In your opinion.........

[Britesea]

You got that right Emerald!

Hard times are coming, and it looks like it will take a looong time for them to turn around. But still, I have faith that people will figure out how to survive, and even have fun no matter what.

 

[R2D2]

I don't have any Amish living nearby. You folks living near the Amish would know.I am surprised to read these things and have never read or heard the new Amish stories until his thread.I still believe we can learn allot from the Amish, but have to say, you guys have changed my perception a bit..Thanks for enlightening me...

 

[FarmerChick]

well I think 'any group' of people who have that 'difference' is a good thing most times. We can learn so much from how others live their lives and what they hold dear.

but as with everything, people do need to 'kinda' stay up with the times lol

me, I don't have MP3 players, iPods, Wii and all that stuff. Alot of technology I do not have any desire to purchase or learn about. Alot of what is out there and in the world and easily accessible to me I just let go by.......I do live alot simpler than many of my friends lol

everyone needs to just pick and choose the technology and beliefs and values etc. into their lives and live to the fullest how they want their journey to proceed.

every time their is a detour a new road opens ahead...it is always intersting to find what is around the bend

 

[Toulle]

My apologies for my contribution to the thread drift - it was very interesting however and someone should start a thread on the Amish, Menonites and such.

The original Q was:

how long do think we have until a breakdown in society? Im just wondering what you guys think.

I think definitely in the next 15 years but more than likely WAY before then.........

I think it is already happening.
It is almost like the "frog in the pot" scenario, as it is going rather slowly. Not so slow, however, that nobody is noticing. Obviously somebody here has noticed, as well as many other places.
I believe that we all will die in a world very different from the one we were born in.

I'm not talking about some "Mad Max" scenario on the horizon, tho anything is possible. I would expect more of a "Grapes of Wrath" or such - a new Great Depression.
In some areas, such as the Rural South and Real West, people may be poor and have little luxuries, but they will get by. These are the places where you see a much greater level of SS.
In urban areas, where what some call the "zombies" are, there will probably be very high crime and a very gritty existence. In these places there will be a police/nanny state. I have noticed that Govt Agencies are always hiring cops and social workers, way more than they used to. Every police force I know of has increased in size and budget. Depts of human services are also growing.
And in all areas, the people who are currently wealthy will still be wealthy.

But, if we actually take the lessons and put them to use (unlike we did after the Great Depression, or after WWII to be more accurate) the world will be a better place for it. It will be like taking some medicine - awful unpleasant but good for us in the long term.
It will put a stop to our unsustainable practices. We will no longer worship the SUV, the wide screen TV, and demand constant air conditioning. We will no longer be a consumer society.
Our government will end its involvement in no-win wars and other situations, including the "War on Drugs" and other wastes of taxpayers' money.
A shrunken tax base will mean a shrinking government.
People will stop having babies they can't feed - in both the US and abroad.

All of the above will be a great example of what I was talking about earlier - adapting to a changing environment.
Certain lifestyles will probably cease to exist, at least in the forms we know it. The Amish have already been cited as a grand example.

Just my soapbox moment....

 

[k0xxx]

I couldn't agree with Toulle more. We have been experience a steady decline for some time, and I feel that it is accelerating.

As a wise person once said, "Change is inevitable, except from a vending machine."

 

[moolie]

The thing is, that the America everyone always seems to be talking about when they talk about "society" actually only existed for about 5 minutes back in the 1050s while everyone was sat down watching "Father Knows Best" or "Leave it to Beaver".

The reality of "society" is that it is global, and the majority of global society has never enjoyed what America had at any point during the 20th century. It's not 1955 anymore, nor is it 2000 or even 2007 anymore--time marches on, and it's time to pay the piper for past decisions made.

The fiscal crises that are cropping up world-wide are the direct result of "failure to plan ahead syndrome".

The question then becomes how to best weather the storm, because there is pretty much nothing the average citizen can do about national debt. The very first thing that people need to start doing, by and large in the 1st world nations, is to start taking personal responsibility for their actions. I know that in America this is thought of as "less government" but in other parts of the world it is thought of as more "transparent" or "responsible" or "accountable" government.

Perhaps your government IS too big, as an outsider I prefer to think that the bloat is not so much how much actual government you have, but rather how the system works--lobbyists have more power in your nation than actual elected officials. And no one voted for them, they work for special interest groups and multi-national corporations. It was noted yesterday that the US isn't a capitalist nation because the government is too much in charge of things, I don't see it that way--the capitalists are fully in charge and guide all major policy decisions.

Personal responsibility is huge, and people who gravitate toward this forum are already thinking along those lines, but I still see a lot of blame being laid on outside forces (the government etc.) rather than people pulling up their bootstraps and getting to work on fixing what's broken.

Don't play the game, make your vote count, state your opinions, work for change. Stir the pot, not just in a rather insignificant (on the world, or even national, scene) forum like this but in real life.

BUILD community, teach the lemmings how to live responsibly, and make a difference. The whole "think globally, act locally" thing actually works if you actually do it.

 

[Icu4dzs]

My apologies for my contribution to the thread drift - it was very interesting however and someone should start a thread on the Amish, Menonites and such.

The original Q was:

how long do think we have until a breakdown in society? Im just wondering what you guys think.

I think definitely in the next 15 years but more than likely WAY before then.........

I think it is already happening.
It is almost like the "frog in the pot" scenario, as it is going rather slowly. Not so slow, however, that nobody is noticing. Obviously somebody here has noticed, as well as many other places.
I believe that we all will die in a world very different from the one we were born in.

I'm not talking about some "Mad Max" scenario on the horizon, tho anything is possible. I would expect more of a "Grapes of Wrath" or such - a new Great Depression.
In some areas, such as the Rural South and Real West, people may be poor and have little luxuries, but they will get by. These are the places where you see a much greater level of SS.
In urban areas, where what some call the "zombies" are, there will probably be very high crime and a very gritty existence. In these places there will be a police/nanny state. I have noticed that Govt Agencies are always hiring cops and social workers, way more than they used to. Every police force I know of has increased in size and budget. Depts of human services are also growing.
And in all areas, the people who are currently wealthy will still be wealthy.

But, if we actually take the lessons and put them to use (unlike we did after the Great Depression, or after WWII to be more accurate) the world will be a better place for it. It will be like taking some medicine - awful unpleasant but good for us in the long term.
It will put a stop to our unsustainable practices. We will no longer worship the SUV, the wide screen TV, and demand constant air conditioning. We will no longer be a consumer society.
Our government will end its involvement in no-win wars and other situations, including the "War on Drugs" and other wastes of taxpayers' money.
A shrunken tax base will mean a shrinking government.
People will stop having babies they can't feed - in both the US and abroad.

All of the above will be a great example of what I was talking about earlier - adapting to a changing environment.
Certain lifestyles will probably cease to exist, at least in the forms we know it. The Amish have already been cited as a grand example.

Just my soapbox moment....

Excellent assessment of the situation; particularly the frog in the warm water analogy. It is happening slowly so folks will not notice it until it is too late to reverse it...and that may already be true. That is the reason we, the SS-er's do what we do.
I agree with Toulle on this as does K0xxx who always tends to lend the voice of reason to things of this nature.
The question we really have to ask is "Are we REALLY ready to withstand the results of what is going to happen?
Some will say yes, and others may think "yes" but have no clue as to what that means.

I like what Moolie says, too! She is "from another country" and she clearly "gets it" Nice work!
Keep your butt down, your head on a swivel and your powder dry!
Trim sends
//bt//

 

[k0xxx]

how long do think we have until a breakdown in society? Im just wondering what you guys think.

I think definitely in the next 15 years but more than likely WAY before then.........

As Toulle wrote: "The original Q was:"

Society may not actually breakdown regardless of what happens, but given the realities of our society these days, I find it hard to believe. If it does, I believe that is would be an economic crisis that will be the cause. I agree with fact that to a certain extent, that is is happening now.

The best that I can do is give my thoughts on a timetable for the likely cause of the aforementioned breakdown. So here goes: I don't know, and I wish that I did.

That being said, there are a lot of people, who know a lot more than I do, that are saying that a breakdown of the financial system (which may precipitate a societal meltdown) may happen within the next 18 months. There are those like Gerald Celente who feel that we may have less than a month. Yikes! He makes some good points in his arguments. The powers in Europe are trying to orchestrate and orderly default of Greece. In the last three months, the world has seen 9.4 trillion dollars of wealth evaporate in the markets. Germany, who has been the main player in propping up the Euro, reportedly has ordered an emergency printing of Deutschmarks, in case it becomes necessary to abandon the Euro. The death of the Euro could cause the US banking system, which through the Federal Reserve is heavily invested in European banks, to become shaky. A number of big players in the middle east have said that if there is any hint of this instability in American banks, that they would move their wealth out. This would have only two possible outcomes, the US banks would go under, or there would be another massive printing of money by the Fed. Basically, these people are saying that we are staring at a second Great Depression. If that short time scenario is worrisome, the outlook for the next year is even worse. Something is definitely going on when European countries (Austria and France so far) start restricting the private ownership of gold. But if you take Europe out of the equation, I still believe that America and the dollar will go belly up of our own doing. We've dug ourselves too deep of a hole to climb out of, and there are two many trip wires out there to avoid one of them from being stumbled on.

Do I believe that we on the precipice of a second Great Depression? Heck, I'm just another old, fat hillbilly living in the hills of Arkansas, so what do I know? I do believe though, that it is a real possibility and that we may see thing start to accelerate in the very near term. So my timetable is 18 months at best, 30 days at the worst. YMMV and I hope and pray that I turn out to be just a paranoid old hermit.