http://globalguerrillas.typepad.com/globalguerrillas/
"There are growing signs – from a black swan in savings/debt reduction to massive debt loads to quarterly trillion dollar losses in personal wealth to stagnant/falling consumer purchases to persistently low consumer confidence – that the parasite ridden American "consumer" is finally dead. (((Okay, maybe so, but if any other non-American consumer is still alive, aren't they going to use their brilliant capitalism to simply *buy* American consumers? Consumer society is vastly more productive than any rival form of economics.)))
"If this is true, the economic model of the latter half of the last Century is likely dead too, and that will mean wrenching change. It's my belief that the dominant solution is to prepare for a local future to ride out this storm. Here are some of my random (more random than I would like) thoughts on what you should do to prepare:
(((Check out how much like a favela this is.)))
"Ruthlessly reduce debt. Nothing on credit. Pay off every loan. Strategically walk away from underwater assets (like homes that are worth less than the mortgage). This will allow you to stay one step ahead of the death throes of the old economy. (((Not to mention that this activity, carried out on any large scale, would *murder* the old economy. It's called "capitalism" because people borrow "capital," am I right?)))
"Turn your hollow home into a productive asset. Most homes are devoid of any productive capacity. Adding energy, food, etc production to them turns them into real, productive assets. Get your assets out of financial derivatives (stocks, bonds, etc.) as fast as you can and put them into productive assets (not commodities) you can touch. (((The busy workshop slums of Dharavi, biggest favela in Asia. After leaving your underwater home, sleep in the sweatshop.)))
"Make everything you can yourself. Grow your own food. Produce your own energy. Make/repair your own clothes. Turn costs into savings. Reskill to do this. The new "fashionable trend" isn't what you can buy, it's what you can make. Anyone that buys "designer or branded" anything is a fool. (((Okay, but suppose you start making stuff so good that people actually want to buy it. Wouldn't you need a brand at that point? If not a "brand," at least some kind of recognizable ID like a big Arduino Italian logo.)))
(((Also, isn't a division of labor proven to be more productively efficient than this primitive autarky? I seem to recall something cogent about Adam Smith explaining how to make pins with assembly lines.)))
"Work online. Convert your skills into something that can be sold electronically (most of my complex work is done this way). Develop the skills necessary to work as part of a virtual team. Telecommute whenever possible (and push to do this, even if it means less money), reduce the number of cars/dress clothes/etc you own in synch with this conversion (and move to a less expensive locale when possible!). Always have two jobs going at the same time. (((This is the really interesting part. I mean, to accomplish this you've gotta have some financially bomb-proof homemade Internet equipment that you made in your favela out of bark and twine. Otherwise your pretense of sturdy urban yeomanry is ludicrous, because you've just traded in the Constitution, US Treasury and the Justice Department for your new feudal overlords, Microsoft and Google. )))
(((Now, a grown-up Favela Chic would in fact run the means of Internet production out of the favela, presumably with open-source, free hardware and instructables. They'd also use community banking and cellphone micropayments on their own equipment. This wouldn't be survivalism though, it would be some variety of Kevin Kelly Digital Socialism. If the upshot was a stable middle-class of petty and haute bourgeoisie, as opposed to the buccaneers who wrecked everything, you'd be back to a workable economy, except they wouldn't be "consumers," they'd be "sharers" (or whatever). )))
"Build a local business. Own assets that produce and sell that production locally. Even if it is small, it will help down the line via contact networks/experience (a new spin on modern "networking"). Develop the niche skills that sell locally. Group/tribe up when possible to tackle larger opportunities. (((Why not group/tribe up from the beginning? Presumably that would be called something like a "labor union" or maybe a "political party." Or who knows, if they were superambitious and had lots of solidarity and social cohesion, they might call themselves a "state" or "nation." Sounds great, eh? However, since this is the "Global Guerrillas" site, presumably these hapless national entities get torn shreds between the global guerrillas with money and the global guerrillas with guns.)))
"Barter. Cashless trades. Convert what you have to what you need. Skill set bartering is amazingly effective. Become part of a local barter network (the backchannel). ((("The favela black market.")))
"Bring your family home. (((You know those right-wing horror stories of entire Mexican immigrant families crammed into a single room? This is like that, except in a solarized McMansion.))) Grow your home to accommodate more people. Bring back parents and grown kids (with their families). This will allow you to pool incomes and radically reduce workload/costs. It's also beneficial for security. NOTE: I've found that consideration/compromise is the best way to handle an expansive family home environment.
Suggestions welcome!! (((I think I've got the ideal post-national guerrilla leader for a family-centric, moose-skinning scheme of this sort: Sarah Palin. "Prayer-Time and Barter With Sarah." Neato!)))
This change doesn't require cute and crunchy notions about "lifestyle" environmentalism. (((I agree, but unless it finds some cuteness and crunchiness, its inhabitants will swiftly die of despair.)))
