by Pete Thorsen
“What do you mean if we can keep what we have?”
“If things get bad and food gets rationed or very hard to get people will get desperate. Desperate people will do most anything to survive including stealing, robbing, and killing.”
“If starving people come here we can share with them.”
“That is the last thing you want to do.”
“Are you crazy, of course we have to share with them.”
“No that will just lead to violence and both us and them staving. If someone comes and you give them a week’s worth of food, where do you think they will come when that food runs out? And if someone asks them where they got that food the answer will be here. So more will show up and that will lead to even more showing up. Soon we will run out and have to turn them away. They will assume that we still have plenty of food and are just hoarding it for ourselves.
The next step is they will attack us to get all the food that they think we are hoarding. Then either we will die or they will die or all of us will die. Even if they do not attack, if we gave all our food away we would then starve and those that we helped would likely starve too without us giving them a continued handout. So how does that help anyone?”
“I hear what you are saying but I will have to think about it some. What you say seems reasonable but goes against all my upbringing.”
“Sometimes it is better to give out advice rather than give a handout. In the summer anyone with some string and a fish hook can dig up a worm and go to the river and fish using a branch as a pole.”
“I will still have to think on this and I do see your point but we don’t have to decide right now anyway.”
“Well let’s see what tomorrow brings and go from there.”
The sun rose bright and clear on that Thursday morning and it was a pretty drive to work. There was a lot of talk at work between everyone about what all this means and what would happen in the near and distant future. I just listened without joining the conversations.
I was curious as to what everyone’s thoughts were on this turn of events. Most just took an ‘oh-hum just another day’ attitude. No one suggested any wrong doing by the federal government. Actually just the opposite- they were thankful the government was looking out for their best interests (that came close to getting a big reaction from me but I held my tongue). Most thought that all this was all just a temporary inconvenience with no real lasting effects. Some did say the government should try harder to track down these hackers and prosecute them. I decided most of these people were just brain-washed (or brain dead) by the government and the government backed media.
Everything was certainly normal at work and on the drive home. Flo and I again watched the news shows that evening. Today again the stock markets were a repeat of yesterday with the Dow dropping so fast it triggered the automatic safety cut off and then after the two hour cooling off period it dropped fast enough again to close the markets early. Today it fell almost four thousand points before they shut it down for the day.
On the news they did say the fall in the US markets mirrored the other world markets without elaborating. With a fall of seven thousand points in two consecutive days the news should have had a few ‘experts’ on to explain what was happening and why it was happening and what the future would likely hold but no, they instead went on to more mundane news.
Untold billions of dollars of value had been lost in the markets in the last two days and yet there was hardly a mention. This certainly led me to believe it was because of one word – suppression. I am certain the government is suppressing the news. Likely using the same tactics as they used with the banks only this time instead of the FDIC threat it was using was the FCC threat to the broadcast stations. The FCC could shut them all down in an instant and they knew it so they had to toe the line.
There was also no world news of any kind. I found this unlikely. If foreign markets were falling as much as the US markets there would certainly be world news relating to that. I could only guess at what was happening world wide. I mentioned this to Flo.
“Though the US banks and markets had been closed on Monday and Tuesday the world banks and markets had very likely been open as normal but I seriously doubt the situations in those banks and markets were normal. I could see banks runs and huge markets drops.
And after four days of that I could see the possibility of riots in many, many cities. If the riots have not started yet they certainly will start soon. And it is only a matter of time before people here in the United States wake up to what was going on and what it means to them. In the US people will be slower to riot I would think.”
“But what would they riot about here?”
“If other countries will no longer accept US dollars for payment on goods then all the food we import will stop. Now in the winter months we get most all our fresh food from South America and if those shipments stop everyone will see that with the empty shelves in the produce section of grocery stores.
Plus we get many other things also like coffee from other countries. Cut off everyone’s coffee supply and see if you get a reaction. Of course many more things are imported every single day into the United States.
Plus look at all the US citizens traveling abroad; what if they find out no one takes American dollars anymore? I wonder if you can even still fly out of the US on an international flight. At some point I would think credit cards, debit cards, and EBT cards will quit working. That is when the riots will start.”
“But this should just be temporary shouldn’t it? It would destroy those other countries economies if they stopped selling their goods to the United States.”
“Yes their economies would collapse. But if they won’t take US dollars how can we trade with them? Prices on many things and soon everything here in the States will sky rocket. And the shortages will become more and more apparent. I have no idea how fast everything will unfold or if I am even on the right track with my thinking.
But we know for a fact that our government un-Constitutionally took half of all retirement accounts and threatened the banks and it is a fact that our stock markets are crashing and the news is barely even mentioning it. And no reports of anything happening in the rest of the world? That is certainly highly suspicious at best.”
“If you are correct about this it should be plain for everyone to see soon and at that point the news or our government will have to come clean and tell everyone what is going on.”
“If the stock markets continue to fall tomorrow they will shut down very early in the day and will not reopen next week at all is my guess. By next week things should come to light about what the government is going to do. By the end of next week I don’t think things will be normal anymore.
But maybe if the government just keeps everyone in the dark about what’s going on and if the credit cards keep working then this scenario of limbo we have now could continue. If people don’t know what is going on they will just keep working and act fairly normal.”
“Maybe you should stop on the way home tomorrow and buy more food. You have me pretty worried. We will eat the food anyway sooner or later and with the way food prices have already been going up it is way better to have money in food rather than money in the bank.”
“I guess it won’t hurt to have some more food around, we can always find room here to store it somewhere. And I’m scaring myself with this talk.”
Chapter Six
So after a regular day at work on Friday I stopped at our normal grocery store. It was fairly busy but I think they often are on Fridays. I walked through the produce section and I really couldn’t see that it was any less full than normal but I really never looked that close before and I did not know how long it would take for any shortages to appear anyway.
But I bought a good bunch more food to add to our already huge (for us) supply at home. I could see that prices had definitely went up some more so stock piling food sure did seem like it would make sound economic sense.
I ended
up with another two carts full by the time I was done. When I got home and started to unload the food and bring in the house Flo actually smiled at all the food I had bought. I think I was smiling also.
We lost our smiles at the news that night when it was announced that the markets had opened only very briefly today before shutting down for the day. Then the news went directly to a bunch of fluff stories and no hard news stories either from either here or abroad.
It is still cold outside and Flo and I just puttered around doing this and that in the house over the weekend. I did clean the chimney that did not need it while Flo baked bread to keep the house warm when the wood stove was shut down. We were both just trying to stay busy hoping to keep our minds off what we suspected was going on and what the future may hold. Sunday night it was on the news that the stock markets would not reopen on Monday with no reason given and without saying if they would open on Tuesday or not.
Monday morning it was back to work for me and again I eavesdropped in on several conversations between others at work. The general mood was not as upbeat as last week and most openly wondered what was really going on. No panic or anything like that but you could often hear the tension in their voices. I think at this point everyone knew the situation was not normal but did not really know what was going on and none offered any real guesses.
That night at home we watched the news more out of habit than with the thought that we would actually get any real news at all. And that is what it was just ho-hum nothing to report, situation normal, go about your business, nothing to see here. I never saw any of the commentators smile once during the whole hour of watching the news.
The next two days were no different except that I noticed gas went up a dollar twenty per gallon. I don’t know if the stock market was open or not because it was not mentioned on the ‘news’. It has been a week or better without any news from other countries at all. We called both the kids and told them that if anything bad ever happened they should come home because they would be much safer here.
They are totally brainwashed and did not think anything was really wrong and we did not argue with them. At the end of each phone call we again said that if anything bad ever did happen to come home, we told them we loved them, and then said goodbye. We both hoped that they would at least remember that they would be safe at home and we knew that almost all kids viewed their parent’s home as a place of safety. When things went bad they would remember the safety here.
On Thursday and Friday gas went up again both days by a total of sixty five cents. Everyone notices when gas goes up and it had gone up by almost two dollars in one week. And even the most brainwashed now knew bad stuff was happening and the news was reporting none of it.
I filled the gas tank in the car on Friday on the way home. I also stopped at the grocery store just to look at the produce section. It was rather thread bare and very obviously so. After seeing the lack of produce I bought more groceries even though I had no plan to do so when I had walked in. The lack of produce scared me enough to buy more food. I could see my predictions coming true and it scared me.
When I got home and carried in the groceries Flo only said “It’s really happening isn’t it?”
“Yes I think it is.”
We were both pretty sober all weekend. The worst part was not knowing what was happening. Sure we could guess and we might even get some of it right but we did not know that. In this great ‘Information Age’ we could get no information. We called both of the twins again this weekend. We talked about no current events. We really just wanted to hear their voices and to know they were fine and we did say we hoped to see them soon.
Monday morning it was off to work again. At least that was pretty normal. I worked through the day and looked at the gas price on the way home. I think it was higher but I couldn’t quite remember what it had been on Friday.
On Tuesday many were talking about the shortage of produce in the grocery store and the higher gas prices. But of course no one knew the ‘why’ of the higher gas prices or the lack of food only that it was happening. Wednesday was more of the same with still no news on the news shows.
While I kinda knew what was happening and I had for a couple years thought something like this would probably happen, now that it was here it left me feeling very apprehensive about our future. And I couldn’t help but worry about the kids. They were both in big cities where if things went bad it would happen in the cities first. And it would hit the cities the hardest.
I think everything hinges on the government keeping those credit, debit, and especially the EBT cards working. If the EBT cards quit working there will be riots within two days. I just realized that with the news stations muzzled we might not even know if people in the big cities are rioting unless someone there calls us with the news. Some information age we live in.
Chapter Seven
Amy was starting to get concerned about current events. Gas was flying up in price. She could hardly find any fresh produce anywhere and what she did find was priced at absurd prices. And while the internet still worked the sites you could go on were very, very limited and no sites out of the country at all. And what on earth was going on with the TV news shows. They had no news! Something big and nasty was going on and someone was going to extreme lengths to hide it. And that someone could only be the US government. Dad is right. She decided to call Ava.
“Hi, do you know what’s going on?”
“Hi yourself and no I do not know what is going on but it is big.”
“That’s right and our government is going to great trouble to hide it from us.”
“You think Dad is right don’t you?”
“Yes I do. I think his idea that the whole world’s economies have collapsed and the great US dollar is worthless out of this country. I’m not sure what will happen next but I am sure that it will be very bad for everyone.”
“So what are you going to do?”
“As soon as Mac gets home I want to leave for home. Mom and Dad are right. No matter what happens next the worst place to be is in the cities and the best place to be is back home.”
“What if he won’t go?”
“Then he stays here by himself because I’m going home. Tomorrow morning I’m leaving for home with him or without him but I certainly hope it is with him.”
“Do you think we should leave for home too? What about our jobs?”
“I think you should be packing as we talk. What good is your job if you are dead? Please race me back home. Talk Pat into it but again with him or not please go back home.”
“But things aren’t that bad. Gas is so high right now maybe we should wait a little and see what happens?”
“Ava listen to me! Don’t wait for times to get bad. Go first thing in the morning. Things will break soon I think and it will get real bad, real fast. Please promise me you will leave in the morning. Swing past your bank and get what cash you can. Bring whatever food you have in the house and all or most of your clothes. I don’t think you or I will ever be going back to where we live now.”
“OK. I promise to leave in the morning. I’ve been thinking on this myself the last couple days. And I’ll start packing as soon as we get off the phone. I’ll call Pat and have him get as much cash as he can on the way home and fill the car with gas. I bet we get back home before you.”
“Thank you and I hope you do get home before me so I know you are safe. Let’s get packing, bye.”
“Bye.”
Amy was happy now that the decision was made and now there was work to do. Ava had a good idea so Amy called Mac and told him to get as much cash as he could on the way home and be sure to fill the car with gas but save the cash. Then she started packing up everything.
She was so glad that she had never got around to bringing back all those plastic bags to be recycled because she would use them now. They would be great to put clothes and stuff in rather than in boxes or suitcases. This way there would be no wasted space because they could pack
them in every nook and cranny in the car. They would have to leave a lot of stuff but that’s just the way it would be.
To say Mac was surprised when he got home was the understatement of the year.
“What on earth is going on?”
“I’m leaving for my folk’s house in the morning. Please come with me.”
“Can I at least ask why are you going there?”
“My Dad is right, the whole world’s economy and the US dollar have collapsed. The government is trying to hide it but it has happened and things are about to get very scary and dangerous. It will be way safer to ride it out in the country at my folk’s house. Please trust me and come with.”
“Of course I trust you but that don’t mean you are right. Have you really thought this through? What about our jobs? We can’t just leave.”
“Yes we can. I would much rather be alive and jobless than have a job and be dead. We will call our jobs in the morning and say there has been accident and we have go to the hospital in Minnesota to say goodbye to my dying father. Or something to that effect anyway. No matter what I am leaving in the morning.”
“What if I say no that I am not going with on this hair-brained trip?”
“Then I’ll tell you that I love you and I hope you live to see me again some day. But I will leave in the morning. Please come with me, please. You know something big is wrong and we are being lied to by omission. Look at the news programs, they have no news! The stock markets are all closed and they are not even talking about it. The internet only has a couple dozen sites that you can get to. Only the US government has the power to do all those things. Let’s eat a sandwich and then finish packing.”