What have you done to prepare for the Great Depression?

Humans have been around for thousands and thousands of years and we survived without any of these items. Actually, the people who built my house in 1820 would not recognize a thing on your list, and I think they lived a somewhat good life. If they had antibiotics they probably would have lived as long or longer than we do.

The reality is that people need to stop indulging themselves to the point of unmanageable debt and stop living above their means. Most people are not going to start raising chickens and canning tomatoes. Even doing so does not guarantee survival. I do hope this economy will make people focus on the important things in life like family and community instead of their own selfish desires. People need to stop relying on the Corporate World for their security and start looking to themselves and their collective power as a society to form a safety net. The strong must be willing to help the weak.

I have prepared, if that's what you want to call it, by living well below my means, getting into stocks in 2002 and out of them in 2007, and hoarding enough reserves to survive a prolonged period of unemployment.

People stocking up on frozen dinners? That is so American. Worried about riots in the streets, but taking it for granted that their freezer will have electrical power no matter how fucked up things get.

I for one am going to start churning my own butter.

seriously...
Once again GW we are in complete agreement.

I for one have never led an extravagant life. At the same time, I haven't been a skinflint.

I grew up with parents who were born in 1924 and 1925. My dear grandmother lived next door.

They ended up doing very well financially. However, they, especially my grandmother never fully got past this "living in the depression" mentality.
Oh sure, my parents drove Lincolns, went on cruises, and spent a lot of money on things that others could see. Then, there was the other side....

This is a 2 parter...When I was little, maybe 6, I was tasked with cleaning out a junk drawer, full of bits of this and that. Today, I would have tipped the entire drawer into the garbage can. I remember going through everything, putting old paper clips, pencils, rubber bands, all covered with grease and grim into little piles. Finally, being 6ish, I got tired of doing this, and took the handful of 3/4 inch pencils left in the draw and threw them out. When my father came in for lunch he found them, and acted as if I had thrown away a handful of thousand dollar bills.
Part 2....about 15 years later an aunt and I were going through some stuff, and I was stuffing some old cardboard into the trash. My father saw me and made some comment about me still being wasteful. Strangely enough, I knew exactly what he was referring too, but just to test him, asked him what he was talking about.
"The Pencils! The Pencils!"
No **** he start shouting "The Pencils!"

My grandmother, God bless her, was proabably worth a few million in todays dollars when she died, but refused to run the air conditioner, and bought dented cans with no labels at the store.

I intend to keep living the same lifestyle I always have, being careful with my assests, but not stressing out over the pencils.

Now, although I appreciate your great thoughts - I will redefine what I should have written -

What insane things have you done to prepare yourself.

I heard some of these things this morning and thought - people are freaking out -instead of doing the logical things like many of you have mentioned, they are preparing for a huge disaster.

Myself - maybe I will collect fire wood (even though I don't have a fireplace).

Nothing

The pencils! The pencils! Your poor dad has been irrevocably scarred for life because of your wastefulness. Shame on you! And then to add fuel to the fire by testing the poor man. I bet right now he is still mumbling - the pencils, the pencils while shaking his head and thinking how could I have raised such a child!

For laughs - I suggest you give him a box full of pencils for his next birthday.

oh, he's long dead.

2/11/09 11:48 AM
Worthwhile Canadian Initiative | Print Article | Newsweek.com

http://www.newsweek.com/id/183670/output/print

Worthwhile Canadian Initiative
Canadian banks are typically leveraged at 18 to 1--compared with
U.S. banks at 26 to 1.

Fareed Zakaria

NEWSWEEK
From the magazine issue dated Feb 16, 2009

The legendary editor of The New Republic, Michael Kinsley, once held a "Boring Headline Contest" and decided that the winner was "Worthwhile Canadian Initiative." Twenty-two years later, the magazine was rescued from its economic troubles by a Canadian media company, which should have taught us Americans to be a bit more humble. Now there is even more striking evidence of Canada's virtues. Guess which country, alone in the industrialized world, has not faced a single bank failure, calls for bailouts or government intervention in the financial or mortgage sectors. Yup, it's Canada. In 2008, the World Economic Forum ranked Canada's banking system the healthiest in the world. America's ranked 40th, Britain's 44th. Canada has done more than survive this financial crisis. The country is positively thriving in it. Canadian banks are well capitalized and poised to take advantage of opportunities that American
and European banks cannot seize. The Toronto Dominion Bank, for example, was the 15th- largest bank in North America one year ago. Now it is the fifth-largest. It hasn't grown in size; the others have all shrunk.

So what accounts for the genius of the Canadians? Common sense. Over the past 15 years, as the United States and Europe loosened regulations on their financial industries, the Canadians refused to follow suit, seeing the old rules as useful shock absorbers. Canadian banks are typically leveraged at 18 to 1"compared with U.S. banks at 26 to 1 and European banks at a frightening 61 to 1. Partly this reflects Canada's more risk-averse business culture, but it is also a product of old-fashioned rules on banking.

Canada has also been shielded from the worst aspects of this crisis because its housing prices have not fluctuated as wildly as those in the United States. Home prices are down 25 percent in the United States, but only half as much in Canada. Why? Well, the Canadian tax code does not provide the massive incentive for overconsumption that the U.S. code does: interest on your mortgage isn't deductible up north. In addition, home loans in the United States are "non- recourse," which basically means that if you go belly up on a bad mortgage, it's mostly the bank's problem. In Canada, it's yours. Ah, but you've heard American politicians wax eloquent on the need for these expensive programs"interest deductibility alone costs the federal government $100 billion a year"because they allow the average Joe to fulfill the American Dream of owning a home. Sixty-eight percent of Americans own their own homes. And the rate of Canadian homeownership? It's 68.4 percent.

Canada has been remarkably responsible over the past decade or so. It has had 12 years of budget surpluses, and can now spend money to fuel a recovery from a strong position. The government has restructured the national pension system, placing it on a firm fiscal footing, unlike our own insolvent Social Security. Its health-care system is cheaper than America's by far (accounting for 9.7 percent of GDP, versus 15.2 percent here), and yet does better on all major indexes. Life expectancy in Canada is 81 years, versus 78 in the United States; "healthy life expectancy" is 72 years, versus 69. American car companies have moved so many jobs to Canada to take advantage of lower health-care costs that since 2004, Ontario and not Michigan has been North America's largest car-producing region.

I could go on. The U.S. currently has a brain-dead immigration system. We issue a small number of work visas and green cards, turning away from our shores thousands of talented students who want to stay and work here. Canada, by contrast, has no limit on the number of skilled migrants who can move to the country. They can apply on their own for a Canadian Skilled Worker Visa, which allows them to become perfectly legal "permanent residents" in Canada"no need for a sponsoring employer, or even a job. Visas are awarded based on education level, work experience, age and language abilities. If a prospective immigrant earns 67 points out of 100 total (holding a Ph.D. is worth 25 points, for instance), he or she can become a full-time, legal resident of Canada.

Companies are noticing. In 2007 Microsoft, frustrated by its inability to hire foreign graduate students in the United States, decided to open a research center in Vancouver. The company's announcement noted that it would staff the center with "highly skilled people affected by immigration issues in the U.S." So the brightest Chinese and Indian software engineers are attracted to the United States, trained by American universities, then thrown out of the country and picked up by Canada"where most of them will work, innovate and pay taxes for the rest of their lives.

If President Obama is looking for smart government, there is much he, and all of us, could learn from our quiet"OK, sometimes boring"neighbor to the north. Meanwhile, in the councils of the financial world, Canada is pushing for new rules for financial institutions that would reflect its approach. This strikes me as, well, a worthwhile Canadian initiative.

URL: http://www.newsweek.com/id/183670
© 2009


I'm not too worried and that's why.

oops foot in mouth - sorry.

This hits home...

" U.S. currently has a brain-dead immigration system. We issue a small number of work visas and green cards, turning away from our shores thousands of talented students who want to stay and work here. "

My college roommate was from out of the country. Her parents sent her here since she was in middle school to get a better education - she stayed with an aunt and uncle.

When she graduated college, she was unable to get a work visa - she didn't want to go back home now, feeling more at home here in the US. She went on to grad school instead of going home. But she wasn't able to work.

I've loaded up the '26 Ford truck with all our possessions and we're headin' out, leavin' this damn dust bowl, Oklahoma, for Kal-a-4-nye-eh.

I'm stocking up on electrical power, too.

Well that is what the generator is for ya damn fool!

I've done nothing. But I think I should. Maybe hoarding pencils is a good start.

I have a huge cache of liquor, cocaine, gasoline, guns and a stable of willing prostitutes ready for commerce with all sides of the revolution.

and rubber bands.

don't forget the rubber bands.

That would explain the lousy job it does cutting the grass.

don't forget chocolate.