The MSM (Mainstream Media) is full of news of economic trouble, of credit drying up and blowing away, of oil prices climbing, of Gold flirting with a price of $1,000 an ounce where a few short years ago it was a third of that. Home prices are crashing (or depending on where you live, have crashed), foreclosures are popping up in every neighborhood in some cities and job losses are mounting. Yet Americans still sleep.

My son and I were out for a couple errands today and decided to indulge in a rare treat, a visit to In-N-Out Burger. They’re the best hamburgers around, made in the old style, as are the french fries (made from real honest to goodness potatoes) and shakes. Every three months or so we visit, limited by healthy eating concerns as much as the skyrocketing costs of doing things like this. Besides, we’re under-stretched financially with good income, slow outgo and no debt. As I said, it’s a somewhat rare treat.

Looking around the packed restaurant, I was again amazed to see seemingly working class Americans forking over $12 for burgers, fries and a drink for two. Most of them, it seemed to me, had no more business eating what the burger joint was serving up than they had buying it. It looked to me like the economy was sailing along, and none of us had a care in the world.

The mall was the same thing. Looking at the traffic, and the full bags of loot purchased with available credit, you’d think we were in the middle of an economic surge. Driving back home, again I was struck by the images of streets full of cars, the most their “owners” can afford, driving nowhere and back just because it’s possible…Today, anyway.

Seeing this, it’s hard not to turn into Jim Kunstler and shake your head, imaging a day when these roads are mostly empty because gas costs over $5 a gallon. When will that day be here? In many areas of the country, growth is still exploding, seemingly without regard to the economic turmoil that is gaining on us. What is disconcerting is that as things get worse, there will be huge masses of people with no backup plan, no savings and no prospects.

If there’s any message WhatComesNext.net has, it must be prepare. Keep extra bottled water stored in your house. Investing in a 3 – 6 month supply of backup food is a good idea as well. Keep the gas tanks on your automobiles topped off (don’t worry, gas won’t be cheaper in the future) and have a family plan in the event of emergency.

Do these four things, which we’ll examine in greater detail this week and you’ll be miles ahead of the rest of America, still snoozing and apparently unaware of the threats to our lifestyle.