Survive- The Economic Collapse

by Piero San Giorgio

  Remember to take many replacement parts with you for everything (motors, turbines, equipment, radios, GPS, etc.).

  The Rural SAB

  The best possible choice, in my opinion, is to install an SAB in a rural environment and take root there (literally and figuratively). The first and most important criterion in choosing a place for a rural SAB is good soil. To determine if the soil is good, you must gather information from local farmers and verify that the soil is not poor or arid. Look for yourself to see whether there is erosion, and how water drains out of it. Run a little water into the soil: if the soil soaks it up like a sponge, it is better than if it runs off in a stream. Also, determine what plants grow there: if there are a lot of fir trees, for instance, this is because the soil is acidic and weaker than that which houses maples; the latter prefer balanced soils, which are better for agriculture.

  It’s often useful to study pre-20th-century religious buildings in the nearest town, often a church, mosque, or temple. A small church, for example, may mean that the region is traditionally poor, and, therefore, that its agriculture is sub-par. A large, opulent church with a lot of ornamentation and decoration could be the sign of a traditionally rich community, and thus one with good soil.

  Between two farmers with the same surface area to cultivate, the same tools, and the same amount of work, if one does better than the other, it is probably due to the quality of the soil. This method is not infallible, but it’s a good indicator. After all, before the Industrial Revolution, rural wealth came exclusively from the land. Good soil will be located near springs, and will be productive. Spring water or aquifers must be abundant.

  In the future (as in the past), good land will not be sold, not even for gold—what will you do with gold if you have no place to live? Remember that all wealth originally comes from the nourishing earth. In the same vein, also study the climate and precipitation. If possible, avoid areas where the winter is too long. Prefer regions with regular and abundant rainfall.

  Carefully observe regions known for having particular microclimates, because this determines what can grow there, which animals are best adapted, etc. If possible, avoid zones that need a lot of irrigation or that do not have enough water available. Carefully observe the vegetation growing in areas that are not irrigated: if it is green and dense, this is a good sign; if it is dry and sparse, this indicates the lack of water. Always keep in mind that although one can make deserts flourish with technology, fertilizers, electricity, and water, as soon as the industrial system crashes, nature will reassume its normal state: the areas that will pull through best are those with rich soils and sufficient water. Also do extensive research on the natural disasters most common and possible in the region: what risk is there of earthquakes, hurricanes, storms, tornados, floods, landslides, avalanches, tidal waves, forest fires, etc?

  When choosing a rural location, look to see if the nearest community is resilient. A good indicator is the presence of agricultural cooperatives, and whether festivals and fairs are organized. These are signs of a population with a communal spirit that wants to keep its traditions alive. If you can, analyze or observe the age distribution in the region. If it is varied (i.e., if there are both the young and the old), and if there is a mix of rural professions, this is also an excellent sign.

  Look to see if women have gardens. If so, then that is also worth noting. After all, it shows that there will be know-how and a tradition of subsistence cultivation, which areas of intensive monoculture will scarcely have. Agricultural production should be more than sufficient for the whole community and easily generate a surplus. Also, verify that the population density is not too low, especially if you plan on establishing yourself with young children in your SAB. They will need friends to play with and develop. Gather information on whether the surrounding communities have electrical generators (wind, little hydro-electric centers, etc.). This is an important advantage. Look whether the religious fervor is not too strong or extreme. In times of crisis, it may be exacerbated. Avoid finding yourself in a community of religious fanatics!

  It is better to choose a region with low population density: a village will be better than a town, and a small town nearby is preferable to a large urban center. Evaluate the area carefully: a rural zone close to a large urban center is not necessarily more secure than the city itself. In case of complete economic collapse, it is possible that refugees will march for several days in search of food. So avoid being within 90 miles of any large urban center, especially the great metropolises (London, L.A. Chicago, New York, Washington DC, Atlanta, Miami, Paris, etc.), which are the most dangerous places. Avoid spots too close to prisons or asylums for the mentally incapacitated. These institutions may not be able to resist budget cuts, and it is imaginable that in cases where the inmates are not killed by their guards, they will simply be let go without any other resource than pillaging the region, alone or in bands.

  Also be careful with the great motorways between cities. For example, the L.A.-San Diego, Boston-New York-Baltimore-Washington DC, London-Coventry-Birmingham-Liverpool, Brussels-Antwerp-Rotterdam-Amsterdam, Frankfurt-Köln-Dusseldorf, Paris-Lyon-Marseille, Tokyo-Kanagawa-Nagoya-Osaka, Hong-Kong-Shenzen-Guangzhou, Shanghai-Nanjing, Seoul-Busan, Madrid-Zaragoza-Barcelona, Milano-Brescia-Verona-Vicenza, and Vienna-Budapest-Belgrade-Sofia-Plovdiv-Edirne-Istanbul-Ankara axes may be taken by many urban dwellers fleeing the cities. These “refugee migrations” should be avoided, since you are at risk of being submerged under thousands of famished people whom you cannot feed, and who will quickly become unmanageable and possibly hostile.

  It is possible that the government (or what remains of it) could expropriate your farm or house to convert it into a refugee center, thus making you a refugee yourself! If this happens, it will mostly be in areas bordering cities, and not in more remote territories. These will be spared because they are not served by the great highways, or because they are difficult to access. If you are unable to live far from a city, at least plan on choosing a less visible spot that would not be obvious to a refugee or looter. If you choose to make your SAB a second home, think about its accessibility in times of crisis. Will you still be able to cross borders? Will you be up to making the trip with a full tank and a few extra jerrycans? If the price of gas increases greatly, can you still have the means of getting there often?

  Above all, avoid installing your SAB in vacation centers known for catering to the wealthy, because they will be one of the first targets for looters. Avoid areas too close to chemical plants and nuclear reactors. (In Europe and Canada, this is getting increasingly difficult, since the number of reactors is significant: 101 (+11 planned) in the U.S., 58+2 in France, 33+27 in Russia, 15+76(!) in China, 20+25 in India, 23+9 in South Korea, 55+13 in Japan, 7 in Belgium, 5 in Switzerland, 8 in Spain, 16+4 in the U.K., 9 in Germany, 18 in Canada.) Also try not to be too close or downwind from potential nuclear-weapons targets, such as large military bases (e.g., the American military base of Rammstein in Germany, etc.). Another criterion, of legal nature, is that it might be worthwhile to establish an SAB so as to benefit from agricultural subsidies or low taxes. An even more agreeable situation is a region where the government is not too curious or intrusive, and where the laws about hunting and firearms are minimal.

  Once you have considered these numerous criteria, it is up to you to make a list and decide on their level of importance. After all, you must compare the level of risk with the advantages or inconveniences of a plot of land, a house, a farm, or a castle that you are sizing up for constructing or installing an SAB.

  The good news for all of us is that in our days, rural regions ideal for an SAB are often not very expensive places. Because of the rural exodus and consequent low population density, land prices in rural areas are quite affordable in comparison to cities, especially if you avoid fashionable spots. Selling an apartment in town, even a small one, can allow you to buy a very large property in the countryside. You can purchase entire villages for the price of a
villa—but hurry before millions of people read this book!

  Many other criteria enter into one’s individual choice of land and property. We may note style, age, type of construction materials, whether a new building must be erected, or an existing one—renovated, if someone is living on the property as a renter, whether you want to keep the renters or not, etc. It is impossible to list all the criteria exhaustively. Then there are questions of the heart: do you love the place? Would you like to go there a lot? To live there most of the year? In my experience, this emotional factor is also among the most important, for better or for worse!

  The advantages of a rural SAB are numerous: more space for gardening, livestock breeding, the possibility of springs or freshwater wells, relatively low costs, better adapted in case of total economic and social collapse, better storage, an easier place to defend, lower risks from epidemics, less violence and fewer refugees.

  The disadvantages are that rural life is difficult, and that effective defense of a large property demands organization and a suitable number of inhabitants. Relative isolation makes all transportation and trade more difficult.

  The Urban SAB

  Installing your SAB in town may make sense if you do not have the time or the means to install one in a rural area.

  Cities have a lot of advantages: a dense environment with a number of important services and access to transportation infrastructure and efficient supply chains. This is exactly what hundreds of thousands of your neighbors depend on. And it is this system which runs the greatest risk in a major crisis or economic collapse.

  Of course, if the economic collapse takes the form of an extended crisis and progressive deterioration, it is imaginable that a city could adapt by transforming parks and other green spaces into agricultural fields, like Switzerland and England did during WW2, and by organizing local militia to guarantee order and security, by putting in place local energy production, by organizing the efficient functioning of sewers, and the provisioning of drinking water, and also by putting in place programs of gradual reduction or limitation of the urban population.

  The advantage of a city is that, a priori, you already know your neighbors and neighborhood. You are part of the community, you will have access to markets that spontaneously spring up for barter, etc. And it is in a city that one finds the greatest density of doctors and medical personnel.

  But a city involves great disadvantages. Empty land is scarce. Thus there are limits as to what you can cultivate, and the amount of water and food you can store (in a basement, garage, or attic). Above all, cities will have to face massive sanitation problems. The risk of social disorder is also quite substantial. If the latter occurs, the law of the state will certainly be replaced by that of the strongest. These will be gangs, social riffraff becoming “big shots,” surrounded by large-scale banditry, or even the state transforming into a mafia. If you have cultivated your roof, garden, balcony, or if you raise animals, these outlaws may find out. It will be hard to go unnoticed as someone who is prepared for the crisis, at which point you will become their prime target.

  If you still want to install your SAB in an urban environment, you would be better off choosing a medium-sized town rather than a megalopolis, and it will be even better if the town possesses large parks, if it is crossed by a river, if there is a hydro-electric station nearby, if it contains one or several large hospitals, and has no dangerous ghettos.

  If you have transformed your suburban house into an SAB, it is better for it to be the last address on a dead-end street, and for your vegetable garden not to be visually prominent (bushes will be useful for hiding it). Ideally, an urban SAB can be an entire block, with all inhabitants taking part in the project. A squat property can become an effective SAB if the “renters” agree to maximize their ability to live autonomously and organize the neighborhood around them for food production, water purification, waste disposal, the installation of an emergency medical dispensary, the generation of a little electricity, and the organization of defense. A neighborhood system and community, organized around shared objectives accepted by all, can succeed as well as a neighborhood organized and motivated hierarchically. It’s up to you to find the organization and social bond adequate for an SAB to have a high enough quality of life. I develop how to set up an urban SAB in my second book Rues Barbares (Barbarian Streets), co-authored with Franco-American survivalist Vol West.

  The Offshored SAB

  You also have the option (using the same criteria of choice as for a mobile, rural, or urban SAB) to carry out your project in a country you think should be sheltered from serious troubles, or which, in your opinion, might not be affected. This is a delicate decision, for the choice of a country depends on what scenarios you think possible and probable. Asia, for example, seems to be a high-growth area, and to have a better future than Europe. But who can say whether tomorrow, under the pressure of a serious crisis, foreigners will not be expelled, and their property confiscated? For relatively low sums of money, you can acquire a lot of land in South America or in Africa, but who can guarantee you from ending up a victim of social revolts or ethnic cleansing as a “rich foreigner?” Even if you apply all the principles for installing an SAB, the greatest difficulty will be establishing strong social ties as a foreigner in another country: both on the local level (which you can influence) and on the geostrategic level (which you cannot influence).

  It’s up to you, but I do not advise emigration to any place where the culture, race, or ethnic groups are too distant from your own. To remind you of an old and wise Piedmontese saying of my grandfather’s, “Donne e buoi, dei paesi tuoi” (choose wives and cattle from your own country).

  *

  Larry is very rich.

  Not just very rich, but filthy rich. Since his passion is the ocean, he transformed his yacht, “Setting Sun,” into an SAB: a luxury SAB that can do 28 knots! At least, for as long as there is gasoline... Larry’s yacht is not a boat for your ordinary millionaire: 453 feet long, 82 cabins on five floors, jacuzzis that operate from large cisterns that collect and filter rainwater, a sauna, a gym, a wine cellar, a private movie theater, a basketball court (that can also serve as a helipad). Solar panels that furnish 400 kWh of electrical energy, which is also used to pump and desalinate seawater. The crew is composed of 30 people, and Larry has employed a security team of five former Marines. When the crisis broke out, Larry was with a few friends on the Côte d’Azur. He cast off and decided to return to the U.S. by sea. His investment in a security team was rewarded when he had to repel an attack of Moroccan pirates off Gibraltar. He turned about and decided to set sail for a Greek island belonging to one of his friends. The “Setting Sun” finished its short cruise by being boarded and confiscated by the navy of the young Neapolitan Republic. Larry and his friends had to live in rather difficult circumstances for several years in an old apartment in Naples, suffering the jeers of the local urchins. Larry came out of it well, all considered. His billionaire friends who stayed in St. Tropez were captured, while they were attempting to get to the Nice Airport in a limousine convoy, by a hoard of famished unemployed men. The sight of their corpses hanging from the street lamps and eaten by birds is said to have been terrifying.

  +

  Florent has been elected as a one-year official of his SAB in the Vosges.

  Everything has changed since the global economy followed that of the U.S. into the greatest depression of all time. Nothing functions as before: there is no work, especially in the cities, and the population revolted in the middle of winter following a cut-off of Russian and African natural gas. The governments, whose priority was paying back interest on their debt, could no longer pay the gas bills. The revolts caused serious malfunctions of infrastructure. Certain towns no longer have running water. Electricity blackouts are getting more common. The provisional Communist revolutionary governments do not control much, and most of Europe has plunged into great confusion. Fortunately, there has not been much violence and, to general
surprise, immigrant populations have joined together rather fraternally with the European populations in a common struggle against big capital. Representatives have long since taken to their heels. However, because the world’s currencies are no longer worth anything, they will not get far.

  One morning, Florent receives an urgent radio appeal from a friendly German SAB in the Black Forest. It seems there has been an accident at the Fessenheim nuclear power plant, and that one or several reactors have exploded. (Later on, they learned that the revolutionary council in charge of energy, in their haste to bring the grid back up to please the masses, did not listen to the advice of the engineers, who recommended a shutdown and inspection...). In the course of the day, the Geiger counters show a rapid rise in radioactivity. Everyone must quickly go inside, and the building needs to be made as close to impenetrable as possible. All windows and shutters are closed and weather-stripped with industrial tape (also keyholes, joints, ventilation ducts, etc.). A long wait follows, which ends three days later with the arrival of rain. When the rain passes, the puddles show rather high levels of radioactivity, but it seems that the house was essentially spared. How will the harvest turn out? How long before they can expect to receive trustworthy news? How many additional sick people will there be because of this event? Florent realizes just how great his responsibilities are.

  Part IV: Preparing Oneself

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  howard ruff

  investor

  /2008/

  <
  chuck palahniuk

  writer

  _fight club

  /1996/

  How to Prepare Yourself

  <