Being Prepared

Written By Brian Hicks

Posted June 13, 2012

Nuclear warfare is not necessary to cause a breakdown of our society. You take a large city like Los Angeles, New York, Chicago — their water supply comes from hundreds of miles away and any interruption of that, or food, or power for any period of time you’re going to have riots in the streets.

Our society is so fragile, so dependent on the interworking of things to provide us with the goods and services that you don’t need nuclear warfare to fragment us anymore than the Romans needed it to cause their eventual downfall.

— Gene Roddenberry

While some may consider such a discussion a waste of time, more and more people are coming to the conclusion that preparations of some sort are warranted in our current troubled environment — on many fronts.

How much preparation individuals are willing to do is usually in direct correlation to their belief that something catastrophic could happen, making life as we know it a much more difficult task.

It is a proven fact throughout history that when disruptions of any kind occur, those who made even the smallest preparations typically fare much better than those who gave no thought at all in this regard.

Today I want to share with you a list I have compiled of the things that could potentially happen — and that threaten our way of life in a small or large degree.

There is no way to predict these things, but anyone with common sense can see that the possibility is likely we could experience one or more of these events at some point in the future…

Any single event or combination of events could cause terrible and debilitating circumstances for a short or long period of time:

  • Natural disasters such as hurricanes, floods, tornadoes, volcanic eruptions, solar flares, earthquakes, and other geophysical events
  • Possibility of wars, nuclear wars, nuclear reactor meltdowns, and radiation fallout
  • Financial meltdown (derivative, debt crisis, and/or bond implosion) causing currencies to implode and governments to topple
  • Problems with the exploration, delivery, or production of oil, the lifeblood of modern economies
  • Spread of disease such as the Black Plague or a bird flu pandemic
  • Power grid failure
  • Political anarchy or revolution
  • Racial strife or civil war
  • Electromagnetic pulse event

With any of these scenarios listed above (and there is a host of others I have probably not even thought about), you could have localized, national, or global unrest and even war for an indefinite period of time depending on the scope and duration of the event(s).

An item that is not on the list — but could be equally devastating to individual families — is the loss of a job.

Losing a job can be a catastrophic event if one is not properly prepared. Most families find themselves living paycheck to paycheck with little in the way of savings and almost nothing in the way of preparations.

For years, I had brought up the issue of preparedness to a close friend of mine.

When I first started talking about it, my friend and his wife basically blew me off… but I kept bringing the topic up.

Eventually they thought it prudent to at least get some sort of food storage together. Their family was accustomed to an upper middle class income and living comfortably in suburbia with their three children…

About a year after making their food preparations, the breadwinner of the family lost his job and ended up working a series of almost minimum wage jobs trying to make ends meet.

He kept applying for better-paying jobs in his field of expertise — but no matter how qualified he was nobody was interested in hiring someone at his previous salary level or his age (late fifties).

The family’s lifestyle was devastated and they eventually lost their home…

In a recent conversation with this friend, he told me that without their food storage, things would have been immeasurably more difficult. He thanked me for being a good friend and pushing the issue when he and his wife weren’t listening.

The family is now living a greatly reduced lifestyle, but keeping their heads above water and continuing with their preparations.

I share this story because on an individual basis, there is a host of things that can happen in which being prepared could make a huge difference.

We often, as a people in general, terms take things for granted and think ‘this’ or ‘that’ will never happen to us. In addition to a major job loss due to a myriad of reasons, you could lose your health or the ability to do your job.

Unfortunately, things of this nature are happening to more and more people every day. In fact, I’m certain all of us have been affected to some degree by similar stories of friends and relatives.

Our Current State of Affairs

The world in general seems afflicted on so many different fronts.

When you look at the list above, any rational person could easily see one or more of these scenarios occur within their lifetime.

Aside from the geophysical things that seem to be going haywire, and could be explained simply as the planet’s cycles, there are plenty of man-made catastrophes that loom on the horizon…

Never has the planet had as many people as it does now. With increased population numbers, there is increased pressure for resources.

This is a key point on why you want to stay invested in commodities of all kinds.

More countries seek nuclear devices than ever before and recent advancements in technology make this much easier than any time before in history.

Biological and chemical weapons are also much easier to manufacture — and are being stored by an increasing number of very scary countries.

Oil markets are tighter than ever as demand from countries like China and India increases, but new supply cannot keep up with the increasing demand.

The financial debacle of the world economies needs no introduction to my readers. In short, bad times — really bad times — for any number of reasons could and probably will be coming to a location near you.

Unless you and your family take this possibility quite seriously, if and when something does happen, you could very well find yourself in some extremely difficult circumstances…

Just look at the latest news coming out of Greece, as reported by Reuters below.

This is happening right now — and it’s only going to spread.

When the political and economic systems of entire nations collapse the consequences are devastating.

Earlier this year pharmacies and hospitals in Greece were unable to provide life saving medicines due to a shortages caused by a freeze in the flow of credit from manufacturers to distributors to patients. A collapse in the country’s economy has forced many Greeks to turn to black market barter economies and has left millions financially devastated, with no hope of finding an income stream for the foreseeable future.

The credit system of the entire country is in shambles. So much so that reports are emerging about food shortages and hunger within the Greek prison system, suggesting that serious problems in the food delivery chain have begun to materialize.

As Nigel Farage warned recently, we are beginning to see the rise of extreme political parties as a consequence of the total and utter desperation of the populace.

Today the news gets even worse. Greece’s Regulatory Authority for Energy (RAE) announced an emergency meeting to deal with what can only be construed as a tell-tale sign that this crisis is very rapidly reaching critical mass and may spiral out of control in the very near future:

Greece’s power regulator RAE told Reuters on Friday it was calling an emergency meeting next week to avert a collapse of the debt-stricken country’s electricity and natural gas system.

RAE is taking crisis initiatives throughout next week to avert the collapse of the natural gas and electricity system,” the regulator’s chief Nikos Vasilakos told Reuters.

RAE took the decision after receiving a letter from Greece’s natural gas company DEPA, which threatened to cut supplies to electricity producers if they failed to settle their arrears with the company.

You may have thought the financial collapse of 2008 was bad. That was just a warm-up.

The main event is staring us in the face, and the whole of Europe has front-row seats.

What is happening in Europe is just a precursor for what will eventually be coming to the United States…

Read on: Parts II and III of “Being Prepared.”

Until next time,

Greg McCoach
Analyst, Wealth Daily
Investment Director, Mining Speculator

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