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Radical self-reliance plans in depth for contingencies, constantly updating "Plan B" alternatives and "Plan C" emergency measures.

7. Reciprocity. The Savior State rests on two pillars: the demographic accident (a large Baby Boom generation and postwar productivity) which enabled entitlements to appear sustainable for a few decades, and the dependence of both the Elites and the non-productive classes on State largesse. That is, the granting of monopolies and the enabling of looting/gaming the system and the transfer of income from the productive class to the dependent classes.

By fostering the dependence of both the Elites and the unproductive, the State has made both complicit in its dominance; those drawing welfare, corporate or underclass, are in essence colluding with the status quo in return for their share of the State-distributed largesse. The State effectively "bought" their compliance and political silence; the only chatter voiced by the dependents is shrill advocacy for ever-larger slices of State largesse.

Once the State devolves and then implodes in insolvency or an utterly devalued currency (your $2,000 a month pension remains nominally intact but now only buys a loaf of bread) then dependence, collusion, complicity and noisy claims will no longer be rewarding strategies.

In the durable, stable alternative to dependency on the Savior State, the key value and strategy is as old as human nature itself: reciprocity. Rather than demand something based on ones' perceived needs, the rewarding strategy will be to offer something of value in exchange for some other store of value. The offering comes first, then the establishment of relative value, and then the exchange.

This is a complete reversal of the State/dependency relationship in which the demand came first followed by the transfer from the State. This mirrors the adolescent/parent dynamic in which the spoiled, whining child demands largesse from the parents—an unhealthy, crippling relationship.

In capitalist terms, the investment in productive services or goods comes first, then the establishment of value and then the exchange (sale) can be transacted.

In very practical terms on the household level, you bake a peach pie and share it with your neighbors/network. If it has value, then this "investment" and freely offered value launches a reciprocity of exchanged value: someone will offer to watch your children or elderly parent in exchange for a peach pie, etc.

Yes, some people will take the slice of peach pie and offer nothing tangible in return. But the transaction nonetheless created valuable information: either the recipient placed no value on the offering, or they have nothing of value to exchange, in which case they can be excluded from future offerings of reciprocity.

Those who create no value and who offer nothing freely will soon receive nothing. This too is as old as humanity. The freeloader is shunned and left to his/her own devices. The incentives to reciprocity and creating some value which can be exchanged are high indeed, and the disincentives to permanent adolescence, dependence and fraud/cheating/freeloading are equally high.

Those who are completely helpless and without family (orphans, the completely disabled, the severely mentally ill) will of course depend on the surplus and generosity of the community. Ultimately, the smaller the surplus of real value generated, the less there will be to share. Thus the focus must shift from demands for largesse to generating true surplus rather than the debt-based (and thus bogus) "prosperity" of financial legerdemain.

Once the State collapses in insolvency, the corporate dependents (Power Elites) who had arranged monopolies, collusion and various forms of fraud and embezzlement via the State will be left on their own in a newly competitive world. Those accustomed to an unproductive life subsidized by the Savior State will also discover a new world of incentives and disincentives.

Shrill demands will gain nothing;