The Next Steps Down - Starving the Rural Areas

Over this last week it's become pretty obvious things are not what they seem or anywhere near as good as the Obummer regime and his big media cronies try and paint it as being.

We have documented tanker rail cars being stashed by the thousands in Northern Missouri. Food prices increasing despite commodity depression in most other sectors and reported artificial shortages in delivery to rural markets. We saw a county by county map that clearly indicated only those areas with raw resource booms or direct government spigots are surviving. Other blogs have documented similar declines in other industries and service sectors and there have been articles and articles about slow downs, layoffs and business closings across the world. Many countries further from the financial center of things are suffering far more than the US as well.

Things are very close to falling apart it seems.

The next question we as sustainers must ask ourselves is how this will effect us going forward and what to watch out for as it does.

I think the answer is already there in front of us if we really look. The decrease in rural deliveries as reported by a couple of our readers is a very telling hint. The failed urban experiments are going to be sucking more and more resources from the rural areas to stay alive as this thing moves forward.

Already we see urban school districts screaming for their various state governments to take over their debt and bail them out.

Detroit Public Schools face bankruptcy if Lawmaker's don't Act

This is just the beginning. The failed urban areas will be attempting to plunder their respective state's coffers on an ever increasing level to feed the beast they have created. Of course it will be presented as a simple "state problem" but what it means is resource transfer away from the rural areas. More abandonment of roads, less snow removal, patching etc. reduced law enforcement coverage (ok so it's not all bad), less money for rural schools, etc.

You get the picture.

Remember this decline and collapse started at the edges and picks up speed as it is sucked inwards. Ever so slowly we who live at these edges will need to become more and more self sufficient and adapt to the changes much earlier than those in the urban areas. We will have to travel further for groceries or do without, suffer greater costs in vehicle maintenance due to traversing steadily declining roads and learn to live without for longer periods due to less frequent trips.

All the while still paying taxes and resources that go to benefit other areas.

Point of fact the hardest part of surviving this decline for those in the rural areas will come long before the urban folks really feel any pain just like the counties further from the center are already feeling the pain long before the core ones do.

The advantages are of course that those of us closest to the current edges will be more forgotten about as time goes by. Despite picking up speed we are still in a long slow slide so this next phase could in fact take years to develop fully just as the last step has taken over a year to develop into this one.

The disadvantages are that anyone who has been deluding themselves will finally have reality knocking on their door. Sustainability isn't just finding some remote spot and hoarding all you think you may need. It's producing for yourself and that's what separates the true sustainers from the pretenders.

Keep Prepping Everyone!!!!!