I’ve just read a chilling account of John Dolan’s rapid descent into poverty after finishing grad school.  He talks about poverty, staying warm, finding food, avoiding the police, and thanking Prozac for saving his and his wife’s lives.

Little did I know that when I lost everything last year, I was doing research. At the time I thought it was just stupidity or bad luck or both. But now that the economy’s crashing, it turns out I’ve been out there gathering valuable tips for millions of new paupers. And let me clarify, I’m talking real poverty. My wife and I fell through many layers of poverty in a few months. First we revisited the genteel poverty known to grad students, the sort of poverty where you have scary dreams about the rent and eat a simple, wholesome diet toward the end of the month. But we fell right through that into the sort of Dickensian privation that spoiled first-worlders like me never expected to experience.

Then I thought on it for awhile.

First off, this kind of poverty is very well known to me … so I really don’t give a shit if I have to live through it again.  I’ve been so poor once, we had to cook a meal (one dehydrated packet of soup) on a Bunsen burner from the school’s science lab while no one was watching.  My mother, an accomplished teacher, had to mop the floors of a local newspaper printing shop — a disguisting and dangerous place with lead-related (metal) poisons — on her knees, with a towel for a mop.  After each swipe the towel turned instantly black from the stove soot and lead from the Gutenberg-era presses.

Second, I am already getting ready.

USA Silver Eagle Coin

You need to buy a few of those … pure silver, gold if you have the money, and safely stash them.  If you’re even more paranoid, don’t buy the US-minted coins because they fall under eminent domain and can be confiscated at the point of a gun — it HAS happened before.  Your safest bets are pre-1933 US gold coins minted by the US Mint or foreign gold, like British Sovereigns (I like the 1/4 oz coins).

As a sidetrack … I’ve been getting mail calling me paranoid and crazy.  Frankly, I don’t understand where those people get their unshakable faith in the US Federal Reserve Notes and this consumption/service-based economy.  It’s not any kind of a secret, people, they even say it loud and clear on CNN/FOX NEWS — we are both a SERVICE economy and a CONSUMPTION-based economy.  Two thirds of our economy is driven by consumption, not production.  Therefore, in a country with fiat currency, the only thing that can possibly give that currency any intrinsic value is production and productive capacity of the people.  What happens to a consumption-based economy then there is nothing else to consume?

Just think about your position for a second, the way I thought about mine.  I’m a yuppie (young urban professional), and just like the rest of the office plankton I don’t produce anything … neither am I a value-add for anything my company produces.  Are you a doctor?  A farmer?  Do you know a trade?  If no, you, like me, are the first on the chopping block.

We have lost over half a million jobs in November alone, and the rate is accelerating.  This is telling evidence that we’re been living in a fake economy propped up by fake faith in the unshakable US dollar.

John’s story is a compelling reason to safeguard your assets and cut your spending.  It’s the opposite of what our government is doing, which is increasing spending and printing more money.  While you’re doing that, learn how to live way below your means, and pick up a skill or two in the meantime.  For instance, baking bread from scratch and sewing basic clothes is something I am working on right now.  And if I’m wrong, we’ll have a laugh about it later :)