Doom and Gloom

I suppose trying to imagine how "it's all going to end" is a rather silly exercise and a waste of time, yet there's people called "Futurists" that try in the "higher and higher" sense, and economists that live inside of "The Matrix" that defines reality, so perhaps there's yet hope for me.

Trying to live in a dual reality - one where I'm supposed to save for the future, and another where I expect the future isn't likely to exist in a way that my savings will do much. NOT that I won't save, but for retirement? Seems a little far-fetched to imagine that long off date will exist for my generation.

Maybe the 1950's had it easier. They saved (overall), while fearing nuclear war would end life as we know it. What's my fears about? I can picture economic collapse much over war scaled destruction in my city and neighborhood.

It's an interesting game. Overall, I'm not willing to bet on a complete collapse where my savings and 401(k) funds and such are fully lost, even if I can't imagine it passing through the "end of the oil age".

All modern wealth is supported by cheap energy of fossil fuels. I just can't imagine how that wealth can transfer into a world where energy costs keep going up every year and resources go down every year. I believe in Kunstler's "Long Emergency".

I won't bet on mu 401(k) being worth anything in a few years but I can't not at least fund the minimum (4%) to get the maximum matching level (5%). What's 4% anyway. Still, I made a conservative move away from stocks in the selected funds. Maybe it'll make a difference.
Some make bigger decisions than me. One I know sold her house, believing the housing bubble was near bursting. I'm surprised by that, but perhaps she didn't have much equity anyway and can actually live more cheaply by renting and it does allow her more freedom in living arrangements.

I don't know if there's a housing bubble. It does seem likely that as interest rates go up, the market must cool and prices will level off at minimum. AND if economic conditions turn down and over-extended owners all try to sell at the same time, that new buyers won't bite at market rates with oversupply.

I have a 5-year ARM myself, and making double payments, trying to save a little interest costs early, but apparently most get ARMs for lower payments and plans to move soon. A tricky bet if prices stagnate or drop and again, many want to sell when there's too few buyers.
I'm content for the "long haul" on housing - stay put and invest into my debt for now, and have cheaper living later with luck. So a bubble can't hurt me much in that way. Well, and having roommates to split the utilities helps too!

Perception is a strange thing - things MUCH different than our immediate surroundings are hard to imagine, except as dreams. Night and day - Summer and Winter. Wet and Dry. Wealth and Poverty. Opposites existing in time and place and so hard to cross with our minds, at least seriously.

I "believe" the sun will rise tomorrow, that summer WILL eventually come and experience suggests truth, but ice-ages also come in the long term, and a good once-in-a-1000-lifetime volcano could blot out the sun for decades, so even well held truths are not forever.
I believe it likely that sooner or later that our unsustainable economy, based on fossil fuels and mechanized production, must end in something like a crash. Just like watching the sun's path in the sky also an extrapolation of it's final collapse into the horizon, there can be some projections of our doomsday.

Must we just be hopeful that cold fussion is just around the bend, and it'll reopen all the doors that our oil-twilight are slowly closing?

Overall too much success seems the enemy. The most successful we are, the more we expand and reach new levels of demands on the world. I don't think the world can last through another "discovery" like the last.

After new years day I considered what I might do to "prepare" and overall I found:1) Reduce my debt while I have extra income.2) Reduce my physical burdens that complicate my life.3) Network with others who also worry things are changing sooner than later.
Reducing debt is a form of "wealth building" assuming I got the debt in the first place by buying something worth while. I might also imagine investing in schooling, or training of new skills that might be more useful in a depressed economy. Overall, I come away against the idea - time is limited.

Yet, I know I take time now that I might invest into future needs. Anyway, my "top 3" above seem sufficient at present, even if my time devoted to them is small.
I can equally think about my girlfriend and her 3 kids and how fast her kids are growing - perhaps someday I'll miss the time I spent "working" while I might have something to offer them, more than I do at present anyway.

Overall ours is a time of "time poverty". We have more opportunity than we know what to do with.

Perhaps the optimist in me can suggest that "doom and gloom" isn't so bad if it means less opportunity and "more time". Who can say?