This is an entry on FerFAL's blog. FerFAL is the "preparedness" blogger who Gatorfarmer mentioned in his post on the "What types of SHTF" thread. FerFAL was around during Argentina's financial collapse in 2002, so he speaks from personal experience. Bear in mind that English is not FerFAL's first language. Interesting stuff...


SURVIVING IN ARGENTINA: Finances, firearms and Freedom: Why is one linked to the other.

Monday, November 9, 2009

Finances, firearms and Freedom: Why is one linked to the other.


Every now and then I get an email from a reader. Confused, probably a newbie regarding survival and preparedness.

“Is it that bad down there?” “Why do you need a gun, if there’s still police?” “How come you have internet, if SHTF?”

I’ve answered some those questions before, but yesterday after the recession post (SURVIVING IN ARGENTINA: Life in (and after) Our Great Recession ) I believe people will understand better. Unfortunately it will become more and more clear as time goes by.

Please do take the time to watch the video, its worth it. I know, its NY, one of the most spoiled cities in the world, but some of the stories are so similar.

The man that lost his job as a construction manager, a well paid job, and was now driving people around to put food on the table, that’s something we saw spread in 2000 and I’ve commented before.

People, I know its impossible for you to see the similarity because you didn’t live it, but it’s there. It’s so familiar, the only difference is the language.

That man, the one driving people to the airport for a living, he’s an American “remisero”. Those of you that read my book or have been following my blog for a while know what that is.

Just what the man on the video describes, an improvised driver, a poor version of a taxi. You know what? It doesn’t take a genius to figure out it will become a more popular way to make money (even if just a little money) as things get worse.

One of the worse paying jobs, with the highest suicide rates, a remisero is usually the person that, in spite of his skills (or even lacking them), he simply has nothing else.

Remiseros are now part of our culture, its sad to think that it may become a part of USA as well.

Want to do this in stages? OK, lets call this stage B) of the crisis.

On stage A) people can’t deny any more there’s a crisis, they lose their jobs, which was a big surprise. Then the neighbor and the brother, and the guy across the street. More and more people lose their jobs. But its ok, isn’t it? Only bums are unemployed. Because a hard worker, with skills, experience and college graduate, that kind of people always find jobs…. Right?

Stage B: That’s today. That’s the video. Surprise, surprise, in spite of the skill, right attitude and fervently hunting for jobs, there’s simply no jobs to be found! People start digging into their savings or getting worse into debt. It’s a moment where people finally get it. Things have changed. You can now go months, even years without finding a job… so you just apply for anything, desperate to make a buck. And for now that works…

Stage C: There’s no more “help wanted” signs. Not even ****** jobs. Its hard even for the remisero types, there’s so many of them now.

This is all old news for us, this was us in 2002, 20003.

People still get fired and it’s worse for the +40 guys. Educated, hard workers, with decades worth of managing experience, but they are not wanted any more, they are too expensive to have around, and why keep them around for other jobs when you can get rid of them and hire a kid in his early 20’s to do the same job? There no need for that type of guy any more. Just one boss now, and lots of 20 year olds working on minimum wage. That’s the recession plan to keep business afloat.

No BS here folks, never that. I’ve had people as old as my father, almost getting on their knees begging for a job. A job I didn’t have to offer because my own situation wasn’t much better. “Your family moved to Spain. Maybe there’s a job there. Anything, just anything. Driving a truck, cleaning, I’ll do anything at all”. It was sad and embarrassing to see the father of a friend to that. A man that a year ago had an executive position in a factory.

Stage D: Crime. All this brings the real danger, what you sure noticed worries me the most. Crime, everywhere and in every possible way. The *******s get more creative, more violent and why would they not. There’s no jobs anyway, things have changed, people are desperate and police can hardly keep up.

Its easy when there’s a murder in town. But when there’s a dozen every week, there’s not enough manpower to investigate them all. And remember there’s a crisis, no budget for more officers.

While some get up every morning thinking of how to make money and make a honest living, others start their day planning how to rob, how to kidnap or scam people.

Kidnappings started, something we’ve never seen in Argentina before, armed robberies, bank robberies, asphalt pirates, pro- home invaders, taking several houses at the same time.

By now people realize quickly that the crime problem is serious. Unlike the unemployment thing, a corpse on the sidewalk causes a much greater impression than a bunch of guys looking for a job.

Remember what happened with unemployment? First the neighbor, then that cousin of yours… then you? Same happens here. “Jimmy got mugged” “They broke into the Williams home, they raped the women and beat them all up” “ They killed Kevin”. It starts getting closer and closer until you feel it too close. Your family could be next.

You finally see the importance of caring about your security and self defense. Its no longer something you fantasize about, watch in movies or throw theories on the internet forums. You do it, and you comment with others what has happened to you.
Its no longer about having a molle vest that matches the digital cammo pattern of your tactical holster…

Stage E: Crime is already something you got used to. It sucks, its stressful, and you want out, but its part of life and as we say here, every morning you know you’re going out, but you don’t know if you’re coming back. Jobs? The old social pyramid is no more. Those people from stage A and B? Either they found a way or they didn’t. If they didn’t they are now either poor or homeless. That’s the way it is.

And yet the world does not end, you know? Others adapted and managed, most accepted their new poor condition as the social pyramid turned into an iceberg: A lot of people underwater and a small amount on the stop, doing well, maybe even better than before. But that nice fat middle-class? No more.

Jobs, crime, and now their going for your freedom.

You see, people want things fixed. The conditions are barely tolerable. No one wants to be poor, no one wants to see their kids getting killed on the streets, there’s got to be a solution, and the politicians are quick to offer it, unless you have a problem with giving up some of that freedom of yours… No secret cameras in you bathroom or microchips under the skin. No, none of that. Just vote the right guy, vote the right legislators, and let them take care of things. They need your approval, nothing more…

And one day you wake up and are ruled by a very nice man that the majority voted. He’s got more power than any previous president in history. Supposedly there was no other way out of the mess, but it turns out that they are repeating the same mistakes that landed you there in the first place.

The thirst for power grows, nothing gets solved, and its hard to see light at the end of the tunnel.

What do people in Venezuela feel, when they watch on TV their president telling them that they have 3 minutes maximum to take a shower and they should use flashlights at night when getting up to go to the bathroom?

Does it get to such a ridiculous point where even that feels normal?

The stages are just something to organize the chain of events. They sometimes overlapped each other, some were longer than others, but that’s what happened here.

Unfortunately it seems USA is following a similar pattern. There’s differences of course, but its foolish not to see some of the similarities, blinded by pride and shame, when realizing there are indeed some similarities with a 3rd world country.


FerFAL
Labels: economic crisis world wide

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Rick