Everything depends on where you are. Are you wealthy? Super wealthy? Affluent? Middle Class? or "Other"? (Let us use Morgan Stanley's definitions : Super wealthy = $30 million + net worth; wealthy = $3 million + net worth; affluent $500k - $3 million net worth; middle class $200k - $500k net worth. Ok, I took some liberties as they only define wealthy and super wealthy... since that does not describe most folks I had to throw in a few more definitions.)
You see, and I know this is just going to break some hearts... I think the problem is going to be for the Middle Class through Super Wealthy, and the wealthier you are, the harder this is going to be for you.
Let's start with the bottom of the ladder. If you are on government assistance you are in deep trouble. This includes old people utterly dependent on Social Security, folks on Disability, and Food Stamps... Good luck, and get moving making, as James H. Kuntsler is want to say, "other arrangements".
If you are already working poor, don't sweat it. Things really are not going to get that much worse for you, I hope. Worse, there is little to nothing you can do about it, speaking in the Macro sense. Food could cost more, housing could cost more, and you will make adjustments. You may not like them, but your life really won't change that much with the exception that any hope to move up the economic ladder will be in short supply. The Mad Scientist has told me some stories of his experience growing up in India - 9 people in a single room apartment, etc... Given the square footage of structures versus the population, that ain't gonna happen here. Of course in India, they do not need heat in most of the country in order to survive... I remember growing up on peanut butter and jelly sandwich lunches, spam and velveeta was a treat for breakfast with our eggs, spaghetti for dinner more often than not... and I thought we were rich. We were over crowded, but I did not know it - heck, I felt bad for my friends at school that had nobody to sleep with... they must have been very lonely, I thought...
Its all about expectations.
If you are middle class... lower your overhead and your expectations, you are about to enter the working poor. You do not have the resources to relocate, buy land, etc... so don't stress about what you don't have. Beer will still be cold, sex will still be fun, the surf will still roll in. Read Sharon Astyk's stuff on how to make adjustments where you are. The lady is a genius and can really, really turn a phrase... so at least she is pleasant to read.
Affluent? If you are at the bottom end... See middle class above. If you are a middle-class- millionaire... this is the time to reallocate your portfolio into arable land, equipment, debt free shelter, lower over head, and hard assets - from gold and silver to Oil and Ag futures. You have enough money to be a "prepper". That is, PREPARED. So this is the time to do so. If you are smart enough to have navigated the past 20 years and still managed to accumulate a million or two, then you are smart enough to buy a couple of books and put pen to paper on what is worth having and doing.
Wealthy and Super Wealthy? It is all about motivation, and lack of denial, for you folks. You have the resources, at this time, to do what needs to be done. My bet is that that will change very drastically in the near future. You folks are on the other side of the debt bomb. You "own" the bonds that nobody is going to pay on. I feel your pain, because I live on my dividends and interest. Blogging pays terribly, and the healthcare benefits are entirely psychological... I firmly believe that my dividends and interest payments are not going to be what they once were, if I may employ the use of understatement... and accordingly I have certain amount of bullion and farmland. I put my money where my mouth, or some other orifice, is.
Soooooo.......
When? When what? That's the problem. I don't know "when", exactly, and I don't know "what", exactly, and BOY would I be rich if I did! I do know that our political and financial leaders are panicked about our circumstances, I "know" our debt problem will go Ka-BOOM eventually, I "know" that Oil imports into the U.S. will cease eventually, I "know" that our banking system is insolvent, and I "know" that something else will happen, pick your "Black Swan" or boogey man, because that's the problem with Life - it is enigmatic at best. What is truly amazing is how great a run we have had in the post WWII era, but all things pass. Our system is straining on all sides; picking out the pin that pops the balloon, or gauging the rate of air flow out of said balloon is an effort in futility. The U.S. economy is very sick, and it needs to purge. The contents and volume of that purge are beyond my abilities.
No matter where you fall in the economic spectrum, I think everybody that is responsible should take a page from the Mormons. Search the web. Listen to what they have to say about preparation. Then make a decision.