I don’t know if you were trying to buy groceries on March 20, 2024, but if you walked into Coles or Woolies, you probably remember the chaos.
😵 No checkouts. No EFTPOS. No receipts.
The culprit? A dodgy Microsoft Defender update (KB5035857) that bricked thousands of Windows servers overnight.
Supermarkets. Government services. Healthcare systems.
Boom. Offline.
Now here’s the thing…
That update came from the U.S.
So did the servers. So did the parent company.
And while most of the media focused on angry shoppers, what I saw was a giant flashing warning light for freelancers like us.
You may have noticed I published a few political posts this week. I usually stay well clear of politics, but what Donald Trump is doing with the US economy and its spiralling-out-of-control debt crisis has me scared, as a freelance business owner.
The Empire Is Fragile
If one software patch can knock out an entire supermarket chain…
What happens if the whole U.S. economy, which underpins most of our tools, platforms, and payments, starts to stutter? Or collapses completely?
We’re not just talking about Wall Street suits or tech giants here. We’re talking about you, me, and every Aussie WordPress freelancer trying to meet a deadline or get paid on time.
The U.S. debt currently sits at a whopping $36 trillion as of mid-2025, and it’s climbing by $1.5–$2 trillion every year. 😱
If that trend continues, there are really only two ways out:
1️⃣ Inflation – Print more money, flood the system, devalue the USD. Prices surge.
2️⃣ Default – Congress refuses to lift the debt ceiling. The Treasury runs dry, and interest payments are missed.
And here’s the kicker: this nearly happened in 2011 and again in 2023. Even a temporary failure to pay counts as a technical default, and the ripple effects would be global.
Three Points of Failure You Might Be Ignoring
Most freelancers I know aren’t thinking about this. We assume our tools will “just work” and our clients will “just pay”. But here are three hidden dependencies worth auditing:
- Payment Gateways
Stripe. PayPal. Wise. U.S.-based or entangled. If financial instability hits, you could be cut off from your income. - Hosting & DNS
Many hosts (even Aussie ones) are built on U.S. infrastructure, think AWS, Cloudflare, or cPanel. One regulatory change or cyber incident in the U.S. could impact your site in Australia. - Tool Dependencies
From Figma to Google Workspace, ChatGPT to GitHub, most of our workday runs on American servers. No U.S. economy = no uptime guarantees.
Three Steps to Bulletproof Your Business
You don’t need to panic. But you do need a plan.
- Set Up Backup Payments
Look into local options (like Pin Payments) or even crypto wallets. Have a secondary system ready. - Try a Resilient Host
I use Aussie-based Wordify for all my own sites on their WP Infinity plan. They use a mixture of AWS and GCP. However, I have accounts with two other Australian hosting companies (VentraIP and WPHosting) that run their own infrastructure, which I can switch to if the big players collapse. - Offline Your Workflow
Export critical data. Back up client sites locally. Create a non-cloud contingency plan, just in case the “always online” dream turns into a 404.
Food for thought
The supermarket crash? That was a local symptom of a global disease: over-dependence on centralised, foreign-owned tech.
Imagine if it wasn’t just checkout terminals… but your entire digital business infrastructure.
Sound far-fetched? It’s not. I wrote a comprehensive breakdown of how a U.S. economic collapse could reshape the internet and what WordPress freelancers like us should be genuinely concerned about.
👉 Read the full breakdown of how a U.S. collapse could bring your freelance business to its knees
💬 I want to hear from you
What’s one U.S.-based tool or service you absolutely rely on?
Hit reply and let me know. I’m compiling a list of Aussie-friendly or decentralised alternatives for a future guide.
Stay sharp. Don’t be a checkout zombie.
Until next time, keep thriving!
Wil.
P.S. If you found this helpful, consider sharing the article with your dev mates. Let’s help each other stay prepared before the next “global update” turns out the lights.