Let us make our New Year's resolutions.

Some may be the same as last. The world remains a stage of human folly. Against the bondage of emotion, we might prevail through the clarity of rationality.

Eliminate debt.

In our fiat monetary system, debt is money and money is debt.

Without debt, the system collapses. With debt, the system collapses. However, if you are not personally in debt, it might not collapse on you.

No need to launch into a deserved tirade against the satanic cult that created and abets the debauchery of Federal Reserve Notes and fractional reserve banking.

The purgatory of debt should be apparent to all. Mortgage foreclosures, auto loan delinquencies and credit card defaults are at all-time highs.

Our largest financial institutions tumble toward bankruptcy, stopped, or only stalled, by urgent bailouts from Asians and Arabs stuck with toxic heaps of U.S. government and Wall Street bonds.

The entire putrid Ponzi scheme is in danger of collapse, making 1929 look like a "walk in the park," according to the chief economist of the ITEM Club, an independent economic forecasting group.

As F.A. Hayek wrote in "The Road to Serfdom," "We shall not grow wiser before we learn that much that we have done was very foolish."

Dump the debt.

Buy gold.

In an attempt to cover its mess, the Fed will do what it always does. It will inflate money supply.

Disregarding the cooked books and doctored figures of the federal government, consumer prices are rising at about 10 percent yearly, meaning they double every seven years. Monetary expansion is going up by almost 20 percent right now.

The price of gasoline will rise. Food will rise. Taxes will rise as government revenue falls, while its appetite remains ravenous, aggravated by desperation.

Meanwhile, Americans' relative per capita incomes will continue to fall, as they have been doing for 36 years.

Gold is not getting more expensive.

Nothing is getting more expensive. The counterfeiters in charge debase the dollar, so it buys less.

Gold preserves some of what you earned.

Arm yourself.

Toting axes and roaming in packs, homeless and hungry Americans may seek relief at your door. Think some multiple of Katrina.

The cops will arrive before or after your funeral arrangements have been made, but not in time to defend you.

That's your job.

Stock food and water.

There was a day when Americans stocked supplies for winter. That day may yet return, but it will know no season.

Imagine yourself in the 18th century.

Get in shape.

For starters, lose weight. The single advantage of obesity is that you might not be blown over when you fire your .50-caliber rifle. That is why the Apostle Peter carried a .308. The man was in shape. He walked a lot. He ate right.

Fortify your home.

A home is a place to live. It is a lifestyle, not an investment. The bankruptcy courts are filling with Americans who believed the latter.

Homes are money pits of costly maintenance: deadbolts, alarms, bomb shelters, gun turrets.

The honey-do list never ends.

Don't get too attached to it.

We do not own our homes. The government does. It can tax us onto the street. A people dumb enough to let their property to be licensed, registered, regulated and taxed have what they deserve at day's end — nothing.

Keep a fast horse handy and have a hideout.

Hone basic survival skills.

These include first aid, gardening, canning and brewing beer.

You may expand to winemaking.

If you decide to distill bourbon, please send me your name, address and secret password.

I am sure we can come to some arrangement.

Phil Lucas is executive editor of The News Herald in Panama City, Fla. Contact him at plucas@pcnh.com. To find out more about Lucas and read features by other Creators Syndicate writers and cartoonists, visit the Creators Syndicate website at www.creators.com.

COPYRIGHT 2007 CREATORS SYNDICATE, INC.