The scenario being discussed, IMO, is one where goods are scarce, currency is distrusted and varies in valuation over time, and there is no real place to hide. If there was a place to hide, would that place still accept devalued currency or even have goods available? Under that scenario would you rather pay $100 or the equivalent in gold for a loaf of bread or have the skills to produce the ingredients and then bake it yourself in a wood-fired clay oven that you have also made yourself? Eventually, the hoarded currency is gone. This is a world where the old saying :"Eat the rich" has real meaning.
My son is a programmer/security technician and also is one of those people who can fix all sorts of electronic things or build them from scrap parts, if those are available, or actually build the parts, if raw material and tools are available. He is currently is SoDak after putting together a composite lifestyle, where he can earn income with his skills and also live well when there is no one able to actually pay for them or when money has lost it's value. The downside is there are no trees, except those planted for shade/windbreaks, if fuel is needed, water is scarce and drought is common, making subsistence food production problematic, weather-dependent and labor intensive.
There are all sorts of ultra-rich folks who have purchased land in Paraguay, for example. First, they need to be able to find a flight down there in a time of fuel shortages and mass panic. Then, they have to be able to find the materiel and labor with which to build something in which to live and transport it from a port or city to their land. They may not find a ready-made electrical grid or a potable water source. They have to be able to secure a supply of food and are not the types to grow it, hunt it, process it nor even cook it for themselves. They will need security and have to trust those they hire to provide it. That's just for starters, and assumes that Paraguay, or anywhere else, is disposed to accept Americans, or any foreigners, if things get truly bad.
All the money in the world will not do any of us a bit of good if no one trusts it and if nothing extra is available from producers for sale. All the high end skill sets are at the least, devalued, in a low tech world, excepting the ability to maintain and repair the remnants of the present society. Even physicians doubt the value of their skills if the machinery they work with is unavailable and the drugs they rely upon have passed their shelf-life. At that point, a trained medic is just as good.
A lot of folks are hoping — in a fantasy kind of way — that skills sets that are not valued now will be valued in the future. This is like hoping a certain stock will rise.
I understand this. I’m of the generation that valued skills such as tuning up or changing the oil in a car and basic household repairs. These skills are either now worth less than minimum wage performed by illegals or done by franchises on the cheap.
Conversely, skill sets that seem to have little practical value, such as marketing, building economic models and various other abstract type work has brought their practioners millions of dollars.