Rural Lifestyle

Life in Rural America

Tag: economic hardship

US Economy Shrank 0.1 Percent In Last Quarter 2012

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Kevin Felts, blogger and political commentator

Surprise, surprise, surprise, the US economy shrank 0.1% in the last quarter of 2012. That 0.1% may not seem like a lot, but the real story its much worse then 0.1%.

Take these factors into consideration:

The economy shrank during the biggest spending time of the year – Thanksgiving and Christmas. If the economy shrank during Christmas, that says people do not have expendable income.

The economy shrank during one of the biggest panic buying phases in the firearms industry since the 1994 assault rifle ban.

Not only were people spending money on Christmas, but they were also buying all the guns, ammunition and magazines they could get their hands on,,,, and the economy still shrank.

One thing that caused a slowdown in the economy was a reduction in military spending. The question I have to ask, why does government spending play such an important roll in the economy? Maybe the government does not want the people to know how bad the economy really is?

Manufacturing base and national security

Political Opinion, Preparedness Articles
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Smoker for SHTFAbout the author: Kevin Felts graduated high school in 1986. After high school, Kevin went to work in a welding shop that built ASME certified pressure vessels. In 1987 Kevin went to work for a company that built AMSE certified heat exchangers. After working 4 years building heat exchangers, Kevin moved from shop to shop, until he went to community college and went into computers. In all, Kevin has around 14 – 15 years experience in the welding field.

Think working in a factory is only for stupid people that can not make it in college? Think free trade is good? Think cheap products from china (or anywhere else) is a good thing?

Think again.

Besides economic stability, a strong manufacturing base can be retooled during times of war.

One of the problems with the USA, Canada,,, and the rest of the world, we have forgotten what its like to be in a “real” war. This war in Iraq is not a war where our cities are being bombed. We do not even have to buy war bonds like people did during WW2.

If the US went to war with someone like Russia or china, we have no steel mills, we have only a couple of ship yards spread out through the country to build ships with, most of our steel is made overseas, most of our welding tools are made overseas. The shipyards from the 1940s and 1950s have been demolished. All that remains in some locations is an open field. There “might” be left-overs from the old ships yards, but they are far and few in between.

Tips On How to Feed a Family

Homesteading, Preparedness Articles
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SHTF Survival Garden

These days people are not only worried about this house note, or their electric bill, they are also worried about something much more basic – and that is food. There is hardly anything that grieves a mothers heart more, then to open a kitchen cabinet, and it be empty.

An economic report from February 2009 said that around 700,000 – 800,000 people lost their jobs in that one month. Less people have jobs, so less bills get paid. But the one thing that must be bought is food. But what if someone told you that you do not have to buy food? That you can grow your own.

Its true. Regardless of what people have been told for the past 30, 40 or 50 years, food does not come from a grocery store – it comes from the ground. At first I did not believe it. I honestly thought that the grocery stores used some kind of magic to make the food appear out of thin air.

We have been enslaved to the grocery store for decades. People have paid others to do their work for them. Its time to break those chains.

Kevin Felts © 2008 - 2018