Send this article to a friend:

April
09
2020

The opportunities in this crisis might be right under your nose
Joe Jarvis

Central planning in the Soviet Union caused massive shortages.

But government incompetence and corruption had its silver lining.

For instance, housing shortages kept people cooped up in small crowded quarters. But that meant tight-knit communities formed, where people could rely on one another for mutual aid during the hard times.

And there were plenty of hard times.

People couldn’t rely on the government to deliver enough food. So each community also grew staple food products.

This was terribly inefficient. Without massive scale, more energy had to go into producing each calorie. But no energy had to go into transportation and logistics.

And the central Soviet government just could not be relied on for logistics and transportation.

So local food production kept the starvation and malnutrition in the Soviet Union from being much worse.

The United States, on the other hand, has massively scaled efficient agriculture. But it takes 12 calories of fuel energy to transport a single calorie of food to the consumer.

Nassim Nicholas Taleb explains this in his book Antifragile and comments, “One can imagine what could happen to the United States, or Europe, in the event of food disruptions.”

We’ve been living in a fairly competent society for some time now, when it comes to supply chains. 

We’re so efficient that a good chunk of our food and medicine supplies aren’t just shipped across the United States. They are shipped across the world, and still arrive at the grocery store and pharmacy extremely regularly and reliably.

But what happens when a trade war, a war war, or say, a global pandemic threatens supply chains?

And what happens when the problem is compounded by the fact that the producer of those goods is an authoritarian communist regime in China, which sort of hates America?

Say, for argument’s sake, that the world is in a record amount of debt, banks can’t cover 1/20th of it, and the government is planning to ramp up the debasement of the currency.

You almost start wishing that we weren’t so efficient…

Because as we have grown global economies of scale, local supply chains have been neglected.

This isn’t a Covid-19 recession we are entering into. Covid-19 is simply the pin that pricked the bubble. It is forcing the world economy to come to a reckoning with unsustainable debt and monetary policies.

We’ve been thinking global for so long that it seems obvious the pendulum should swing back during a correction.

Perhaps entrepreneurs should be thinking about how they can serve their local communities while the world goes through a painful, but necessary, economic reorganization.

Crisis brings opportunity. And I don’t mean that in a soul-sucking vampiric predatory way.

People have very real needs, like eating, and the entrepreneurs who figure out a way to fulfill those needs will be rewarded for the great services they provide to the community.

Many people seem to be focused on loading back into the stock market at the right time to become rich.

And that’s fine. That can be one strategy when the time is right.

But focusing on the needs of the local community is something you can do right now.

If you’re young, healthy, and not at risk of carrying the virus, you could go out to fill some of the volunteer needs in the community.

In the process you will have a first-hand look into the problems that need solving– now and in the coming months and years.

The movement of people and goods worldwide just became more complicated.

It follows that there will be opportunities in reinventing local supply chains.

And with millions of people out of work, it’s not so crazy to imagine a resurgence of American manufacturing and production.

What makes people rich and powerful over the next few years might have less to do with spreading a product globally, and more to do with securing a product or service locally.

It’s the same principle, on a larger scale, behind why it makes sense to store some of your gold and silver at home in a safe where you can easily access it in an emergency.

Locally available supplies are necessary in an emergency, when you won’t be able to access gold storage in Singapore, manufacturing in China, or even food grown in the midwest.

This is just some food for thought for the cooped up entrepreneurs out there. You can absolutely get started on making some big moves now.

Never let a good crisis go to waste is the mantra of the elites.

In tumultuous times, their tactics have extra potency. They reach for more power.

But this is also when the elite are most vulnerable.

By studying their tactics, you will be more prepared to guard against, and counter-attack the enemy.

The current crisis is being used to exploit the masses. But it also presents tremendous opportunity to take the power back, and reshape this world.

Society is entering a new period of transition, a struggle that will reveal the elites of the next generation.

Now is the time to seize your power if you intend to be among their ranks.

I am the author of two thriller novels, Flight Grounded, and Anarchy in New England.

Right now you can read Flight Grounded for free by signing up for my email list.

I live on a mini-farm in northern Florida where I try to move towards as self sufficient a lifestyle as possible. Every day is amazing on a small scale organic farm; I try not to take it for granted.

I do research and writing for Sovereign Man, and other freelance work. Get in touch here if you need my services, or send an email to [email protected] and I’ll get back to you

You will want to follow my blog if you are into fiction, philosophy, freedom, or the future of society. I post about a smorgasbord of topics, generally in some way related to freedom.

Freedom has always been important to me. What exactly freedom means to me has evolved over the years, but I still see the liberated human individual as the ideal scenario. I think humans are capable of miraculous things, but an eagle can’t soar wrapped in chains.

 

joejarvis.me