Survival__ Structuring Prosperity for Yourself and the Nation - Charles George Smith [169]
The chief technique of avoiding accountability is secrecy, i.e. the avoidance of transparency. Thus transparency, engagement (the demand for transparency and accountability) and accountability are intrinsically bound into one framework.
The status quo is built on the illusion that a lack of accountability is sustainable; reality is not so easily fooled. Whether we like it or not, the Savior State and its Elites are doomed to insolvency, devolution and dissolution. At the household level, every member of the household must participate (engagement) in open cost-benefits analyses and trade-offs (transparency) and be accountable for their contributions and decisions.
We create a society of accountability by first holding ourselves accountable for our own full-spectrum prosperity. We really don't have any other choice; dodging accountability by depending on the Savior State and endless credit expansion is depending on illusions.
4. An Adult Understanding (Triage and Trade-offs)
The key adult understanding is that life requires a never-ending series of trade-offs based on cost-benefit analysis, deliberation and decision. In periods of crisis, then this process becomes triage--making difficult assessments about which aspects of a household must be cut to save the core.
One exercise that may strike many as extraordinary is useful for that very reason. If the household income is $100,000 annually, then plan to live on $50,000. If the household income is $50,000, then plan on living on $25,000. If the household income is $25,000, then plan on living on $12,500.
Put another way: re-design the household budget such that 50% of net income can be saved for surplus/working capital.
Another way to look at trade-offs and triage is to ask: what behaviors, costs and actions cede control of our lives to others, and which ones transfer control from outside forces to our own hands?
Alternatively: what behaviors, costs and actions increase our vulnerability to outside crises, and which ones decrease our vulnerabilities?
Asking these questions is the core of radical self-reliance (self-sufficiency), reducing risk/hedging and generating value and capital. I hope it is clear that these 14 principles are interlocking parts of one integrated understanding.
An adult understanding of trade-offs focuses on these three essentials:
1. What short-term wants must be sacrificed or set aside to secure long-term security, health and control of one's life?
2. What can be done in the present, the short-term and the long-term to secure the FEW essentials--food, energy and water--for the household? If no control can be exerted over supply, then what can be stockpiled? How can more be done with less, which is simply another way of "controlling supply"?
3. What expenditures of money and time are depriving the household of surplus/savings which could be set aside for working capital?
In essence: what long-term investments with potentially enormous payoffs require long-term planning and short-term sacrifice? If supply chains break down due to hurricanes, earthquakes or severe power disruptions, then a 50-pound bag of rice and a propane tank/campstove are "investments" which will provide profound "returns"--having cooked food in times of want.
There are innumerable strategies to cut unnecessary expenditures of time and money and equally innumerable strategies to secure a more secure, less vulnerable future for the household.
Ultimately, making realistic assessments and reaching decisions on trade-offs is all about "Plan B"--preparing the household for "hard times" such as a drastic reduction in income, a natural disaster, a devolution of energy supply or civil order, etc.
"Plan C" is the "last resort" triage scenario if income drops to zero, civil order vanishes,