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Fiction and reality

It looks like the threat of economic collapse has gone. We are officially out of recession. Government figures show growth in the last quarter and it isn’t even near Christmas, the traditional time for all of us to dig deep into our pockets and for money to be spent a lot easier than usual. I feel a lot more comfortable that the ship of state is in good solid hands.

Or maybe not. You see the way that we decide if we are in a recession is easy. If we have two months of negative growth we are in a recession. Solid measurable facts. So we are clear that we are in a recession. The measure on when the recession is over is just as easy. Positive growth. This works out fine when governments don’t interfere and when they do we end up with double dips and in this case I’m not sure how many dips. The government want to declare the end of a recession so the gullible will get out and spend and drag us out of a recession.

The facts though show different. A month of positive growth goes nowhere near restoring the damage done during the months we spent in recession. Imagine that negative growth drove GDP down only 0.5% per month and I’m being generous here, Over the years we could easily be down 10%. A single positive growth of even 1% doesn’t bring it anywhere near back to normal but it apparently solves all our issues. Ordinarily it would but when governments interfer things are always made worse and this recession and the attempt to save the Euro has created a global recession unlike any we have seen before.

So, we may officially be out of recession but there is a lot of pain still to be felt by everyone, well maybe not everyone, but everyone you and I know so now is not the time to relax. Now is the time to intensify your prepping because others will slacken off and there will be bargains to be had. Keep an eye out for closing down sales which seem to have intensified and be careful what you buy.

It is an unfortunate fact of life that when people are suffering money is to be made. I’m not suggesting you make money but instead benefit from the items that people are selling cheaply. Look at Car Boots, Pawn Shops or their modern equivilants Cash Convertors as well as keeping your eye out for bargains in the classifieds. You are helping them by giving them cash and they are helping you by giving you an unwanted item at a batgain price.

In the meantime make sure you don’t go overboard on trinkets, make sure that everything you buy will be useful. Myself, I’m looking at buying everyone I know clothes or something useful like that. Coupled with some bargains it makes good sense.

3 comments to Fiction and reality

  • Paul

    It’s the pits being a prepper.
    Ears and eyes wide open without the option of rose coloured glasses and a brain with no off switch.
    Sometimes I really envy sheeple.

  • iaaems

    I read somewhere that we live in a ‘consumerist society’ and I remember thinking, at the time, what happens when we have consumed everything? What then?
    Shortly after that, during a conversation on life in general, it was proclaimed that we live in a ‘benign dictatorship’. I thought about that for a while and realised that there was a great deal of truth there.
    Then I read the above article and this really confirmed the two statements I have just quoted plus the fact that the so called government of the day is no more than an overly elaborate publicity machine designed to encourage us to spend/distribute our flexible asset in such a way as to make life easier for them. So any ‘good’ news will be blown up out of all proportion in order to get you and I spending again to raise more taxes.
    So it would seem to me great sense to be practical with the things we need to acquire and do and make prepping a way of life.

  • moosedog

    “There are lies, damned lies, and statistics”

    The government, whichever one is in power at the time, cherry picks the facts and figures in order to prove they are right and everyone else is wrong. It seems to be part and parcel of the lust for power that some people seem to crave.

    iaaems is right, the whole fabric of our society is based on shuffling money around and generating taxes for “the machine”. The trouble is, we’re all bound up in it so tightly there’s no escape. There are times I really despair and, like Paul, envy the sheeple. But, like you all on here, I’d sooner be as prepared as possible for what may lie ahead, so thank you SD for your reminders of how those in the system try to distract us. I don’t post many replies nowadays but visit your site regularly and glean much useful information from it. Keep up the good work.