[Ramona M. Faunce]

I've often thought of things I could do to change my life for the better.

Learning to be a survivalist was one of them. It did change my life for the better. I can depend on myself to get through hard times. I have better control of the things in life that directly affect me.

But with the problems that the world is having over the state of its economy, I wonder how much control I have over that.

Being an American, I want to help my countrys' economy to become strong again. So, I have decided to purchase only American made products whenever possible.

I don't mean to offend other survivalists who live outside the USA. This is something that I am doing to strenthen the USA economy.

However, there are certain items that I purchase from other countries for personal reasons. I will continue to make those purchases.

I will be adding another vegie row to my garden this year for our soup kitchen. That will be a total of 2 rows of vegies. I believe that a strong country starts out with strong people. Healthy people are strong people.

I will continue to encourage our citizens to prepare for the hard times to come and to take on survival skills. Even if they laugh and shrug off what I am trying to teach them, I know that some of what I have told them will stick. Maybe some day in the future, the information I gave them might come in handy.

I challenge all survivalists to do the same. I challenge each and everyone of you to do something to build a better future outside of your immediate group of family/friends.

Please, let me know what you plan to do and how you feel it will affect our future.

 

[SJack]

'' Being an American, I want to help my countrys' economy to become strong again. So, I have decided to purchase only American made products whenever possible ''

I respect you for doing so, as long as the Americans who are selling their items don't try and rip the American people off. Good luck to you.

 

[Highpower]

Ramona if there were more people in this country like you we wouldn't be in the shape we are now.

Buy American from Americans.

 

[chaosofcreation]

"I challenge all survivalists to do the same. I challenge each and everyone of you to do something to build a better future outside of your immediate group of family/friends."

This in essence is what everyone should do, but in reality the ignorant people will get scared when you threaten their apathy and lazy "American Dream" of complaisant ignorance. Be very careful whom you try to help prepare, because allot of people will not help themselves and become parasites when the bad times come. Only help those whom are willing to help themselves.

And be careful about buying "American". In most cases you are in fact buying a forigen product.
http://www.usatoday.com/news/health/2007-07-10-buying-american_N.htm

 

[chaosofcreation]

Ramona if there were more people in this country like you we wouldn't be in the shape we are now.

Buy American from Americans.

I totally agree with the first statement, we need more people with the intestinal fortitude to do such things, but alas most people in this country are very selfish

 

[KaBar67]

I measure my social commitment to how many days or evenings I give up to my community involvments while keeping my responsiblities to my wife, kids, job. Being active has great rewards. I commend your commitment. Buy American, hell yea.

 

[ontheroad]

I also agree with you Ramona. The only difference between what you and I do is that instead of Just buying American made goods, I just say no to China/Mexico. I know it is not quite the same, however I believe in supporting our "friends" i.e. GB,Italy,Australia etc. etc. It is much more expensive to "buy" this way. I think it is worth the extra money.

 

[FXjohn]

I also agree with you Ramona. The only difference between what you and I do is that instead of Just buying American made goods, I just say no to China/Mexico. I know it is not quite the same, however I believe in supporting our "friends" i.e. GB,Italy,Australia etc. etc. It is much more expensive to "buy" this way. I think it is worth the extra money.

Mexico isn't your Friend? Is Walmart full of cheap Mexican goods?
Why don't you want mexicans to have jobs so they don't have to make dangerous border crossings and live in the shadows?
What other countries are your friends?

 

[Ramona M. Faunce]

Thank you for responding.

It is important to buy American when ever possible. I realize, right now especially, many American businesses are charging more than is honorable for their product. This behavior I will not support!

However, are there anyother ways that we can help our country and citzens though these struggling times?

 

[Maverick88]

I was hungry and you fed me.

preach on brother, preach on.:thumb:

 

[malcontent]

Yes...
Everyone should pay their taxes, pay off their debt, never take on more credit debt than they can handle (even if the rate is all time low).

vote, no matter how bad the candidates are.
learn local politics and be involved.

be friendly and 'just' with everyone, all the time.

support and keep an open mind to new energy related technology.
don't buy a SUV.

 

[FXjohn]

vote, no matter how bad the candidates are.
learn local politics and be involved.

.

Indeed voter turnout for the Presidential election was very high in 2008.
People made a difference. Looks like Al Franken is leading in Minnesota.
Breaking news.

 

[KaBar67]

How about joining CERT, or volunteering for the Red Cross or your police aux. or Fire Dep't. These folks are the doe'ers. You will also have access to hundreds or more of like minded people who don't just talk, they practice and drill and prepare and stock up.

 

[Highpower]

Mexico isn't your Friend? Is Walmart full of cheap Mexican goods?
Why don't you want mexicans to have jobs so they don't have to make dangerous border crossings and live in the shadows?
What other countries are your friends?

Mexico is the 5th richest country in the world, but because of corruption and greed a lot of people live in squalor. If the same people who organized the protests here would bus people all back to Mexico and protest there they might make some changes in their own country instead of trying to change ours.

Sorry Ramona, didn't mean to hijack.

 

[rridgeoutlaw]

Mexico isn't your Friend? Is Walmart full of cheap Mexican goods?
Why don't you want mexicans to have jobs so they don't have to make dangerous border crossings and live in the shadows?
What other countries are your friends?

For correction purpose only: Wal-mart is stocked with items from China.

Buy American, Period!

 

[Spookey]

don't buy a SUV.

Sorry, I have to take issue with this. Every time I see one of you SUV haters I just have to scream.

I drive a nice big 2003 Suburban with a big V-8 in it.

But my drive to work everyday is about 4 miles (soon to be 2 after a move). This is not by accident, I planned it this way. I get about 16 mpg which means I burn about 1/2 gal a day.

Now I see people all the time lined up to get on the interstate in 4/6 cylinder vehicles that probably get 25-30 mpg that are going to drive for 25-30 miles to get to work because they want to live "out of town"!! Meaning they are going to burn 2 gal of gas that day (1 each way).

In their fuel efficient little cars, they are burning 4 TIMES the fuel that I am in my big bad AMERICAN MADE SUV.

The Point: IT'S NOT WHAT YOU DRIVE, IT'S HOW YOU LIVE!

So you don't tell me what to drive and I won't tell you how to live.:thumb:

ps: I do agree with all the other points you did list.

 

[Bizarro]

If you wait a year we will all have to buy American as the dollar will be so devaluated we won't be able to afford foreign items.

 

[PrairieGirl]

This is a great idea but when I think about buying only Canadian items (gotta help my economy after all), I wonder how exactly I will be able to really buy only Canadian items. As much as I love this country, we import a lot of stuff. Its quite frustrating. Veggies/Fruit, meats, and most dairy are no problem as I can find things grown seasonally that are somewhat local (at least BC produces loads of fruit/veggies so I'm good there); breads I can bake myself (will have to check where the flour is from though but I think its Canadian). In other words, this whole idea basically completely rules out buying any thing produced (on one hand that is great, on another, making everything from scratch really cuts into my 'gotta prep' mindset).

Anywho, while I try to simplify my way of life drastically so as to not spend more than what I make (after savings of course), the idea of buying only what your country produces will turn out to be more of a challenge than you can imagine. I wish you the best of luck my friend, but I think you'll find that even the US doesnt produce as much as you think.

 

[Ramona M. Faunce]

Spookey, you are soooooo right! I drive an economical car and drive almost 70 miles round trip, 5-days a week. Doing this I make $4 an hour more and have access to medical for my family.

Prairiegirl, You are right too! It is a hard commitment to stick to. I am going to do my best to buy only American made product. I may have to give up some items totally or go to foreign made product if I need to.

Since becoming involved with this site, I have cut back on a lot of my purchases in the foo foo catigory and have picked up my purchases in the survivalist areas. This is a great switch in my thinking. I will have things to keep me sustainable, keep me healthy, keep me housed and protected, and I will be able to help some of those in my community survive.

Lets keep talking about the changes we can make to help keep our country strong.

 

[Cryptkeeper]

it does trouble me at times when i have no choice but to buy an import .we are really loseing our industrial might. some times you just cant find american made anymore it really angers me.