The world is nosediving into a recession. The news is all doom and gloom, all the time (well, except for at FaceLevel.com, where the news is about nosediving but that's a FUN thing!).
Regardless of your perspective, are you ready?
More and more I see people beginning to panic. Sometimes they're people who have seen it coming, sometimes (usually) they're people who have mocked those who saw it coming.
The people who are going to get hit the hardest in this global depression / low point before a one-world government are the people who have the least individualized selves.
The people for whom career, homes, cars, clothes, friends, and in a word, "stuff" are their identity.
Oh, sure, everybody says they can do without it, everybody says their identity isn't in their stuff.
Everybody's about to find out if that's true or not.
The people who will do the best are at opposite ends of the spectrum – the hustlers without a conscience, and the artesians working the land.
Whichever route you're wired to go, better pick one of them and start making plans.
My suggestion is, of course, think long term.
I was thinking about this today seeing people who work for a day's wages to buy a day's provisions. Many of those people will be largely unaffected I think. The poorer people of the so-called developing nations. People who grow what they eat.
The extremely poverty-stricken countries are going to be in a world of hurt, because the West has taught them co-dependency, and brought them fish, but for the most part not taught them how to fish.
The 1st world countries will be hit the hardest, because of course their economies and values all stem from a vast, unending array of stuff.
I'm not saying the world is ending, or to stop buying stuff. I want you to buy stuff (especially if one of my businesses is selling it – because we really do sell happiness. No, seriously! Believe it! :-D ).
My point is just that if your world comes to a stop and everything you own and treasure is suddenly gone, what are your VALUES? What are your SKILLS? Who are you as an INDIVIDUAL?
And will that be enough to keep you from going over the brink of despair?
Start putting stock into your own mind, willpower, and physical health. When everything else disappears, what God gave you and what you developed it into is all you'll have left.
Personally, I'm banking on myself as an individual, and in an omniscient God. Hopefully that's a winning combination.
If not, I'd still rather be there than suicidal because my BMW got repoed, I've got a totally uncool hole in my 7 For All Mankind jeans, and I'm famished but Starbucks is all boarded up.
There is hope. But where will you find it?
PS – the cost of beer will probably go up too. Just a friendly warning. ;)