Alright well just forget what boomers say. American boomers had the easiest lives in human history. But the greatest generation knows struggle. Listen to them, but not on gold. Gold isn’t what it was, it’s volatile at the moment. It’ll stabilize again if the world comes to peace, but that isn’t likely.

How old were your elders? We don’t have the gold standard anymore and gold prices are only loosely tied to the economy anymore. In a dire enough scenario, lead becomes more valuable than gold. If you’re going to try to make money off of this situation, put all of your chips on China. As we collapse, they’re right behind us. In many parts of the tech tree, they’re ahead of us already. Despite their population problem, they’re trending up while America is trending down. They’re leading the way in solar, fusion and drones. Ahead in hypersonic, hacking, manufacturing, and AI. And they’re on par in space, and I know I’m forgetting something. Oh, they’re also way ahead on worldwide public opinion at the moment. So likely to get better deals.

Literally the only advantage the US has right now is military and logistically. But if we keep alienating (ironic, right?) allies, our logistics is shot to shit. (It’s actually worse, because if we can’t supply our bases around the world, those bases are sitting ducks.) The Chinese are masters at stealing tech. What they don’t have is a navy capable of projecting power, but that’s changing quickly.

If you want to make money off the fall of America, bet on the next superpower. Which is china.

Skills are a good bartering chip. Things others can’t do, or can’t do to your abilities. A rare skill set or talent/ability will get you really far. But you have to advertise that ability. An engineer that can make a working electrical system out of car batteries and alternators will be worth more than a literal tonne of gold. Someone who can cut hair, valuable. The more you can help a community, the more accepting they’ll be of you. A biologist would be amazing.

“Yep, that’s hen of the woods, totally good to eat.”

Vs

“I mean you COULD eat that, it won’t kill you, but you’ll be seeing pink Floyd’s music”

“Never heard of pink Floyd”

“Doesn’t matter, you’ll know it if you eat that”

Vs

“If you fucking so much as touch that, I’m leaving, because you’ll start projectile shitting your internal organs”

Yeah, biologists will be super valuable.

Edit: I am not a biologist.

Spend absolutely no money that you don’t need to. This saves money for you and keeps it out of people’s hands that don’t need it. The faster the collapse, the more equal it will be.

I don’t want to advise this, but I’m pulling all my money from the larger of my 401(k). (Keeping the smaller just in case it turns out I’m crazy, and if I am, I can always reinvest, with only some minor losses in time)

I bought a couple ATVs with trailers, with camo netting, working on filling those trailers with supplies and a lot of gas. I also bought an old jeep CJ7, with a trailer for the ATVs. Think lighters, camp stoves, portable solar panels, blankets, water filters, a good axe or hatchet, a couple knives, some emergency rations.

This is America. There’s more guns than people. Make sure you have at least one.

The economic hardships, you won’t be able to escape. When we lose hegemony/petrol dollar, it’s likely to be the fastest collapse in history.

This is just a quick summary. Some of us have been planning for something like this for a decade or more. There’s no way to be able to give you anything much more specific without knowing where you live or your current circumstances, experiences, or skills. But rely on any skills, training or knowledge you do have. Emphasize them and try to improve them. Make yourself a useful member of a rebuilt (small) society. I.e. growing, sewing, defense, engineering etc.

Whatever you do, do not give up. And be creative. Lighting a fire, and putting some seriously hot peppers in the fire can be a good area denial defense, light the fire and travel in the direction the wind is coming from.

Again you fail to make any point, you just insult.

Again you fail to make any point or support any argument. Congratulations, you made words. But you haven’t even made it clear what side you’re on. You’re like a fucking late night ad show. You’re the human version of QVC. You haven’t even made it clear what your problem is with me, let alone my initial point. You can eat my ass or stfu. Up to you.

Ok, so basically you’re saying you’re a grammar Nazi? Why? You still haven’t made any argument for your position. You’re just a dick. What a waste of time and data. Congrats for that, I guess?

Bullshit. You haven’t made any argument at all. You just supported a position without any backing behind it. So your take is garbage. I don’t use spell correction because I don’t need it, as I understand the language.

Exactly. This is the end. The companies eat each other while we suffer.

It really doesn’t matter which AI you prefer to use. You’re wrong for using AI period.

I’m as left as they come but the gender pay gap is a myth. It’s all choice of field. If you average male teachers, it’s going to be about the same as average female teachers. Going up and down for experience and other stuff, but it’ll be close, the thing is, teachers don’t get paid much and there’s more female teachers than male. The opposite is true in IT or other digital/computing worlds. They pay better than teachers, but there’s more men in this profession than women. The gender pay gap is a myth made up by averaging all employed people. I’m sorry but that is not a thing. If someone was still paying people significantly more or less based on their sex, people would be up in arms.

There are so many things to fight for in the name of justice, but this one isn’t it.

Don’t know why you were downvoted but you’re absolutely right. We thought we were moving in the right direction, only to have the foundations blown out from under us.

Yeah, you went to the wedding already. You did your part. Asking you to go to another country for something that’s already done just screams “give me attention” more than a wedding already does. That should be enough on its own.

How many sim games of jobs are there now? Farming, police, road crew, truck driving, pilots, power washing, technically all sports and military games… Im sure I’m missing a bunch.

I was stuck at home for several weeks after a back injury. I was on Vicodin and could barely get out of bed, no tv. So I started beating it. Well, with Vicodin, it makes it very difficult to finish and I lost track of time. By the time I had finished, I realized I’ve been at it for 5 hours. My dick hurt for 4 days afterwards, and the Vicodin didn’t really help with that pain.

I’m going the opposite direction and becoming a boomer. Life on easy mode? Hell yeah!

Lol, you don’t have half a century left. If you’re American, your life expectancy is 72 and dropping.

Being smart has only gotten me anxiety. I’ll go with attractiveness.

4 years? Don’t bother with the hope of 4 years. This shit is over.

The same people who make rules about age and costume are the same people that give out popcorn balls and candied apples.