(February 25, 2016 at 6:52 am)Mathilda Wrote:(February 23, 2016 at 10:06 pm)scoobysnack Wrote: What do you think about owning gold or silver?
It depends upon the level of collapse.
First thing you do is pay off debt. Savings can be lost but the debt can't. Gold is the first thing that people rush to and the price can bubble up, and consequently collapse. I would personally own silver but make sure to buy very low. This isn't too hard because the price is historically extremely volatile. It also has many, many more industrial uses than gold, many of which mean that the silver can never be reclaimed.
If your society really does collapse, say as happened with Argentina, then when you come to sell your gold then you will only be given the price of junk gold. This is because people have no way of telling the difference. But in that situation, you would probably do better owning far more useful items or assets. You can't eat gold. There is a long account somewhere on the net of what living in Argentina during a financial collapse really is like. It's very interesting and makes you realise what you really need to survive. It's never you alone in a bunker with bad guys coming over the horizon that you can shoot at a distance. It's people hanging around out of view by your front door so they can rob you, bull bars for your car so you can move other cars out of the way without stopping and without having to stop etc.
Read about the financial collapse of Germany during the hyper inflation of the Weimar republic. The ones who owned farms ended up with barns full of grand pianos and other luxury items.
My personal fall back is a house in a hill region in rural Germany where we have all our belongings, which has a live fire, a small community and where we could collect enough water. Shame my German isn't particularly good.
It's not particularly hard to see a financial downturn coming several months or years in advance. But most people don't keep an ear open or are in denial. This is one seems different though in that it's hit the mainstream press far more quickly than I would have expected. I'm assuming because it's not too long after the previous one and central banks have been spending the last few years trying to reinflate a burst balloon.
Agreed, and thanks for your reasonable response. I'm not trying to push my views on this thread, because I want people to share their thoughts.
Silver is pretty cheap right now. If you purchase old pre 1964 coin currency (in the US) at junk silver levels, people tend to recognize is real and will accept it based on the date. Silver ounce bars are a bit more suspicious.
Some sort of personal security through individualistic thinking would be best at the start, but in the end we need to make contacts with people with common interests. The ones you have to coordinate with are people that are equally prepared, not the ones that have no clue, are in huge amounts of debt, and three days away from anarchy.
In the US we have a thing in supply chain called "just in time delivery". Due to the cost of holding supplies due to credit, many of the grocery stores, are about three days away from being empty if their is a run on food. If SHTF suddenly, like in a blizzard or water contamination, the shelves are emptied. When that happens the national guard comes into supply goods. In a longer term disaster due to power outtage, or collapse in order, until forces arrive, people are given about three days until anarchy begins.
There is an interesting documentary from the discovery channel about what happens to the US when their is a widespread poweroutage that lasts more than a week over a large part of the country. Recommend people check it out:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FYoXxVnTePA
