Post-Peak Oil Economic Survival

Personally, I'd love to see more conversations about economic survival post-Peak Oil.  I was really enjoying a recent thread about the post-Peak Oil economy and economist Adam Smith at The Oil Drum, but it died rather suddenly.

Last year I saw Ron Howard's boxing movie, The Cinderella Man, which is considered to be one of the very best depictions of the Great Depression ever shown on film. What struck me was the complete helplessness of the general population. Without work available, people in the cities just sat around waiting for the next government check, so that they could continue their subsistence level existence. It didn't have anything to do with laziness on their parts. Most had tried valiantly to find odd jobs early in the depression but when there's nothing--absolutely nothing--for a few of years straight, many became disheartened and gave up on finding work.

My question is how can we avoid that same fate in the future? What are the things we can do on a local level to stimulate economic activity if a Peak Oil induced depression sets in as many predict? The plan is to explore the options in greater detail on this new blog over the coming year.

If you have an interest in this subject matter, please do join me.

Comments

[Paula]

Hi there, I have a fantastic amount of interest in this subject. I personally have a couple projects underway that I hope will help address this issue here where I live. I have a great concern that current PO preparations do not take economics into account, and instead are so focused on food production and such that no one has stopped to consider that all the local organic produce in the world is useless without some sort of currency system to buy the stuff.

I'm also very concerned that relocalization efforts are largely an anti-market response that will not succeed in drawing in the community as a whole, unless that community happens to be of an anti-market mindset. In more politically conservative areas, that kind of solution isn't going to work. In those areas, the issue has to be addressed using market functioning (as opposed to organizing people to defy market functioning).

And I can't imagine a post-peak centralized food distribution authority scheme working for very long in any community, even Multnomah County. But that's what the default response will be, if plans are not laid out ahead of time.

I don't want to spam your comments with links to stuff I'm working on, but let me know if you have any interest. I run into so few people working on this problem, it would be great to exchange ideas.

Nice blog, btw :)

[Peter]

Hey, thanks for your response.

This is an excellent point: "I'm also very concerned that relocalization efforts are largely an anti-market response that will not succeed in drawing in the community as a whole, unless that community happens to be of an anti-market mindset."

We need to get people from all sides on the same page. I'd like to explore the how with you--just as soon at the new site is up. Shooting for Monday.

[Ryvr]

I belive your line of thinking and questioning is valuable.
However, the phrase "stimulate economic activity" strikes me as a destructive capitalist idea which would be better replaced by the question, how do we organize our tribe effectively to work well together so that we can all prosper together.

Peace,
Ryvr

[Peter]

Interesting juxtaposition of feedback from Paula and Ryvr. What's the middle-ground that will attract the most people?

[Paula]

Greetings, me again.

Ryvr, thank you for responding to my comment. I personally think the phrase "stimulate economic activity" is so cliche as to be meaningless, so while my reasoning comes from a different angle, I totally agree that the phrase does not work for the Peak Oil situation.

Maybe something like, "protect and preserve creative activity" would work better. That could apply to both ecological and economic circumstances, and help ingrain in peoples' minds that the two are symbiotic, not mutually exclusive. It also doesn't have the connotation of cancerous growth that the phrase "economic activity" does, while still leaving open the door for personal initiative.

On a different note, I have to admit that my reaction to the notion of organizing into a tribe is dread, resistance, and anger. What I hear you saying is that we have to organize into communistic communes, subordinate our personal creativity, spirituality, sexuality, etc., to the group. I suspect that is not really what you mean and I am happy to listen further to find out what you are saying. But the trouble is that many, many, millions of people will hear the same thing as I do, and reject Peak Oil preparations altogether without listening further because they would rather live free or die.

If that cultural chasm isn't bridged, it is going to bring everyone down in the long run. Everyday people are not going to respond to calls to organize into tribes.

[Eugene Duran]

This is the million dollar question. Most preparations assume a certain class status. Many of us however differ quite dramatically in terms of what our resources are. I'd like to see suggestions for different income levels. Certailnly we know that we need skills. But which skils offer the biggest bang for the buck? What could someone do who has only $1,000 dollars to spend do? What about $5,000 dollars. What if one has no money at all.

[Peter]

Well, you have come to the right place, Eugene. I will start writing about this subject and sharing info starting in a few days. I'm still preoccupied with the final touches on the new site that's tied to this blog. Please book mark this place and return.