“It would seem to me, that “if the banks happen to go down”, then the little green pieces of paper one has in their pocket aren’t going to be worth much for very long.”
No, cash will be better than gold in the very short term, as cash will be the only option other than bartering for people needing to buy and sell stuff (and bartering is very, very, inefficient). As to cash not having value - in the short term it will have huge value, because electronic money is gone, so, essentially 90% of US dollars are gone. People with EBTs can try to use them to buy food - but they will not have any luck - only people with greenbacks will be able to use them. Gold and even silver, won’t work immediately, as people selling items won’t know what to do with those metals, or even how to tell if they’re legit.
Now, for the longer term, it gets more complicated, as the government will likely be tempted to print huge amounts of money - so cash would start to lose value. But in any disaster in this country’s history, those who had cash ready could get what they needed, those with debit/credit cards were told “sorry” it’s not that we don’t trust you, it’s that we don’t trust anyone.
There is a significant percentage of flks who believe the collapse they are experiencing is only a temporary dip. These will take cash for inflated priced goods, so cash will have value even as the authors of that cash are scurrying to the government bunkers hoping they can wait out the chaos until a new master arises. At first a five will buy what a dollar would by. Then it will be a twenty for what a five bought. Eventually, a C-note will be the minimum exchange, though what it will purchase will be of little value within days.
There is a significant percentage of folks who believe the collapse they are experiencing is only a temporary dip. These will take cash for inflated priced goods, so cash will have value even as the authors of that cash are scurrying to the government bunkers hoping they can wait out the chaos until a new master arises. At first a five will buy what a dollar would by. Then it will be a twenty for what a five bought. Eventually, a C-note will be the minimum exchange, though what it will purchase will be of little value within days.
what goods could one buy?....maybe nothing....
I mean I want to store cash but right now I'm just buying up on canned meats and veggies etc...