Do You Think We're Headed for Hard Times?

When my DH and I watch a movie about things like this, we may comment about it in the moment but that's it....
I think you can get crazy thinking on this, even start stocking food and worse if you start connecting with people or groups who believe on this ..
I think life is for living the present, enjoy what you have right now ....
If something is meant to happened we never going to know and been prepared for something like that is nuts!!

I tend to be cautiously optimistic . . . due to some things that I have dealt with I no longer believe that the government has our best interests at heart, and we do have to be very careful with what we see and hear in the media (and that goes for alternative sources too).

IMHO it is a good idea to get debt free and live below your means. Learn a skill that your grandma knew (sewing or canning). Enjoy your family and make them your best friends. Learn to be happy with what you have.

Basically - do what people have always done. One of the downfalls of the last 30 years - imho - is that we think we are going to somehow defeat mother nature. That we are somehow "evolved" past the daily struggle that life is. We cannot completely eradicate disease, greed, or evil.

Should something catastrophic come, there's not much we can do about it anyway.

Good luck - I would lay off the news.

I ignore it. Historically, this comes in cycles. Just focus on your family and try not to freak out. When you're old, are you going to want to remember that you flipped out about a possible apocolypse, or are you going to want to remember that you spent time with your family and loved your kids?

Since you are questioning the future and seem a little scared of it this would be a good time to check your faith base. Faith helps you feel secure from the unknown.
What good would guns do? I wouldnt put my faith in guns or stockpiling supplies because if the worst did happen the bad guys are just gonna break in and steal all your stuff anyway... and probably shoot ya with your own gun.
Knowing there is already a much bigger plan with a much bigger entity in charge of it allows you to remain calm during tough and questionable times.
Your biggest weapon to stop the madness is our knees.

The mood of the times is leaning strongly toward fear and an "every man (or family) for himself." More than all other factors combined, this is what breaks down society, which is at its best an organization focused on the common good. If people don't recognize that we have other, more cooperative options, we'll eventually slide into a "survival of the fittest" mode which will favor only those with the means to protect and provide for themselves. Neighbors will be pitted against neighbors, fighting over the crumbs that fall from the tables of the wealthy.

We don't have to go there. We can wake up, focus on our many blessings, stop viewing "them" (all our neighbors and fellow citizens of the world) as our enemies, stop grabbing for all we can get, and take care of the most vulnerable among us. Yes, there are some bad people in the world. But there are far more good, decent, ethical people. It's up to each of us to be sure we are one of decent ones, and if we are driven by fear, we are far more likely to become one of the those who will ignore everyone else's needs while grasping for ever more security.

There is no real security, except what we create in community. Certain talk show hosts are getting very wealthy feeding our fears. I don't listen to them, because it puts my focus, my energy, on the negative rather than the power I have to create good.

you can only live one day at a time and it shouldnt be lived in fear. quit listening to the news, it's overdramatic hollywood hype to get everyone scared and to BUY things.
If your pantry has tuna and pork and beans and a couple of cases of water.... that will get you through a modest setback. Letting your mind get so paranoid that you want to dig a shelter and move underground like a plot of a SCI-FI movie means the media is making you cuckoo.
How do you deal? One day at a time, it's impossible to do it any other way.

I think you have to be responsible with this- meaning, you should be aware of what is going on, but be careful about being so consumed by the negative that it is all you focus on- it's easy to do especailly with talk radio( I know, I listen to talk radio all the time, but sometimes I just have to turn it off!)
One of the most important things to do is to sit down with your husband and discuss your financial situation- this is good to do whether or not the world is on the verge of a melt down. Look at how much debt you have and how much you have saved up. Do a budget if you haven't before. Make a plan to get out of debt and save up 3-6 months of expenses for an emergency fund. You will feel so much better after doing this!
My husband and I will be debt free(except the house) next month! and already I can feel a difference. I have a friend who has 2 less kids then we do, they make about 10,000 more than we do, but they are selling their house and she is looking for a job(after being a SAHM) to make ends meet because of their debt. It is nice to know that we don't have to do that. Money will still be tight- but we will be out of debt and be able to save our emergency fund without me having to go back into the workforce unless I want to!
Having an emergency food supply is also a good idea- stock up slowly and use what you have! Don't let it go to waste- so don't buy anything just because it's on sale- buy only what your family will eat. We have done this over our 12 years of marriage and it never failed that after we were able to stock up on food, we needed to use it because an un-expected expense came up that we had to take care of(the reason you need an emergency fund!) We just did canned foods and I got a food saver for Christmas one year and I use that to store flour and sugar longer.
Start learning how to can and cook/bake your own foods- if you don't already know how. It is a great experience and fresh home made bread is the best!
But don't put your life on hold while you listen to all of this. Just be prepared for emergencies that will more likely happen- tornadoes, floods or blizzards(depending on where you live) or loss of a job. These things will more likely affect your life sooner than the world ending.
Good luck!
~C.

When it gets to be too much, I turn off the TV, radio and stay off the internet.
The Amish don't have these things and they don't worry.
Crazy people want an audience and I won't listen to it.
Life goes on whether you worry about it or not.
What will be will be.

I think your statement "just rumors started by crazy fanatics" hits the nail squarely on the head.

I pretty much don't listen to those shows or read those kinds of reports--I agree with the other poster(s) that there will always be dooms-sayers.

I also agree with other posters about living within or below your means (and living debt free, or at least as much as possible). I do not believe in guns (if we had to hunt for our meat, I would, but it just scares me way to much to have a gun in the house, with a 2yo around). I do believe in self-sufficiency, with reason. We live in the city, and so cannot go "off grid" but I believe in trying to learn about things and doing for yourself, such as growing a small garden, learning to can, making soap from scratch, how to make bread from scratch (well, with store bought yeast & flour though). We subscribe to Countryside magazine (and there are plenty of doom-sayers who write in to the letters column, there, too), but it has tons of interesting articles on self-sufficiency.

We do not stockpile food in the sense of trying to keep a certain amount on hand, but probably have 2 or 3 month's worth of food in the pantry & freezer by taking advantage of sales; this is more a result of trying to be frugal than trying to stockpile.

I have always been interested in "old timey" ways and in doing things for oneself. But I do not listen to any of the rhetoric, on either side. Listening to that is bound to make one a little paranoid at the very least.

This is how people start going crazy. Seriously -keep current with the news and events. Everyone has an opinion, but one of the worst things anyone can do is to sit up listening to the talking heads on talk radio, Fox News or MSNBC or CNN or wherever who blather on and on and on about how awful this, that and the other thing is. You don't have to be quiet and hope it goes away or stockpile like a nut on a compound in Montana. Live your life. Enjoy yourself. People who say the world is SO much worse these days and so much more dangerous and society is going to hell in a handbasket -blah blah blah -obviously have never studied history. You want meanness and evil? Study the church-sanctioned Inquisition or read medieval history. History is cruel and quite honestly due to technological advancements and medical advancements, we have it better now than humans ever have before. People have been anticipating "doomsday" since there were people. Still hasn't happened. Just remember -all of those talk radio hosts and talking heads who like to stir people into a frenzy about everything are doing a job -a VERY lucrative job in many cases. If they don't whip people into a frenzy and have them hanging on their every word, then they don't become rich and famous. You would be better off ignoring all of them.

Things are happening. You can't ignore history, you can't ignore the signs, you can't ignore the governments "take over" of private industry and private lives.
"Quietly stocking up food and guns and trying to get off the grid" sounds like a great idea to me. Doesn't hurt anything, but being prepared for coming times is always a good idea.
Just make sure those seeds you have to plant your garden with aren't patented.

Alex Jones is a nutjob and exploids people like you. He needs to come up with new " evidence" for his rantings to keep his followers on the hook. And he is making a very very good living doing so. Now if it makes you sleep better with a stock of food and cache of guns by all means have it. I do have one question....leave the USA and go where exactly?? And then do what? How are you going to make a living? Do you have visas?? Work permits?? I can't talk you out of believing what you believe but here is the bottom line. Chances are lives will go on no matter what. There will always and I mean ALWAYS be someone predicting gloom and doom, they get people upset and then NOTHING happens. My answer to your question is I use my build in BS meter and tune the likes of Jones out. You do what you think is right. Good luck to you.

What Anette said. Use common sense, get involved in the political machine by electing people who are qualified and have a vision you support and turn off the fear and hate mongers in favor of some people with actual facts, not talking points. Realize that most of what is on TV is garbage and for 'entertainment' purposes only and that the person who screams (or cries) the loudest is not the person who is right. Just because we have the right to free speech doesn't mean we have to listen to every idiot with access to a microphone. Treat others the way you would be treated and teach your children respect for others and for themselves. That is how you effect the lives of others. Volunteer your time with those who are less fortunate than you and it will give you a real perspective on how great your life is. Prepare by being realistic with your goals, financial and personal and work towards that with your husband. Crazy is as crazy does.

There are certainly "doomsayer and nutcases" out there. Many of them trying to make a buck. That doesn't mean bad things are not about to happen. Most people are caught completely unaware when bad things happen. I don't see the harm in being prepared for things that might happen.
Anyone who denies the fact that our gov't is going to cause major inflation in the next few years by printing trillions of dollars as they monetize our debt is either not paying attention, completely uneducated about economics, or a nutcase themselves.
When we have people in our congress like Ron Paul, who has a Phd in Medicine, serves on the House Foreign Affairs Committee, the Joint Economic Committee, and the Committee on Financial Services, saying that our dollar is about to collapse, I tend to listen. I would not categorize him as a doomsaying nutcase.
If you think the Federal Reserve printing Trillions of dollars overnight then LOANING the dollars to our government at interest. Then doing it over and over again will not impact your life significantly, then you aren't paying attention. If you think a national deficit at 110% GDP is not a big big problem you aren't paying attention.
I wonder how many of the sheeple (sheep + people) in America even know what Quantitative Easing is?
If negative things are happening that make you worry, that is not an excuse to stop watching and paying attention.
Personally, I would rather be prepared for a disaster that never happens, than not prepared for a disaster that does happen.

Hi -
I too listen to the news and read things and I don't think being prepared is a joke. However, I also think we can freak out about it too much. I read a great blog post about this last month that kind of put things in perspective.
http://preparingyourfamily.com/getting-started-preparedness/
Jessica

Im always prepared for the worst. It doesnt matter if it never happens, at least I erred on the side of caution. Now what you guys need to stop doing is believing every word that comes out of anyones mouth. To get to the facts you need to do some research and find the truth. Most of talk radio is opinions. No need to listen to it and get worked up we have enough stress in the day as is.
The end of world will come when it comes and you wont know it till it hits you in the face. If that happens your screwed anyways so who cares! lol