Holiday Generosity: A Beautiful Story At Christmas Time

Yesterday I wrote about the domino effect of thoughts that led me to wonder what I might do if I won the MO lottery jackpot, which was over $100 million.  What I left out was the fact that I saw this jackpot on a billboard as I drove to a discount grocery store, where I witnessed a situation that has sadly become commonplace.

I went mainly for oranges, but the way the store is designed, you have to go through each aisle in order to get to anything.  As I passed the non-food section, I saw two men quietly but intensely discussing a possible purchase, and from their tone as well as their faded, dirty clothes and their worn out boots and jackets, I could tell that if the money was available, the purchase would simply be a done deal.  It wasn't. 

Not five feet from them stood a boy of around 8 years old.  While they discussed, the boy stared at a boxed toy set that couldn’t have been more than $6.  I knew he wouldn’t go home with it.  I felt so bad for him.  He wasn’t throwing a tantrum, or whining for it, he was just fixated on it, his body rigid with the tension of wanting it yet keeping himself from reaching for it.  A two year old blond boy less than two years old kept reaching from his seat in the cart, saying the boy's name and reaching for him, but not fussing or crying.  That told me the older boy was kind to the little one, not mean or the little one wouldn't reach for him without fear.

If I could have, I would have bought the toy for him and left it at the cashier’s register with a description of the boy, they were the only kids in the store.  As it is, my ex-husband lost his job and then I lost mine.  I can’t even get my own kids anything this year.  They’ll get plenty from my family, so it’s not like they will go without, but this little guy, I wasn’t so sure.  He was clean and looked healthy, well-fed, neither fat nor too lean.  It was obvious that his father took the best care of him he could.  It just killed me to look around at situations like this and know that half of American households are currently living in poverty, for no reason anyone can think of. 

The antidote to this toxic topic for me has been the wonderful stories like the Kmart layaway payoffs, where generous but anonymous persons went into Kmart stores around the country and asked the layaway clerks if there were any accounts that were about to be lost due to late payments, especially those with toys or clothing for little kids.  People in line to pay were surprised by a total stranger behind them in line who said, “I’ve got this.”  Out of nowhere, this lovely and generous gesture has been extended to families in need.  I find this such a beautiful thing, it gives me hope about our future as a country.

One such story did not make the news, but since he is a friend of mine, I got to hear it.  I asked if I could tell this story here, and was given permission to repeat it.

My friend Alan Shelton lives in Oceanside, CA, just a few blocks from the beach.  Oceanside is becoming “gentrified”, but it still has its share of people living on the streets and others who work hard but who have no extras.

Every day Alan walks his two dogs through the transit station in Oceanside where a hot dog stand owned by Mike, The Hot Dog Guy (sorry, I don’t know Mike’s last name, just his occupation) is located.  They always exchange “hello’s” as Alan and the dogs pass by. 

A couple of days ago, this exchange took place:

“How much is it for a hot dog?” asked Alan.

Mike answered, “You can get a hot dog, a drink, and chips for four bucks.” 

Alan pulled a one-hundred dollar bill out of his pocket and handed it to Mike, saying, “Well here’s enough for 25 hot dog combos.  Hand ‘em out to whoever you think needs them.”

Mike went home that night and sat in his chair, the hundred dollar bill in his pocket, and waited for his girlfriend to finish telling him the highlights of her day.

When she stopped, she asked him, “What about your day?  Anything good or special happen?”

He pulled out the hundred dollar bill and said, “Wait until you hear this.”

He told her of Alan’s gift, and then of the first two receivers. 

The first, he said, was a young man who comes up from Mexico every year around this time to visit his family.  Mike said he always wonders how this guy manages since he lost both arms to a farm machinery accident when he was a child.  When he arrives, he likes to get a hot dog and then spends two dollars on the train ride to his family’s house.  This year, however, he couldn’t afford either the hot dog or the train ride.  The young man was overjoyed when Mike said something to the effect of “Have I got a deal for you.”  Mike was able not only to give the young man the hot dog combo, but also the two dollars for the train ride to get the rest of the way to see his family.  The young armless man from Mexico expressed his gratitude with a big smile, and caught the next train to his reunion.  I did not ask how he managed a hot dog combo with no arms, but I imagine he’s had a lifetime to figure these things out. 

The second recipient that first day was a man who lived in a nearby group home.  This guy loves Mike’s hot dogs, but it takes him an average of three weeks of scrimping and saving nickels, pennies, and dimes in order to come up with enough cheese to buy one of Mike’s dogs.  On this day when the now sober man walked past Mike’s stand to say “Hi”, Mike stopped him.

“Santa has a surprise for you.”  And he gave him one of the 25 hot dog combos.  The man was moved to tears when Mike told him that a beneficiary had provided funds enough for a few people in the neighborhood to get a hot dog, chips, and a drink.  It may seem like a very small or silly thing to you and me, but when you think about it, it is exactly as Alan said to me the week before when a similar situation arose for someone else.  Frugality fatigue is what we call it now, but this is how he explained it:

“It’s those little indulgences that we buy for ourselves that that make a desperate life more palatable.” 

What was nice about it was he got right to the heart of the psychology of the person without judging them to be irresponsible or bad.  That is something I can understand and relate to, small comforts in the face of big difficulties.

These hot dogs were a small gift in the grand scheme of things.  Alan points out that he by himself cannot eliminate poverty.  What his gesture did do, however, was very impactful in his immediate sphere of influence.  He made 25 people's day.

Most people, like Alan, are overwhelmed in the face of the staggering statistic of 50% of American households living in poverty.  We don’t know where to begin.  How do we fix what’s broken?  I don’t think we can right away, it’s too deep and too wide, this gap between rich and poor. 

 In the short term, all we can do is look around at what we have that we don’t need, whether that is money, household goods, extra food, blankets, clothing, toys, winter coats, whatever, and then look around to see who would most benefit from the receipt of these items. 

Those people that I know who can help someone else this Christmas are looking for a family to adopt in order to help one entire household thoroughly, rather than diffusely helping many by donating to an organization.  They scale the problem and the solution down to a manageable size.  So many people need help these days just to keep the lights and heat on and food on the table.  A little truly does go a long way right now. 

I hope you get what you need and give what you can.

Best wishes,

India Rivers

How Can The Very Rich Best Help Their Communities As Well As Themselves?

The 1% as we’ve come to call those that hold the majority of our country’s wealth, are largely oblivious to the plight of the average American, but what if they weren’t?  What if they recognized that with 50% of American households living in poverty, they are at risk of losing half their wealth due to their assets becoming devalued?  Are the very rich aware that most Americans want a job, not a handout?  And that these same people, once gainfully employed, are the very reason the 1% ARE the 1% in the first place?  Really, the Average Jane and Joe want jobs, and safe and decent housing.  But who is interested in making that happen?

Today I passed a Missouri Lottery billboard, and both forms of the lottery, Powerball and whatever else we have here, had jackpots of over $100 million.  Of course, I see those numbers and start to wonder, “What would I do if I had that much money?”  I start listing all of the people in my family and in my community that would welcome a payout.  Then I imagine all the trouble money like that supposedly brings.  Most lottery winners file bankruptcy within 5 years of winning, if I remember correctly.  Why is that?  Just yesterday I was speaking with my friend Alan Shelton about that very thing.  I’d mentioned my disgust with the Kardashians and their vast money-making machines for doing absolutely nothing of value in our society, while everywhere I turn there are stories of real people with heart and abilities and good manners to boot, who are homeless and hungry or very nearly so.  The injustice of it all makes me ill. 

Alan’s response was thoughtful and measured as always, something to the effect of, “When you get to the level of money that the Kardashians are throwing around, Hollywood money, that money is just exchanged between people at that level.  It’s expected, it’s part of the dance.”  I hate that dance, then, but I get it.  If that’s the case, then this is why lottery winners often go broke:  There is a whole world of very wealthy people who know how very large sums of money are exchanged and moved around amongst themselves.  If you have the money but not the know-how, you’re going to spend and not invest, or give it to the people who will take it but not include you in the next round of exchange.  When you spend, that which goes out does not come back.  When you invest, you’re money not only comes back to you, it brings friends.

If this were true, then if I won the lottery and I wanted to make a difference with my winnings, I should invest in something that would create jobs and opportunities for people in my community, as well as brings me a return on my investment.  If my money keeps going out but coming back multiplied, even by a small margin, then I can continue to create opportunities for people, right?  This then begs a new set of questions:  What kind of company would I create?  I still don’t know the answer to that one.  Where would I create this company?  I don’t know that one, either, but it would probably be dependent on the answer to my first question.  My thoughts on this are to sit down with people who are smarter than I am in these areas, let them talk, ask tons of questions, listen to their answers, and then ask some more and so on until I feel I have an idea and a grasp of how to make it work.  Does anyone think Warren Buffett would throw in his two cents?  He would be the perfect go-to guy for this sort of brainstorming session.

Here are solutions I DID think of in the course of my musings:  I would build a community that lives and works in the same area.  The company must be ecologically responsible because it will be situated near the residential community where the employees will have the option of buying into at really low prices.  To accomplish the goal of a concentrated area of affordable housing near the company, I would sit down with developers and look for an area with a high number of foreclosures so that we can get a deal on enough homes at low enough prices, say an entire neighborhood in a bank’s foreclosure inventory.  Banks want to get these properties off their books which might make them more willing to deal, especially for a large cash offer.   This would make it possible to turn around and sell them to employees for a reasonable price.  A division of the company could hold the loan so that employees wouldn’t have to go through the hoops of being approved by a bank after they’ve been underemployed or unemployed for a time, etc.  The loans would be very low interest, taking the stress of paying the mortgage off of their shoulders, making it reasonable and manageable, and in theory it might make employees happier and more loyal to the company.

To increase the sense of community, part of the company’s mission statement would be “to give back or to take care of” in some way, each person at every level of the company.  Donations, volunteering, or just helping each other out as needed would be encouraged.  Ten percent of the company’s profits will be donated to causes deemed worthy, whether they are college scholarships for the employees’ kids, help in paying off catastrophic medical bills, or donating food to the local food bank, the money will be used in the most impactful and meaningful ways we can find at the time.

Community gardens, backyard gardens, local grocery store and gas station, coffee shop and bakery, movie theater, bookstore, walking paths and bike paths, efficient public transit, a library, everything a community needs in order to survive and thrive would be part of the development plan.  Once that smaller area is being developed and revitalized, and people flock there for jobs and housing, the shops will follow and the surrounding areas will also naturally transform, though perhaps more slowly, unless of course, the idea catches on.  It would need to remain open to the flow from outside of the community in order to remain relevant and healthy, and not become too insular.  Self-sufficiency is to be lauded and encouraged, but not to the exclusion of others.  Instead, the company and the community would more likely thrive if the idea of interdependency were illuminated alongside self-sufficiency.  To not be a burden is a wonderful thing, but to give and accept help as needed is to bring balance and fullness to one’s life.

Doesn’t it seem that if I can think of how I would use my imaginary lottery winnings to both benefit my community and profit personally, that those who already have that kind of money and know how to use it should be able to think of something similar? 

I can’t be alone in this line of thinking, but perhaps those of us who think this way are only be found in the 99% majority.  I hope not. 

I’m off to buy a lottery ticket.

How can the very rich help their communities as well as themselves?

Chickens in the City (and Willie Nelson writes an article titled "Occupy the Food Sector!")

Chickens in the City
No, I’m not talking about yellow-bellied cowards that run from a fight.  I mean the small clucking creatures covered in feathers that lay those ellipsoids we like to cook up and eat.  They are currently finding housing in cities and suburbs!  My city’s clerk was about as floored as I was to hear about it.  I called to ask about local ordinances regarding keeping chickens in my backyard, and she stammered through her answer after asking me to repeat my question.  She heard me the first time.  She just didn’t believe she’d heard me right.

*Note* This morning I took a break from creating my Seed Savers Exchange Catalog wish list to peruse the Huffington Post.  It was my turn to be floored.  Willie Nelson wrote the most intelligent article on the dangers of the corporate monopoly in the United States’ food sector and on behalf of the family farmer that I have seen to date.  His title is “Occupy the Food System”.  He makes the point that the food sector is bigger than the financial sector.  They told us the financial sector was too big to fail, and we all know how that turned out.  You can read his article here:  http://www.huffingtonpost.com/willie-nelson/occupy-food-system_b_1154212.html. 

Willie Nelson!  Seriously, I’m impressed.  See?  Everybody IS talking about this food supply issue.  Order your seed catalogs today!  Or buy from a local farmer if you can.  A monopoly can only exist when enough people support it through their participation, also known as “voting with their dollars”.  Once buyers (and by that I mean us) decide they want something better, or once they decide that they don’t trust that the biggest food processing corporations have our best interests at heart, then buyers go somewhere else, and the monopoly is left holding the bag and too small a market share to sell their goods to.  They’ll have to lower prices to move what they have left and move into buying something more in line with what consumers want.

And now, back to chickens.

Backyard chickens have been in vogue for years now.  Elaborate, designer chicken coops called “Chicken Chateaus” are sometimes prettier than the owner’s house, and are designed and built for the backyard brood.  Heirloom chicken breeds are thriving again, bred for their beautiful coloring and plumage as well as their egg-laying proclivities (how many, what size, are they brown, white, or speckled, that sort of thing).  These heirloom breeds sometimes represent a sort of fashion statement as they can be very ornamental.  For a while they were a hobby, mostly kept as pets, and for bragging rights.  Fresh eggs were more of a bonus than a necessity.

Attitudes towards backyard chickens are changing.  More people look at at backyard chickens as a viable food source for a small initial investment, so now we see more “city chickens”.  My brother still lives in the neighborhood we grew up in.  His apartment building is a brick multi-unit in the City of St. Louis.  He has no backyard, just a concrete patio, yet down the alley from him, and I never imagined a day when I would say this about anyone in my old neighborhood, his neighbor has a chicken coop and three chickens.  Now my brother is thinking of doing this, as am I, but I live in an older suburb of St. Louis on a half acre lot.  I have the room for chickens, and a garden.  I rent this little bungalow on this large plot of land, though, so I’m looking at container gardening and a chicken coop on wheels (they call them “tractors” when they are on wheels) in case I decide to move to a slightly larger house next summer. 

When you keep small numbers of chickens, you have what is known as a “micro flock”.  The advantages to keeping a micro-flock of chickens are many.  The chicken breeds available today are beautiful and ornamental.  When raised from chicks they are very personable and friendly, each one expressing a distinct personality and preferences.  Chickens are known to eat insects, a huge plus in my book, which in turn makes for great eggs (it’s a protein thing, try not to think about it too much or you will stop eating eggs altogether).  They also eat many kitchen scraps and weeds.  There is a book that describes how to organically care for your micro-flock, including making your own feed, called The Small Scale Poultry Flock: An All Natural Approach by Harvey Ussery , which includes advice on how to keep your flock healthy, and other practical advice you'll need should you embark on this aspect of the self-sufficient journey.  Another book specifically on city chickens is called City Chicks by Patricia Foreman.  I'll be getting these two this winter so that I can plan ahead for spring, the best time of year to buy chicks.  I so look forward to fresh eggs and fresh produce next year! 

For those who wish to learn more about keeping a micro-flock from those who already do so, there are online forums like www.citychickens.com, a site which lets readers contribute to a Google.doc listing chicken laws and ordinances in their own cities and municipalities, organized in alphabetical order by state.  Another popular website for micro-flock owners is www.backyardchickens.com.  There you can find a free forum for owners where they can share, compare, and brag about their chicken raising experiences.  The site covers the different breeds, includes photographs, plus support and advice if and when you need it.  There are chicken coop plans for sale on the Backyard Chickens website, as well. 

Urban Agriculture is a growing movement.  People don’t trust where their food is coming from when they buy it from large corporations and it’s wrapped in plastic.  They don’t know what hormones and chemicals have been added to their food anymore, and no longer do they trust that the food processor is telling them the whole truth about it in order to make a profit or to maintain their margins.  Consumers often don’t trust where their next paycheck is coming from anymore, either.  This lack of trust in these two most basic areas has motivated city dwellers and suburbanites alike to become less dependent on any system outside of their immediate sphere of influence.  Most people are just beginning, and far from completely self-reliant.  Most will never be totally off the grid.  More and more people are taking steps, however, to ensure their own short and long-term survival, whether through Urban Agriculture, or simply saving for their own retirement in lieu of counting on Social Security still being there when they need it.  The nicest outcome of all, so far, is the way people are sharing what they do have.  Already I know that I will plant more than my family can eat alone, and that my chickens will lay more eggs than I can eat or use in baking by myself.  I have a short list of relatives and friends hit hard by this recession with whom I plan to share my extras.  Anything left over after my family and theirs is taken care of will go to my local food bank, since they are always looking for fresh produce to give to families fallen on hard times. 

It's something to think about for next spring!

Fear of Economic Collapse Prompts More Americans Toward Home Grown Food Sources

Dear Readers,

I’m back after a frustrating week as malware, trojans, and viruses rendered my laptop into a very expensive nightlight.  It wasn’t good for much else these past several days.  There was a Windows 7 anti-virus product that bypassed my firewall (of course that’s an easy feat when the virus maker is also the firewall designer) and prevented me from getting on the internet.  The only cure for it was to pay them $59.95 for their anti-virus product, which was the very thing that seemed to cause the problem in the first place.  I flat refuse to participate in extortion.  By the end, I was so frustrated with Microsoft that I was on the verge of spray painting my next blog post on the side of their corporate building.  Luckily, the trip to Seattle would have provided a cooling off period.  Virus eliminated without purchase of software.  Time to move on.

Back to the subject of America’s trend toward opting out:  In my conversations with folks of all ages and income brackets, I see a definite break down into two broad groups:  Those making more than $100,000 per year, and those earning less than that.  Those that are making less are the focus of these recent posts.  Every last person I speak with mentions some cost-cutting or money-saving endeavor they’ve employed in the last year, from coupon clipping to driving less, even supplementing their family’s food supply by one or more of the following methods:  hunting for deer or fowl or small game; starting a garden at home; or raising chickens.  Spending less, recycling and reusing things, has become a new way of life out of necessity, even for those who are not “green at heart”.   However, it is the food supply issue that I find most interesting.

What makes this startling is that the people who tell me they hunt game, grow food, and raise chickens are city dwellers, most of whom have small yards and close neighbors.  If they hunt they have to drive at least two hours to an area where they can hunt whatever game is in season.  They are proud and pleased to fill the freezer with several months’ worth of meat when they are successful.  It’s wonderful to hear the pride they feel toward their own self-sufficiency, especially when they save even more by butchering their own game, rather than paying a butcher to do it for them.

Those with no green space in which to grow vegetables will at least grow herbs in containers.  One innovative Brooklyn woman has created what she calls “Window Farms”.  It’s a brilliant solution for apartment dwellers who wish to have fresh, organic produce year round.    She made the first ones from recycled plastic bottles, plastic tubing, and a small pump.  Her website, http://www.windowfarms.org, provides photographs, descriptions, downloadable instructions and materials lists, as well as the opportunity to buy the first manufactured versions of these hydroponic growing systems when they come off the line in March.  This idea is perfect for people with no ground of their own to garden.

Another grass roots organization that started in the 70’s is the largest non-profit, non-government seed saving and sharing organization in the U.S.:  Seed Savers Exchange.  Their focus is on food-producing plants that are heirloom or open-pollinated, as opposed to hybrid plants.  Heirloom and open-pollinated plants can be reproduced if you save their seeds properly and plant them the following year, or in some cases, if you let the seeds fall to the ground and grow where they may.  Hybrids, however, do not reproduce the same plants from which their seeds come.  Some are bred not to produce seeds at all.  Anyone looking toward a more self-sufficient life would be wise to invest in a garden that does not require one to buy new seeds every year, but rather one that can reproduce itself year after year.  You can read more about Heritage Farm by visiting:  http://www.seedsavers.org.  And here is the best book I’ve found thus far on seed saving, which is also recommended by the Seed Savers organization:  Seed to Seed by Suzanne Ashworth.  Vegetable gardeners are the intended market for this book, as opposed to say flower gardeners.
On Facebook as well around town, I see more home-owners have taken old windows and leftover wood from home renovations and re-used them to fashion cold frames where they grow lettuce and other things they’d like to eat fresh.  Cold-frames extend the growing season by a few months in some areas, allowing the gardener to begin earlier and end later.  This trend is not limited to those making less, by the way.  I’ve seen cold frames in the yards of some very expensive homes in my area.

Edible Landscaping is another trend in the U.S. in which city dwellers and suburbanites alike turn their yards into esthetically pleasing produce gardens.  The yard can be filled with gorgeous, flourishing vegetable plants like kale and lettuces and tomatoes and peppers and herbs, instead of blue fescue.  There are a few good books on the topic, such as Edible Landscaping by Rosalind Creasy, or The Edible Front Yard by Ivette Soler.  Something I hope to do someday is covered in Landscaping With Fruit by Lee Reich.  Blueberry hedges and strawberry ground covers...yum!  Another garden style I want to try is Gaia's Garden by Toby Hemenway because it employs the permaculture approach and the result is a "forest garden", a natural habitat that is populated by birds and animals that balance it out and help it function.  This approach takes time but not more space than the average yard, and results in a mostly self-maintaining garden.  Any of these books will get you started, and there are myriad others to get lost in over the winter.  Let the garden planning begin!  It's so much more optimistic than paying attention to the things that we cannot control.

Organic, fresh produce (from backyard to kitchen, it’s hard to get fresher than that) is now grown by more non-rural dwellers because they have decided that they don’t want to buy from the grocery store anymore, or wait for the weekly farmer’s market.  They want the satisfaction of knowing they are saving money and eating healthy, and that the quality meets their standards.  When we grow our own produce, we get our produce when we want it, in season, without having to rely on anyone else for the funds or the food, once the seeds are purchased.  There are plenty of local seed exchanges across the country, so once you start you will have something to trade and money will be even less of an obstacle. 

Those of us who enjoy digging in the dirt as well as the satisfaction of our own harvests would do this anyway, but the growth in this trend seems motivated by an underlying “What if…?” sentiment that pervades the majority of American minds now.  What if I lose my job?  What if the stock market crashes?  What if my assets lose their value?  And The Big Question:  What if the economy crashes?  The answer these hunters and gardeners give us is this:  “I can still eat.  No matter how silly the government gets, no matter how lame Congress becomes, even if I lose my job, I will be able to feed myself and my family.” 

Thanks for checking in!

Tomorrow’s topic:  Micro Flocks, better known as Backyard Chickens.

Opting Out, Part 2

We have become so accustomed to living life as we have been, whatever that may look like for each of us, that we have to varying degrees suffered a sense of shock since our economies have become depressed.  It is a built-in part of our economic cycle that there are periods of contraction followed by shorter periods of expansion.  Lately we have seen more expansion, and most of us grew up with easy credit, borrowing and spending were part of our economic system as we knew it.  We thought nothing of borrowing heavily, buying our way to happiness and a sense of “the good life”.  Lately though, our thinking has changed.  We now talk of saving, spending less on things we use every day, trying to need less in the first place, and some of us, whether we realize it or not, are really looking for ways to live off the grid.

As I started to say yesterday, the “opting out” revolution seems to come from the sense that in order to survive, we will have to find different people with whom we can play this game of life if we are to have a fair shot at it, a game in which dollars are not used as a means of exchange, or in which whatever means of exchange we use is not controlled by people whom we don’t even know.  Everyone I know and meet or read about who makes less than $100,000 USD per year is feeling the pain of America’s economic contraction. 

Today everyone not in the upper tax brackets is in freak out over their economic security.  Going cold-turkey from spending has been hard on those who used to be middle class or upper middle class, the strata of our society that really drove our economic expansion with their consumer spending, which has led to common use of new terms such as “frugality fatigue”.  Even that phenomenon is wearing off, though. 

The behavioral shift that has taken place in the aftermath of this consumer spending binge, our economic hangover if you will, is similar to the behavioral changes that followed the spike in gas prices.  Permanent changes in behavior and consumer spending took place because of the prolonged and unexpected period of high gas prices.  We are now entering a phase of acceptance that we can never trust again that if we work hard we will be rewarded with a good paying job that provides a nice home in a good neighborhood where our kids can go to good schools and we can drive decent cars that are well-maintained, and still have money for vacations and Christmas presents and college funds.  In place of that trust in the system we took for an impermeable reality, we now look more and more to self-reliance and to our local community for economic exchange.  Overwhelmed by the staggering and incomprehensible workings of our complex economy, the only thing about which we understand is that it is on the verge of collapse, we seek instead to make our immediate surroundings, our neighborhoods, our homes, safe and viable.

In this blog over the next week or two I will share with you, the reader, the steps people are taking to feel safe once again, to assure them that they can survive an economic collapse or a power outage due to a natural disaster, or the loss of income for an extended period of time.  These responses include but are not limited to:  Thrift store shopping; growing food at home; earning extra income; stocking up a supply of food and water; ways to stay healthy for those with no health insurance; and buying local and handmade items from people they can shake hands and talk with, local people, rather than from a nameless, faceless corporation, just as Faith Popcorn predicted we would after the banks were bailed out and people felt burned by Wall Street.  The undercurrent of this thread of topics will be the low-tech revolution, growing out of the grass roots response into what I believe will become varying degrees of practice and acceptance nationwide. 

*Note:  Sadly, one of the very things Americans are doing nowadays to protect themselves from economic collapse or to remain self-sufficient in the face of a Katrina-level natural disaster has potentially become illegal.  The Senate passed the National Defense Authorization Act last week, making America a battleground upon which our military can act as if in a war zone, detaining without due process or habeas corpus or even assassinate any citizen suspected of being a terrorist.  Unfortunately, part of their definition of a terrorist was a person who has more than 7 days worth of food stored.  Doesn’t that mean pretty much everyone who shops at Costco?

America's Growing Trend: Opting Out and Becoming More Self-Sufficient

Currently, my interest revolves around the developing trend of “opting out”, the phrase I use to describe Americans growing distrust of those in charge of our economy, both macro and micro, to the point where they are looking for ways to not engage with them anymore.  When you were a kid, did you ever find yourself sitting opposite a friend, playing a game, when suddenly you realized they were cheating, or otherwise bending the rules to insure their victory?  How did you respond?  Some of us called the other kid on it, and we gave them a chance to come clean and compete in a fair manner.  Others got mad and punched him in the nose.  Some of us got up in disgust and walked away, whether we gave them a chance to make it right and they refused, or we just left right away.  The latter is what I see and hear now in terms of the average citizen’s response to our country’s financial system.  Those at the top have gamed the system to their own advantage, regardless of the cost to the rest of us.  Only a very small percentage of our population is winning at this game.  It is only a matter of time before they start to lose, though.  For the last several years I have asked out loud this question:  “Who do these people think is going to buy their products and services if they keep all this money to themselves?”  Only recently have I received an answer, from my friend Alan Shelton*, one of the most intelligent persons I have ever met.  His answer was essentially this:  “Eventually, the wealthiest Americans will realize that their assets are devalued by the inability of people to buy things.  Most of their net worth is not in cash but in their assets, so this will ultimately eliminate up to about half of their wealth.  Homes, yachts, bonds, all these things that they possess will have less value because the market will no longer bear the prices they had when money flowed.  When money stops flowing, it becomes stagnant.  They will eventually realize that they will have to pay taxes and in other ways put money back into the system if they want their assets to retain or regain their value.”  By the time the folks that occupy that strata of our economy realizes this, it will likely be too late to make amends with their customers and consumers.  The former middle class members will have already moved on to a more self-sufficient lifestyle, playing the economic game with those who know how and are willing to play fair.  There will be fewer people in the market place for what it is the very wealthy want to sell us.  Trust will be the new currency, I hear from time to time.  Bartering will be the way we get what we need, rather than an exchange of cash.  We are a resourceful people, and we will find ways to get around whatever barriers are erected before us.  I don’t foresee us going completely without cash anytime soon, but I do believe more people will opt out more often as fears of a deep recession languish.  

No one fully understands how our economy works, no one.  It is too large a machine with too many moving parts.  There are those who can guess at how A affects B better than others, but it’s still a crap shoot in terms of exactly what the outcome will be if say, Greece’s economy collapses, or Italy’s, or if any of the EU countries stop participating in the use of the Euro. 

However, I can tell you this:  Every day I hear from people all over who share their concerns about America’s economy and what they perceive as their tenuous foothold in it.  These people, everyday average working Americans, are looking at a future of not using money to get what they need, because they sense that in the not too distant future, they may not be able to win this game against those that designed it. 

Check in tomorrow to read the rest of my overview of the “opting out revolution”.

*Special thanks to my friend Alan E. Shelton, a philosopher and the West Coast's best financial guy turned corporate thought leader, for all the many and varied conversations over the course of our friendship.  It is due to his level of analysis and his ability to get to the heart of complex issues such as government, economies, and when to worry (almost never, he says, at least not about those two areas of life) as well as his crystal clear explanations of these complex issues that have led to the level of clarity on my part in understanding what's going on in the worlds of finance and government.  Any inaccuracies are my fault, not his.  Alan's first book, "Awakened Leadership:  Beyond Self-Mastery" is due to be released in May of 2012.  For more on Alan, check out his website:  www.alanshelton.com