Regardless of why the collapse happens (war, economic crash, pole shift, AI, or something else) the poor will be hit first, hardest, and have the fewest options. Pondering practical things poor people can do.
1. Build Local, Not Global
You cannot compete with the elites. You cannot out-prepare a billionaire’s bunker. You cannot outrun a drone.
What you can do: Strengthen your immediate, walking-distance community.
- Know your neighbours’ names and skills (who can garden, who has medical training, who can fix things, etc.)
- Share tools, food, and information before the crisis
- Create a communication tree (how to connect when things are sketchy)
- call chain/hierarchical network to disperse information quickly to a large group of people, ideas:
- have a private Telegram group, Signal group, or other online method (note: do not trust that these are actually private, but they will allow you to contact your core circle when the internet is up)
- phone list > call tree (you contact 3, they contact 3, each group has a 4th that connects to someone in another tree, research and setup what works for you and your core group)
- keep a hard-copy list of essential phone numbers/addresses
- rally point (designated meet-up place with backup locations where everyone knows to go if they cannot communicate)
- in-person communication tree (you contact nearest walking-distance/driving distance, they contact the next, and so on, by proximity)
- offline communication
- walkie-talkies, or LoRa mesh networking like Meshtastic with Heltec V3 LoRa board (915MHz for Aussies) – (only good for line-of-site up to 20km), or UHF CB Radios with repeaters, or some other gadget
- newsletters?
- notice-boards? or a specific location – tree/landmark where written messages can be left in waterproof containers
- call chain/hierarchical network to disperse information quickly to a large group of people, ideas:
They have money. You have proximity. In a collapse, proximity matters.
2. Learn Skills That Money Cannot Buy
The rich will hoard generators, gold, and guns. They cannot hoard skills.
- Growing food even in pots, indoors, on balconies. (Supply chains fail first)
- or community gardens or friend/neighbours plot
- or by stealth around your neighbourhood in unused/infrequently seen places, i.e. food bombs or keep your existing seeds from the food you currently eat and plant them
- or buying/gathering seeds or growing seedlings for trade
- Water sourcing and purification. (Bottled water runs out, water may be contaminated)
- Basic first aid and herbal/natural medicine. (Hospitals may be overwhelmed or unreachable, kindness and helping someone with their immediate pain/ills makes you an memorable ally and renews faith in humanity)
- Sewing, mending, repairing. (New clothes and goods will not be available/affordable)
- Cooking from scratch. (Shelf-stable goods run out/food prices soar)
- Learn how to make foods out of wild-foods that already surround you, learn how to make meals last into multiple meals, research depression foods.
- Bartering and negotiation. (Currency may become worthless or unavailable)
These skills are free to learn. They are available on YouTube, in library books, and from older people in your community who remember harder times.
3. Stay Off the Grid of Attention
The powers-that-be do not fear poor people with gardens, they fear people who organize.
Do not:
- Don’t post your plans, supplies, or location online
- Don’t join large, visible protest movements (they are easily infiltrated and crushed)
- Don’t trust that social media, your computer, your phone, or any digital device is private or safe
Do:
- Communicate in person or through encrypted, decentralized channels
- Keep your preparations quiet and boring
- Appear more compliant and distracted than you actually are
The surveillance state watches for threats, not for quiet competence.
4. Reduce Dependency Now
Every cord you cut before the collapse is a cord that cannot be pulled.
Dependency / How to Reduce:
- Grocery stores – Grow even a little food. Learn to preserve. Build a small pantry of bulk staples (rice, beans, oats)
- Electricity – Have a backup cooking method (camp stove). Know how to store food without a fridge.
- Pharmacy – Learn herbal remedies for common ailments. Stock basic first aid. Know which wild plants in your area are medicinal or edible.
- Banking – Keep some cash at home. Have barter goods (salt, sugar, batteries, alcohol, tobacco, coffee, and more ideas listed below).
- Internet – Download critical information once a week (repair manuals, natural healing guides, plant identification, surveillance-evasion). Save to USB sticks. Print key notes and print extra copies for friends & bartering.
A note about Shelter:
- Turn your car into a bug-out vehicle – It gives you stress-relief and a different state-of-mind having your car setup as a “getaway” emergency vehicle, and if nothing else, it gives you a mindset of “absolute essentials” that you “need to survive” that you have in a small space.
- I’ve recently done this and even though fuel might be a problem in the coming collapse, it really does feel better to know that I have the “essentials” sorted.
- (Search your vehicle + camper on YouTube: I can guarantee someone has setup your type of car as a bug-out already which will give you ideas; I have a little Fit/Jazz and there are even smaller cars than mine)
- Alternatively, create a “Vehicle Survival Kit” with your essentials
- If you don’t have a vehicle, setup a “survival backpack” instead (this might be even more important than a bug-out vehicle if fuel prices continue to sky-rocket or fuel becomes unavailable).
- I’ve recently done this and even though fuel might be a problem in the coming collapse, it really does feel better to know that I have the “essentials” sorted.
- Know where to go – If you have to move from where you are, where will you go?
- If there are drones/bombs? If there are sketchy trespassers?
- To another area of town? To a friends house? To a camping ground?
- Consider your options so you don’t have to think “on the fly”, under stress, in a crisis.
- If there are drones/bombs? If there are sketchy trespassers?
You do not need to be “off-grid” like a wealthy prepper. You just need to survive the first 30-60 days of disruption. After that, systems will either stabilize or become something new.
5. Form Mutual Aid, Not Charity
Charity flows from rich to poor and creates dependency. Mutual aid flows sideways.
- A meal co-op (you cook for four families one night; they cook for you on other nights)
- A tool library (one person owns a drill, another a saw, another a ladder -everyone shares)
- A childcare rotation (so adults can work, scavenge, or trade)
- A skills exchange (I’ll fix your bike if you mend my jacket)
- A trade exchange (regular in-person meetups for trade/swap, or a local place to pin-up and share notices)
These structures are invisible to power. They do not require permission. They do not show up on any database. They are simply people helping people.
6. Create a Barter/Share Kit
Lightweight Backpack-friendly Barter/Share-Kit for Poor/Homeless
We know the obvious and what the preppers will stock up on (food, toilet paper, tools, gold/silver, weapons & other survival items), but here are some cheap, small, & lightweight things that poor people with no garage/storage basement can collect and use for trade during hard times:
- Smaller Storage Containers to offer more (space-saving) value:
- Miniature empty glass bottles (but even plastic for non-food-grade items), can be used by yourself to downsize – mix-up/increase your bartering value by having a variety of things that can be stored in these bottles, i.e.
- olive oil, dish detergent, honey, vinegar
- salt, pepper, spices, coffee, vitamins
- iodine, hydrogen peroxide, alcohol
- seeds, sewing kits
- water purification, etc.
- Even the empty bottles themselves can be bartered for others wishing to downsize their bulk-items and do the same.
- If you can afford it, having a label maker & labels instantly make your down-sized items more valuable & trustworthy
- Trash bags, Freezer bags, Re-sealable sandwich bags
- Resealable bags help you or others, downsize & barter beans, flour, powders, and other items
- Miniature empty glass bottles (but even plastic for non-food-grade items), can be used by yourself to downsize – mix-up/increase your bartering value by having a variety of things that can be stored in these bottles, i.e.
- Essentials:
- Bicarb Soda & Vinegar
- (becomes replacement laundry/dish/floor cleaner, deodorant, shampoo/conditioner, toothpaste, and more – it replaces 50+ products)
- Iodine or Hydrogen Peroxide or Chlorine dioxide, etc.
- (anything that helps with Water Purification/disinfection)
- Foldable food-grade water containers is another idea
- Bicarb Soda & Vinegar
- Repair: (temp-repair/seals when replacement is not an option)
- Sewing Needles & Black Cotton Thread
- Duct/Electrical tape
- Shoe/Tyre/Bike-Repair Kits
- Food-Related:
- Sea/Himalayan/Celtic Salt, Herbs, and Flavour like Beef/Chicken stock, Curries, & Spices (Makes Bland Food tolerable/tasty)
- Heirloom, organic, locally-grown seeds (collect seeds that grow in your local area)
- Travel-sized Peanut Butter, UHT Milk, Sugar/coffee/milk packets
- Print-outs of edible wild-foods people or pets can eat in the local area
- Pain Removal & First-Aid:
- Band-Aids & disinfection packets, Headache/Pain/Allergy relief
- Castor Oil, Vaseline, Some kind of Salve Ointment, or ChapSticks (becomes a staple for many issues that come up in a collapse, cracked hands, blistered feet, wounds, fire-starters, more)
- Essential Homeopathic Remedies, Cell Salts, and Essential Oils like Eucalyptus, Oil of Oregano, Tea Tree Oil
- If power is down/unreliable:
- Real or Solar Candles/Lights, Solar or Mini Torches, Head Torches, Book lights
- Lighters (or Magnesium Strikers if things are really dire, but most people will trade for a lighter)
- Mini Backpacker stoves
- Powerbanks / Solar chargers
- If there is no internet:
- Writing Paper, Pens, Pencils and Sharpeners
- Small entertainment items: Decks of cards, small games
Most of these can fit in a shoe-box or small backpack if downsized to smaller bottles/packets, so you don’t have to carry your whole “bartering kit” on you.
Browse Facebook Marketplace, Gumtree, and local Op shops for small things that you can use to barter/trade (this might be a great place to look for bottles / storage containers that you can sterilize and re-use which might be free/low-cost in these places but are extremely expensive online right now, as well as a very low-cost way to find things for your survival toolkit).
7. Accept That You May Not “Survive” in the Elite Sense
This is the hard one. The rich have bunkers, private jets, property they can defend, and long-term plans. You do not. In a true global collapse (the kind where supply chains shatter for years) many poor people will die. That’s the dark reality of it, but “survival” is not the only goal. You can also choose to:
- Live with dignity, honour, and compassion – and help others along the way
- Live with meaning and joy
- Bear witness, so that someone remembers what happened
- Protect children, even if you cannot save yourself
The elite measure survival in years. You can measure it in moments of love, resistance, and clarity, and choose to not let the “fear of death” or anger/despair consume you.
Don’t let the fear of death paralyze you
The “fear of death” can make people fucking insane (case in point: CONvid). Fear is a ‘demonic-virus’ that turns nice people to turn into monsters, and generous, loving people into uncaring psychopaths. Losing the fear of death might be one of the most life-changing mindsets you can embark upon. I see it as part of the control system, but at some point in our lives, we have to remove the fear of death, so that it is not weaponized against us either externally or within our own mind.
8. Baby-steps towards…
The single worst thing you can do is “nothing” while waiting for certainty. Certainty will never come. Your Mindset and a balanced nervous system is #1. Prepare yourself psychologically by doing what you can with what you have, baby-step your way into a more secure mindset & position, even if you have to start small:
- Daily: Do something to increase your mental &/or physical health.
- Tomorrow: Learn one plant in your neighbourhood that is edible or medicinal.
- This week: Talk to one neighbour about checking on each other, or reach out to a local friend that you’ve been thinking about but haven’t contacted lately.
- Next week: Find one place you can go if you need to leave the area.
- This month: Stock one extra can of food every time you shop or learn how to filter or find clean water.
Collapse, if it comes, will not arrive all at once. It will arrive in stages, and each stage offers a window to act, and each week you can build upon the last. You don’t have to overwhelm yourself with doomsday-mindfuck.
The Only Thing the Poor Have That the Rich Cannot Buy
The rich have money, land, weapons, and bunkers, but they do not have each other in the way poor communities do.
Elite society is isolated, suspicious, and competitive. Poor communities (when they are healthy) are interdependent, generous, and creative. A billionaire alone in a bunker lasts as long as their supplies. A neighbourhood that knows how to grow food, share water, and tend its sick lasts much longer. The collapse, if it comes, will be survived by the most connected.
You are not powerless. You are just playing a different game than the one the elites are playing, and their game (money, control, hoarding) is the one that collapses.
The other game (care, skill, community) has no collapse condition. It just keeps going, as it has for hundreds of thousands of years, long before Bilderberg, long before BlackRock, long before the Rothschilds, long before any of this.
Kindness and connection is our superpower and strength, not our weakness.
