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   From: daybrown@wildblue.net   
      
   Near the end of "Collapse" by Jared Diamond, he discusses those areas   
   which recover from economic/social collapse the fastest.   
      
   Since reading him these and other criteria come to mind.   
   1- steep or hilly forested terrain. The timber provides building   
   material, tool handles, and firewood. It also prevents agribusiness from   
   moving in, since they like large contiguous tracts. This results in   
   small farmers being left in possession with a culture familiar with the   
   idea of "making do" that goes back for generations.   
      
   2- Homogeneous, and low population. Where there are minorities, there   
   will be demagogues scapegoating rather than leaders trying to reason out   
   what should be done. But if the population is too high, mobs easily form   
   to be driven by demagoguery. If the majority is rural, they they already   
   know a lot about living off the land; they have backyard gardens, and   
   wont be wasting time wandering around the streets looking for jobs that   
   dont exist, desperate enough to take any offer.   
      
   3- Sufficient rainfall to support a forest that is at low risk of fire.   
   Grassland and brush will be scary too. Nobody'll be coming to put the   
   fires out, and firebugs will be trying to get as much burning as they   
   can. Such sufficient rainfall should not need irrigation, which may well   
   be sabotaged by nut cases.   
      
   4- Avoid mining areas. Ground water may be polluted. Avoid the coasts;   
   hurricanes, tsunamis, earthquakes, and high desperate populations.   
      
   Transnationals have realized that rural and small town people stay put,   
   and are therefore more reliable workers. Has a lot to do with why Toyota   
   put a plant in relatively rural Tennessee.   
      
   Likewise Wall Mart and several National Trucking outfits headquarter in   
   NW Arkansas small towns along US 71 that runs from Ft. Smith to Joplin.   
   The U of AR in Fayetteville there has created a mini high tech boom. The   
   region is receiving a net *immigration* of professionals from the West   
   Coast. The land, taxes, & real estate costs are so low that engineers   
   can accept salaries not that much higher than Bangalore. Folks in that   
   area dont worry about outsourcing.   
      
   This kind of thing creates stable communities that are far more likely   
   to be able to pull together in an economic crisis, avoid civil unrest,   
   and therefore be among the safest places in the Untied States of Denial.   
      
   There is a band from 36 to 38 deg North, from the OK line eastward til   
   the population density increases that has much milder winters that will   
   be much less demanding of wood heat, much longer growing seasons with   
   greens all winter long, and a wide variety of post crash resources that   
   were important 100 years ago, and pretty much ignored in favor of large   
   transnational operations since.   
      
   There are small, and often ignored, *oil* wells in Arkansas, southern   
   Illinois and Indiana. Silver and lead mines in the NE Ozarks, Coal in   
   pockets from AR to the NC line. The steep hilly land also has lotsa dams   
   for recreational lakes and- *hydro-electric*, that itself is often still   
   Co-op since it was founded by the REA.   
      
   The limestone bedrock East of the Mississippi has produced sweeter soil-   
   the famous "Bluegrass" pastures of Kentucky for livestock. That has,   
   however also driven up the population in that area. There is, however,   
   one outcropping of Limestone in the NE Ozarks, ie Searcy County, that   
   even now is crushed for concrete & soil conditioning. Neutralizing acid   
   soils has a dramatic effect on crop harvests.   
      
   Steep hilly land has also produced picturesque towns like Eureka Springs   
   and Branson MO with large artist communities and musicians. They will of   
   course, all be out of jobs, but they are also better educated than the   
   average hillbilly and less susceptible to demagoguery.   
      
   What will be safest for *you* will depend on what skills you have that   
   may be in demand *now* to allow you to be settled in an integrated in a   
   community rather than seen as a newbie flatlander. Whether a place will   
   be safe or not may depend on when you arrive and what you bring. These   
   steep twisty blacktop roads, that look so good in New Car TV ads, are   
   also prime places for entrepreneurs setting up roadblocks and taking   
   everything you have, including your life. If the proverbial schitt has   
   already hit the fan I would not try to go there then.   
      
   But by the same token, if you are already established, community spirit   
   will result in well regulated militias to keep out refugees. It only   
   takes a few snipers who know the lay of the land to stop even armies.   
      
   During the civil war, the Northern Arkansas Ozark counties, already had   
   a lot of mixed breed Cherokee/Scots-Irish who wanted no part in the war   
   to protect the assets of plantation owners, and they *seceded* from the   
   Confederate government in Little Rock. They will do that again.   
      
   --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)