Feeling the Pinch - But Not Really - Yet

Depletion and Abundance was a book that at first I viewed as radical -- using solar stoves to cook? Getting ready for a depression? Ha! I thought. My view was (note I said WAS) that government would never let that happen. Well...my thoughts are changing as the economy continues to spiral in a downward momentum - especially now that it hit home yesterday when the Governor froze my salary. I'm ok with that now after I got over the initial shock (I'm still very gratefully working unlike my hubby who is sitting on pins and needles awaiting the feared unemployment announcement - its not definite, but he's concerned as are his co-workers). BUT, it did make me think a whole lot more about how to conserve the money I have AND it really made me think about the future and where we are going. I'm sure I'm like millions and millions of others who are really tightening the belt and as we do so, we're adding to the downturn of the economy. But it can't be helped... its a vicious cycle that doesn't appear to be ending anytime soon. We stop spending, businesses go under, more people get laid off, more comes out of our pockets and we stop spending even more and even more companies go under, etc., etc. This is the exact path that Sharon wrote about in one of her chapters in Depletion and Abundance -- the Depression. (The book focuses on "peak oil" whereby be run out of oil and how we live after that -- but she relates it to the great depression and how they survived). The scarier part is that this recession we are currently in has just started and will grow. During the Depression, rock-bottom of 25% unemployment and food lines didn't hit until 3 years later. So my dear friends, tighten your seat belts - we're in for a ride and major changes in how we live. Read the writings of Sharon Astyk -- it'll amaze you how she's on the money. She also shares some really good ideas, albeit radical, on how to cut back, save some money, and survive it all. It may even be fun she says. Huh?