Women and children hit hardest?
They'll be worth their weight in gold some day.
Doomsday investing:
http://www.vicefund.com/vicefund/abt.aspx
The very last thing people will give up in a Depression will be their smokes, their liquor and their gambling.
And when they do, you’ll have all the cash. (Which might also not be worth anything, LOL!) :)
I can only hope this is the case, as I'd love to see this farce end and real capitalism return.
None of this latest economic disaster would have happened if it weren't for uncapitalistic requirements that forced banks to make bad loans. That the banks sought some way of sharing the pain is understandable, that it was abused is to be expected.
But all that is being learned at the end is that you can do totally idiotic and stupid things, and you'll be covered. All these companies who lied or turned the other way as their customers outright lied aren't feeling any pain, aren't being forced to pay back their outright theft. They get to keep their profits, their salaries, their bonuses. Those who lied to get loans mostly have kept their loans, or protected by bankruptcy from having to pay for their crimes.
No one's guilty, free money is raining down, and those who played by the rules are being shafted left and right as companies are being forced out of business, capital is being restricted, and yes, bad loans are still being made. Just today, I saw a sign in front of a building, offering condos with just a couple percent down, interest only loans.
When these companies are held accountable, when investors need to look at these books and see the actions of the companies they're invested in, and how much of a gamble they're playing, and when executives know that if they do pull a fast one, they'll end up paying for it in the end - that's when capitalism will return.
So what are the best investments to survive the inevitable zombie invasion?
We were, thank God, following the Dave Ramsey plan to pay off all our debts and had said a short prayer "Lord, if Debt is like sin, please free us". Little did I know the answer that would come.
All debt beside the mortgage had been delt with and my last daughters college payment was paid for, so we were attacking the mortgage with a vengence. The layoff hit April of last year. At first, I didn't know whether to laugh or cry when my manager called and said "You've been let go"
That summer was full of depression as I quickly found out that online resume submittal was a bust. Not one interview email out of hundreds submitted. Only a few saying "Sorry"; it was a wasteland.
Then in September, the severance came and because we had been very frugal, it was enough to pay off the house. The wife's job covered us well and provided medical insurance; so we went for it.
The depression vanished and in another month I got a job; not as good as the last, but enough to start doing needed home repairs.
All I can say is "Thank God for Dave Ramsey". We've been unable to do the screem, so I am doing it here:
1, 2, 3 WERE DEBT FREE!!! Wheee!!!
I stopped reading right here.
What I’d really like to see is an in-depth discussion of how to prepare oneself for the coming hyperinflation (beyond the normal buy/horde gold/silver issue).
The article for this thread really doesn’t touch on any of what I’d label as a “worst case scenario,” but...
First of all, keep in mind that no matter how bad things get, Mugabe is still in charge of Zimbabwe. Governments just won’t die on their own. There was no Weimar Revolution in Germany. Hyper-inflation, if it even happens (hasn’t in Japan), is no guarantee of a government falling or even of a stock market going to 0.
That being said, prepare first for the idea that a societal meltdown won’t happen. That’s right. The good times might just edge out the bad no matter what. So...
Good job/business, education, strong family ties, no debt, positive savings, etc. Cover the basics. I’d hate for a good person to so over-invest in TEOTWAWKI that she gets crushed instead by society functioning normally. That would be tragic irony.
That being said, this is an awful time to be taking chances in major investment categories likes stocks, bonds, and real-estate.
Get into cash. Sell whatever you can. Drop your asking price to sell fast. And renting is better than owning during these sorts of deflationary downturn panics.
The time to invest is later, after the dust settles. Until then you want ca$h. Trust me, I’m an expert!
With the basics covered, you need to be prepared for a short-term emergency like all banks being closed for an extended period of time. Do you have enough cash on hand if your ATM card won’t work for a month?
Really? Banks are closed. ATMs won’t work. You’ve still got bills. You’ve got that much ca$h on hand? You better.
At the next level, can you survive inside your home without going to a public/government food/shelter depot if a hurricane/tornado/tsunami/volcano/avalanche/earthquake or other natural event renders all stores closed for a month? What if society has a hiccup? Roads aren’t being cleared of downed trees/powerlines. Goods aren’t moving from the country into town, or between towns.
You’ve got your meds? Water? Safe canned food (#10 cans keep food fresh for 25 years). A certain way to start a fire, even in the rain? Winter clothes?
Do you have a 72-hour “bug-out” bag to grab and run if a wildfire or medium-sized meteor puts your home in an unsafe region? Or a plague (e.g. terrorist infection in your area)?
Does each member of your distributed family know how to call you if cell lines are working, and know where to meet up if they aren’t?
Do you have basic first aid available (painkillers, asprin, hydrogen peroxide, bandages) and know where to find a doctor/hospital?
Pause...
Surviving for longer periods of time is an order of magnitude more difficult than preparing for any of the above...and most people won’t come close to having the water or cash handy to handle even expected outages of the comforts of civilization (e.g. sanitary).
A few tips if you are in a longer-term survival situation:
#1: avoid all contact, especially violent, with military and paramilitary groups. You won’t have the firepower of a Destroyer or B-2 bomber, and you won’t have acces to their level of medical care. You want to survive. This is not about starting or winning a war. You’ll likely end up like one of the 3 dead pirates off the coast of Somalia if you violate this rule.
#2: stay put if you can. Once you leave you will become a forager, and that’s a very difficult way to survive.
#3: if you have to leave (e.g. to avoid contact with paramilitaries), then leave. F’in go! A stocked sailboat would be nice at that point. Go fishing. Come back when the crisis is over.
#4: announcements on loudspeakers, radio, TV, posters, and handouts, are not to be believed. But they’ll be out there.
This is important because in a desperate situation various bad actors will have incentive to tell you what you *want* to hear in order to manipulate your behavior.
Also, weapons, dogs, and body armor are great things (get them!)...but they aren’t going to help you against paramilitaries and they won’t sanitize your hands before eating or after septic disposal. The daily grind can kill you dead.
Likewise, while a gun is nice (and better to have one than not), shooting a deer in a nation that is starving will bring *large* numbers of people toward what they hope will be a deer kill. Drawing attention to yourself by firing a weapon or turning on lights at night...perhaps even a campfire, may be contrary to improving your survival odds.
This might be a great time to have a simple slingshot for squirrel hunting. Very quiet.
Now, just remember that the worst is unlikely to happen. Being prepared for the plethora of catastrophies that are possible is difficult. Moreover, you don’t want to scare yourself silly *or* become so invested in the mental idea of a crash/disaster that you begin *wishing* for it.
It’s unlikely to happen. Many a 1980’s “Reagan nuclear war” survivalist wound up disappointed. So too did the Y2K nuts (e.e. World Nut Daily).
What’s more likely is higher unemployment, limited riots/arson attacks near colleges and ghettos, and some inconvenient bank failures that tie up some access to capital.
You might also consider some redneck car armor for your family/commuter vehicle. Used police surplus ballistic body armor panels (soft armor) can be found online for as little as $25 each. Stuff them behind your door and rear hatch interior panels, plus in front/under your driver instrument cluster pod.
Lower your windows on your doors, remove your interior panels, and insert old phone books. Duct tape them out of the way of the glass windows and electric window motors. This can be done by an amatuer with as little as 1 hour of your time per door.
Lighter calibers of street-thug firearms such as .22, .38, and 410 shotguns won’t penetrate into your interior through your metal outer door panels plus through phone books.
This is a very quick and inexpensive way to help protect your family from small domestic riots where some bad actor in the crowd is likely to have a small pistol.
You can do the above without even alarming your family that an elevated level of threat exists. The windows will still work, after all. Your car will appear normal. If you want to go the extra step, pick up on-line some Llumar or C3 bulletproof window film for your windows.
You aren’t Rambo. You aren’t going to be machine-gunning down whole crowds of rioters before one of them can shoot your car from behind or from the side. TEOTWAWKI is *not* Hollywood! A little armor can thereby improve your daily sense of security without running up a big bill.
Obviously the above is worthless against more powerful handguns, but a rioter is less likely to be carrying around heavy artillery without being picked off by whatever police/national guard forces are still in existence.