Surviving Economic Collapse

Photo: Creative Commons/ssoosay

Lately there has been an outpouring of violent “flash mob” activities  all over the country.   From the Wisconsin State Fair to Chicago to South Eastern Pennsylvania, gangs of violent “youth” are engaged in systematic looting, beatings, and vandalism, often in broad daylight.   Some blame it on the tanking economy while others place the fault upon our nation’s welfare/entitlement programs.  I see this recent spate of civil disorder as but a symptom of a much larger issue.

The core issue here is that the very social fabric of our country is being torn apart.  Since the late 60s, we have had 2  generations of people who grew up without anything resembling  a functioning family environment.  Many young people of my generation have never had a father figure or even a close extended family.  Without these guiding influences, essential civic values are not being passed on to the next generation.  I’m talking about basic concepts like having a strong work ethic, helping your neighbors in times of distress, or just not to go on a looting rampage when there aren’t cops around.

The bottom line is that when a young man grows up in the scenario described above,  he  does not have the ethos of a productive member of society.  Moreover, a significant number of such youths hail from welfare-dependent families.  Government corn seems to have a baleful effect upon personal initiative and self-improvement, causing these people to develop an incredibly unearned sense of entitlement.  Many such youths would come out(or drop out) of High School, and demand good jobs  without any intention  or ability of earning their keep.  Due to the lack of values and capability, such boys are doomed to a life of never-ending welfare dependency.

Over the last 2 generations, more and more people have fallen into this state of dependency, legions of Americans are now addicted to the Government trough.  The younger members of this entitlement class have nothing to do all day long and perceive no real hope for advancement.   A collapsing economy and the attendant bleeding of jobs out of this country isn’t helping the situation either.  As the ranks of Nanny State dependents grow, the ability of the free market to provide a leg-up for these people seems to be shrinking by the day.   Under such circumstances, the slightest incident can trigger a riot.  And with the proliferation of social networks and (government subsidized) mobile phones, gangs of violent young men can now organize themselves into mobs with greater speed and coordination than ever before!

And this is where the problem emerges.  I happen to live in a decent neighborhood surrounded by 2 gigantic ghettos.  There are up to a half a million such disaffected young men within a 5 mile radius of my house.   Thus I feel that it is not a matter of IF a violent mob riot will occur in my part of town but rather of WHEN .  So to protect my family, I’ve begun the following preparations:

1.  Obtain a firearm

I’m following all the city and state laws necessary to get a firearm ownership permit, but no matter what,  I MUST have a firearm in the house.  The mere presence of a rifle can deter large numbers of violent, rioting youths.  The only issue here is that the Municipal government makes it such a onerous task to obtain a rifle, I feel like I need to jump through hoops just to have the means of defending my own family!

2.  Secure an emergency escape route

I’m trying my best to maintain a full tank of gas in my car.  In many of these instances of civil disturbance, the actual rioting takes hours to several days to transpire.  Thus, the more alert people living around the rioting neighborhoods were able to drive the heck out of there before their own communities were ravaged.  As such I’ve prepared 2 bags of road trip supplies just so that we can flee the city in 5 minutes notice.  Thankfully there is a major highway within 2 miles of our house, so getting out of the city is feasible on short notice.

3.  Form a community watch

During the U.K riots a few weeks ago, I’ve noticed a most interesting phenomenon.  There were literally mobs of thousands of rioters, and many neighborhoods were devastated.  Yet some communities in the thick of things were left untouched.  Further research indicated that most of these communities had organized community watches.  Groups of men armed with baseball bats and hatchets were basically cooperating with each other to defend their own street or block.  The most surprising thing to me is that relatively small numbers of such community watches (50 to 100 men) were able to consistently deter mobs of several hundred or more young men.  With these examples in mind, I’m going to try to form a community watch with my closest neighbors over the coming months.

4.  Avoid large gatherings of young men

I’ve read that mobs usually take a few minutes to a few hours to reach critical mass.  Thus I’ve told my entire family to avoid large gatherings of young men.

5.  Eventually migrate away from riot prone areas

There are still many semi self-sufficient areas in this vast country.  I’m planning to eventually move my wife and baby boy to an area with a more responsible citizenry.  This is more complex that it first appears because the regions with the largest number of professional jobs(NY, NJ, CA) also happens to have highest concentration of potential rioters.

So these are the actions that I’m taking to safeguard my family in case there is a riot.  If you are preparing for such a scenario or know of better ideas, please leave a comment!  I would love to see your thoughts on this!