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Episode-845- Ben Franklin on Modern Survivalism — 19 Comments

  1. The Art of Manliness is killing it. They’ve come a long way. Can’t wait til the car ride home to hear this.

    They also just did a multiple part series on resiliency that was really great too.

  2. Hey Jack,
    Great podcast- in fact last few have been awesome. Anyway, you mention that people throw away value all the time, and that in a real collapse, trash collection would not be needed because people would not throw out anywhere near as much by necessity. I’ve always thought the new business that would come would be reclamation of resources from dumps when possible. People will go & dig through the dump just like in 3rd world countries. To find metal, glass, parts, etc.
    And this reminds me – fixing instead of buying a new replacement. Sewing is a skill all men should have. I love fixing my own stuff like buttons, and patches, etc.
    Reduce, reuse, recycle, repurpose, resist [the consumption culture]!
    Thanks.

    • In James Howard Kunstler’s World Made By Hand novel, there is a group that, in a post peak oil scenario, ‘mines’ the old landfill and sells the material through a ‘general store.’

  3. It went from 8 pieces of advice to an inspirational speech on integrity. Keep up the good work. I enjoy the podcasts, lots of good information and insight.

  4. This was a good one, could have doubled as a 5 min with jack episode too. So much of what you said works on so many levels. From running a business to being a good trustworthy person in the neighborhood.

  5. I sure wish I could get my 18 year old grandson to listen to this. He had a mother and step father who taught him to spend, not save. Do what makes you happy for today. My daughter and her husband are divorcing (her second divorce, his first), the house will go into foreclosure. The house looks like an episode from Hoarders. It will have to be gutted completely for anyone to live in it ever again. They are on their SECOND bankruptcy. My grandson has no social skills, no work skills, no code of ethics. He is in for a real rough life.

    • Don’t give up on him. I’m 31 and when I was 18 I was looking similar to him. I didn’t wake up until probably 22 or so. As long as he isn’t in deep with the law or drugs he can make a comeback.

      Good Luck

      • Thanks for the good thoughts. His mother is a throw away consumer. Black Friday is her favorite “holiday” and she has even broken people’s fingers to get her Chinese junk. I look at this person and wonder how on earth she was born from my body. wow. The kids (there are also 10 and 7 year olds…also boys) have NO social skills, are plopped down in front of graphically violent war and gangster video games, are given no responsibilities, get HUNDREDS of gifts for b’day and Christmas, etc etc. It is truly deeply tragic. They are not taught to respect anyone or anything and have had zero Christian education. I hope these poor victims (they’re not children…they’re victims) can over-come the lack of parenting they are flooded with.

    • That sounds like a vast majority of the people I know. One thing to remember is that responsible, frugal, functioning people are weird and the folks you are describing are normal.

      I’ve seen a few different people make a comeback, people I would have never thought in a million years could pull it together. I really hope they can do it for the children’s sake.

  6. Jack, I’m glad you did this episode. You were the first person that I thought of when I saw the bullet points. When I read the section on “understanding the True Value of Things,” I though of your episode explaining how our grandparents generation approached purchasing decisions – be frugal, not cheap. Even though Ben overpaid for his whistle, I’ll bet it still lasted much longer than the typical whistle manufactured today.

  7. I have been following brother Benjamin for a long time and at times he has me on the right on brother train while others he has me thinking for days trying to understand his line of thought. I believe that is why I like to listen to you, like Benjamin you have pearls of wisdom scattered through out your talks, but at times you both help me to actually see what the mirror is saying. Today you helped me answer a question that I have been pondering for forty years. What one decision is the difference between the successful and the unsuccessful person? Integrity and until you put it in your context, it was only a guessed answer. By the way never doubt your success-fullness, there’s bout 30K of us you help every day. You have done more to destroy the MATRIX (our imperial government) that has overcome this country and helped bring back REAL values to give to our children for a stronger future. This places you squarely in the success category and truly wealthy, which is how it should be.

  8. Great show today Jack, I relate to what your saying about having it all and still not happy because who I work with, I work with some real winners let me tell you LOL. Well need to get my 2nd bbusiness up and running and see what kind of income I can make with it. Good thing is no one else is doing it so don’t have to fight for market share sweet.. Cya Brent

  9. Loved what you said about not having employees… I think the employee model is broken or at least outdated. I don’t know how to fix it yet, but it’s one of the things I would like to help change in the future.

  10. I think what Ben meant by : time is money is that you have to put a value on your time.
    I myself value my time @ $40 per hour.
    I arrived at this number by dividing time spent @ work into what my take home pay is.
    If a job around the house would take me 3 hours to do and I could get someone to do it for $50, then to me that is a great value.
    My time is better spent generating revenue,preping or spending family time.

  11. Jack,
    I loved the show. I’m glad you did it the way you did, but you summed up my one thought there at the end. I would encourage you to do a companion show where you compare and contrast your lines of thought with Mr. Franklin’s. I think that would give some additional insight. Thanks for everything.

  12. Jack, another home run show. Well done.

    By the way, you should really STOP telling people they can eat wild rabbits. I heard once on television that if all you eat is wild rabbits, you’ll starve!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!(etc.)

    Just kidding, just kidding..

  13. This is one of the top 10 shows I think that you have done, some times you scare me Jack because we think so much alike, I live and die by my morals and I work with a bunch of immoral idiots.. Maybe one day I could leave my good paying job with awesome health care but I am know where near being able to do that.. Hey one more thing I thought my grand parents where the only ones who used 1/2 gallon milk jugs to freeze fish LOL guess not, good thing with the milk containers you could add another layer of fish with more water untill you had it filled..

  14. Great episode jack, just wanted to say I agree with you on passing an injured person by, and what’s worse is taking more advantage of them, here in Austin there was a news report just last week about someone having a seizure in an alley and someone coming by, stabbing them in the head and tossing the wallet back after removing all 6$ they had in their wallet at the time. it is a sick world we live in sometimes, we need more people to wake up and listen to your true message and we wouldn’t have so many a-holes in the world.