Why should anybody take heed of the following
observations? Because, as discussed during this post, many of the specific
predictions I’ve made regarding matters that disproportionately affect
African-American women have come true.
Here’s a short list of what a lot of savvy and
shrewd people are doing right now.
ONE: Disconnecting from whatever remaining “Takers” (aka
“Grasshoppers” as discussed during this post) are left in their social
networks. Y’all know who the Takers/Grasshoppers are.
TWO: Developing location-independent income streams.
Tens of thousands of workers were displaced from their flooded workplaces
during Hurricane Sandy. One writer estimates that “Hurricane Sandy displaced 150,000 workers in the
first two weeks after the storm hit, with 70,000 jobs lost in New Jersey and
50,000 lost in New York.”
There was often a real difference between workers
whose jobs require their physical presence and those whose jobs are
location-independent. For Some After the Storm, No Work Means No Pay
THREE: Forming intentional
communities and other types of trusted networks. I’ve been delighted to see
several Black women bloggers take the lead in forming intentional communities,
such as Evia (blog host of Black Female Interracial Marriage Ezine) and Zabeth
(blog host of IR Dating Coach).
I will note that such
networks are the only way many current day Spaniards are surviving the global
economic collapse. Since many of them no longer have jobs or money, they’ve
been forced to find ways to live without money. They’ve created time banks and
other bartering networks. From In hard-hit Spain, bartering becomes means of getting by:
"BARCELONA — With two small children
and no income for the past two years, Antonio Delgado, 44, says things were so
bad he had considered taking his life.
Then a few months ago, Delgado found
out about a group that rents small parcels of farmland cheap near his town of
La Rinconada in southern Spain. Now he's bringing home boxes of tomatoes,
onions, peppers, lettuce, zucchinis and pumpkins. But he is not selling them.
Delgado and others are bartering, or
trading, their way through a recession that has lasted years and left more than
a quarter of the workforce unemployed. Tens of thousands of households have no
wage earners, but they have skills and time on their hands to do work that can
be traded for things they need but have no money to buy.
"I had no clue about
agriculture," Delgado said. "But this has changed my life."
. . . With few jobs and no
disposable income, bartering and other ways of exchanging goods and services
are increasingly seen as good alternatives.
Some Spaniards are using so-called
time banks to "deposit" time, knowledge and skills and trade them for
things they need. All services have the same value, whether it is one hour of
teaching a foreign language or one hour of cleaning house.
Teresa Sanchez, 55, is part of the
Time Bank in Valladolid in western Spain. She has deposited offers of Japanese
language classes, massage and company for the elderly. In return, she has
received English lessons, appliance repairs and haircuts for her son."
Savvy people are looking for and
making these mutually supportive connections in their lives right now. Before a
crisis forces them into a panicked scramble in search of people willing to help.
FOUR: As much as possible,
decreasing their dependence on money by growing a portion of their own food;
and if possible, retrofitting their homes to reduce energy costs. Resilient Communities and the Green Wizards Forum are two extremely helpful websites for
learning how to do these sorts of things.
Quiet as its kept, the old economy is not coming
back. In this age of peak oil and climate change, things can’t be put back the
way they were before 2008. Nevertheless, it’s possible to live very well during
this era. Despite the storms, there’s still a
world of opportunities if you’re willing to look and work for them!
