Prepper’s Ping!
I am investing in food, ammunition, water and water purification, firewood and other burnables, LED flashlights and batteries, clothing and especially work/outdoor clothes, and sanitation - soap/shampoo/toothpaste/detergent. As for cash and precious metals, I do have more cash than average, but I’m expecting barter to matter more, not to mention that boxes of 12 gauge will hold their value a whole lot better than bundles of dollars, whether civilization collapses or simply deteriorates. Who knows who I am or where I live and that I have more of each than the average person? Not even my wife. I rotate a little of the stored food into our pantry weekly and she assumes I’ve been grocery shopping; I have but it was to replace what I rotated out of storage.
My wife’s cousin works for Blackwater/XE/whatever they’re calling themselves this week. He was in Kosovo during and after the war. He spent several years there. He told me once that three things became trade currency in Kosovo. In no particular order, those items were: toilet paper, reading material (books/magazines) and bullets.
Seriously though, here are the problems with using gold as money:
1. Denominating it. How do you purchase a $5 item?
2. Verifying it. Can you trust that the 1oz coin is really pure gold? If its not a coin, even harder. And as the value will be great, will you really want to take the chance. Also, do you really want to spend the time validating it?
3. If you carry gold coins or bars, you will always be carrying a large sum, making you a target.
4. Other than jewelry and high end electronics, gold has no utility in and of itself.
5. Everyone will have the same 1-4 issues with it.
Gold is great for transporting wealth through a period of time when the monetary system is broken, BUT only if the government doesn't prevent you from doing so aka FDR.
Common ammunition (9x19, 5.56, 12ga etc.) or dry-store food items would seem to be the best barter items in a true SHTF situation. They are everything that gold isn't.
Converting paper assets to gold before hyper inflation sucks the life out of the USD is something that is done so that when the economy returns to normal, one can buy back in and use the gold to purchase whatever is being used as the new USD. It is a protection of your assets....not for buying food and water. That is a whole other topic.
Ping
I remember reading on FR a couple of months ago and I *think* that it was one of your threads, about using the 5 gallon buckets from the store bakery to store food stuffs in.
I’ve got a nice stack of 3 different sizes that I’ve been collecting up.
A few of them have cat food and my hen’s food in them.
One I’m starting with wood slivers.... ever try to keep a fire going with flint and a steel striker and have nothing but twigs to get going from just a spark and some tender? mighty difficult LOL
And the water issue. I have a bit stored up but was wondering how well water would store in those bakery icing buckets ( cleaned of course ) or how long it would last before going icky.....
I have found this website to be a very useful source of information on the economy, gold, and silver.
http://goldismoney.info/forums/
“Reminds me of the movie were the guys are in the desert and are trading away thousands in gold for a few sips of water. “
You can’t drink Federal Reserve Notes either.
Violent anarchy with no law and order, no government, no police, no military, is a million to 1 shot, it almost certainly will not happen other than maybe locally for a few days at most.
No. When the SHTF happens, it will be ECONOMIC collapse, and a collapse of the dollar. Lots more unemployment. Hyper inflation. Food and energy shortages. Hunger. No imports of good or oil. Something like the 1930’s but MUCH worse. The economic system coming to a halt, shortages in the stores, and lots and lots of police and military and obtrusive government controls and regulations.
You are going to be seeing more police and more military on the streets, more government controls, more gun control, curfews, police roadblocks and safety stops, bank account restrictions, than you ever imagined in your entire life.
THIS!! is what is really going to happen, and when this happens, paper money, US bank accounts, stock certificates, your home, are not going to be worth anything.
Our future almost certainly is not a jungle, but rather, an economic collapse, a dollar collapse, hyperinflation, and excessive government controls. It is here in this most likely future that gold and silver will be the only assets to hold value.
In Selco’s Bosnian “worst case civil war,” gold coins were too risky to show, under any circumstances. The local warlords would have heard of it, and they'd come for the rest. (The standard way to find hidden valuables is for home invaders to torture your wife/children in front of you. It usually works.)
But a Bosnia outcome is far from certain. We might see more of an Argentina-style collapse, where gold would be usable in black-market transactions under certain conditions. Of course, small stuff like junk silver and common jewelry might be more useful for small transactions than one ounce Krugerrands, for example. Krugerrands would be like paying with thousand-dollar bills. Word would get around, which would be very dangerous.
But nothing beats gold coins as a store of wealth and a bridge to the other side of a societal conflict and currency collapse.
It's also useful as “flight capital.” You don't always get to stay where you are living, despite your best laid plans. Often these scenarios involve fleeing as a refugee with what you can carry on your back. You can't carry pallets of canned beans when you flee in the night with your bugout bag.
And nothing offers a better chance of meeting a cooperative and helpful official at a border crossing or customs checkpoint like a gold coin exchanged in a handshake. Gold coins are the traditional door-opener in many escape situations.
So I think gold and silver do have a place, along with paper cash at home (not just in a bank), plenty of food, weapons, ammo etc.
Hedge in all directions. You won't know which will be your family's lifesaver until the day of need arrives.
Oh: and buy some body armor or a concealable kevlar vest while you can still get them easily. Going shopping/foraging during an economic collapse will be extremely dangerous. You can get one for a couple hundred bucks, and a vest can be as important as your firearms. Why buy your tenth firearm before you even have purchased body armor? Get one now.
Which has greater barter value to the average person, a one ounce gold coin, or a box of pistol ammunition? The obvious answer is that each is valuable for different reasons, so it is prudent to have both.
My point is that silver and gold have went up 6 or 7 times from their lows several years back. Why, knowing that, would I want to buy gold in silver when I could by guns, bullets, MRE’s, seed, canning jars, garden tools, wood stoves, water purifiers, etc., etc., etc., - things I can actually use to survive - that have at worst went up say 100% in that time, stayed the same, or even went down?
By your preps first. If you have leftover money after that buy gold or silver as a store of value. Problem is you could give me a million dollars and I could spend it all on preps. There is very little reason to buy silver or gold beyond a small stash to use if you get lucky enough to find someone to take it after SHTF.
Twilight Zone, second season.
“The Rip Van Winkle caper”.
Good grief. I believe in being prepared but... that also includes grammar, spelling and punctuation.
Silver bullets are only good for werewolves and I don’t know what the hell gold bullets are good for. Lead, Copper, brass - they’re the new currency in the SHTF world of America-to-come.
bttt
“And because lawlessness will be increased, the love of many will grow cold.” Matt. 24:12