Several years ago, right after the election of Barrack Hussein Obama as President of the USA, a feeling crept over me that things were about to change. It is at that moment that I seriously began to start preparing for what now is evident, that our country and the world are in a severe downward spiral.
CEOs of America’s top companies were so busy exporting our jobs for the sake of the bottom line, keeping shareholders happy, and avoiding high U.S. corporate tax rates that one day we woke up to find that the middle class in America was disappearing. This is the middle class, whose prosperity after WWII brought about the greatest economic revolution the world has ever seen and was our strength.
I work for a leading global corporation that manufactures equipment for the mining, aggregates, and oil/gas industries. I have traveled all over the world and spent a great deal of time in Latin America, where I always wondered why their people are so poor with all of the abundant natural resources they have. The answer I came up with is that there is no middle class to bring about prosperity. In Latin America, you are either rich or poor, and the middle class is, for the most part, nonexistent. The last few decades have reversed this trend at the expense of the middle class in the U.S. The BRIC (Brazil, Russia, India, & China) countries have experienced a robust growth in the middle class and a higher standard of living that brought about prosperity. Sound familiar? This phenomenon happened in Mexico and other Latin American countries marching across Asia as well. Now that we have exported many of our high paying manufacturing jobs and wealth to these countries, I can only draw one conclusion: We were sold out by corporate America, our politicians, the banking system, and federal reserve policy that printed money like there was no tomorrow. Well folks, tomorrow is here and what will you do to survive?
Thomas Jefferson said, “I predict future happiness for Americans if they can prevent the government from wasting the labors of the people under the pretense of taking care of them.” He also said, “We in America do not have government by the majority. We have government by the majority who participate.”
Barack Obama has been allowed to promote his socialist agenda by melodic rhetoric, executive action, political bickering, and voter apathy. The man is not ignorant, far from it. He enticed the masses with free food, free cell phones, free health care, and subsidized housing, and the masses began to think it was their right to all things free. It’s interesting how I don’t find that anywhere in the Bill of Rights. He and the progressives have perpetrated the biggest theft of American wealth the world has ever seen, not to mention that it is taken right out of the liberal playbook on how to get votes– buy them. The last budget of his presidency is $4.1 trillion in spending. In 2015, the U.S. Treasury collected $2.67 trillion in revenue. Now you know why we have passed the $19 trillion debt level under his presidency. Who is footing the tax bill? The below chart shows the percentage of revenue by source for the years 1952 and 2015.
It shows that you and I are paying a higher percentage of revenue while corporate America pays about a third of what they did in 1952. Can we blame corporate America? Not really. They can afford legions of tax attorneys to find loop holes to avoid the 39.1% corporate tax in the U.S. and shelter earnings off shore.
Heritage.org published a graph showing the corporate tax rate in select countries around the world and stated that “The U.S. total corporate tax rate at 39.1 percent is the highest corporate tax rate in the developed world, which reduces investment in the U.S. and costs American workers jobs and higher wages. COMBINED CORPORATE TAX RATES (2014).” See graph below.
What can we do? We have an election coming in November and whatever your party affiliation, whether it be Republican, Democrat, Independent, Libertarian, or Whig, all I ask is to get out and cast your vote. However, do not get hung up on party affiliation. Spend some time to really understand the position of the candidates and whether or not they fit with your beliefs and concerns. If we do not turn this country around in the next few years by electing people to office that will institute sound fiscal policy, maintaining a strong defense, fighting for our 2nd Amendment rights and the Constitution in general, eliminating the welfare/entitlement state and not get hung up on political correctness, then all I can say is that if you are not part of the solution then you are part of the problem. Our institutions of higher learning are forcing their progressive ideas onto our children. Many young voters are listening to the sweet music that Bernie Sanders is playing of free, free, and free! Allow that man to get elected and you will pay, pay and pay! Many people around the world have given their lives for our republic and for citizens to have the right to vote. Why do we take it so lightly? Do not fall victim to voter apathy and squander such a gift that many have died to give us.
I remember our youngest daughter calling me when she got her first paycheck. She worked for two weeks and had calculated how much she would earn, and when she opened up her pay envelope her heart sank. Where did my money go? How come they take out so much for taxes? Where is that money going? Welcome, my dear, to Real Life 101. The politicians took it and squander it on all sorts of free stuff that you and I pay for. Any vestiges of liberal thinking quickly evaporated from her thought processes after that first paycheck. Talk to your children and get them involved. Teach them how government works (or doesn’t work). Tell them you can fight back, but you need to vote.
We face difficult times, and I have adopted what I call the 3P’s: prayer, prepping, and pray again. If you have not found the Lord and turned your life over to Him, then it is not too late. It is often too easy to fall into a mindset of negativity. I struggle with this at times as I am sure many of you do. My wife tells me to quit watching the news, but it is not easy when you are surrounded by the events of the world. Moral decay, ISIS, Christians being murdered around the world, a world economy in turmoil, feckless politicians, and the list goes on and on. God is the answer. He asks you to lay your burdens at His feet, and you will find comfort in your soul. All He asks is to give your life to Him and experience the depth of grace, love, and forgiveness that we cannot even fathom. He stands at the door and knocks. Will you answer? I can tell you now that if the SHTF, you will not survive on bread alone. You may have all of the bullets, Band-Aids, and beans that money can buy surrounded by a mighty fortress, but without a spiritual compass to guide you then you will not survive. Oh, you may live on for decades, only to miss a life everlasting with the LORD. I know what kind of life I want after this earthly body has turned to dust.
Once you have found the LORD or if you already have Him in your heart then it is time to prepare. I am not going to go through the extensive list of preps I have for me and my family. There has been much on this topic in SurvivalBlog and plenty in the archives to review. We do not know the hour in which our LORD shall return and there may very well be plenty of calamity, death, and destruction in this world before He does come. Be prepared! As a former Boy Scout, this motto still rings true in my head. Move to the American Redoubt or away from urban areas, to areas that let you be more self-sufficient if you can afford it. We moved four years ago back to Colorado from Indiana and found a place up in the high mountains and away from the city. Get your bullets, Band-Aids, and beans stocked up. Learn skills that will serve you during times of need. I have an engineering background and have a vast array of capabilities, but I also trained and worked as an EMT for 4½ years that gave me valuable experience in first aid and emergency trauma. Learn to grow your food. You really don’t need acres of land to produce food. There are many publications on square foot gardening that can make the difference in life and death when you need to stretch your stock pile of food or add variety to your diet. Get barter items for trade. I travel a lot and spend many nights in hotel rooms. I always collect the shampoo, conditioner, body lotions, and soaps and bring them home. They’re good barter items to have since cleanliness is a key to health in the SHTF times and it doesn’t cost me anything. Buy silver and gold and store up on nickels. Hard currency will be king when our fiat currency collapses. Make friends in your community with like mindset people you can count on in difficult times. Your church is a good place to start. Maintain OPSEC or you will find unwanted hordes descending upon you and your family when the TEOTWAWKI comes. Maintain your health through good diet and exercise, and get any medical or dental procedures done that you have been putting off. Be ready to bug out if you have to and have a secure location to fall back on. Use SurvivalBlog resources to help you develop a plan of action and then follow through on the actions. The best way to eat an elephant is one bite at a time. Start today!
Finally, pray again. Pray that you never have to use your preps and that our world heals itself. Pray for our leaders, whether you like them or not. 2 Timothy 2:26 (ESV) 26 and they may come to their senses and escape from the snare of the devil, after being captured by him to do his will.
GOD’s blessings be upon you,