Some Will, Some Won't, So What?

I honestly believe the economy is going to be far worse in coming years than anyone is willing to admit. The problems we see in Europe with the Euro are happening because governments were unwilling to make the hard choices to keep spending in control. We are doing the same thing here. The only difference is until President Obama took office we were doing it much more slowly.

The people charging us headlong into national bankruptcy claim we just haven't spent enough and if the government steps up and spends while business and individuals are unwilling or unable to, everything will magically be fine.

That approach has never worked anywhere in the world and it has been tried many times.

However, I'm not really interested in debating this policy point. The fact is where are where we are and that is going to propel us to where we will be in the coming years.

I learned a great deal leading up to the housing crash in the previous decade. I learned people will go to great lengths to convince themselves the data at hand is something different than what it is. Remember when "experts" were saying things like, "there has never been a sustained downturn in real estate values"? I pointed out with historical data there had and for the same reasons it was happening again.

Leading up to the housing crash, I was telling our readers the whys and why nots involved as well as what they needed to be doing to prepare. Some read my mind droppings, did their own research, came to similar conclusions and took steps to prepare. I have had extensive conversations with those who did that and learned some interesting facts.

For example, the ones who took steps to prepare were already predisposed to take those steps. In other words, they didn't read my writings and suddenly have a complete turnaround in their thinking. They read my writings, found them consistent with what they already knew, suspected or believed. Then they continued their due diligence process and took the steps they took. They were far more interested in what my ideas on preparation were rather than the nitty-gritty whys and why nots.

In other words, I was part of their due diligence process, not the trigger. Interesting.

Now, in 2010, we are in a much more precarious situation than we were in 2004/2005. However, I am taking a totally different approach this time. Back then, I was obsessed with providing the full background story. Now, I am still going to give some of the background but in a different way. Instead of laying out a thesis of how we got here and how it could have been avoided, I am just going to point out the bits and pieces that are driving us in the direction we are going.

Therefore, I am not going to debate whether the social spending levels are morally justified. The fact they are unsustainable makes all that moot. The fact they are driving the debt up to the point where we are bankrupt as a nation makes it all moot too.

I am going to focus more on the concrete steps anyone should be taking given the reality around us. That way, you can read what I think, what I am doing in preparation and then, you can decide for yourself what to do for you and your family.

Before we were married, my wife sold Amway. One particular phrase the Amway people like to use is, "Some will, some won't, so what?" That is my attitude here now. Some of you will read this and think maybe there is something to this. You will do your own due diligence and take steps to prepare. Ten years from now you will look back and think, "Wow, I sure dodged a bullet then!" You may or may not thank me. :) Some of you will read this and think, "Wow, just another conservative who doesn't understand we are trying to save the people of the world and bring equality to all. So what if the economy tanks and we default on our debts, it's just all paper money any way." Ten years from now...

Well...

As I said, "Some will, some won't, so what?"