Are You Actually Ready for a Post-Government World?

So this question goes out to everyone who wants to see the whole system come down. Now I'm not talking about a shift in government, anyone who thinks that anything will actually change when the Republicans take a bite out of Democrat control this November are living in a fantasy world and their opinions are irrelevent to me.

(Random Side Note: If you claim to be a Tea Party member and believe in all that the Tea Party says that it believes in, you better not vote Republican, it just makes you an easily manipulated stooge)

But this is for people who are looking forward with a fundamentalist's glee to the downfall of government: Are You Ready?

Now I am not asking if you have enough guns to Protect What's Yours. Let us assume that we are all armed to the teeth, that any looters or government agents or NWO operatives will be sorry they came, blah blah blah.

I'm asking about the meat hook realities of day to day life in the 5+ years it would potentially take to establish a true free market anarcho-capitalist society with recognized and legitimate means of exchange and to re-establish the infrastructure which we all take for granted.

Make the following assumptions:

1. Local Government (towns, counties and states) run on Federal Dollars. The Fed collapses, their money is gone, their power is gone, there will be no truly official authority. Assume that any authority figures who would try to create themselves a mini-dictatorship would be promptly and bloodily dealt with. (I don't want to hear your alpha-male fantasies, so let's deal with the post bloodletting world).

2. Without government subsidies Petroleum will go through the roof (if available at all), couple that with the collapse of the dollar and internal combustion engines will be luxury items.

3. The power grid will be gone or greatly reduced in capacity. You will no longer be able to count on anything that uses public electricity for survival.

4. Based on assumption (2), the supply chain will be gone. All stores are out of perishables within 3 days. Besides, the dollar is worthless and stores are not capable of accepting barter.

5. Based on assumption (4), you will need to procure all good within foot/bike/horse distance.

6. Power/Cooperation acquired at gunpoint is fleeting and will come back to haunt you sooner than later. Are you ready to convincingly put forth a fair and viable plan for cooperation within your community to get through the crisis? Conversely, not everyone can be the leader, are you ready to sublimate your ego to contribute to a viable plan that is not your own?

7. What are your useful, fundamentally necessary skills? I currently pay my bills paper pushing in a Gods-forsaken cube-farm. In a post-government, post-"money" world what I do for a living will cease to exist. Are you in a similar boat? (probably, as MOST jobs in America today are similarly useless) In a post P-G/P-M world I would instead rely on my background in construction, physical labor and teaching to be a productive member of a new society.

8. How strong is your immediate network? How many people will you be physically able to join with in order to form the foundation of your localized society?

9. A localized community would require: A sustainable food source (including preservation and storage), basic life-saving medical expertise, shelter.maintainence, child-care (as most adults will need to be productively engaged), education, safety (i.e. fire prevention, basic protection (though let's not get bogged down in the "shooting the looters" fun, we all know you're a bad-@ss)). Can you and a trusted circle provide these things at a location reachable for all on a single tank of gas?


I ask because it seems that people around here have two divergent but equally inplausible views of a post-government world. Some see a revolution on the horizon, yet ignore the fact that the "revolutionaries" have only the negative rhetoric of those who want government "gone" they put forth almost nothing in the way of a course of positive action. Others see a time when TSHTF on a scale so epic it has them running for the hills and living off the land in a wooded idyll far from the burnt out cities of man.

Considering the possibility of governmental and financial collapse from a more realistic perspective, and putting aside the macho posturing of the arm chair warrior, how ready are you to rebuild society from the ashes of the clusterfornication that our modern society has become?

Well, I pretty much already live in a "wooded ideal".

The supermarket is a gas station. Electricity goes out all the time. Food and water arent issues. Havent been for as long as I can remember.

The only real bane to us is all the tourists and weekend warriors. Hopefully they would leave or die off really quickly.

I dont expect my life to change much in complete government collapse. I'll stop getting harassed for census info, taxes and by junk mail. Everything else will largely be unchanged.

If I end up with some medical issue then oh well. I'm not going to worry about it. A shortened lifespan is a small price to pay for some peace and quiet and the absence of tyranny's gun to my head 24/7.

reply to post by RobertAntonWeishaupt


People governing themselves is NOT ideal. Look at what happens in other places when government fails to govern. Instead of Obama we get Mr. Drug Cartel running everything because he has good, armaments , and employees.

Government is good just the way the constitution allows it to be.

When the dollar implodes, I think some enterprising state will figure out that its in their best interest to pull out of the dollar system and create their own currency.

Other states will realize its in their best interest to allow private competition of currencies.

The federal government will essentially become defunct and useless.

Generally speaking, if the following things occur:

-taxes are slashed to near zero
-currencies are privatized
-government spending is slashed to near zero
-all regulations of business are removed
-property rights are restored
-government declares bankruptcy and the debts are wiped off the books

We could have a full economic recovery in 6 months with very minimal disruption of services.

We know this to be true because this is what happened at the end of WWII when taxes were slashed, the prohibitions on gold were removed, government spending was slashed, the military industrial complex was dismantled, and we didn't have massive social welfare spending or regulation of industry.

Of course, I don't expect government to do that today, so there will probably be massive food shortages, rioting, chaos, burning cars, property destruction, mass imprisonment, martial law, and we will devolve into a North Korean police state with Zimbabwe style hyperinflation.

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reply to post by IamBoon


I'm pretty much in agreement with you. Besides, I sincerely doubt that the Big Collapse will be allowed to happen anyway. This is more of a thought exercise for those who angrily call for the end of government.

Originally posted by IamBoon
reply to post by RobertAntonWeishaupt

 

People governing themselves is NOT ideal.

I'm sorry. Did I miss something? Where is there an instance where people are not governing other people?

Government should return to the community, borders should be abolished globally and no single person should hold themselves in higher standing than another fellow human, period.

These self-professed global leaders are no better than I.

Originally posted by mnemeth1
When the dollar implodes, I think some enterprising state will figure out that its in their best interest to pull out of the dollar system and create their own currency.

Backed by what resource? The people in charge only know fiat currency, and would most likely create more of the same. Besides, establishing such would take far longer than 6 months. That's why my question asked about the approx. 5 years I believe it would take for these sorts of solutions to materialize.

Other states will realize its in their best interest to allow private competition of currencies.

Privatized currency always give me the willies. Seems all too ripe for manipulations and scams that would make the derivatives market look like a good and sensible idea.

The federal government will essentially become defunct and useless.

Generally speaking, if the following things occur:

-taxes are slashed to near zero
-currencies are privatized
-government spending is slashed to near zero
-all regulations of business are removed
-property rights are restored
-government declares bankruptcy and the debts are wiped off the books

We could have a full economic recovery in 6 months with very minimal disruption of services.

With the Government defunct, 0 taxes makes sense.

The transition to privatized currency would be spectacularly difficult and an extend period of chaos would precede its implementation. What happens in the meantime?

All regulations of ALL business? I can get behind the idea of loosening restictions on companies that create tangible product in order to get boost production of tangible products. Most of the jobs in the nation are dedicated to varying forms of useless paperpushing or money manipulation. There are plenty of companies that should be clamped down on hard. (Monsanto, for example). If you want to remove regulations, than you need to have one regulation in place that is ruthlessly and thoroughly enforced: TRANSPARENCY. For the Invisible Hand to have a snowball's chance in hades of working, people need to know how evil their corporate masters really are.

Can't argue with the restoration of property rights, though I do hate the framing on the term as it makes loss of property rights sound more common than it is.

Now when you say "debt getting wiped off the books" do you refer to all debts for individuals as well as the Government? The big reset button? Good call, it would be needed for anything to proceed.

We know this to be true because this is what happened at the end of WWII when taxes were slashed, the prohibitions on gold were removed, government spending was slashed, the military industrial complex was dismantled, and we didn't have massive social welfare spending or regulation of industry.

Seems a few other things may have been involved there including the ripple effect of minimum wage laws enacted prior to the war, but I see your point. Though, I laugh at the notion that the M-I complex was dismantled. Brought down from wartime production, sure. Hardly dismantled.

Of course, I don't expect government to do that today, so there will probably be massive food shortages, rioting, chaos, burning cars, property destruction, mass imprisonment, martial law, and we will devolve into a North Korean police state with Zimbabwe style hyperinflation.

You underestimate TPTB and their craving for stability.

Besides, while you nicely sum up the wishlist of those who think the Invisible Hand of the Free Market will magically make everything better in record time, you avoid the original question about being able to function in the transitional chaos.

reply to post by RobertAntonWeishaupt


Private currencies are far superior to government currencies because you have CHOICE in what currency you use.

Private currencies are also almost always backed by gold or silver, otherwise people wouldn't chose to use them.

Further, the military industrial complex was dismantled right after WWII. The government slashed military spending right after the war down to nothing and released all the GI's from service. The cut in defense spending immediately following WWII was enormous. Just look at the historical budgets.

I have been planning for 4 years...
I have an incredibly thorough contingency plan.