Hello all, here is today's article posted on TheArmoryLife.com. It is titled When Money Is Worthless: Barter Economy Prepping and can be found at https://www.thearmorylife.com/when-money-is-worthless-barter-economy-prepping/.
When Money Is Worthless: Barter Economy Prepping
- Thread starter Mike H.
- Start date
Christian Samurai Outlaw
Alpha
Great Article. Wish I had some stuff to barter with
ChanceMcCall
Custom
This article at least gets people to start thinking; it is also very lacking in detailed information. Unfortunately, that is not surprising as even hardened preppers have trouble agreeing on what makes good trading items. Part of that is based on all the different types of scenarios that could erupt and how long the disruption lasts.
Certainly in the short term medications for chronic conditions would have real value to some people who also had trade goods of value. Ten years down the road many of any remaining medications would have lost their efficacy and perhaps the people needing those drugs would be dead. A hundred years down the road, hand tools might have real value as the existing stock would be worn out or missing or destroyed, but for the first few years tools would be widely available and of lesser value. The greater value might be in the people who actually knew how to use them.
M.D.s and compounding Pharmacists and Veterinarians would be valuable from the start while Electricians and Computer Programers might find their skills irrelevant after an EMP strike. Mechanics that could convert (if that is even possible) modern vehicles from their computerized engines to fully mechanical engines would also be valuable.
Nitrogen packed seeds might have a 20 year cycle assuming the unrest wasn't so bad that people could safely plant and harvest. Ammo might have a huge value if one could figure out how to barter with it and not attract the wrong kind of attention. Guns would have the same sets of risk.
It is all complicated.
Certainly in the short term medications for chronic conditions would have real value to some people who also had trade goods of value. Ten years down the road many of any remaining medications would have lost their efficacy and perhaps the people needing those drugs would be dead. A hundred years down the road, hand tools might have real value as the existing stock would be worn out or missing or destroyed, but for the first few years tools would be widely available and of lesser value. The greater value might be in the people who actually knew how to use them.
M.D.s and compounding Pharmacists and Veterinarians would be valuable from the start while Electricians and Computer Programers might find their skills irrelevant after an EMP strike. Mechanics that could convert (if that is even possible) modern vehicles from their computerized engines to fully mechanical engines would also be valuable.
Nitrogen packed seeds might have a 20 year cycle assuming the unrest wasn't so bad that people could safely plant and harvest. Ammo might have a huge value if one could figure out how to barter with it and not attract the wrong kind of attention. Guns would have the same sets of risk.
It is all complicated.
Lock n' Load
Custom
If you reload, you could probably get a decent car for a few cases of 9mm these days! 
Hi Mike,
Thank you so much for posting the link to that most informative article. It's foreboding and extremely likely that US currency will become worthless. It the US dollar is replaced as the world reserve currency, hyperinflation will ensue resulting is massive devaluation of our money. Debt instruments denominated in the US dollar would be dumped on the market causing a downward spiral with misery worse than the Wiemar Republic at the bottom.
This link is complementary to yours: https://www.activistpost.com/2020/10/a-new-world-monetary-order-is-coming.html
This is my primary source of economic news. I hope that you find it informative: https://mises.org/
Knowledge accords us ability to formulate plausible predictions. Plausible predictions allow us to prepare.
Thank you so much for posting the link to that most informative article. It's foreboding and extremely likely that US currency will become worthless. It the US dollar is replaced as the world reserve currency, hyperinflation will ensue resulting is massive devaluation of our money. Debt instruments denominated in the US dollar would be dumped on the market causing a downward spiral with misery worse than the Wiemar Republic at the bottom.
This link is complementary to yours: https://www.activistpost.com/2020/10/a-new-world-monetary-order-is-coming.html
This is my primary source of economic news. I hope that you find it informative: https://mises.org/
Knowledge accords us ability to formulate plausible predictions. Plausible predictions allow us to prepare.
Our Founding Fathers' admonishments (and those of other sources) about reckless monetary policy:
Money Masters
Money Masters
I'm not sure about that.
All plastic would make it a whole lot easier for us to pay sales tax on everything we buy. If we were to buy a five dollar bike at a garage sale, our states' taxing authorities would automatically deduct sales taxes from our accounts.
We have almost no expectation of privacy now. Going all plastic would inch us miles closer to enslavement.
Recusant
Hellcat
That was my point. The federal, state, and local governments would be able to track all sales, and the gov't would have a record of every dime of income. Some bartering might be possible, but I expect it would get more difficult. The gov't would still want to tax any gain that one realized from a trade.
wmg1299
Professional
I take any articles about barter with a grain of salt. Prepping for survival has a definite purpose and can be a useful activity. Trying to stockpile items to barter can be very dangerous. When the entire system goes down, so do all laws and most accepted standards of behavior. If you have a stockpile of anything that suddenly has a lot of value in an TEOTWAWKI situation, people will be just as likely to try and take it from you by force as they will be to engage in trade. If you really want to start stockpiling, make sure that you have also planned for round-the-clock security.
All legal transactions...
Drug dealers aren't going to allow cops to track them. They have substitutions for US currency. Besides foreign currencies that they could exchange for US currency, they could use gold.
Demand for illegal drugs will not shrink due to expanded governmental purview.
Law abiding Americans would have their private finances available to bureaucratic purview. I do not lke that idea.
jumpinjoe
Hellcat
Hell, I'd trade a decent car for a couple cases of 9mm these days!If you reload, you could probably get a decent car for a few cases of 9mm these days!
singularity
Operator
In Montana, we didn't barter goods as much as we bartered ourselves. It's good to be a sort of jack of all trades and the master of some. Somebody needs a fireplace built, you can always find somebody who knows how to do in trade for maybe some home computer work. There's always something of value that somebody knows that someone else needs. No prepping or disaster excuse needed and that's how things are right now.
ricardos
Alpha
Seems interesting.
Yes, this thread makes everyone think, whether you want it or not. Needs and priorities change over time. I recently found the top apps that you can earn money playing and I understand that a couple of years ago I would not have imagined it, just like now, no one knows what will be relevant in a couple of years, in ten or twenty. How the cryptocurrency will behave, how oil, gold and other exhaustible minerals will be evaluated. This is quite interesting and you can think about it for more than one day...
bigx5murf
Elite
It's really hard to say how bad things could get. Like if it got really bad, maybe precious metal would be worthless. But even as bad as say Venezuela got, I heard an ounce of silver could feed you for months. But I don't see the US getting anywhere near as bad as Venezuela.
You've been living under a rock if you don't realize we're due for some major fiat currency inflation. I've been seeing the wealthy buy up property like crazy in the past year.
You've been living under a rock if you don't realize we're due for some major fiat currency inflation. I've been seeing the wealthy buy up property like crazy in the past year.
KASHIRA-3
Elite
The idea of money being worthless is seemingly straight out of thunderdome fantasy. It would be quite a substantial leap to even convince people that a SHTF event is going to be long lasting. Even then, it will be quite a long time to convince anyone that cash has no value. Sure, if a SHTF event lasted for years.. maybe.
If people think they are going to be bartering whiskey and bricks of 22LR and not using cash, I think they are fooling themselves. I think people should probably focus on supplies for their use and still keep some ready available cash or silver on hand.
If people think they are going to be bartering whiskey and bricks of 22LR and not using cash, I think they are fooling themselves. I think people should probably focus on supplies for their use and still keep some ready available cash or silver on hand.
bigx5murf
Elite
I think the biggest issue with cash is it's simply constantly losing value, and current political climate is accelerating that. Sure, it may never become worthless, but it's already requiring more of it for basic necessities like food.
Everyone I know, myself included has been moving their cash out of banks and cash. I find it interesting that stocks and bitcoin are on a crazy rally.
ChanceMcCall
Custom
You could well be off base. There are many examples throughout history where "money" lost its value including many as recently as the 20th Century. None of them were fantasies.
If the discussion is, "Can it happen in the USA?", then we are in the world of opinion. Some think it is a certainty, some think it likely, others think it possible, and others think it unlikely, and others believe it impossible. I believe currency will erode in value far more quickly than it should. So, I have converted most of my paper money to silver and gold, and constantly move my fluid investment funds around to try to preserve value. And yes, I'm also involved in real estate investing as an additional precaution.