My name is Agnostic, and I believe in the collapse. I have anticipated a collapse or similar cataclysmic events since a young age. The thing is, no collapse has occurred in my lifetime. Maybe it never will. "Now faith is confidence in what we hope for and assurance about what we do not see." - Hebrews 11:1 Are we hoping for a collapse? Are we assured that it will occur? When a specific date of collapse is nominated but does not occur, are we simply reinforced in our belief that it is even more overdue today? Or do we re-define collapse or the indicators of its coming in a flurry of revisionist history? Is the collapse a deus ex-machina to remove us from our miserable current lives, with which we are deeply dissatisfied and can see no way out? Do we collect shiny objects as tokens of our belief?
Interesting thoughts you share, more so when i consider that it was religion that turned me towards precious metals. I see gold as a more "pure" form of wealth than debt notes and thats why i make the choice to buy as much of it as i can afford and as often as i can.
It's called "millnnium syndrome". People seem to have a natural inclination to assume that "Big, Important Things" will happen during their lives, hence the frenzy of prophecies and lunacy at dates like the turn of the millennium or even the century. Even though our individual lives are short by historical standards for some reason people need to feel that the big historical events need to happen during their relatively tiny lifespan.
All you can do is interpret the signs as you see them. Nothing is certain that is for sure. I believe everything works in fractals. The economy of your household is no different that the economy of a country. Regardless of what others will say, the same rules apply. Now if you look at the debt levels of many countries versus their income and apply the same ratios to your own home and income, it becomes clear that it is all unsustainable. What happens next becomes clearer. Prepare in the way that best suits yourself.
The only things that are truly over due is waiting for a family member to pay you back the money they borrowed or return the power tools. If people feel the need to get all hot and bothered over predictions of cosmic collapse or some form or Armageddon be it man made, religious, ET lands etc, then I think their life may be a little unfulfilled. Yes many of us here have interpreted the financial system as fragile and have taken steps to mitigate economic downturn but those signs are there to see if you want. As for the end of times / a cataclysmic event, I'll wait for the signs to become apparent.