My dad was born in 1913 and my mother a couple years later in Minnesota. My mother's family was in the terms of that day, well off. Her grandfather and his brother had extensive real estate holdings, mostly farm land, and owned 5 small country banks. When my grandmother and grandfather got married, her grandfather gave her an 80 acre farm as a wedding present. Then the bust came in 1929 and 1933. Her grandfather lost everything and ended up living with his daughter on the farm that had been the wedding present. By the time I came along, 1938, my dad and mother had no money nor did their families. While this type of generational collapse may never happen, it did in theirs. In my lifetime I have been thru several periods of both inflation and recession. I have worked in what was at that time a good job as a machinist and was paid $2.50 an hour. While I continued to work, I began drawing social security at age 65. At that time, around 2000, $1 would have the buying power of about $2.00 today. All things are not equal however. The medical care that was covered for free with my employment now costs me about $600 a month with my "free" medicare and supplemental insurance. In one of the recessions. 1973 oil embargo, I owned a house and made payments on it for a couple years that I could not sell. In Michigan and with the collapse of the auto industry, housing prices collapsed. By the sheer will of God I was able to sell it as the people working at Michigan State University did not lose their jobs and after a period did again buy houses and I was able to sell it. I did however lose most of my equity. I have also lost my total 401k once, in the 1970's and half its value in the year 2000. When I put my money in a safe investment, Credit Union, I have for most of that time made less than 1 % on my investments and not the 5 to 7 % that the retirement advisors say you should earn. I do know that when I was invested in a 401k being operated by one of the major firms, I was charged a fee of 2 % for operating the investments even when I lost half my money. While you may have better luck in your lifetime, and I must admit I have been very lucky in mine, there is always the chance of a system crash. The following clip shows what has happened in some other countries and what impact it had on the middle class and working people. As always the poor have nothing to lose and many of the truly rich find a way to avoid the worst affects. As a prepper, it is possible by choosing your assets carefully, to at least minimize your discomfort. Here is a clip that discusses what you think you own and what you really do. Makes you as a prepper think of caching and being very grey.
My greatest fear is not AI or nuclear end of days. It is waking up to find that the dollar has lost its value and that I have a stack of paper that is worth very, very little.
