Allow me to take a moment to introduce myself (at least the self that existed prior to November 2010, when I started becoming a “prepper”).
I am a successful financial planner, married to a CEO of a mid-size manufacturing company. We love our dogs, give to charity, and believe in God and Country…in other words, I am just like your friends who can not understand why on earth you spend so much time and effort preparing for TEOTWAWKI or SHTF events.
I had a kind of naïve, blind faith that all Republicans were Good and most Democrats were Stupid. I had zero room for “conspiracy theories” in my mental picture of the world. My moral center led me to believe that most people were good and wanted the best for everyone else. (Oops!)
But then, November 8, 2010 I was doing some research for investments for my clients and read a report from the National Inflation Association dated November 5, 2010 titled NIA Projects Future U.S.Food Price Increases. It scared me to my core.
I told my assistant that I did not want to have any client contact that was not an emergency until I finished some research, and brought my business to a halt for over two months while attempting to get a handle on the real financial situation in our country.
At the end of that research, I was a convert to the “Prepping Lifestyle”, but I then had a real problem that I hope this writing may be able to help others with…I had to be able to communicate the facts (that I now feel are true and vital to a safe and secure future) to my friends, family, and clients in such a way that they would see the importance of what I was saying without them dismissing me as a nut job! (Okay, I might be a nut job, but I do not want anyone else to think so.)
I understand that that is a long introduction but what follows is the Rational Argument for The Need for Prepping as I have given it to over 100 households that rely on me for their financial advice as well as my friends and family.
Before we can even begin to talk rationally about the financial situation in the U.S. right now, we have to understand exactly what a Trillion Dollars is.
The largest domination of U.S. Currency currently in print is a $100 bill. That bill measures 6.14 Inches long x 2.61 inches wide x 0.0043 inches thick. So, let’s start with the smallest measurement, thickness, and see want a Trillion Dollars looks like.
It takes 10,000 $100 bills to equal one Million Dollars. That is a stack 43 inches or 3 ½ feet, tall. So, a stack of $100 bills that is worth one Billion Dollars would be slightly over 3,583 feet tall. That is a stack of $100 bills 2 ½ time the height of the 1,443 foot tall Empire State Building! A stack of $100 bill that equals one Trillion Dollars 678.66 MILES tall! That is correct, MILES!
Ok, let’s go the other way. If you laid $100 bills end-to-end, one Million Dollars would stretch 5,116.67 feet. (Remember, 5,280 feet is one mile) An end-to-end line of $100 bills worth one Trillion Dollars would be 969,065 mile long! That is almost 39 times around the 24,901 mile circumference of the Earth!
One Trillion Dollars in $100 bills would weigh 22,026,431 pounds that is over 11,000 tons! It would take a fleet of 275 fully loaded tractor trailers to carry that much cash to the bank. Now you can visualize one trillion dollars!
Here are the facts as they were late 2010 and early 2011 as I was doing this research:
In the two years prior the Government had spent:
QE1 (Bush & Obama) $1.7 Trillion Dollars
QE2 (Obama) $1.5 Trillion Dollars
Health Care Reform (Obama) $0.94 Trillion Dollars
Total (that we are aware of) $4.14 Trillion Dollars
That is a stack of $100 bills over 2,800 MILES tall, weighing over 45,593 TONS which would require the IRS to purchase 1,139 tractor trailer trucks in order to collect it in taxes from YOU!
By the way, that data is over a year old now. Since then we have done the Banking and Regulatory Reform Act, The Student Loan Program, and various other Government programs which bring the amount spent by the Government in the past 3-½ years to over 6 Trillion Dollars!
This administration is seriously considering a QE3 of between 1 and 2 Trillion additional Dollars as I am writing this and within days, the Fed is going to do it’s own program to “help out homeowners who are seriously underwater on their mortgages” which is expected to be another Trillion Dollars.
My question is, when and how do we stop this? At this point I am praying that no one tells the politicians that there is a real number called a “Quadrillion”, ’cause I am sure this bunch would try to spend one of those just to be able to say they did!
So once I saw the real size of the problem facing our Country today, I kind of freaked out and started trying to find out how to protect both my family and the families of my clients. To do that I had to look at other countries in other times in history that looked like our Country does today. I went all the way back to the Roman Empire and found the 26 times in history that Nations, States, or Empires have taken the exact same steps that we have to get where we are so that I could find out what happens next.
First, let us take a look at those steps:
Step one: A removal of or massive confusion about man’s relationship to God
Every time a nation starts down the path that we find ourselves on, it begins years in advance with the removal of the importance of God. The Romans worshiped many gods. The citizens of the Weimar Republic changed their views on God three decades prior to their demise. When Man begins to think that Government is the answer to all the problems he faces, he lessens the impact that God is allowed to make in the leadership of his affairs.
Step two: Massive corruption of the political class
From Caesar to Hitler to current times, every leader who built his empire by allowing or even encouraging corruption within his administration has failed.
Step three: The people being ruled over have to be bought off by Government Largess
Eventually, those being ruled over get tired of the corruption and the rulers begin to buy their complacency by offering “social programs”.
Step four: The people being ruled over have to be distracted to keep them from revolt
Social Programs only do so much, so the rulers distract or entertain the masses by allowing violence and moral depravity to become more readily available. In addition you often see the drug and alcohol use tolerated or even encouraged by Governments in the final stages of this step. Think Roman orgies and the Opium dens in Asia
Step five: when the distracted begin to pay attention again…find them an enemy to blame for the mess
This is a big one. For some reason, when the population finally begins to understand the mess that they are in, they NEVER look at the politician or ruler and say, “You did this, you are fired!” Nope, most people look at the same ruling class they have had the entire time and say, “What happened?” and “Who is to blame?” So the Romans blamed the Christians, many leaders (not just Hitler) lay the fault at the feet of “the Jew”. This is the only way that an entire population of regular people allows real atrocities.
Step six: TEOTWAWKI or at a minimum SHTF!
In all 26 cases that I researched, this has ended poorly!
Now let’s take a rational look at the Untied States today.
Step One:
The war on God has been going strong for almost five decades now. Slowly we have removed God from our schools, from our courts, from almost all public view. The ACLU have made it their mission to remove God, the cross, prayer, and most anything else worthwhile from public view and we, the ruled over, have quietly shaken our heads and allowed them to win small victories.
Step Two:
Barney Frank, Nancy Pelosi, all the Kennedy Clan, Harry Reid, the Clintons, yes, even the Bush’s come to mind. Really have you ever seen a group of politicians who care less about what the American People want than this current group? Health Care, more than 70% of the populace of the country said “NO!!” yet it passed in just a few days with massive payoffs to insure votes against the will of the people. They look at the camera and no longer even try to twist the truth, they just flat out lie and we allow it.
Step Three:
The reason these corrupt criminals keep getting elected is that 45% of the people pay ZERO TAXES yet, over 40% of U.S. households Get some form of Government Assistance! Do you really think this is not vote buying in it most evil form? Not to mention Free cell phones, SSI, SSDI, WIC, Housing, etc.
Step Four:
Distractions are now everywhere. Porn on the Internet, MMA on regular television, legalized medical marijuana, free needles for dug addicts, free condoms in school, abortion on demand for teens. Really it is hard to stay focused on the problems with these diversions!
Step Five:
Welcome Tea Party Patriots! Finally the population has started to wake up. Then we are conveniently given an enemy…Welcome Occupy Wall Street Movement. “Let’s all hate the RICH 1%.”
Step Six:
TEOTWAWKI or at least SHTF has to be coming.
26 out of 26 times, step one has been followed by step two, two by three, four comes next, followed by five which ends in STEP SIX every time. Maybe this time will be different? Do you really think so? I am not convinced.
Add to that train of thinking the fact that Muslim Extremists are back in a big way, (study the Ottoman Empire) The Chinese and the Russians are watching for our demise, and our current leadership think that if you talk nice then those three groups will want to be our friends. REALLY? I am not convinced.
So that was my beginning argument for starting the “Prepper Lifestyle” until my wife asked me a very good question. She said “But what if you are wrong? What if we start all this prepping stuff or worse, what if you tell your clients to take these same steps and you were wrong?” I had to think about that, and here is my answer to her, to my clients and friends, and to you to share with your friends;
If I am wrong about the political situation (I do not think I am, but if) then let’s take a real look at what you have done to your family by “Prepping”.
You have food stored up against unforeseen needs. You have a water supply in case of emergency. You have all your documents in order. Your family has an escape plan and a defense plan against home invasion, fire, or other home emergency. You have learned some skills like basic medical care, basic construction, and basic self defense. You have some silver and/or gold, which can be a good investment. You are well prepared to help others in a time of a natural disaster like a tornado, earthquake or the like. So all in all, you are in better shape being prepared and not needing it, than you would be needing to be prepared and not having done it. On the risk/ reward scale, you come up better doing this than not.
And that my friend is a Rational Look at an Irrational topic.
About The Author: Kent Mathis is a financial planner in Memphis, Tennessee
JWR Adds: In this article, the author references a piece published by the National Inflation Association (NIA) It is worth noting that economist Peter Schiff has warned that the NIA uses otherwise quite good and factual videos as a mechanism to lure investors into a “pump and dump” penny stock schemes. The NIA’s videos have some great factual information, but Schiff has warned people to beware of the NIA’s ulterior motives.