Posted on 09/06/2009 3:26:34 PM PDT by 2ndDivisionVet
Did you see this? You’ve been pretty scarce around here lately. Hope all is well.
Survival bump.
I love Free Republic for the personal vignettes and anecdotes just like that. You certainly didn’t hear much about that sort of thing from the SRM. Same with similar situations post-Katrina.
I assume you are well-armed today, and wouldn’t have to depend on a loaner.
Well, there is always the Sailboat Escape Pod Option.
Then, who cares about going through the TSA's "people corrals" at the airports?
It's not for everybody, but it does work. You can cross entire oceans in a single long slow jump. Leaving from and arriving at small small remote ports, sometimes without govt permission or knowledge.
Excellent “real world” example!
I've read his outstanding "Modern Survival Manual." He's not against "stocking up," he's all for it. Especially a minimum of several months worth of food, as well as batteries, soap, TP etc. This is so you don't have to risk your life in the mobs, as supermarkets are looted and etc.
He is against INVESTING in things like vast quantities of TP, tools, etc, because he found that in Argentina, despite many tries, "barter markets" simply didn't work. He makes the case conclusively. You need cash at home to buy what is available during the crisis when banks may be closed and ATMs ditto. You need months worth of food at home, to avoid the dangerous times of severe food shortages. But eventually some form of crippled economy reestablishes, and then you need money. Even devalued inflated money. Barter markets simply DON'T work. So don't fill your garage with thousands of bars of soap, thinking you will trade them in barter markets.
Outside of that time frame storage costs are outrageous. Those resources, at least for us right now, are better allocated elsewhere.
Besides, what I know about sailing you could put in a thimble and still have room for a double martini.
L
Good, solid contingency planning.
Most of what we theorize about endlessly here, happened in Argentina when their entire economy collapsed and froze in December of 2001.
Ferfal isn't against tools, he's against spending your money on "investing" in loads of duplicates of tools, with the intention of converting them by sale or barter to wealth after TSHTF. He made the same point about TP etc.
Yes to having plenty, no to "investing" in garage fulls of barter and trade items beyond what you will ever consume. Barter markets just DIDN'T work in the real world. Even a devalued fiat paper currency proved more useful post SHTF than barter.
Even with the modern vehicle electronic systems one can still do a lot with a digital volt-ohm meter and a decent set of hand tools.
Yes, that is indeed the "conventional wisdome," but Ferfal makes the case very strongly that "barter markets," which were tried and tried hard, just didn't work.
So the "barter markets" went to printed "market value coupons" in lieu of Argentine Pesos. (There was a severe limit on peso withdrawals, even after the banks were reopened.) But the "market coupons" were too easy to counterfeit on home computers, so that plan also proved unworkable.
In the end, even devalued (4::1) paper pesos proved more in demand.
Using 22 Long Rifle bullets as "currency" sounds great, but it's not currency. It's bullets. The guy who has the eggs you want might already have plenty of ammo. He wants gasoline, which you don't have. Etc, etc, etc.
Not only that, but post-crisis, expect your govt to outlaw the sale without permission of ammunition. So then you must worry about selling your ammo to some ATF "narc" and getting busted.
Yes, the govt will be strapped and stretched, but it won't disappear. It might not be effective enough to save you in a crisis, but it will come around later to arrest you, for example, for shooting that "looter" on your property.
I seriously recommend reading his book. Much of what we consider "conventional wisdom" was proven to be a fantasy by the events in Argentina when their economy collapsed, the banks were closed and the stores and markets were all looted to the walls.
I strongly recommend Ferfal's book. One point he makes is that even the sheeple will get a fast education in the value of PMs after TSHTF! Overnight, "We Buy Gold!" signs will appear like mushrooms, after a peso (or dollar) collapse and bank closures. Then, even the sheeple figure out the value of gold mighty fast.
But there are many other valuable tips in the book. For example, a baggie full of old pawnshop wedding bands is more "useable" post-crisis than a one-ounce Krugerrand. You can pretend that each 14K gold band is your last item of value in the world...and trade it for food in the black markets that will spring up.
But if you pull out a one ounce Krugerrand, you are essentially flashing a thousand dollar bill, and you are announcing to all comers, "I'm rich! Kidnap me! Do a home invasion! Torture my family until I tell you where the rest are hidden!"
Trust me, this book is JAMMED with REAL info, not just the fantasies of "armchair survivalists."
Necessity is the mother of invention. Any healthy adult who figured out how to ride a bike at age ten can figure out how to sail a boat at age 50. GPS makes navigation a joke. Any ten year old is a better navigator than the wisest old salt 30 years ago.
I followed his blog for a while. Some very useful insight and info there, but also some oddly jarring videos, one being supposedly near-starving, desperate people protesting, marching through a thinly populated industrial area. Squeaky clean kids in starched, bright clothing, adults dressed well, too, no one looking the worse for wear and tear.
So, I take Ferfal with a grain of salt. What rings true I take to heart, but there’s an unreal element in there, too. Maybe the videos were produced to keep people coming back to the blog, and he derived income from hits.
Hmmm. Considering how "We Buy Gold!" signs that have appeared like mushrooms lately, I conclude the dollar has collapsed, and between its plummeting value and ATM withdraw limits I figure the banks have all but closed.
(Want to put a smiley here, but like most modern satire, reality is scarier.)
WE ain’t seen nothing yet regards “we buy gold.” I mean, they were literally on street corner kiosks in Argentina. Not just radio and tv ads like here.
I haven’t seen the videos, are they on his site?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XimWhNxshQ0
I found tons of videos on youtube. Keyword is “saqueo” plus Argentina, 2001, 2002. Other keywords to search are reclamo,Above is one link to a 12 part series, in Spanish, about ten minutes per segment adding up to a full length documentary.
Saqueo is from the verb saquear, to plunder, pillage and loot. (To sack, clearly.) This went on for several months, with roads cut, markets and warehouses looted, govt buildings burned etc.
It was in the aftermath of our own 9-11 and preps for war, so it didn’t get much attention here in the USA. It was just seen as some “third world spasm,” but there are many lessons.
For example, the overnight 4-1 peso devaluation led to a situation where the massive food production of Argentina all went overseas. Argentina was literally priced out of the food market. THese are some consequences that can follow a massive currency crisis.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xDoR8AP1Yxo
“Argentina, the Africa of America”
There are just tons of videos showing the results of the currency collapse, but they are all in spanish. The images do a pretty good job of conveying the info regardless of teh language. Other keywords for searching are hambre (hunger) pobreza (poverty) reclama (protest, demand) and so on. Basically, it’s easy to find your own videos and stories, apart from Ferfal’s website.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FcnaqEsxusw
Here’s a good one from contemporary news reports titled “Desborde Social: Saqueos en Buenos Aires.”
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