I can't recall his screenname at the moment.
For the benefit of those who don't recognize the name, get and read this excellent book, about the economic crash of Argentina during the 90's.
In Ecuador I didn’t see food shortages but since the currency suddenly lost 80 percent of its value, for ordinary people the price of food went up 500 percent.
In Venezuela, when they made scapegoats out of grocery chains, food disappeared off the shelves instantly. The stores couldn’t re-order since they couldn’t charge enough to pay to re-order.
In Ecuador, the grid was always iffy, so all major buildings, stores, malls, upper class homes even, had generators on automatic switches. They would go on and off all day long seamlessly. The reason was, electricity was subsidized and the government wss broke. So, blackouts for the people without backup.
In Caracas water shortages were common and are more common all the time. When you have the president telling you not to take long showers, something is wrong.
As for credit cards, I’ve already mentioned the banks closing for weeks while they re-organized.
Crime? Rioting? Actually, riots were commonplace, organized by the Left to make the country ungovernable. If we crash, you can expect the same thing. The Left will get people whipped into a frenzy in order to take advantage of the situation; probably many of your own kids may get caught up in it. They’ll especially organize thugs from the slums to take out their enemies; when someone needs to be taught a lesson it gets written off as simple street crime.
Average citizens bartering? Absolutely. The underground economy is the real economy after all. During the crash bartering and neighbor helping neighbor is exactly how you get through. And you start your own little handyman service helping your neighbors, who pay you in whatever they have of value. In a crashed economy, again, people become very entrepreneurial.
And, no, the government won’t save you. They are the reason things crashed in the first place. The government is the ultimate prize and there will be constant turmoil as various factions duel for control. If you need help from a government clerk who hasn’t been paid in three months, you need to find another alternative. People who know how to navigate that problem set themselves up in business doing just that. You’ll hire a guy to work the system for you. He knows the right people. After the collapse you’ll need someone like that from time to time.
American after the crash is Third World America. A disfunctional government. A country that works only because of the unofficial economy, and because people learn to do without the disfunctional government. They find work-arounds, they barter, they use foreign currency in place of their own, they work off the books, and families and friends look after one another.
Preppers’ PING!
Please consider this our weekly Prepper Thread.
Actually I think what concerns me most of all is what people both left and right will vote for out of desperation.
And we wonder why the left is is so critical of “Atlas shrugged” by Ayn Rand. The left is bringing reality to her every prophecy.
Hussein, Jesse and Al are already whipping the scumbag crowd into a frenzy. Look at all the black on white crime that's come out of the St. Trayvon case. There's already a long list of deaths closely related to Thug #1 that have been written off as simple street crimes with little to no investigation. We can expect more intimidators hanging around the polls this November.
Such an uplifting thread/s. IS the world going to hell in a handbasket, or are we going to do what we can to make it better, regardless of the fact that it is not heaven down here?
You may want to look at this. A look into our future? (sigh)
The situation described is exactly what the Russians had to deal with after the USSR collapsed. The Mafia stepped up to the plate as the only forced in society strong enough to organize anything. At least until Putin marshaled his ex-KGB forces to take them out.
I didn’t think about it when I posted this, but many non-preppers more than likely have no idea who Ferfal is n Argentinean who writes a prepper blog called Surviving Argentina (http://ferfal.blogspot.com/ ) about his experiences living through Argentina’s financial collapse of 2001.
You can get a good idea of what it was like by watching this documentary about it on youtube:
Argentina’s Economic Collapse - Part 1 of 12 - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rH6_i8zuffs
I sometimes forget how fast the interest in prepping is growing, even though FReeper Eaker who host my Preparedness Manual ( http://tomeaker.com/kart/Preparedness1j.pdf ) told me that the manual was downloaded over a thousand times last month.
“There is no greater disaster than to underestimate danger.
Underestimation can be fatal.”
This is by far the more likely scenario that may have to be dealt with. A complete, sudden collapse certainly could happen, but more likely is the scenario where life simply becomes one long, dreary struggle just to live. Long lines, constant shortages of basic supplies, and spending most of one’s day worrying and scheming about where to get the next day’s family rations.
If the SHTF, what guarantee is there that there will be ANY government. After all, if a government clerk isn’t paid for three months, he/she has to find a way to get food and water to survive.
Does anybody think that our benevolent Congresscritters would hang around for no pay? I think that anarchy is a more likely scenario, when the SHTF. Think Mad Max.
If you are going to prepare, you might as well prepare for the worst.
Do not be surprised to see this phenomenon as November approaches. Any prominent conservative who becomes a "mugging victim" or gets caught in a "robbery gone bad" -- it will not be a coincidence. FReepers who do not yet have CCW should apply to get one this week.
I can't recall his screenname at the moment.
For the benefit of those who don't recognize the name, get and read this excellent book, about the economic crash of Argentina during the 90's.
The most critical thing to always keep in mind is that the political class will do whatever is necessary to protect itself, FIRST. When the SHTF, the scumbag government elite will hunker down and throw EVERYBODY else - - everybody else who is not “connected” - - under the bus and do whatever else is necessary to keep their own comfy lifestyles fully intact. They will be the LAST people in America to suffer in any way, shape, manner, or form. That fact is simply not arguable.
Thanks for the ping. I’m a he, for what its worth...
Thanks also for your post 12 for explaining who Ferfal is. He has written a great deal on his website about living in a collapsed economy. One of the observations he has made that really rings true is how normal everything looks, after the collapse, to an outsider.
It was really only in retrospect that I realized that I had myself witnessed the very things he writes about, because your mind has a way of accepting what it sees as normal.
I was a fly on the wall, so to speak, as Ecuador went through its slow-motion collapse. I was there on a project, paid in dollars living back and forth between the jungle and the city. For me, it was a very happy time, I was in a beautiful country, working with nice people, and insulated from the problems around me (and from my own personal problems as well).
The country was bankrupt, however, government workers hadn’t been paid in months. They had just come out of a war, and at the end of the nineties oil had fallen to about $8 a barrel which is their primary source of income. The country couldn’t keep the lights on literally (but everyone has backup generators so no one notices). Cops, teachers, government workers hadn’t been paid in months. Then, when the currency went into its final free-fall, the government closed the banks, seized everyone’s personal bank accounts, and the national currency died.
For people whose jobs survived the crash, there was a month where all the food you had and all the money you had was whatever you had on hand at home. The guys working at site were guaranteed their three square meals but their families back home had it tough. Guys left the job to take cash to their families, if they had cash.
We wound up building some barracks and taking in some 300 soldiers; we didn’t need them for security but the government couldn’t afford to feed them. So we did, and just loaded it into the cost of the project.
What was interesting to me, though, was the fact that if you were a tourist, you wouldn’t notice anything amiss. Its still a beautiful country, still populated with beautiful people who are going about their daily lives. Lots of tourists raving about the bargains.
If you’re familiar with “ferfal” the Argentine blogger who writes about living in a collapsed economy, that is a point he makes. When the end of the world comes, everything still looks the same. It just isn’t. I think it took me a while for it to dawn on me that I had witnessed the very thing he was talking about.
Banks collapse. Currency collapses. Economy collapses. But to an outsider its just interesting and not that noticeable. Lots of bargains to be had.
But I speak the language and was working with these people, sitting across the dinner table from people listening to their conversations, and being a news-bug, always following the politics of the place. The Left ruin another country but for an outsider its just picturesque.
They ruin it, and then when someone steps up to do what is necessary, they whip up the fear in order to work their way into power. So the guy who had to save them wound up being overthrown by an alliance of Left-advised tribes, and army officers who were on Chavez’ payroll.
But they kept a lot of his reforms, because they worked.
In any case, for me, the end of the world comes when you lose your job and there isn’t another one to be had. Having witnessed the collapse of an economy I can see that there is a month while they re-organize the banks where you have to live out of your pantry (even if you have a job). If you lose your job in a collapsed economy, you may be out a year or two, so you have to be prepared to make your living from the unofficial economy, you have to create your own employment. You have to network with friends. You hope to have something you can rent out for income (rentals are in demand when no one can afford to buy). If you can get out of the country, you should. Wait for better days from someplace that still works. Ferfal the blogger has evidently relocated to Ireland. I knew Ecuadorians who went to Belgium and made their livings as illegal taxi drivers there, or handymen; it got them through. You can’t get work papers but nothing stops them from starting their own little enterprises and supporting themselves. So they do. Venezuelans have scattered all over the world taking their oil-skills with them; they are in demand. They will live abroad until the Chavez era ends.
When the US collapses, we will probably be forced to repatriate some of our mlitary, and that may well open pandora’s box; we may see war break out in places we hadn’t expected (or places we fully expected). So, combined with an economic crash, war or WW2 proportions, quite possibly, that may inevitably drag us back in. Because if Ecuador collapses, its bad for Ecuadorians. If the US collapses, its a tsunami and a power vacuum that triggers a chain reaction.