This will be one of the most important blog entries I’ve ever written because it is an issue that will affect 99% of my readers.

If you are like me, you are an average Joe Citizen, trying to make ends meet in an increasingly competitive and expensive world. As resource scarcity increases the costs of goods and services, everything from food to fuel, water to widgets, the day-to-day reality of finding ways to pay for the necessities of life becomes increasingly harder and harder to afford.

The day is soon coming when basic needs such as food, clothing, shelter, land, electricity, water and other essentials will be unaffordable for many of us. For some, this is already happening, evidenced by the massive homeless problem we have in America.

Americans are a very independent minded people. Each of us wants our own “space”, our own slice of heaven on earth. We’re very accustomed to the idea that the kids will move out, take up lives of their own and lives independently as we do. Yet this idea is based upon several assumptions:

a) unlimited growth and consumption; enough for everybody now and future generations.

b) unlimited resources demands and production; plenty to go around.

c) economic and educational opportunity for anyone who wants it.

The future poses serious doubts about these assumptions for reasons covered on this blog. A severe economic crash is presently in the offering, impacting all of the world’s citizens. Resource collapse is already evident around the globe on many fronts. Economic growth cannot continue or be maintained for much longer. A “contraction”, also known as re-localization will occur out of necessity. This will also prevent advanced education opportunities because of time, distance, affordability and opportunity.

Collapse, “contraction”, or economic downturn due to climate change, economic failure or any other reason will affect everyone relatively equally. However, the reality is we are not all equal. Those that will suffer the most and experience the greatest impacts will be those that have limited means to absorb the extraordinary high costs of increased living expenses.

I say “extraordinary” because there are several case histories where limited collapse caused inflationary expenses over 8000%. A global collapse will cause this and much, much more.

What this means is the cost of goods, housing, food, fuel, land, electricity, water and necessary items for living will become extremely expensive. For many people, the vast majority - such items will be truly unaffordable.

A massive downsizing of assets will occur as people liquidate assets at firesale prices to afford just the basic essentials of food, water and housing. Bankruptcies will be epidemic as people simply walk away from their unaffordable mortgages. A gigantic glut of homes will be standing virtually empty as creditors toss homeowners out on the street. This too is already now happening, with huge inventories of unsold properties on the market and bankruptcies rising.

This will worsen greatly as the collapse deepens. Our approach to this forthcoming reality is critical - how will we deal with this? How will we even survive?

We are going to be forced to cooperate together. We will have no choice. Our independent lifestyles of living will no longer be affordable. We are going to need each other for financial and physical assistance. We will need to share the costs of food, land, housing and water and labor.

Most likely, families will contract and once again, support grandkids and grandparents, even aunts and uncles on the same land base, or even nearby.

Family cooperation is the most likely, but in many cases this either will be insufficient or impossible due to extenuating circumstances. But cooperation with others for most people will now become essential. It’s doubtful that anyone except the rich will “stand alone” and even they won’t in reality - they’ll just pay their minons to do their bidding for them (just like they do now).

It will be important to forge relationships very soon with other people for the coming contraction. Those that don’t are already experiencing the struggles of going it alone. What is presently unaffordable to one family can still be achieved with two or more.

I’ve already experienced this myself by the way and I’m aware of others experiencing this too. The need to have ‘livable land’ where some food can be grown, that provides safety, security and shelter, and to be debt free and unencumbered by high expenses all alone.

Those that try to go it alone will experience the ever-increasing costs by themselves and lack the financial and physical support that will soon be necessary in order to survive. They will succumb sooner, rather then later, compared to those that join forces.

It must be recognized that at some point, it will simply become too expensive to be alone, unless you already wealthy and rich enough that it won’t matter. But then again, if you’re one of those people, you probably don’t read this blog.

The need to have both financial and physical assistance will become increasingly acute because the difficulty in simply staying alive and being able to afford to do so will rise with each passing month.

Those that join forces or families together will be able to take advantage of shared costs for land, housing, water and gardening, and such things as necessary development, protection, defense, transportation and work load.

Ideally, entire communities (towns) would do this, but I see this as unlikely, because of the social stratification that exists in every town and the entrenched ideas of “control”. It’s much more likely that this stratification will remain much as it is today and the ‘classes’ will band together out of necessity, especially the lower classes. The richer will continue to be able to afford most things more or less indefinitely, even hiring ‘protectors’ and laborers to do their bidding for them.

It is the lower classes, the poorer people who will be impoverished the most (and who often carry the higher personal debt ratios now). These will be the ones will need to start considering how they are simply going to afford the high cost of living. Of course, I’m referring to the middle class too, which is largely in debt to it’s eyeballs too. They will succumb very soon to the high costs of living and will soon join the lower class. Some will endure and manage, many won’t.

Living standards will decline dramatically in many ways. Extraneous expenses will need to be curtailed. No booze, cigarettes or videos. No entertainment and wasted transportation. The need to cut expenses and concentrate on the necessities of life will be paramount.

Only a couple of days ago, the price of powdered milk jumped over 300% overnight. It’s not hard to project what this means for the future. There are many reasons why food will become unaffordable for millions of people. But it’s not just food, it will be other essentials like transportation, even employment requiring long distance transportation, electricity and even water. Economic and environmental collapse will severely impact all of these things. Toss in peak oil and the decline of our civilization and you have sure-fired recipe for a global disaster of biblical proportions. How are you going to afford to live?

Most people are struggling right now, not really having the means to create a sizeable nest egg or even get out of debt. They’re living from paycheck to paycheck, credit card payment to credit card purchase. The future will be very simple, no nest egg will be required - the need to simply survive by tooth and nail will be paramount and all-encompassing.

Recently, I became aware of just how terribly expensive it is to develop alternative power. All the hype surrounding alternative energy and even hybrid cars is drowning out the real, actual costs it takes to pay for all of this. It costs over $50,000 to develop wind power for example for a single typical American family, who must also be living in a wind zone. How can anyone truly afford that?

But this exemplifies what is happening with other costs too. Housing is still ridiculously priced in most areas of the country, although a massive housing crash is expected soon. Developing land into a homestead has some very high prices attached which probably won’t ever go away. One family may or may not be able to presently afford to do so. But what about in a couple of years? Will it even be possible for one family to do so that don’t have a huge pile of cash to start with? Probably not. They’ll probably try to do without - for a while, until reality sets in and they realize they simply can’t afford to live - anywhere without help.

We’re seeing huge price jumps in just the last couple of years, while many are still falsely proclaiming peak oil is not here. We’ve not seen anything yet, it will get much, much worse, and when it does our ability to survive will be highly questionable unless we start pulling together.

I strongly suspect that cooperation will be absolutely essential for most of us. Wages are not keeping up with the cost of living and the contraction effect will have severe global impacts on what jobs continue to exist and what local wages are paid. Everyone one knows that local wages are less then those found in the major metropolitan areas - but these metro areas will become unlivable. Commuting will become unaffordable. So what are you going to do? Take a low paying local job instead? Can you truly buy land and meet your family needs doing that?

Unless prices make a massive correction, no - you can’t. You discover you have to work two jobs and your spouse is also working and your kids are contributing and it’s still not enough. That’s the reality of the future we are facing as resources become scarcer and scarcer and prices reach beyond the moon. Cooperation with others will be essential.

There are several, well many other things to consider, not the least which is “how will this work”? Not easily. We will need to unlearn a whole lot that we have cherished as one of our basic freedoms. And that is the concept of private property. I’m not referring to just land, but everything. The cooperative groups will need to share tractors, tools, water, land, equipment and resources. They’ll also need to share crops, food, labor and chores. That’s not something we are much inclined to do right now. We believe that preserving our right to ‘ownership’ and ‘control’ over every one of these things is a “right”.

Frankly, this is faulty thinking, instilled within us by modern civilization. Tribal living reveals that concepts such as private property are alien. Private property also has led to the massive exploitation of resources and control. Many people claim that this is “communistic thinking”, I know, I’ve read their commentaries, but these same people also believe that we can continue to exploit the Earth’s resources indefinitely.

But the reality is actually quite different. Cooperation is shared upon mutual need. Another important point - we do not own the Earth, the Earth owns us. When we die - we take nothing with us, why should we care what we own while we live? This is a great lie taught to us from birth. Control and own as much as you can, a “get yours while you can” despite it’s actual costs or the damage such thinking creates.

This was an alien thought to our ancestors for a reason. They realized that it led to all kinds of vice and social problems. To them, nobody owned the land and what personal possessions one needed were simple and easily replaced. Beyond that, they didn’t need that much. We would do well to learn that lesson as our world crumbles around us. And we would do well to remember that this is why it’s crumbling around us, because we sought to own and control everything with no regard to it’s expense and damage.

It is my view that these realities will be increasingly evident as time progresses and the difficulties in living become more “real” to even the most obtuse among us. We’re going to be forced to cooperate, despite our objections, our differences or our desires.

I don’t think cooperation or even contraction is such a bad thing either. We are being presented with an opportunity to fix our own foolish behavior. I only hope we choose to make the best of it.