If you watch the news, everything looks grim.  The housing market is shot, credit is tight, banks go bankrupt, 401k’s are losing value, etc.  Presidental candidates pontificate about “average, hard-working Americans”, tax cuts, and character issues.

So how I am handling my business in light of all this?  Here’s a few things I am doing, but please, take this with a grain of salt, as this is only one guy’s action plan.  Please remember that I’ve lived through the breakup of the USSR and the crisis of mid-90′s in Ukraine and Russia.

• I shut off the television. A reasonable person would agree that in the world where all news is controlled by just a few gigantic entities, chances are that ALL news is skewed.  One guy owns the entire News Corp, for Christ’s sake, how “fair and balanced” do you expect him to be?  The rest of the news outlets are divvied up between GE, TimeWarner, Disney, CBS, and Viacom.  That’s right — from about 50 in the 80′s to just six.  Get your news from the Internet.
• I expanded my garden.  I grow upside-down tomatoes in 5 gal. buckets, and compost all organic waste my household generates.  I got cucumbers, green peppers, peas, spices, sunflower, radishes, and lettuce.  It’s no “Depression Garden” (no chickens and pigs), but it will do in a pinch.
• I am hoarding cash. There is no safe investment now.  However, I did make a few bucks buying Freddie Mac at $0.40 and selling it at around $2.00.
• I am aggressively reducing my leverage. I’ve been paying down debt with the highest interest, while making minimum payments on cheap debt (student loans).
• I am taking any side job I can. Between IT consulting, web design, SEO, constuction, I stay busy — (see stockpiling cash item above).
• I bought a weapon. Academy has some decent shotties for under $200.  When the riot police and the military is doing riot control, I’ll be able to defend the castle — get your fucking head blown off if you enter uninvited.  God bless Texas.
• I am hoarding dry goods.  We thought the ruble would not devalue and there will be no shortages in 1990 USSR … guess what happened next.  It never hurts to stock your pantry with rice, flour, sugar, tea, some water filters (or filtering pitchers), batteries, lightbulbs, soup, chicken stock.  When Asia is flooded again and the commodities are sky-high, I’ll be laughing.

If this sounds all-too-paranoid for your taste, and you think “none of this can possibly happen in 21st century America“, I’ll ask you “exactly what makes the Western hemisphere so awesome that it can’t happen to them?”  Why can’t a Great Depression happen again?

The economy?  It’s clearly in the crapper.

The democracy?  It’s in decline.

The military power?  Overextended between two undeclared wars.

If this is still too glum for you, or you’re some sort of an unreasonable optimist, what’s so wrong with having some cash on hand, and a pantry full of food?  However, there’s EVERYTHING wrong with entire generations accustomed to charging everything, from clothes to big screen TV’s.

If I’m wrong, you’ve have a cash reserve and enough food to not go to Sam’s Club for awhile, and certainly enough to help you in case another Great Depression hits.  If I’m right, you’ll depend on FEMA.  I hope none of us have to.