someone else’s money is that eventually it runs out. They have no one to blame except them self for putting communist in office. The lesson here is. If we continue down the path our current president has chosen we are next.