When The Electricity Dies
301 sats \ 9 comments \ @Rothbardian_fanatic 11 Oct Politics_And_Law
https://www.zerohedge.com/energy/when-electricity-dies
Most of the things we use today have not been stress tested. They are centralized and have a single point of failure. And they are very vulnerable. It could all stop in an instant with no sure guarantee of when it will come back.
A turning point came for me visiting a small basement laundry in Manhattan. The proprietor was still using a sewing machine from 1948. She would have nothing to do with newer models. After that, I took greater notice of the machinery of other merchants in my area. Many sewing machines were 75 years old and still working well. My cobbler uses equipment more than a century old. This is not uncommon.
Are you ready for this sort of moment? What will you do when the lights go out, maybe for a very long time? I like to have some non-electric things around me. That may even look shiny. :)
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52 sats \ 0 replies \ @leonidastouch 11 Oct
When the electricity dies the shiny things will not be traded according to your desired price. Amazon dies as well. Google dies as well. Tesla dies as well. Apple dies as well. Facebook dies as well. Manufacturing of Twinkies will die as well. Anything mass produced will die as well. Your debit and credit card services will die as well. Venmo will die as well. PayPal will die as well. Mastercard will die as well. Visa will die as well. So please stop with the shiny, We can think of far more catastrophic events than you.
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51 sats \ 2 replies \ @User21000000 11 Oct
How many are off the grid?
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52 sats \ 1 reply \ @Rothbardian_fanatic OP 11 Oct
At this moment, I believe about a million or two are off the gird. In my case, I have a lot of books to choose from if the electricity goes out. Yep, I stock candles and kerosene, too.
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21 sats \ 0 replies \ @User21000000 11 Oct
Yes I think most are in trouble if the power goes
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41 sats \ 1 reply \ @rebel_nomad 11 Oct
I'd be more concerned if I was left with no components to rig, modify and fix things...
Got no sewing machine here, but if I had an electric one it would be trivial to convert it to mechanical drive. Could use my motorbike to run a water pump, things like that!
Lemme check my mind on what I'd do the first few days...
Actually I've got a handful of gallon size water bottles in the shed, those are for the obvious: hike around to get all the gasoline that I could.
Then I'd load up on serious amounts of superglue, that is always a must! Hell, I've even fixed the drive sprocket on my 250cc motorbike using that, since the fit is not good enough as provided from the Chinese factory!
Next I'd get seeds and all sorts of containers, maybe even some earth delivered. Things grow constantly and rapidly here, so it would actually be possible to convert the gardens to something useful in short order. We've got some spare, really large pots outside, filling those would be key.
What more? Actually the key would be communication. Everyone in the family here knows that I totally can do most stuff, so I'd tell'em all we'll have to work together, and that I'll design, fix and set up everything as long as I get the necessary help...
All around there are workshops, so something like loading up on old car batteries should be super easy, and cheap. I'd have to depend on everyone seeing the point of stuff like that, which is close to impossible now while we're all in the bubble.
On both sides of the house I'm at now we've got small banana plantations, even while right inside of the border of the big city. So some communication with them would be essential! Getting my family here that is way higher on the totempole to maybe invite them all in to get to know each other better would not be easy, but I'd certainly try!
Lemme see what could be next... Maybe a dinghy or even kayak? We're close to the river, could easily drag that with the motorbike, and the river is the default way to transport really important things like food. Traffic there would spike, so being someone there from day one could be smart...
When writing this I realize that for me it would all be about the social part, combined with showing everyone that I can be bloody useful. Would be smart not to forget getting more basic tools, so I'd have to do that.
We've got an interesting, but way too expensive store close to the other house, second hand stuff from Japan. That is where I've found the only pair of high quality pliers available here, so I'd load up on everything I could get there that is high quality.
But I would not be too worried dealing with everything even with poor tools, perhaps that is even what I'm really good at, as long as they can be replaced, sharpened or fixed up its not too bad. There is a huge difference between one off, improvised jobs and making a living, for the latter you totally need something very dependable!
Either way, once things really change like this, everything turns into a tool, and if you work all those tools for the common good things will work out :-)
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0 sats \ 0 replies \ @Rothbardian_fanatic OP 11 Oct
Yes, there would be a lot of kluging around without electricity. The only problem is that the electricity often goes out under the worst conditions possible, where you may not want to be f*ing around trying to get things working rather than keeping yourself and loved ones alive.
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10 sats \ 1 reply \ @openyoureyes 11 Oct
Without electricity it is only days until shops get robbed. They can not sell and alarm does not work so people will get what they need.
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0 sats \ 0 replies \ @Rothbardian_fanatic OP 11 Oct
Only those shops where the shop owners are not prepared. In Los Angeles, a few years ago, the Koreans were very well prepared. Their shops did not get looted.
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0 sats \ 0 replies \ @SatsMate 11 Oct
I honestly would struggle a bit if I didn't have any electricity. Every day in my life I am using tech for 10 hours a day, my life without it would look so different. This definitely makes me think a bit.
I think it is okay to hold a bit of gold and silver on the side, but it has a huge monetary premium and it is getting demonetized from Bitcoin (from many opinions in this space).
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