What If Everything crashes?

I think about it sometimes, what if the economy totally collapses? Even when I5 was closed very briefly, due to flooding north of the Columbia River, Seattle supermarkets got no shipments and reports flickered on the news, that some store shelves could be bare in no time. That was just a minor glitch, too.

What would happen? It would not be pretty. Most Americans, with the exception of Mormons and survivalists, don't even keep stocked up on a few staples to last them a week. It would be worst in the cities.

Gangs would flourish as pre-crash organized violent militias, and take what they wanted in bloodbaths. Black markets would arise overnight. Criminals would steal and then sell commodities at extreme prices or in trade for more weapons. Warlords, basically leaders of violent gangs, would control our country.

Can that happen here?

Small communities would need to fortify themselves and band together. Everyone would become useful and if they were not useful, contributed nothing, they would be expelled to fend alone.

That's one view of what the future might hold if our ecomony falls apart.

Sometimes I think about it. My brother was talking about it when we chatted on the phone last week. He thinks the re-organization of America will ultimately be good. He believes there are too many people living way beyond their means and too much corruption in big corporations and in labor unions and too many unrealistic expectations from ordinary people and demands, like from some unions. He believes there are far too many people contributing nothing to society, except taking from it.

What would I do? I don't know. I know Albany might very well be one of those towns that would immediately become a bloodbath of violence. Where, if people are deprived of what they usually have, the reaction is to take from others, violently if need be. Sometimes I think there are people out there itching for things to fall apart so they have some righteous excuse to kill people.

There are not many people who own land anymore, so they could raise their own food. The land in Linn County is largely owned by grass seed farmers. You can't eat grass seed. Sometimes I think this is wasted land that could be used to grow food and maybe those farmers will grow food, if there is a huge crash, to make their living by raising food to feed Oregon.

One could not rely on wild game, should there be a crash. Every gun owner and their kids and cousins will be out shooting anything that moves, if they feel they can, without consequence. This will cause an immediate drop in game animals that will continue until they disappear. Same with wild fish.

I figure, perhaps a small number of goats and chickens along with a vegetable garden and a few fruit trees and berry bushes would be the easiest way to make it through. Goats are easy to keep. They would provide milk and cheese, even meat if need be. Chickens are perpetual egg layers and their feathers are useful in insulation. Creating a root cellar would keep many vegetables and fruits long into the winter, while canning, if available, would provide year round vegees and fruits from a garden and a few trees. A properly built root cellar is just as good as any refrigerator and requires no power to operate.

Do others think about the possibility of a crash?

And as for my cats, I could feed them rodents, of course, and even raise them here. If extreme violence erupted, I'd put my cats to sleep, to spare them horrible deaths and head for the hills, on the run, with what I had, and try to survive as best I could.