Prepping for a Government Shutdown

Everyone has a wake up call. Mine came years ago as a federal worker who was shut out for 21 days during the last Congressional brou ha ha. My husband and I both worked for the same federal agency and loved it. I worked in IT and at that time we were implementing new technologies. I was fortunate enough to be a software trainer in a workforce of older learners faced with certain change. It was a rare situation in which I was able to combine my love of technology, my passion to learn new things, and my joy of teaching. It was challenging as my co-workers weren’t so sure about these changes, but with a lot of compassion, nurturing, and effort to understand how they felt, we all grew to love our new computers. So when we were shut down, everyone was shocked. When it looked like we weren’t going to get paid for a month or ever, my husband and I were panicked. It was unprecedented and completely unexpected. 

When we did return and were paid, my husband and I faced a new reality. 

We realized that it didn’t matter whether you did your job or not. If a Congressman was in a snit, you could be without a job, a salary, and benefits like medical insurance without a moment’s notice. Rather than go back to work and ease into a sense of complacency, we came up with a plan. We both got advanced degrees. My husband took assignments that meant he was away from home for about two years to further his career. We started stocking up on things like toothpaste, shampoo, and food. I started gardening after a 5-year hiatus. Climate change, global warming, and economic meltdown were never part of our conversation or our planning. We were doing things more like our grandparents did when they explained how they survived during the Depression. 

It wasn’t until we both began to experience health problems and connected it to our home environment that we started researching, identifying and concluding that we needed to be more aggressive in being prepared. I admit that we weren’t very strategic, and truthfully, all our plans were based on the assumption that life would continue in a fairly orderly way until we were old, really old, like ancient-- 80-90 years old. 

Since I love all things gardening and homesteading, our focus was along that line, which fit for the problem we faced-- climate change and pollution. Recent information about the climate has forced us to yet again assess. With this latest government shutdown, we are rethinking even the strategy we developed last month. It looks like the creating, recreating and implementing cycle of planning will be the focus of our lives and the theme of all my stories for awhile.

I’ve asked a good friend of mine who preps based on an impending economic collapse what she thinks the likelihood is of this being the moment in history that shakes us all awake. She isn’t willing to peer into her crystal ball and make that prediction; however, it is evident that the problems in Congress aren’t merely about affordable healthcare. This is a fight between ideologies in which both sides believe the state of the economy is a moral and ethical issue that must be addressed in a religious way. 

Once you use that worldview, then it becomes clear that the Republicans on the far right are merely adhering to the tenants of Milton Friedman, “Only a crisis - actual or perceived - produces real change. When that crisis occurs, the actions that are taken depend on the ideas that are lying around. That, I believe, is our basic function: to develop alternatives to existing policies, to keep them alive and available until the politically impossible becomes the politically inevitable.” I think shutting down the government and defaulting on our debt is pretty shocking and will absolutely precipitate a global financial crisis. I’m also pretty sure they have a plan for what to do when they create this crisis. Here are a few videos that provide a glimpse of a plan and what it would potentially look like when all is said and done.

Friedman on Libertarianism-- This is long, but worth watching for the overview.

Note that in regards to pollution, under the Bush administration, some corporations are exempt under the law for certain pollutants. It is also important to remember that the government is charged with prosecuting cases of environmental degradation, which is after the fact.  Once degradation occurs, it can be catastrophic regardless of how much money the offender has to ultimately pay, as in the case of the Deepwater Horizon oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico.  In regards to medical malpractice, tort laws have changed and there are now limits on how much anyone can get. Defense works if soldiers and police are protecting the citizens of the country as a public service and not as mercenaries. In a report published by the Combat Studies Institute Press, in 2005 Deborah Kidwell’s study found that using private contractors in the military created problems that “increase the risk to US personnel and can induce budget overruns rather than savings, disrupt civil-military relations, and have detrimental consequences for the American economy and society.” Download the report here.  Private police forces are required to protect the person or people who hired them, which is much different than protecting and serving the community as a public servant and can result in unexpected consequences. Finally, it should go without saying based on history that if you privatize a prison, you will end up with more prisoners housed in potentially substandard conditions for much longer sentences and for less reason.

The current debate over healthcare is the call to arms for ideologues who are fighting the free market war. Affordable healthcare administered through the government is akin to being immoral, according to them. Here’s Friedman speaking about curing American health care.  It is also important to understand his ideas on greed. 

Hong Kong is an example of what a free market would look like. Here he describes Hong Kong. The government of Hong Kong has had to step in to combat air pollution. Most recently, they passed a law that prevents someone from “forcing” tourists to shop during the holidays. Oddly enough, sales are down.

I believe that every person has the right to choose. That’s what freedom and democracy are about. Unfortunately, that isn’t what’s going on in Congress today. A small contingent of adherents to a totally free market are drawing a line in the sand and insisting the rest of the government and the people it represents do what they want. Bill Moyers says it succinctly.

As for me, I would prefer another path for the economy, one reflected in the following TED talk by Tim Jackson.  Obviously, the disciples of Friedman are not representing my views. The question then is whether other members of Congress and people who don’t ascribe to a completely free market approach to the economy will protest. With no assurance that they will or if they do, they will be successful given the fact that the military and police force are “private,” my reality has been placed in checkmate. We will continue to plan and prepare for the inevitable challenges of climate change, but with this new economic development, it will be with a sense of urgency and a calm resolve.