A To Do List for a Future of Austerity

My previous posts have stressed learning skills and the low energy future we face. This post we concentrate on what can do to prepare for a future of “Hard Times” and if I am wrong and the times aren’t so hard they will help you anyway so why not give them a try. I do know that oil is going to start to get expensive, I don’t know how fast the price will run up but I know of no other source that can replace our reliance of petroleum.




You can prepare yourself mentality and physically, you can become involved in your local government. You can start using alternative modes of transportation, buying local produce and products. Increase the energy efficiency of your house, have an alternative way to heat it. I hope you get the idea now, think about how $8.00 a gallon gasoline will affect you and think about everything that now uses oil will cost when oil hits $200 a barrel. I am going to expand on some of these ideas in the coming paragraphs.



If your sense of self-worth comes from material goods then you need to find something else to give your life meaning. Now most of you will say that material things are immaterial to me. Well if you talk about your TV, car, cell phone, look at the sales flyers in the paper, live in the Untied States or Canada then they probably do mean more to you then you realize. My generation (Generation X) has been bombarded by advertising since birth, and the geniuses of marketing have been very good at brain washing us. We have come to think that we need a new car every 3-4 years and if we do not have the extensive, extended, expanded, cable package then we will seem less in the eyes of our co-workers. We have been sold that the more gadgets and services that we buy the better that our life will be and the easier our children will have it.



To borrow from John Michael Greer, “There is no Brighter Future Ahead.” If we measure success on material goods then we are bound for disappointment. If we believe that our kids will have the jet packs (that we where promised) or that they will be able to jet set around the world, then we will experience a future full of frustration and stress. Prices are going to increase and material goods, especially the frivolous consumer goods that so many of us buy will become unaffordable luxuries.



Turn off the TV and stop the brainwashing rays from the advertising gurus for corrupting your children’s minds. Eat dinner together at a table without the TV on, and then do not turn the TV on but play a game, go for a bike ride, draw or color picture together, play with some toy that requires no batteries with your children. Try to do this at least once a week; it would be better if you did it all of the time but start with just Saturday. Start to reduce your consumption, don’t buy the new salad shooter, try to go for a week without buying anything but gas and unprocessed raw food (you know vegetables that you have to peel) play a game and see who can go without buying something the longest(no matter how big the “SALE” is or how much you will save).



Prepare yourself for a time when you can no longer buy new things, and get use to the idea of doing without. This is going to be a major cultural shift that we have to make, that no matter how hard we work there will be something that we just cannot afford to buy and that our children will have less access to material possessions than we had. I fear that for most of the population this will be the hardest thing to comprehend, because it goes against what we have been told by society for the last 50 years.



Next, get in shape. Exercise regularly, in the 1940’s the average American walked 5-7 miles a day, now we walk less than a mile a day. We are going to have to walk and bike more in the future so start now when you can do it for fun, rather than when you have too. Start a new diet, and not the Atkins diet or any other Hollywood fad diet either. Read Michael Pollan and eat “real food, not too much and mostly plants.” Cut your meat consumption back to one or two meals a week, eat non processed foods (you know vegetables that you have to clean, peel and cook), stop buying anything with corn syrup in it (no sodas) and make your own bread once a week.



With a natural diet and exercise you will find that you have more money because in a matter of months your cholesterol, blood pressure and blood sugar will return to healthy levels. You will lose weight and feel better than you have in years. You might even be able to convince your Doctor to take you off of all those medications that you are on (and save lots of money). Changing your diet back to a more traditional diet (if your grandmother couldn’t buy it in 1940 then you don’t buy it either) and increasing your physical activity will probably have the most beneficial effects on your life.



Get Local, become involved in your local politics, go to your city council meetings, and become informed on the local issues. Join local civic groups (the Rotary Club, Junior League, Boy Scouts, Elks Lodge) these groups will start to have more importance in your community has the civil authorities start having to cut their budgets.



Join a CSA and shop at your local farmers market, as fuel prices start to increase our current industrial agricultural system will start to break down. By supporting and encouraging your local farmers you will lessen the impact that you and your community will feel.



Know your neighborhood and neighbors, as you walk and bike ride for pleasure stop and talk to the people who live on your street. You will learn the best routes to get you places and form a valuable resource that can be used when police budgets force fewer officers to be hired and increase response times. Try to form a tool sharing bank so you can borrow each other tools, find out who is elderly and check in on them regularly. This will go a long way to increase both your security and your sense of self worth.



Encourage your city to become a walk-able and bike-able city. As we will not be able to drive everywhere encourage your city to have sidewalks and bike paths. Join any local organizations that promote these activities.



Start a garden, it doesn’t have to be big just a few potted tomato plants if that is all you have room for or plant fruit and nut trees instead of pine trees. You can still have a decorative landscape that can also produce food.



As you can see there is a plethora of things that you can do now to prepare yourself for a more difficult future. Most of these things are good for you and save you money even if I am wrong and someone invents a table top fusion reactor that anyone can have in their home that will meet all of our power needs cheaply and cleanly. I truly hope that I am wrong but I don’t think that I am wrong and perparing to have a more fulfilling life with less material goods.