HOUSING DURING ECONOMIC COLLAPSE
HOUSING DURING ECONOMIC COLLAPSE
by Mark A. Shryock
A reader posted the following comment: Thank you as always for this specific and good advice. It really helps quell the anxiety. I am most concerned if the economy falls out and people lose their jobs how do we stay housed?
MY RESPONSE
When an economy undergoes severe contraction, job loss, or hyperinflationary collapse, the fundamental question of staying housed becomes the central survival anxiety.
LEGAL RULES OF RENTING AND OWNING BREAK DOWN DURING COLLAPSE
During the Weimar Germany hyperinflation in 1922 and 1923, the government imposed strict rent controls to protect tenants from soaring prices. On paper, landlords were legally forced to accept rental payments in paper marks that lost value by the hour, making rent practically free. Landlords quickly stopped maintaining buildings, housing construction ground to a halt, and property owners resorted to extreme measures like demanding key money or forcing tenants to take in strangers.
Homeowners with fixed-rate mortgages denominated in the collapsing local currency experienced a mathematical windfall, wiping out their debt with a week of grocery money. The state later instituted laws that retroactively revalued mortgages, forcing homeowners to pay back a percentage in the new, hard currency. Those who owned homes outright still faced property taxes demanded in hard commodities or foreign currency, leading to state seizures for back taxes.
During Argentina’s currency collapses in 1989 and 2001, the rental market detached entirely from the local currency. Landlords refused long-term leases in pesos, forcing tenants into short-term contracts denominated strictly in United States dollars while wages were paid in collapsing pesos. Traditional mortgages vanished as banks stopped lending in pesos. Homeowners holding dollar-denominated loans while their income evaporated faced immediate foreclosure threats until emergency pesification laws intervened to prevent mass homelessness.
Following World War II, Great Britain experienced a massive housing shortage. Frustrated demobilized servicemen and their families organized mass squatting actions. They occupied luxury apartments in central London and empty military camps en masse. Because the public viewed this as a collective social right rather than a common crime, the government retroactively legalized and serviced these squats instead of arresting citizens.
In the 2008 United States subprime mortgage meltdown, millions of people with adjustable-rate mortgages found their home values plummeted below what they owed. When job losses hit simultaneously, foreclosures swept the country. Legal ownership offered zero protection because financing relied on continuous liquidity. Blameless tenants whose landlords lost properties to bank foreclosures were abruptly hit with eviction notices, sparking organized tenant unions that physically blocked sheriff lockouts.
TANGIBLE UTILITY REPLACES FIAT CURRENCY
Stockpile high-utility and low-cost items that carry immediate, intrinsic value for trade. Simple items like a Bic lighter, a spool of heavy-duty nylon thread, sewing needles, water purification tablets, hand tools, and heirloom seeds become the localized medium of exchange when cash loses meaning. People trade food, labor, or shelter for things they cannot manufacture themselves.
An isolated stockpile makes you a target, while one integrated into a localized community provides shared security. Mutual aid means mapping out who grows food, who has medical skills, who understands mechanics, and who can secure the perimeter. Interdependence is far more durable than any individual bunker.
ISOLATED BUNKERS BECOME GILDED CAGES DURING A 3D STRUCTURAL BREAKDOWN
The ultra-wealthy attempt to retreat into isolation by rushing to construct fortified underground bunkers in remote locations. The 3D structural breakdown and the shifting 5D consciousness expose the flaw in this strategy.
In the old 3D paradigm, the ultimate winning move has always been total separation and accumulating enough capital to wall oneself off from the consequences of a failing system. Billionaires retreating underground with canned goods and biometric security are attempting to play out the final, hyper-individualistic survival game.
Isolated compounds require external systems to maintain them. A subterranean bunker relies entirely on automated technology, pumps, filters, and guards. When the 3D economic and social fabric frays, maintaining authority over a security detail or technical staff inside a hole in the ground breaks down because money loses its coercive power.
The 5D framework prioritizes resonance, cooperation, and localized stewardship over hoarding and hierarchy. When 3D structures hollow out, the people living on the land, working the soil together, and practicing mutual aid naturally inherit the physical reality of the space. The billionaires in their remote, sealed compounds trade their wealth for sterile paranoia, cut off from the pulse of human evolution while communities on the outside forge a new way of living that does not need them.
During the 2008 subprime mortgage crisis, nearly 10 million Americans were displaced from their homes due to foreclosure. During the Weimar hyperinflation, the monthly inflation rate reached 29,500 percent. In these events, legal ownership and lease agreements provided zero protection once the underlying financial mechanisms seized up.
A lot of us who are seeing this coming are quietly preparing for others. I have six canvas tents with wood stoves and two large 16-foot canvas tents with wood stoves, sleeping bags, several pup tents, and 10 27-gallon totes full of tea lights and lamps. I no longer prepare for myself. We prepare for others who join us in our community. I go to the thrift store almost daily. I am building a tool library. I am already in a community and we already watch out for each other, share extra food, have a community garden, and plan for what is coming. I buy silly things like a stack of brand new moving blankets for five dollars apiece because they could be used like a rug and give someone comfort in their tent. I no longer need to stock any food for me or my daughter. I buy things in bulk on sale now weekly though. We have a large enough community to fend off most anything, but I do not see roving bands of zombies coming for us. I see communities like this forming all over and a better way beginning. I have worked on myself enough to not be a pushover, to have strong boundaries, but also compassion. I am not alone in this. There are many wayshowers in this community here on Facebook and elsewhere across the globe quietly preparing to receive others. All of us who begin to prepare should buy an extra bag of rice or a can of beans or tuna to give to someone each time we build to protect ourselves through the transition into 5D, which will not last, and a new far better world will soon rise from this old world’s ashes.
Copyright © Mark A. Shryock. May be shared with attribution.
SOURCES
The Real Reason Celebrities Are Buying Bunkers in New Zealand, YouTube Video
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Thank-you for the read. Should you be interested, here is a take on matters through an Ohio lens.
https://gsz141.substack.com/p/workers-compensation
I think the can will continue to be kicked down the road, the reset as we are seeing will be slow, steady then all at once, like frog in simmering pot. Metals will explode in the interim, ( disagree with the author regarding the relevance of p.m.s) as will any hard assets. People will largely de-select themselves, as most are addicted or dependent on pharma and don’t understand natural solutions to their health issues. Yes. We’re going to hell in a bucket, but at least we’re enjoying the ride.