From what I’m reading, the troubles should start to pick up now; harbors being quieter, truckers not having work, … Are any shortages noticeable yet?
ETA:
Source: https://paulkrugman.substack.com/p/trump-is-a-virus
Businesses have been filling their inventories. That’s ending now. Economic pain in terms of job losses should accelerate now. It will still take up to a few weeks before inventories run empty, and the full impact hits consumers. Even a full reversal of Trumpism couldn’t prevent knock-on effects that last into next year.
Regardless of whether you think something catastrophic will happen tomorrow, next month, next year or never, it’s a smart plan to have an emergency stash of shelf-stable food and drinking water to last 72 hours per person in your household for whatever natural or manmade disaster.
This! I don’t even live in a disaster prone area, but I always make sure we’d be fine without power/water for a few days at least.
Most aren’t even aware that this is coming.
A large portion of the rest are in denial. So many people can only learn through the lens of their own experience
I got a passport, and am wrapping up a degree in nursing.
It’s not necessarily my intention to jump ship as soon as I graduate, but knowing that it’s an option will be a great comfort.
Other than that, I stopped eating eggs.
Going to Germany as a nurse should be possible. You would need to do some language courses and handle some bureaucracy but we have a big nurse shortage.
language
That is definitely an intimidating step. I speak a little Spanish, but was never particularly good at it, and that’s hailed as one of the ‘easy’ languages. …'course, the stakes are a tad higher now than when I was studying that stuff in highschool…
You pick up languages much more easily when you live somewhere
Do you have dual citizenship? Just because you have a passport doesn’t mean you can just flee the country forever.
No - that strikes me as an end game move. It’ll enable me to cross the border, and if shit hits the fan that’ll be good enough to then figure out the next steps.
I would need to do WAY more research on prospective point-B’s before diving into dual citizenship.
That said, I don’t really know shit about expatriating, so if anything I just said stands out as glaringly wrong, please do school me!
Dual citizenship is probably a bit premature, I doubt you need to concern yourself with that just yet. I would probably have a few places picked out as likely options for a work visa though, after doing some basic research into pay grade vs cost of living and how much you like/would fit in with the local culture.
You probably already have a vague idea of which countries you might enjoy living it.
Thailand is my backup
I’m torn between something familiar - english speaking, mostly western culture, just for the sake of an easy transition; or somewhere like Thailand where it’s just a completely different world. Like, if I’m going to pack up and move halfway across the globe, might be a good time to dive into something that’ll give me a ton of brand new experiences.
Idk if I’m adventurous enough to actually commit, but the temptation is definitely there.
Thailand felt very foreign, but at the same time there would randomly be things that felt very American to me there.
I have read testimonies from other people who have gone through economic/political instability and hardship. What i got out of it is that prepping will help for a week to a month maybe. But after that preppers just feel dumb after that as all that work didn’t mean much long term.
The only thing that universally matters is having community ties. Unfortunately… USA aren’t very community friendly or even have the opportunity to create strong local bonds. As all community events are during work hours so only retired people part take in those.
During covid, having like 2 months’ worth of food was enough for me. I was able to avoid the chaos at the grocery stores, and by May of 2020, instacart had cleared up enough that I could get food delivered to me.
This is different, obviously, but having 2 months of food to avoid the initial chaos and supply shocks of a disaster is still valuable
Boomers ventured out on route 66 and never returned. One generation destroyed community for cheap large screen TVs.
I feel awful for the genuinely good people living there. But to all of the people that either voted for this or sat back and did nothing to prevent this: I genuinely, sincerely, from the bottom of my heart hope that you fucking suffer like never before.
Don’t worry the entire world will suffer not just the people you don’t like in the US.
This has certainly been true in the past, but I’m seeing the next few of these will affect the rest of the world less than it did in the past. Other nations are decoupling from USD as a reserve currency so they are a bit more insulated from US economic swings. Further, China will have extra manufacturing capacity since the USA is effectively blocked for many of its goods. This means that China will (likely already is) finding other markets in the world for these goods and others producible from the excess manufacturing capacity. Increased supplied will mean reduced prices everywhere else in the world besides the USA.
Worldwide petroleum prices will likely fall because of reduced demand from the USA. Food prices may be one place prices rise with the reduced production from the ongoing war of Russian aggression in Ukraine, and the voluntary reduction of food imports from the USA in response to USA tariffs on imports. So this will place a strain on non-USA based food producing countries.
I say all of this as an American appalled at what trump is doing to the USA and the world.
Well, the assholes in charge over here dismantled FEMA, a national disaster relief organization. And there are some pretty Republican regions that regularly need its assistance from hurricanes and other weather disasters.
Prepare? I’m poor lol
Learn to cook beans and rice from scratch. Stock up on them in bulk. Emergency food packs can be bought from $45 and up depending on how many you have to feed and for how long you’re planning to need it.
Cargo container bookings are down 60%. 60%! Thats an incredible drop, and it really hasn’t even started yet.
I’m ready for a “Hot Tariff Summer.”
I’ve been on a no-purchase kick for a while now, even before HitlerPig was elected. We have become such a culture of consumerism that it had started to disgust me. I’ve embraced the “re-use, repair, re-sell, recycle” philosophy. If i need something, i try to buy it used.
I’m a guitarist, so I buy used guitars when i get a good deal, clean them up, fix them, and re-sell them at a small profit. It puts a beautiful instrument back into service, allows a poor or new musician an opportunity to have an inexpensive but quality instrument, and its music makes the world a slightly more beautiful place.
I even went on a much-needed diet (down 80 pounds so far, and still going), and decreasing my consumption, and spending less money with evil corporations, is a primary motivation.
So let the shelves be empty of cheap Chinese-made consumer goods, i don’t need them, despite how much advertising and marketing tells me i do.
The silver lining is that if tariffs become a longterm thing, people will be forced to come around to my way of thinking, and when the tariffs finally end, corporations may be surprised to find that nobody needs their shiny crap any more.
clean them up, fix them,
As someone else that does “clean up” and “fix them” for other non-instrument items, are you concerned about your supply/cost of replacement parts and supplies? Most of mine come from China.
Somewhat, mostly strings. Most of the rest is just adjustments, using tools I already have. I still have a fair stock of strings, but I was thinking of buying a bunch more to hold me over for a while.
Cleaning is also a big part, but that’s easy.
I suppose if it gets bad, and I need to buy tuners and bridges, etc., I can buy a few junk guitars, and cannibalize them for parts.
I can buy a few junk guitars, and cannibalize them for parts.
This is a future I see on my side too. The price will likely go up for our services to support this for a supply of parts though. If we get to that point, you won’t be the only one buying up junk guitars as others will be buying them for the same reason. So the price of junk guitars is going to go up too.
I expect used items of all types are going to increase - clothes, appliances, toys, etc. Goodwill and other thrift shops are about to have the biggest boom period of their history.
I’m far less worried about the imminent supply shock to the economy and far more worried about the long term damage to things like the FDA. We’ve decided we’re going to try to go from ~10% vegetarian to closer to 80% or 100% because I simply don’t trust that thing like meat and milk can stay safe to consume. I do have a solid amount of food in my house, and if shelves start emptying I think I’ll be okay for a bit, but that’ll pass. I can’t really leave this country, so I need to be planning for longer term problems too.
While the nation was functioning, meat and dairy would have been regulated by the USDA, not the FDA.
It’s quite crazy to hear that the US is about to force UK and EU to buy more chlorinated chicken, and then hear that US will stop salmonela testing while negotiating this.
We’ve decided we’re going to try to go from ~10% vegetarian to closer to 80% or 100% because I simply don’t trust that thing like meat and milk can stay safe to consume.
Farmers’ markets (or direct from a local farm/butcher) are probably your best bet for what meat you do buy, if you don’t go full veg
Ive been stockpiling canned proteins like tuna, chicken, clams, oysters, etc. even Spam. They may not be trustworthy in the future, but they are right now, so stack them up.
I can make a cheap but killer soup with a can of chicken, some ramen, and herbs, and i can even grow the herbs myself.
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I am really curious about how much media attention the consequences of the Orange Man’s moves will get. Fascism is at work and the first thing fascists do is get control of the media.
Know your communities, people. That’s the prep you need.
“Where two eat, three can eat also.”
As a chronic procrastinator, I ain’t doing shit.
I’ve converted all my investments into girl scout cookies because they (1) are high value And can be traded for goods and services; and (2) can be eaten when no food is available. 😉
Honestly I have a lot of ethical distress over my decision. I’m using savings to power through a couple months hardship here then moving to Sweden to see if my second attempt at college can stick this time. I’m going to buy some essentials like toilet paper, flour, canned tomato goods, while they’re still readily available. Not too much though since I just need enough to make it work while I’m here and I want to limit my panic buying impact
My company layed off the newest hire, and bought $50k of materials we need for R&D for the next year and a half. Im in the process of buying a duplex instead of a single family as a hedge, so my cost of living will be low enough to survive on my wife’s part time salary if we can keep a renter. I will be planting food producing trees and bushes, and building garden boxes after close, and learning canning.
Look for bareroot trees if you want a better deal.
I’m an American citizen self deporting.