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Anonymous said...
When Argentina had the collapse and people lost their homes.... who had money to buy these lost homes? I live in the US and am expecting a collapse. I can see how many people could loose homes. What I don't understand... where is the line of people waiting to buy and live in these houses if we have huge massive forclosures? If we have these villages sprout up around major cities... then will the suburbs be ghost towns?
VERY interesting question, thanks.
At first you just moved there and built whatever you could, you didn't buy the land. Later when it became something like "Barter Town", with more population and their local leaders, the parcels witihin Villa 31 started to get get sold.
Ghost towns is the word that caught my attention the most there.
Yes, we have these perfect little rural towns surrounded by natural beauty that just turned into ghost towns.
I lived in Cordoba for a couple years, traveled (most often by car) to pretty much every province in the country and the amount of ghost towns is something you can’t avoid noticing.
According to this article http://www.taringa.net/posts/info/1955656/Argentina-fantasma-,-pueblos-olvidados.html there’s currently 800 towns that are dieing, about to become ghost towns. This is of course not considering the ones that already are. The article mentions Villa Union. I’ve been there 8 years ago, it was already in-route to becoming a ghost town back then. Very sad an surreal going through a town with very few people left living there, very few houses with lights on.
Colinas de Carlos Paz: Expecting a tourism boom that never occured, this town died before it even started. Notice the house quality in comparison to the "Villas"
What happened?
First, many railroad stations simply closed as the railroad company cut down expenses and reduced its budget. Also, roads aren’t kept properly and some are simply abandoned because of budget reasons.
This is important to keep in mind because if logistic companies have to reduce their routes because there’s a crisis, or because there’s problems getting gasoline for whatever reason, towns and producers that are too far away from the main cities will suffer a lot or just die.
Second, many of these towns simply had no jobs for people. As we often discuss here, its nice to have a garden or orchard BUT PEOPLE NEED REAL JOBS NONE THE LESS. A job that pays in whatever currency is being used, real jobs and salaries.
I’m using capital letters here because this fantasy is often one of the greatest misconceptions among the survival community, spread by popular fantasy and survival fiction writers. It would be a tragedy to prepare thinking something will happen because you read so in a novel, only to find out that your plan is fatally flawed.
During the Argentine farmer crisis last year where the government tried to tax and fine producers up to 80% , this was one of the most important factors: Kill the producers and you wipe out all these small and medium scale towns that had managed to survive so far. They live exclusively thanks to the income this small, and most importantly medium and large scale agricultural producers make. These companies end up buying heavy machinery, supplies, investing, the wives sets up a boutique store or something similar in the town, their children go out to have fun, have money to spend. There’s work at the various large scale farms and producing industries, there’s money being made and spent. That’s what keeps a small town alive, it can’t simply survive on Martha trading apples for John’s eggs at the local Sunday faire. John’s eggs wont pay for the power bill, and Martha’s apples can’t be used for a down payment for money to invest in something else. Money, guys, you need money.
Wrapping this up and another very important point I want to make before going for a walk with the family: A small town that depends on agriculture alone wont cut it if there’s a serious crisis. I know this is what Mel Tappan said and to some point I agree with his logic, but not when it comes to depending on agriculture alone to keep a town alinve. I don’t agree because I’ve seen it fail miserably, that’s why. You need a small town that also has other industries. Preferably medium size machinery production, which will do relatively well after the country can no longer afford to import since, which the collapsed currency, its cheaper in some cases to produced locally. Of course we’re no longer talking about a small town, are we. Medium size town? So be it. At least you know it wont die, if something affects the local agriculture. This town will preferably be at a healthy distance from the mayor metropolis like NY and LA.
Good topic to ponder and consider with a cool head when relocating.
Take care guys, have a nice Sunday.
FerFAL
