The End of America

by Pete Thorsen

  In Washington they are arguing about a new currency or not. At first they thought they would definitely print a new currency but many now are saying what is the point? If they printed new they would allow everyone to redeem the old dollars for the new currency anyway so why not just stay with the old dollars? Yes they are worth less now than they were before the crash but everyone is getting used to the new much higher prices and everyone is familiar with the old dollars.

  Plus we already have them so it would save a lot of money if they did not have to print up all new stuff. I can see what they mean on both sides. But we are getting by with the old dollars now and it seems to be working.

  It seems the dollar is worth maybe about twenty percent or less of what it once was. So a dollar item is now a five to seven dollar item. It is not real consistent because some things have more value now compared to before, like bicycles for instance. But between five and seven to one is about where it is now.

  If you were making ten dollars an hour before you would have to make fifty or more an hour now to be about equal. We’ll see what Washington decides as far as a new currency but we are getting by for now but it is hard to wrap your head around the new much higher prices.

  The government is trying to promote manufacturing to restart here because it will be a long time before we can deal with other countries again. Plus that was one of the things that led to our downfall was our nation’s loss of manufacturing and too many imports and too few exports. One of the things the government is offering is free workers for new manufacturing companies.

  They don’t know what they are going to do about taxes this year. But the government said the whole tax code was going to be thrown out and they would start over from scratch. Things like a flat tax or a national sales tax have been talked about but nothing has been decided yet.

  There is so much that is so screwed up now because of the crash that the government did announce that it is going to take a long time to sort everything out. The banks are all busted, the government is broken and has to trimmed way down, and the federal government is going to give many jobs to the states so the states will have redo their whole system.

  Other countries owe us money and we owe them money and that has to be sorted out. The people in the military have been working this whole time and they have to be paid a fair amount in old dollars or new dollars. All the banks, loan companies, and insurance companies that are now likely bankrupt have to get sorted out somehow. Either let them go bankrupt and start new companies or rebuild the old companies or something.

  It is quite a mess. This is one time I agree totally with the government that it is going to take a long time to figure everything out and try to make it fair for everyone, which seems to be an impossible task.

  This late in the summer there are plenty of rabbits around so I am snaring some for meals. When fall gets here we will shoot two or three deer. There does not seem to be quite as many deer as there was a year ago and that is very understandable. I think all the dog packs killed many deer and I think some people have been shooting them for food as needed also.

  There are less deer but there are still quite a few around. The apples are getting ripe and that always brings in many deer here on the farm. We chase them off when we see them and we pick all the apples that are ripe but the deer still eat some.

  We have picked a lot of wild berries this year. Raspberries, blueberries, blackberries, pin cherries, strawberries, and a few others. Some we have frozen and canned some and made jelly from some. Plus eaten many fresh ones and added them to many dishes to add some flavor.

  We still get eggs from one neighbor and raw milk from another. Sometimes we pay with cash but not often because we trade items or help with some work on their farms when possible. We traded fresh fish a few times. We made our own ice cream a few times this summer. It was mighty good too. Homemade ice cream with wild raspberries or wild straw berries is very hard to beat.

  The grocery store in town does have food but the prices are high and few people have jobs so sales are way down. We still have money but we are using what food we have stored here mostly plus all our own fresh produce from our garden.

  The victory gardens in the cities are causing some problems. It seems many still want to steal rather than work. Many people have shot and killed some of these thieves and now protecting your property including your garden is totally legal. Not always have the owners come out on top and neighborhood vigilantes sometimes have dished out justice very harshly to thieves and killers.

  We still have the federal police forces and sometimes these are bolstered by the military. Those in Washington are deciding what to do about that also. They admitted that they had started the federal police force just to try to keep the states and local governments afloat and now will have to return the local policing back to local police forces as they are reformed. This is just one of the great many changes that are being done.

  Congress is actually cutting the federal government way back. Many whole departments are being cut completely while some are just being cut way back. Obviously this is being done as it is the only way the nation can hope to get back on its feet again. The state governments are all in a shambles also. They too have to cut way back but at the same time handle everything that the federal government is shunting off on them.

  Granted I agree that the power should all be with the states but it is a major change with so much happening at the same time. Both the state and the federal governments have so much work ahead of them to do if they hope to get the United States functioning again.

  I can easily see it taking a year or more with many mistakes made along the way. If they can work together enough to get manufacturing up and running strong and keep food production high so we have some exports to counter any imports we do have then there is a chance we will make it.

  Chapter Fourteen

  Fall is here and the leaves are mostly off the trees. Another brutal winter lies ahead. On all the news broadcasts they are recommending that families and even neighbors move in together to save on heating bills. There is major worry that fuel oil and propane for heating will run short this winter. It is a major concern over the whole nation.

  Many people have taken up jobs through the government in the southern states where there is work to do and heating is not so much of an issue. Those left in the northern states have been warned that they can not expect much of any help from the either their state or the federal government.

  Many broadcasts include tips for saving on home heating. Things like families moving in together or closing down as much of the house as possible including maybe only heating one or two rooms. Many living rooms will be turned into combination family rooms and bedrooms this winter.

  Tips are given on how to make sure pipes are not frozen so they burst. Also the government did set up many work crews to go around to all the vacant and repossessed homes to blow out the water lines so the home will not be ruined by having the plumbing frozen over winter.

  Even those in rural areas are not immune from what is ahead. Most still rely totally on petroleum products to heat their homes. The federal government has warned those that are relying on the government for electric bill assistance to know that large bills will result in that assistance being cut off immediately, winter or not. Also everyone can expect that after snows the roads will be much slower at being plowed and if there is only a small amount of snow nothing will likely be done.

  Those in the north can expect roads to be icy and snow impacted for the whole season. Everyone is being told to think ahead and plan for how they will cope with the long winter and minimal government services.

  Plus there is still plenty of violence and crime throughout the nation. The military with the national police forces have now ejected most of the illegals and they have assured the nation that no one is now coming across our borders without our permission. The US Navy has dramatically enhanced the Coast Guard in patrolling the waters near our seacoasts to stop
illegal entry and any smuggling.

  With the now almost nonexistent imports it is easy to go through any cargo ships that do try to dock in the United States. Drug smuggling and illegal entry has ground to a halt. The state of the art Navy ships let nothing slip through.

  Here on the farm we have quite a stock of home canned produce now. We had a bumper crop but I think next year we will have to increase the size of the garden even more. I don’t think we broke even with what we eat and how much we canned. Plus even though this year the garden was a very good producer you cannot think that will always be the case.

  So next year the garden will be about half again as big as this year at least maybe even twice as big. We can always sell or trade any excess produce we have at the farmers market and it is always way better to have too much food than not enough.

  It was not all roses across the United States this summer. The very dry west suffered many wildfires again and this time they were just allowed to burn themselves out. The only fire fighting done was to protect multiple homes from the fires.

  If you were unlucky enough to have a house in the hills by itself you were on your own to try and save it. Fighting wild fires costs a lot of money that just was not there and fuel for the planes and trucks was also an issue.

  Smart homeowners living in those areas had cut large swathes of trees down around their places ahead of time to provide a no-burn buffer zone around their homes. The smart ones saved their own homes by planning ahead.

  But there was also good news too. Corn, wheat, soybeans, and other crops were good and quite an amount of the excess was being exported to other countries. I don’t know what the payment agreements were for these food exports but my guess was either barter or gold.

  Also more drilling for oil is being done on US soil and off shore areas. Some refineries had shut done due to the lack of imported oil but with the possibility of starting up again using our own oil or importing more at some point.

  Efforts to restart manufacturing in the United States again are making headway. These processes could not be started overnight but many projects were at least in motion. The government had kept most of the electric generating plants in operation throughout the United States. This was not the case in many foreign countries that had lost electric power to large sections of their respective countries. Many still had not gotten all the power restored.

  There is fighting in many areas of the world with small wars or border disputes cropping up or dying down all the time. No major wars and nothing that would directly impact the United States have started as of yet. Some of the larger more powerful countries were posturing but I think that is all it is going to amount to. At least I hope so.

  Once I heard that the US had announced to the world that we were still the most powerful nation in the world and any aggression towards the United States would result in the full extent of our military power being used in retaliation against any and all aggressors. If this announcement did happen it seemed to do the trick because we were left alone.

  Between Mac and I we shot three deer and processed them ourselves at home. We had traded for a hand meat grinder at the market in town and used that to grind some of the meat to make our own hamburger. We had traded for more flour that a local had milled but had to buy some yeast at the store so we could continue to bake our own bread. We also had to purchase many other condiments and sundry items that we had not realized we would go through so quickly.

  Schools were a big issue, especially for rural folks. Schools around the country were mostly open somewhat as normal. But there were large issues with schools in rural areas. There was little money and little fuel available for bussing rural students to and from the school.

  Basically all schools shut down all extra curricular activities. There would be no sports and no marching bands. Parents in rural areas could drive their kids to school but few had the money to do so. Most schools were encouraging rural parents to home school their children or get together with neighbors to home school together. Schools were offering to give these parents the books necessary and to provide suggested curriculum for home schooling.

  Many schools were dropping back to a four day week (even some to three days) with longer hours to save the schools money. Class sizes went way up with thirty or more students per class. Larger class sizes were often done to reduce heating costs. Lunches were handled differently by each school with some not providing any lunches so all the kids had to bring their own, to others that did provide lunches but some only providing the bare minimum in meals (often just peanut butter sandwiches with water or milk). By this point there was little complaining by parents because everyone knew by this time the state the country was in financially.

  Winter came early and with a vengeance. By the first of November we had a foot of snow on the ground. Those that have lived in the northern areas know that when the ground gets covered by snow from then on the temperatures stay low. And such was the case this year. A good day only saw temps in the low twenties. And more snow fell often, sometimes only an inch but other times four to six inches per storm.

  The county did make an effort to plow the roads in the area but often we were snowed in for a week at a time. Not that we had any plans to go anywhere. We were safe and snug at home. Mainly for something to do Mac made some snowshoes for himself. Actually he made several because it was all trial and error and he was only using materials he could find out in the woods.

  He did finally get a pair he liked and seemed to work pretty good for him. Towards the end of November he left early one day and returned much later with a large wild turkey. He told us Thanksgiving would not be the same without having turkey. The turkey was a real treat that all of us appreciated and we made sure we told him so too!

  Though we had plenty of snow and cold weather, it was really a pretty much a normal winter for us here so far weather wise but many places were having problems. Some places got freezing rain then cold temps and then some snow. This caused multiple problems just like it always does but of course now it was just compounded because of the crash.

  Electric linemen had to wait until the roads were plowed before they could go in to repair downed electric wires. And the roads were not plowed near as fast as things as once were done so many people were without electric power for much longer than normally would be the case. There were fewer electric linemen available to work also now which caused additional delays in repairs. There seemed to always be a few deaths due to each storm.

  Some with no way to heat their homes without power succumbed to the cold and some tried to heat with make shift heaters and died due to fire or carbon monoxide poisoning. Some were trapped in their cars and died from exposure. But again some of this stuff happens every winter.

  Obviously with the economic situation and the fuel shortages were only making things worse but the news stations and the federal government had warned everyone in advance that they had to prepare for winter. Many people just never listen and some of those people will die. It is just the way it is and always will be. And technically winter has not even started yet because it starts on December twenty first which is just around the corner.

  With Christmas coming soon the television stations and the radio stations were going all out to provide Christmas shows and music. I’m sure part of this was to try to lift the spirits of all Americans and also with almost no new shows being produced this was a chance to show all the hundreds of old Christmas shows from years past.

  They never really go out of date anyway. We did keep the radio on most of the day with the Christmas music playing and we often watched Christmas shows in the evenings. I think few people would be getting any presents this year and that was alright too. Maybe people could get back to what Christmas was supposed to be all about again instead of just “Present Day” like it was becoming before the crash.

  We had decorated the inside of the house for Christmas like we used to do when the kids were small using what were now almost antique dec
orations. On Christmas day Mac and I made breakfast for the two girls and did the dishes afterward so they had at least part of the morning to relax.

  Mac had wanted to shoot a goose for the Christmas dinner but he said he had waited too long and they had all flew south before he thought to shoot one for today. So we had a venison feast for our dinner. The girls are excellent cooks and we all ate way too much.

  We did not exchange any gifts but still couldn’t have had a more enjoyable day. The only dark cloud was each of us missing Ava, if she could have been with us the day could have only been called perfect.

  But we had all long since faced the fact that Ava was gone to a better place and we all knew that she would have wanted us to have as pleasant a life as possible without her. Though we had accepted her being gone that did not mean we didn’t miss her.

  Chapter Fifteen

  None of us stayed up to watch the New Year come in. The news showed scenes from Times Square in New York but it was way different from times past. There were people gathered there but there was no ball drop because it cost too much. But people got together to enjoy each others company and I think they still had fun and I believe it also showed the hope people have for the future.

  I think everyone is finally seeing that you don’t need all the gadgets and all the hoopla to find enjoyment. They are learning that real enjoyment comes from good friends and family. Maybe we will come out of this whole tragedy a better, stronger, and more back-to-our-roots nation.

  On the news they have said that churches are seeing huge upswings in membership. That can only be a good sign. This nation was founded on Christian values and religion played a major role in shaping its beginning. It couldn’t be more obvious than in our famous Declaration of Independence. Maybe the War on God in the United States will end; many of us certainly hope this will be the case.