Posted on 12/17/2009 6:58:05 PM PST by The Comedian
Hardcore survivalists cherish what I call the "George Romero Scenario." It goes like this: The proverbial poop has hit the propeller. Cities collapse into chaos. But we, the prepared, are...well, we're prepared. We hunker in our rural bunkers, clutching our Super Whiz-Whacker 3000 combat arms, eagle-eyed and ready for any eventuality. We boldly fend off wave after ravenous wave of starving city folk who stagger at us like unstoppable zombies in a Romero horror flick. These zombies crave not our living flesh, but our six-gallon, mylar-lined superpails of dried lentils, our root cellars full of last year's carrots, and our genuine, federally issued Meals Ready to Eat.
(Excerpt) Read more at backwoodshome.com ...
“not a whole lotta additives except for cannabis residue.”
lol!
If you are self sufficient that is great: ) I have a green house and I grow tomatoes and heirloom veggies almost year round (at least my wife does), but we do it as a luxury. Living off of what we can grow would be tough. I am also in the final stages of designing a solar system to completely disconnect from the grid, but it is not and never will be economically defensible.
I would rather just fend for myself. But I realize not everyone thinks that way.
I completely agree with that sentiment, but why make life harder on yourself than necessary? Investing in a couple of foreign companies to give yourself access to a hard currency might be invaluable. Did you ever read the Cathy Buckle stories from Zimbabwe? The whites survived because they had access to foreign currencies.
Oh, and since you mention it, there are plenty of good ol’ boys in this area who would just LOVE an excuse to shoot the law, but I live in a fairly lawless part of the country. Again, LOL!
Like I said, are you just going to shoot each other up? The problem is that there won't be an 'enemy' to go after.
Here's how it works. You go to sleep and when you wake up the next morning you discover that your savings have been confiscated and that there is a new currency. Anyone receiving anything from the government, SS, pensions, medicare, etc. will no longer be getting anything. You will be seeing fifty percent unemployment. Everything will still be available but you have to have the new currency. What will you do?
I think you and I would probably get along just fine - except for the fact that we’d hate each other because we’re both people. Let’s face it, you hit the nail on the head... people suck!
Actually, the reason I moved where I did and set myself up as I have was precisely to enable me to survive such a situation.
I have very few needs. If you think about it, people survived in previous centuries with none of the things we consider essentials - money, savings accounts, pension plans, health insurance. All you really need is adequate defense, food, clothing and shelter. A life stripped to those essentials does not have to be unpleasant! It’s the way most people lived up until about 100 years ago - no one received anything from the government and didn’t expect to.
As for an enemy to go after, it would be anyone who tried to interfere with one’s ability to defend, feed, clothe and shelter ones family and friends. At that level, it gets real clear. In the 1930s “revenuers” were killed just for trying to interfere with the liquor supply.....just sayin’
What you ignore is that there is no other people on earth as armed and historically free as the average American. When we were beaten down we rose up and threw off our chains. We will do it again. It is ignorant to compare us Americans of Western Culture heritage to those tribal clumps that you listed. We are different. The world will be reminded of this fact.
I am with you, but our economic situation is simply unsustainable. We will have an economic collapse, it is only a question of when.
If we are going to take up arms we should do it now. Who do you suggest we take out? ..... We are at that awkward stage aren't we?
So when your life savings get eliminated, you are going to go hunting Federal workers? It isn't going to be revenuers after you it will be simply that there is no money.
My grandfather told us stories about running a little still to pay the taxes. Even after the government destroys our currency they will still want their taxes.
Well, if there was no money, I would wait to see what happened while tending my garden and eating my venison. If taxes were demanded, I would try to comply — like your grandfather.... If it became impossible to comply, and armed men came to demand the taxes prepared to take me to jail if I did not comply....well....that would be when I would have to decide whether I wished to die on my own land or in a faraway prison. But there are many steps between having no money and making the desparate last stand. Each of us has to decide just how much freedom we are willing to forego, and at what cost.
“Wasting money on guns or any of the survival stuff is worse than stupid”
You are kiding right?
When the SHTF you can just throw money at em.
I think I’ll stick with lead.
Lots of what ifs to consider an counter.
I'm getting into this thread late, but have been following FR's threads on teotwawki type issues for a decade.
You posted:
"Here's how it works. You go to sleep and when you wake up the next morning you discover that your savings have been confiscated and that there is a new currency. Anyone receiving anything from the government, SS, pensions, medicare, etc. will no longer be getting anything. You will be seeing fifty percent unemployment. Everything will still be available but you have to have the new currency. What will you do?"
We agree, however there is a reasonable answer. For many many of the downtrodden, the only apparent answer will be "get as close to the new 'money' power center as possible. Austrian economists have explained the next step, when hyperinflation occurs, those closest to the central bank benefit the most, because they have faster access to the ever increasing numbers of fiat notes.
The hyperinflation mechanism starts in each time frame (be it weeks, days or hours) when the central bank and the people closest to the central bank spend the newly minted fiat notes.
This is where your Johnny Five-O beat cop comes in to the picture. The beneficiaries of the hyperinflation will be supremely concerned about their own security, so the newly hired security forces will be the in the 3rd ring of insiders to receive wages in the newly minted fiat notes.
Johnny Five-O as you mentioned lost everything, and actually lost more than the private citizen who had a private industry job. (Benefits, insurance, and most importantly the paychecks and pension backed by tax collections made under threat of force and seizure.) The situation will draw flies to shiat, and the worst of the worst of the old currency's LEOs will rise to the top of the new security forces. The new security forces only need small numbers of upper cadres to be 'company men', the grunts can be recruited from the downtrodden with promises of 'Iron rice bowls', as the Chinese warlords used to call the enticements. This is how the mullahs control Iran, this is how Mugabe survived the hyperinflation. (to expand on your thoughts) Thousands of police union pension funds in the USA are so severely underfunded the question has become how many hundreds of thousands of LEOs in the USA (and most of the Western world) will be told they have no retirement benefits (or forced to take a 30% to 100% haircut due to lack of capital, hyperinflation and lack of COLA increases) in the coming decade. I do my part by telling this to every LEO I'm on good terms with, and give them realistic alternatives to the rosy pictures painted by the LEO union muckitymucks.
So you’ve got FerFAL here now? Good work, and welcome aboard FerFAL.
Going to read FerFAL’s posts now.
Do any modern antecedents (you mentioned Sarajevo and Beiruit) have the sort of suburban sprawl we have here in the U.S.? We have a lot of situations where one “side” is concentrated in those built up cities, and the other surrounds them geographically in spread-out suburbs. While I’ve never been to either of those places, from my travel in Europe, it’s a very different built environment in general.
And bows are QUIET!
Just thinking and planning and being aware of concepts like potential “sniper alleys” pust us way ahead of the pack.
Parallel to a main “refugee route” being the worst.
All that said, location is critical. You have a better chance in a culdesac subdivision in a nice area than along or parallel to a major route. The folks in the culdesac might adapt and cooperate. The folks parallel to a “refugee route” won’t be able to keep out robbers no matter what.
You better be ready to survive off of your stocks for a few weeks minimum, until you figure out a way to get some new money. Probably by selling your gold on a black market. May I humbly recommend Fernando Aquirre's book, "The Modern Survival Manual," which focuses on that scenario, not mutant biker zombie attacks.
An interesting thing happened during the Great Depression at forced farm auctions (on the block for back taxes owed.)
Dozens of farmers from all over the area would arrive in a most intimidating fashion. Enough to far outnumber and outmuscle (and potentially outgun) the Sheriff and the few “serious” bidders.
When bids were called, the serious bidders were glared into silence. Some local farmer offered one dollar. Nobody dared outbid him. The deed was handed back to the owner. The lesson was clear: outbid the lowball, you will be in danger.
Of course today, the sheriff would come with 50 deputies and a SWAT team....
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