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Safe Places Report No. 4
You know it’s time to start planning your move to a Safe Place. At the beginning this is likely to be some combination of emotional reasons.
Perhaps fear—of the resurgence of crime and the riots and looting that are becoming common in our metropolitan areas. Perhaps disgust at the way the American Dream is disappearing where you are living now. Or perhaps a positive desire to live in a place that is less crowded and polluted, or more in keeping with your desires for a better and more satisfying life than you’re experiencing now. Sometimes it’s a single stark event (being a victim of violence) but usually it’s a combination of factors that leads us to the realization that it’s time to move to a better place.
Your first task is to turn that emotional decision into a rational one by taking an inventory of your life circumstances that, realistically, will determine where you move. At first this may seem unnecessary—after all, you are innately aware of these circumstances; you don’t have to figure them out. But writing them down—creating an inventory of these objective circumstances—will help to clarify your decision to move and, in the process, make it as successful as possible.
In my next Safe Places Report, I’ll explore the major factors you’ll want to consider when determining where to move. But first, make that inventory of your life circumstances that will shape your move. Get out your pen and paper and start writing.
- Your age: You are a different person, with much different needs and desires, at age 30 than at, say, age 60.
- Your immediate family: Are you single, or married with no children living with you and your spouse, or will this be a nuclear family with children included in the move? These are obviously very different circumstances that will shape your move. You may also want to move closer to family members in a different area.
- Your financial circumstances: As a general rule, the better off you are financially, the better your options.
- Your work circumstances: Actively employed or retired? If employed, can you do your work remotely or must you be present in an office? Is changing your line of work possible or desirable? Of course, your specific line of work will also determine your circumstances.
- Your health: Any special or chronic medical conditions must be taken into consideration.
These are all obvious factors, but the reason to write them down is to clarify the objective situation that will govern your decision. And if you are not moving alone, this has to be done for each person involved in the move.
There is another factor that is both subjective and objective: your assessment of the state of the nation and/or the state of the world. In a final sense it really doesn’t matter how correct or wrong your assessment ends up being: Either way that assessment, as it is held by you today, will be a major circumstance that shapes your decision to move. And you don’t have to be certain in your assessment: your crystal ball may be clouded. That, too, will shape your decision to move.
I have my assessment of the future, and it changes with the news. You have your assessment—and each of us is unique in our assessment. In these Safe Places Reports, I will not seek to tell you what your assessment should be, but I have found it useful to consider three general scenarios for the future. Each of those scenarios will help us—both you and me—determine the type of Safe Place we want to find, and the circumstances determining our moves. (And yes, I will be making this journey with you.)
Here are the three general scenarios I envision for the future of our nation and our world. They determine how urgent it is to make our move, as well as the type of new home we have in mind. In analyzing specific Safe Places, I assign them one to three stars depending on where they fit into these three scenarios.
Scenario I: Steady economic, political, and social decline, but no collapse—yet. If you expect this to continue for the immediate future, you may want to seek what I classify as a SAFER METRO PLACE. These are the safest communities within their metropolitan region, where you can take advantage of their greater urban amenities, such as job opportunities and a variety of restaurants and community events
These places will be designated with one star: ★
Scenario II: Acute economic collapse has started. If this is your assessment, the situation is more urgent and you want to move quickly to a SAFE PLACE that is removed from a metro area (by distance, or a mountain range, for example). You also want to avoid any location likely to be on an escape route for fleeing urban masses.
Mostly these will be small towns and cities, and they will be designated by two stars: ★★
Scenario III: General economic, political, and social collapse is underway and is not likely to be reversed. In this most serious and urgent assessment, you want to find a retreat area far removed from any sizeable cities, and least likely to be devastated by depression and economic unrest, the failure of electrical grids, a new and more devastating pandemic, or cyberwar, biological war, or nuclear war—you name it. For these kinds of warfare, you don’t want to be near potential enemy targets, whether they are key American military sites or strategic assets such as a major port.
These SAFE RETREATS (as safe as you can imagine in such an apocalyptic future) will be designated by three stars: ★★★
Your assessment of the future is yours alone, and I will not judge your assessment. I will seek to help you find a Safe Place or a Safe Retreat, whatever your assessment.
My Previous Safe Places Reports:
- Big Cities Will Never Be the Same After These Riots and This Pandemic June 3, 2020 (No. 1)
- Making the Big Move: Better Sooner than Too Late June 9, 2020 (No. 2)
- Is Seattle the Future for American Cities? June 16, 2020 (No. 3)
