The United States of America is collapsing around us. The stock market is in a free-fall, thousands of employees have been unjustly fired, immigrants are living in abject terror, civil rights have been set back 80 years, government agencies are being gutted, and the constitution, rule of law, and basic human rights are being blatantly violated every day by Donald Trump's regime. The pillars of our democracy are being hammered by Trump's regime. And while those pillars have not fallen yet, they have been cracked to the core, and will crumble before long.
You can't have all of this without a massive economic impact. And by economic impact, I simply mean that there's a very good chance most of us are going to lose our jobs in the next couple of years. The process is starting with government employees, LGBTQ+ people, immigrants, people of color, and women. If you're not in any of those groups, you might be thinking it's OK because "those people" are the ones being targeted first. But let's be honest: If you don't belong to any of those groups, you are clearly in the minority in this country. With such a large and diverse group of people being actively targeted by the government, government institutions firing people left and right, and major corporations racing to abolish the DEI initiatives they've established over the last 80 years, the job market is about to collapse. People are going to start losing their jobs in droves over the next few months or years as our systems collapse one after another like a colossal set of dominoes. If you're one of the few not directly targeted, you may think you are safe, but we are all cogs in the same machine, and when the machine starts to fail, all of the cogs are in danger. Where we go one, we go all.
The best future I can imagine would involve the people banding together, raising their unified voice, forcing Trump to resign, and then relentlessly weeding all of his minions out of office one by one while we rebuild the institutions of democracy that have been destroyed. But even if all of that happens, it will take years to unravel the mess Trump and Musk have made of our political system, our institutions, our economy, and our relationship with the rest of the world. During that process, our people will suffer greatly trying to find work and support themselves and their families. And that's the BEST possible outcome.
Other scenarios are much, much worse. There's a small chance that we will just live a dystopian-style future under totalitarian rule. Foreigners will be expelled and no more will be allowed in unless they buy their way in, minorities will be relegated to lower casts or disappear altogether, LGBTQ+ people will diminish and the few who remain will live in abject terror of being discovered. Women will have no rights and be completely dependent upon the whims of their fathers or husbands for their survival. Everyone else who is left (I guess that's just the straight, white men) will work themselves to the bone trying to provide for themselves and their families, and be too afraid to question those in authority for fear of retribution.
I believe the most likely outcome is that our society and our economy will implode, and we will be left to wallow in our own filth. Millions of destitute citizens will fight over the scraps of what's left of our economy. Only the strongest and most ruthless will survive. Government institutions will collapse, and people will be left to fend for themselves. Disease will run rampant as massive healthcare systems collapse when no one can afford their services anymore. People will become cut off from one another as our infrastructure begins to crumble without anyone to maintain it. The most vicious among us will control whatever territory and resources they can and defend their holdings brutally. No one will be able to afford their homes, and our cities will rapidly turn into crime-ridden and drug-infested slums. Finding food, medicine, shelter, and protection will be the daily task of the bulk of our society. And as we begin to prey upon one another in a desperate attempt to stay alive, others will be biding their time, waiting to strike.
Who are these others? Some of them are the ultra-rich, who will be largely untouched by the collapse because their existing wealth will shelter them from the pain the rest of us experience. But they will be standing by, watching, ready to swoop in and buy up the remnants of our civilization at bargain prices, hoping that when we finally begin to recover, they will profit off the re-building. These will become slum lords or industrialists who exploit their workers for profit. There will also be other nations looking to either destroy us or take over our land for their own gains. They will either do the same as the ultra-rich and come in and buy up our country dirt cheap from the few desperate Americans who still own land or mineral rights, or they will simply invade our land and take it all for themselves by military force.
I'm not trying to predict the future here, but I don't see many other alternatives. Best case: multi-year Great Depression-level economic hardships for all as we slowly rebuild the nation. Most likely: Billionaires crash the economy, buy everything when it hits rock bottom, and then profit off the rebuild while exploiting the working class indefinitely. Worst case: All-out war ending in the annihilation of our country.
What do we do about it? Well, first and foremost, we stand up for what is right: The Constitution, the rule of law, and the rights of the people. We do that immediately, and we don't stop doing it, no matter the cost to ourselves. We stand against the overthrow of our government and we do whatever we can to stop it. It's not impossible that this will result in a civil war, and many of us may be called upon to take up arms to defend what's left of our country, but we're not there yet. And we won't be there until and unless there is a strong, unified, and organized opposition that can take on the burden of defending the Constitution through military might. We don't have anything like that right now. For now, we try to win back the country through political means until we can establish a new leadership that can work to repair the damage Trump has done. For now, we get involved in boycotts, protests, demanding accountability from our representatives, calling out Trump's tyranny and treason, and so forth. When and if we get a chance, we vote for better representatives. Those who have the means should pursue legal avenues to defy, delay, and obstruct whatever the regime wants to do.
But there is something else we should be thinking about in the meantime. Something that may help us weather the storms ahead in any of the scenarios, and may help us ultimately rebuild our nation into one we can actually be proud of. We the people need to radically change the way we live. We need to make a commitment to live small.
What does "live small" mean?
We've been trained by mass media and corporate advertising to live life to the fullest. We can't just take a few days off work, we have to go on the most elaborate and exciting vacation or adventure we can imagine. We can't just buy a car that will get us to and from work, we have to buy the newest, most luxurious, and most expensive car we can convince ourselves we can afford. Our massive houses are more of a status symbol than a home. We can't just have a job we like, but we have to keep climbing that corporate ladder until everyone else is below us. Everything we have and everything we do has to be bigger, better, or more extreme than what anyone around us has or does.
It's time to reverse that. Instead of living large, we should intentionally try to live small by following these five pillars:
- Frugal Living
- Moderate housing
- Adequate employment
- Community living
- Charitable hearts
Image by Franz Bachinger from Pixabay
We can live small financially, by becoming frugal in our spending. We can live small by making the decision to live in smaller houses closer to where we work and where we play. We can live small by working less and stressing less. We can live small by spending the bulk of our time and energy working in, living in, and supporting our local communities. We can live small by supporting people in need in our community.
I am writing this to advocate for living small because I believe that, no matter what happens to our country, we will be able to face it better if we adopt this lifestyle than if we try to hold on to the old ways. I believe that most Americans feel an urge to live this way anyway, but it's foreign to our experience, and frightening because it would require us to give up so much of that which we hold dear.
I'll be honest...I am terrified of the idea of living small. It goes against the very fiber of my being. I have worked hard for decades now to finally have a big house with a big yard away from noisy neighbors and busy streets. I am very non-social (I don't want to use the word anti-social, because I do like socializing, but only with people who are already my friends or family). I am unfriendly, unsupportive, and solitary. I shop at big-box stores because they have everything in one place and offer the best prices, and I buy groceries from major grocery chains instead of local farmers for the same reasons. I shop online because I am lazy, finicky, and cheap. I have absolutely zero involvement with my neighborhood, my community as a whole, or my local government because I am selfish, uncaring, and "too busy" to be bothered. In other words...I'm an average American.
And like so many Americans, I sometimes daydream about what it would be like to live in a world where housing was affordable, neighborhoods were great places to make friends, and everyone helped everyone else out. I fantasize about what it would be like to open a small diner or a small store and be able to make a living just by running it. I dream of a world where I don't live in constant fear of getting sick, losing my job, or slowly being squeezed by rising costs until I can no longer afford to live in the house I have made into my home. But these are just dreams. They aren't real.
But what if they could be? Why can't we have these things? Why can't we live like this? The answer is short and simple: Greed.
We can't have these things in America because corporate greed demands that companies grow and grow and grow. In fact, it's common for businesses to throw around the phrase, "if you aren't growing, you're dying." The goal of most companies is to grow larger and larger year after year after year without exception. Scientists have a name for something that grows and grows and grows and never shrinks and is never satisfied: They call it cancer. And that's what corporate America's culture is: it's cancer, it's a disease. The insatiable desire for more, more, more. More money. More power. More control. More influence. Always more, more, more.
But we can't just blame corporate America for this. Sure, corporations are absolutely guilty of seeking profit over people. But we the people have let them do it. They can't keep growing if we don't keep buying more. You see, it's not just corporations that are greedy. It's us. Everyday Americans. And it's all of us. Not just the "other" political party. Not just the "other" religious group. Not just the "other" generation. All of us. Time and time again, we make choices that are against our best interest for the short-term gain we get. We continue to buy from these major corporations even when we know they exploit their workers, they sell shoddy merchandise, they provide lousy customer service, they don't give back to their communities. We do this because they give us what we really want, and it isn't any of those things.
We buy certain clothes because they are the cheapest we can find, and we don't care that they are so cheap because the people who made them are being exploited. Or we buy other clothes because they are the most expensive, and are a status symbol, and we don't care that they are so expensive because the company that makes them is raking in a massive profit while exploiting their workers. We buy food that is non-nutritious or even harmful to our bodies because it is cheaper or it is ready to eat in a matter of seconds or minutes with little to no preparation necessary. We spend money on diet pills because we can't be bothered to eat well (or we can't afford to). We spend more and more time with every passing year consuming whatever the massive technology companies throw at us, despite the fact that the content they feed us and the service they provide gets steadily worse and has been shown time and time again to be detrimental to our well-being. We vote for politicians we know nothing about, if we vote at all, because we don't have time to get to know who they really are or what their real agenda is. We buy houses and cars we can't afford, rack up tremendous debt, and spend all of our time and energy just trying to keep our heads above water financially. We pride ourselves on our kindness if we "like" or "heart" a post on social media, then turn a blind eye on the homeless in our communities. We drive like maniacs, honking at, yelling at, or flipping off anyone who dares to get in our way. But we rounded up our purchase at the grocery store to give the change to fund cancer research, so it's OK.
I'm not trying to make anyone feel bad, and believe me, everything I say here is true of me...probably more so than it is of you. But that doesn't make it untrue. Americans are not nice people. We are not nice because we are trained to be not nice by greedy corporations because that makes us more profitable. And we allow greedy corporations to train us to be not nice because of our own greed.
Now is the time to break the cycle. No matter what happens to our country, we are going to have a lot of rebuilding to do. So let's start rebuilding the right way. To do that, I suggest that we make a commitment to live small. Living small reduces the power greedy companies have over us, and trains us to resist our own greedy natures.
You don't have to just suddenly start living small after a lifetime of greed. That's not realistic. It's a gradual process of changing the way you think by challenging your preconceived notions. And it's one that you can gradually adopt as life throws changes your way. Every time you are faced with a choice, think about how you would choose if you lived small.
Are prices getting too high?
Living small means living frugally. Don't buy things you can live without or make for yourself. Buy cheaper alternatives or simply don't buy things you can't afford. Stop buying food, clothing, and merchandise from multi-billion dollar mega-corporations who exploit their customers and employees for their own profit. Buy local. For most people, that sounds like the opposite of living frugally because it is often more expensive to buy locally. While it's true that each individual item you purchase might be more expensive, you can offset the extra cost by buying less, overall. Most people who shop at big-box stores or massive grocery stores buy more than they really need every time they go shopping. When you shop in smaller stores, there's less temptation to make those impulse purchases. For the same reason, don't shop online unless you absolutely need to. When you shop online, you see all the things you don't have and suddenly you find yourself feeling like you need them and you end up buying them. Avoid the temptation whenever you can...you won't miss having that trinket if you never see it.
Ready to (or forced to) move?
Living small means living in moderate housing instead of buying the biggest house you think you can afford. I don't suggest you immediately start looking for a new house, unless you want to. But as I said earlier, many of us are going to start losing their jobs, if we haven't already. That's a massive blow for most families, and in many cases it can cause a family to lose their home if they can no longer afford to pay their rent or their mortgage. Most people who find themselves in that situation will do everything they can to get back to the same place they were when they lost their job...they look for a job paying a similar salary, and as soon as possible, they get back into a house that is comparable to the one they lost. But maybe that's an opportunity to re-think their assumptions: Maybe it's time to give up their dream of owning a 2-story, 5-bedroom/4 bathroom, 4,000 square foot house with a 2-car garage on a large plot of land with a fenced-in back yard and maybe even a private swimming pool. Maybe it's time to look for something smaller and cheaper. I'm not an advocate of tiny homes...that's too extreme and isn't really a sustainable way to live with a family. But we should be more reasonable in our housing choices.
Laid off or burned out?
Living small means seeking employment that provides you with an adequate lifestyle. It's easy to assume that, with prices spiraling out of control, we need to work in the highest paying job we can possibly find. And there's a lot of truth in that. But if we put the first two principles of living small in place, we may find that we need less money than we thought we did in order to have a comfortable lifestyle. And don't forget about the other aspects of our jobs that we often ignore in our quest for money: The opportunity costs and the stress associated with our work. Many people pursue higher paying jobs even though they may have to work more hours, and thus have less time to spend with their friends and families, or the job may be more stressful than a lower-paying job, leaving them with less of themselves left to give to their friends and families. When looking for work, money matters, but so do these other factors. It may be that taking a lower-paying job will leave you with more time or mental energy left at the end of your shift to spend quality time with the people you care the most about.
Lonely, sad, or depressed?
Living small means spending a significant amount of time in and around your local community. Stop wasting so much time and energy interacting on social media with people far away or people you've never met. I'm not saying you should give up social media...it's a great tool to connect you to the people and causes you care about. But you should only be spending a small portion of your time on social media, and the bulk of your time in face-to-face interactions with your family, your friends, and your local community. Living small means giving up the majority of the media you consume from streaming services and the internet as a whole. Instead, watch, read about, talk about, and get involved in local politics. Join or start a local community group committed to building meaningful local relationships.
Need a hand?
Living small means helping others. And the best part about helping others is that they often return the favor. Do you ever feel like you are going through life alone, facing struggles and challenges without help from anyone else? Most Americans feel this way. So let's do something about it. Instead of just wishing someone would come along and help us, we can reach out and help others. Even if they don't turn around and immediately offer to help us in return, just knowing that we are helping our neighbors goes a long way towards eliminating feelings that "people just don't care about one another anymore."
When the world is out of control and we are overwhelmed by the constant attacks on our country and our way of life, it's easy to feel overwhelmed and powerless. But I firmly believe that the best way to combat this is to start to adopt these principles of living small. You can't change the world, but you can make a difference in your small sphere of influence.
I will be writing more on this topic as time allows, and will expand on how each of the principles of living small can help us cope with tragedy, minimize the impacts of the current regime on our lives, and help us eventually rebuild the United States of America, not to bring it back to some real or imagined point in the past, but to build it better than it's ever been before.