Well, that was just illustrative. But let’s say level 2 is like Greece or Cyprus riots - day-to-day activity is somewhat impaired, but economy still functions for the most part. Level 5 is maybe like cowboys and Indians. Level 7-8 like Braveheart. Level 10 is like Terminator level shit.
Anyway, point is not how accurate my numerical ratings are. It’s that civilization collapse is a sliding scale (like gayness factor). Value of gold also slides along that scale.
I agree with Ohai. it’s a scale.
At the absolute level of total devastation and anarchy, of course a potato has more value then a lump of gold.
But as long as there’s some form of functioning trade (not just bare survival), gold will serve it’s value.
Yeah, I guess I’m thinking that if you need to go live in a remote area of the country to avoid the devastation in the other areas (premise of the thread) then we’re talking about a pretty severe scenario where you are not going to be seeing people all that often. If you have limited contact with other people (other than maybe a handful you can even be in contact with) then gold, or any type of money, becomes basically worthless.
I was asking simply for the sake of amusement Ohai.
Still need a medium of exchange. If my farm produces corn and you - my Mad Max world neighbor - herds sheep, I’m SOL if I want mutton but you don’t need corn. However, if I can give you some gold for your sheep you can, in turn, use that gold to buy from your other neighbors that may not need your sheep at the moment.
There are examples of this happening at this very second. In Syria people are using gold/silver as a medium of exchange for food/shelter/arms. You can argue why gold/silver as money…but it doesn’t really matter. It just is. When the shiat hits the fan people use it as they have for 5,000 years.
I love the whole “just give me cans of food and guns!” response. People are social animals. No matter what, we’ll want to gather and trade. For that you’ll be thankful for having some shiny metals. If you just want to stay in your cabin and polish your tin cans and shotguns, more power to you. Happy fapping.
Wrong. And piss poor logic I might add. Neighbor takes corn and trades it in turn to someone else. That’s how it worked in early settler times as well as with European explorers to new cultures. Barter and trade. Gold and silver work in Syria because they know beyond their borders civilization exists and they can easily trade those things. Plus they know that at the end of the conflict (and during) these things have value. But as I pointed to early settlers and European traders to India and China in the early ages, as well as with native americans, they primarily traded goods to those cultures. Did they trade for gold? yes, but those people often viewed gold as relatively useless, and did not assign it value beyond what the traders knew they could get for it back in Europe. Nice try though, just poor grasp of history.
All these Preppers scenarios all assume too many variables.
Your food will eventually run out.
Your bullets will eventually run out
Infection or sickness will be the likely culprit of your demise. Most of you in here can’t even go to Mexico without getting the sh*ts.
Most of those prepper have very solid medical kits built up. So wrong.
Uh, pretty sure no one here knows what exactly will happen. Gold thesis is plausible, especially since we already consider gold to be valuable. Post-apocalyptic Sweep will be willing to trade gold. So, if there are 10 of these guys, that already makes a working economy. Also, barter and gold are not mutually exclusive. Of course there will be bartering where practical. However, why should that preclude the exchange of gold for other resources?
Or maybe bchad will rise to warlord and trade exclusively in human slaves. Who knows.
Not good form to insult people because of different opinions.
The lack of most urbanite’s grasp on the self reliance and mindset of rural people always makes me laugh. They couldn’t survive without Latte’s so they often assume the rest of the world is as weak.
(not directed towards your response Ohai)
In order:
That’s why you need a means to produce food.
Arrows.
Sickness is the most likely cause of “demise” today in most places. I actually think the likelihood of meeting a more violent end increases in a post-apolcalyptic scenario.
And these will eventually run out.
World goes to heck!? Dafuq does that mean???
Bingo
I don’t care to dwell on post-apocalyptic life - that’s pretty morbid. However, in the event of an economic collapse, I’d love to be able to get out of dodge. I’d take gold over dollar bills, that’s for sure.
Your talking to a farmboy. Not someone who grows vegetables in a pot as a hobby.
I mean, the real agrument that should be made is that if you have an apocalypse that wipes out 99% of humanity then it is extremely unlikely that you will ever get to use any of the goods or skills you have prepared. So, enjoy the now because the conditional probability of your survival in an apolcalypse scenario is low.
But, some people like to do the “prepper” kind of thing and that is what they enjoy.
Not necessarily in any one’s lifetime. And so what if they do? It buys you time to forage what’s been left behind. Not to mention, people lived for centuries without this stuff, these supplies are aimed to get you through the initial rocky transition period. Afterwards you have traps and crops and left over food once you have an opportunity to get established. Your understanding of how in depth their preparations go is pretty weak. Not to mention most of them have thousands of bullets stashed. They’ll be fine.
True, but since most preppers live in very rural areas, or have the possibility of escaping to rural areas quickly, their chances are drastically improved. Not to mention, you’re assuming a 99% meltdown, rather than a 30-50%
Imagine a modern day bubonic plague (cut Europes population by like half). You immediately see this thing going viral, sprint to back country WV, where your nearest neighbor is 3 miles away and live on self-sustained methods. You survive.
Um, no. That’s entirely nonsensical and inaccurate. Early settlers used gold and silver as did people for thousands of years before them. There are coins from the early settler days you can find pretty easily today because they were used so often and there were so many of them. Romans used gold and silver to trade with other cultures, as did Egypt before them.
Also, keep in mind, for the most part you’re talking about trading perishable goods. You want to rely on your sheep surviving a rough winter? Or what if my corn harvest sucks next year? No, there’s a reason we use money. And one reason to use gold is because it’s inert and for the purposes of this discussion, indestructible.
I’m not saying bartering didn’t exist, or wouldn’t in a complete civilization breakdown. It’s just extremely inefficient. I’ll have a much easier time trading with gold and silver than you will with a few different goods. How you could disagree with that I have no idea.
People lived for centures without this stuff but avg. age was not what it is today. Just like in olden times, you were more likely to die of infection and/or disease and not violent conduct. If you are off in the wilderness playing rambo trying to gather new supplies you slip and fall and break your foot and cut your leg. Infection sets in and you die. Or, you get the “runs” or some other bowel disorder become dehydrated and die.