Dig Deep And Prepare

National Inflation Association Projects Future U.S. Food Prices

"The National Inflation Association today announced
projections for future U.S. food prices
based after this week’s announced $600 billion
in quantitative easing by the Federal Reserve.
The Federal Reserve announced this week that it will be
expanding its balance sheet by $75 billion per month until
the end of June 2011, for total quantitative easing of $600
billion. Quantitative easing is nothing more than inflation
and when the Federal Reserve creates inflation, it steals
from the purchasing power of the incomes and savings of all
Americans.
Inflation does not create jobs. Inflation merely causes
prices of goods and services to rise and makes it more expensive
for American families to support themselves. While
years ago it was possible for a father to support an entire
family of four or five on one income; today, both parents
need to work and they also need to get deeply into debt just
to make ends meet. With all of our society’s technological
advances of recent years, Americans’ cost of living should
be declining, but it has instead been spiraling out of control
due to the Federal Reserve’s destructive monetary policies.
Politicians love inflation because it allows them to monetize
their deficit spending. Politicians can also take credit
for an “economic recovery” when stock prices rise. However,
nominal stock market gains mean nothing to middle class
Americans if prices of food and other agricultural products
are rising at a much faster rate."

"Once Americans wake up and realize just
how rapidly the U.S. dollar is being debased, NIA believes
we will see a rush out of the U.S. dollar that could eventually
trigger an outburst of hyperinflation.
Despite the recent rise in agricultural commodities,
food manufacturers, wholesalers, and retailers have been
reluctant to pass commodity price increases along to the
consumer because they know that Americans have been
struggling to make their mortgage payments. However, agricultural
commodity price increases have gotten so far out of
control that if corporations don’t start passing them along to
consumers immediately, they will simply go out of business."

cheapest store brand bread - $23.05
ear of corn - $11.43
32 oz package of Domino Granulated Sugar - $62.21
11.30 oz container of Folgers Ground Classic Roast Coffee - $77.71
64 fl oz container of Minute Maid 100% Pure Squeezed Orange Juice - $45.71
Hershey’s Milk Chocolate 1.55 oz candy bar - $15.50

"The average American family currently spends only 13%
of their total annual expenditures on food and they spend
34% of their total annual expenditures on housing. NIA
projects that by the year 2015, Americans will be spending
as much as 40% of their annual expenditures on food,
and as little as 10% of their annual expenditures on housing."

This is assuming that the basic structures of american society stay intact as the prices astronomically rise. Transportation, distribution, labor all have to stay the same as this incredible hyperinflation occurs and I in no way think that can happen in this country. Complete breakdown into some sort of fragmented, feudal and shattered chaos will happen long before an orderly progression to where money is debased so much so we see costs like the above. More likely shelves will empty and stores will close first as all social contracts dissolve and distribution ceases.
What directions society goes is up in the air at that point. IMO it won't be monolithic in nature but will devolve into all kinds of coping methods. People gotta eat. Cities will empty first because those suck holes of energy will run dry immediately. Gangs will run most of them while the federal government gives up on most of the country, instead retreating behind their fortresses and fading away when no one pays any attention to them. Money will mean nothing and barter, like when the Soviet Union collapsed, will prevail. Outright theft and roving, hungry mobs won't last too long because far too many guns are in the hands of people who at that juncture won't be afraid to use them.
To survive everything probably will have to be localized and smaller. I don't see any way existing government larger than community or maybe district or county will exist. At first they'll try to retain order with force but as things get more chaotic their police and militaries will simply disappear back home to their families. How could they be paid? Some communities will do a lot better than others at coping with the new realities and if one wants to get a glimpse of future city life well, "Escape from NY" might be a good place to start.

I think Panarin was absolutely correct. Dmitry Orlov compares the Soviet collapse to what will be the american collapse, and I believe this is a must read if you haven't already.

added - Bankruptcy of U.S. is ‘Mathematical Certainty,’ Says Former CEO of Nation's 10th Largest Bank