I know, we've become accustomed, both in the business world and in the charity world, of always having a funding source, some kind of bail-out or philanthropist who will step in to save the day at the last minute. There's always been a flow of money, maybe just a trickle, but still a steady flow.
And those who depended on that flow of money as a fall-back when things got tough always knew that charity or help would be there, if they were desperate enough to ask for it.
But I sit on a few boards, and I am the secretary for a few other boards, and in the past 4 (not 40, as my previous typo stated!) decades that I've done so, the budget was always a small part of the discussion, and it was always about how to disperse the funds.
For the past 3 years, that hasn't been as true. And this past year has been the worst. I've seen 2 charities close their doors because they completely ran out of money, and the others are desperate and struggling. I've seen them voluntarily take pay cuts, and paying for shortages out of their own pockets, but they are reaching the end of that and there's precious little money coming in from behind the dams the misers have built.
So what do you do when your collection of social service agencies, town, city, state, school districts, clinics, hospitals, police and fire departments, federal government, and any other number of agencies/businesses that you rely on daily, are of the verge of financial collapse?
Your guess really is as good as mine - probably better.
I have some ideas, some are rather far-fetched (but you probably already know that, if you've been reading me a while), but others, I think could be reasonable.
1) Since less money should mean fewer police on the street (please note that I have not personally noticed a reduction in local police, indeed, I have seen an increase in stranger police - police that are unfamiliar with the are and whose face I don't recognize, and have heard that relatives in LE are being randomly reassigned to precincts they've never worked in before, even being sent to other cities or counties - which in my mind is a whole other issue), that should mean it will take longer for police to respond, if they respond at all. My daughter's tires were slashed a couple of weeks ago and when she called the police, they refused to even take a report over the phone. What we did for her was install motion activated lights at her house, talked LE relatives who lived nearby to check on her periodically (won't work for others, but it works, sort of, for us), and we're working on installing a fence around the front of her property with a remote entry gate for her drive so her car can be behind a locked gate and hopefully not subject to impulse acts of violence. We are taking home security much much more seriously since we can't rely on our tax-paid police to offer protection. She has a concealed carry permit and Oklahoma just passed the law to allow open carry. By her front door, which is not visible from the street, we laminated and posted her latest target from her last sighting in session, and noted that this household was protected by the concealed and open carry laws of the State of Oklahoma. She also has an alarm company and her doors, windows, fence, and gates are wired. No one will know this unless they trespass, and she's keeping a low and friendly profile in the neighborhood. Her lawn is mowed regularly and kept clean, her hedges trimmed, and her flower beds weeded.
2) Income diversification and multiple streams of income - not relying on a single income anymore, and not relying on just local income sources - with the internet, income can be global, depending on what you do. Don't rely on one single skill set, add to your skills so you can use that for additional income if you need to, whether it's a cash income or bartering. Diversification of both how you get your income and where it comes from. Of course, this means being able to market your skills or services, something I am notoriously bad at. Since we may not have our traditional fall-backs and societal support nets if things do go wrong, it's best not to keep our eggs in one basket.
3) Don't rely on government programs or charities to be there if you need help. Many are in deep financial trouble, and some may not survive. Network, get out of debt, find alternate means of assistance. DKos is great, but even it is limited, and while I was a very grateful 9and still am extremely grateful) recipient of DKos's assistance when Itzl needed his knee surgery, and donate a few bucks whenever I can to others in need, like any other source of assistance, it should not be the only one you have. When you're diversifying your income
4) Discover what your minimal needs are. Your needs are different from your wants. If you know what your minimal needs are, you'll know what you have to protect and plan for if hard times come. I like nice things, and when I can afford them I buy them.. There's no reason to live deprived if you don't have to. But it's still a good, no, a great idea to know what your minimal is so if you do hit hard times, you won't feel deprived, you'll feel comfortable because you were prepared.
5) Fund your own retirement. Diversify your assets, keep away from debt, build a strong savings account, live below your means, and don't rely on corporate retirement programs, corporate funded retirement programs, or Social Security. I know from personal experience that corporate funded retirements can go away and there's not a whole lot you can do about it. Don't let any one else control your retirement but you.
6) Build a social network. DKos is great as an online social network. We work hard here to help one another, whether it's offering a shoulder or moral support or cash or advise, it's a great place to be. Don't let it be your only social network. They are worth the time and effort you put into building them. If you build them now when you are doing well, and so are most of the others in your various networks, one or more may pay off when hard times hit. And if you have more than one social network and hard times hit, you won't be dependent upon just one network to help you - you can spread your need among several and there will be extra to share with others in need. Diversification here is also beneficial. Local networks can stand in for police protection because there really is protection in numbers. We need to not just send money but be physically present to help one another - money doesn't fix everything. Until the advent of the telephone, people made regular rounds of visits to check up on one another and collect the latest gossip. I recommend a return to that. Make regular, physical, in-person visits to people in your local networks as well as the phone calls and email exchanges and blogging and commenting.
7) Learn to be creative in your acquisition of the things you need. Buying and stocking essentials when you are doing well pays off when you hit hard times - you can shop your personal stock. But diversify. Learn new sources for food (wildcrafting, gardening, ethnic grocers, sales...) and consider shopping thrift stores, garage and estate sales (I prefer estate sales, better quality and often better prices), dumpster diving, and DIY). Acquiring the stuff you need is part of being alive; being creative about that acquisition is, could be, priceless.
8) Medical, dental, and vision care are essential parts of living, too. Even with insurance, these require creative methods of acquisition. Learn how to handle most of the routine care yourself, learn what you can handle yourself and what requires professional help. Visiting a doctor for a cold is a waste of time and money - doctors can't cure a cold and home remedies are just as effective as prescription ones. Take exquisite care of your teeth - brush, floss, rinse, and don't abuse your teeth by using them as scissors, bottle openers, or nut crackers, among other things. Eat nutritiously and moderately and get adequate exercise and sleep. When you do need medical care, research - you can sometimes find doctors who take cash who charge way less than you'd pay on co-pays and deductibles.
9) Keep learning. Things change fast. I used to be quite the computer nerd, but when I left the computer field in 2001, I quickly fell behind and now, I rest on my computer nerd laurels. I am getting back into things with learning how to use a cell phone and texting and twitter and all all that, and brushing back up on my OS skills and all, but it's harder to catch up than if I'd never dropped it. Keep learning, keep adapting to the new information, network, diversify.
When society becomes impoverished, it's up to us to keep things going until the dams burst and the money flows again.
And if that doesn't happen, well, we may just have to make it happen one way or another. My recommendation for the money problem is to change the currency. Radical, I know, but if we mint our own money and use it, the people who are damming up the money and hoarding it won't be able to spend it, will they? All their money that no one uses anymore will be as good as a Confederate dollar or Continental currency.
I recommend barter tokens, based on a basic "work hour" unit, and then valuing the item by the number of work hours it required to create. For instance, if the "work hour" is worth $6.oo (or 10¢ a minute), then a gallon of gas is worth 32 minutes (right now). Those lavender wands I make would be worth 1 hour and 15 minutes (or $7.50). So if I wanted an oil change that takes 15 minutes and uses $20 in oil and filter, I could pay in tokens worth 3 hours and 40 minutes. Then the person who did my oil change could use those tokens to buy other things.
Or maybe the tokens could be based on something else, and the "dollar amount" be different.
I have a group of friends that have mardi gras coins, and use them as favor tokens - green is for physical labor (one coin for every 15 minutes of work), gold is for doing something together (movies, dinner, sleep-over, waiting with you in the ER...), and purple is for hugs.
So, to summarize
Network
Beef up security
Diversify
DIY
Learn
Fund and Control your retirement
Be debt-free
Live below your means