Whilst I have already touched on the revival of Make do and Mend, it cannot be understated just how much we can all help ourselves as this period of crisis deepens, by stepping away from the reliance we have, that everything we need, will come to us ‘new’.

It won’t. Easy everything is at its end.

Yes, the supply of new goods will appear to continue for a time, with that supply coughing and spluttering in terms of those things that remain available. But many other items – particularly those which are items we want, rather than what we need, or that come to us from great distances across the world – will simply disappear from our lives for good.

One way or another – affecting those most who find affordability the main issue first, followed by all those who believe they have plenty of money now and find that it quickly becomes less and less until what they ‘have’ has no value at all – ‘new’ simply isn’t going to be the ‘go to’ option anymore.

It’s all going to be about what we can reuse, how we can reuse it. What we can repair and how we can repair it. What we can recycle and how we can reuse goods that cannot be used again for their original purpose, and then repurpose them in the best way possible – to benefit ourselves and to benefit us ALL.

Think smart. Think about the skills that you really have already or those that you could easily learn. Think about a very practical world where everything revolves around life, living and the community, where people and not money are the centre of everything, rather than what we only appear to have going on around us right now.

If you have an interest or talent in arts and crafts, or even feel quite proficient at DIY, the chances are that you can put that interest or ability to good work. First to help yourself, but also to help others around your neighbourhood and community too.

No, we are not heading back to the stone age – even though it has become certain that some of us are going to feel that way during the months and possibly years that lie ahead.

But the technology we have has been used for purposes that only serve the interests of greed, profit and those who are ‘at the top’.

Technology doesn’t need to be used on a massive scale to make it work. Technology doesn’t have to replace people or human input – just because it can.

In fact, the technology that we have isn’t being used in the best way possible, at all.

Up until now, technology has all been purposed on the basis of maximising profit and then repeating the process of obtaining that profit, over and over again.

The technology we have has been pursued, funded and purposed without regard for the practical reality of life, that:

Life for all exists so that ALL of us can live. Not so that a profit can be made by the few.

Local systems and micro economies that use advances in technology in the most practical, localised and intelligent way, keeping people at the centre of everything, are the only way that a genuinely healthy society can advance.

There is a cost-of-living crisis underway, right now, that is going to get exponentially worse. So much worse, its going to contribute to a complete systemic collapse.

However, the people least aware of what is happening and what this means for everything that lies ahead of them, aren’t necessarily the same people who you might immediately think.

So good have big business and corporate interests had it over the past two and a half years, whilst politicians have tried to solve every single problem by writing cheques, that they have now fallen into a trap of their own making. They have decided to keep on inflating prices of the goods and services they sell – being as certain as they are, that government will have to step in and sure-up the price and the ability of everyone to keep on paying the bills.

Wholesale energy prices have come down, as have the prices of wholesale petrol and diesel in recent days. All this comes amongst other goods and services that each and every one of us are using every day, shooting up in retail price. Or being reduced in size or value – which in real terms amounts to exactly the same thing – as people have to buy even more of everything, just to stand still.

Yes, the people we have running the Country are responsible for creating the myth that no matter what happens, everyone will still continue to get paid. But that isn’t a green light for businesses to keep charging more and keep charging whatever they like.

Just because you can, doesn’t make it right.

Greed-driven, unethical business have been at the creative centre of the cost-of-living crisis, right from the very start.

Yes, our poor excuses for public representation have allowed industries to plunder resources and exploit us all and everything with it for profit. But that doesn’t make these private interests right.

The question of legality does not put any of these actions above that of morality and the duty of care that we all have to everyone else.

Make do and Mend is not a new catchy term that I have dreamed up to make a point. I am unashamedly borrowing this one from the most recent period of human hardship that I can reference around the Second World War, when Rationing and shortages of just about everything meant that people applying principles to their daily lives then, that in today’s world might seem to be lightyears ahead!

Yes, the supply of everything we either buy or have supplied to us could stop for at least a short time. But the shortages of everything will almost certainly fluctuate, with some things being available when others are not. Let’s just say that it is going to be a very interesting time!

What this means in reality, is that when anything we wear or use breaks, its quite likely that it will not be something that can easily be replaced.

The choice that we will have, will be as simple as this: Throw it away and go without, or repair it and continue to have it to use.

Regrettably, one of the massive overhangs from the world we are now leaving, will be the comparative poor quality of the things that we use daily, that because of planned obsolescence, were deliberately designed not to last.

The thought or rather the question of how anyone can survive without money is not a pleasant one.

Indeed, please spare a thought for the many who are already in that place, not only in the UK, but right across the world.

People, like you or I, who are only different to us, because they don’t have enough money to even afford the basic essentials of life.

These are human beings, just like us. People who don’t have the option of becoming self-sufficient, simply because they are relatively few in number.

We frown on them or look down on them because the normal way of doing things is based on money being the benchmark of life.

Once enough of us don’t have enough, the shibboleths and miscreated rules of this current societal structure will no longer hold their meaning or purpose. We will no longer shame others, be shamed, feel shame or be restricted from simply doing the things that we need to in order to survive and live.