Posted on 06/11/2011 3:46:44 PM PDT by Kartographer
In today’s “modern” globalist economy, we have relied upon centralized and highly manipulated trade, forced interdependency, senseless and undisciplined consumption, endless debt creation, welfare addiction, and the erosion of quality, as a means to sustain a system that ultimately is DESIGNED to erode our freedoms not to mention our ability to effectively take care of ourselves. We have been infantized by our financial environment. In the near future, those who wish to live beyond a meager staple of government handouts (if any are even given) will be required to make a 180 degree reversal from their current lifestyle of dependency and immediate gratification towards one of self sufficiency, personal entrepreneurship, quality trade, and a mindset of necessity, rather than unfounded excess.
This means that each and every one of us will not only be driven to form barter networks outside the designated confines of the mainstream, we will have to become active producers within those networks. Each and every one of us will need to discover practical goods and skills that will be in high demand regardless of economic conditions. Being that our society has all but forgotten how this kind of trade works, let’s examine a short list of items as well as proficiencies that are sure to be highly sought after as the collapse progresses…
(Excerpt) Read more at randysright.wordpress.com ...
>>I have the feeling you just want someone to argue with. Are you having a boring or bad day?<<
Boring.
Let’s face it, if we have to rely on back yard gardens we are so screwed that it doesn’t matter we have been able to create an enclave for our family.
Your list will last a few months at best — it won’t get you through a financial disaster as big as you posit.
That is reality.
Well yes. Maybe the soon the better, but either way it will not happen overnight. Many many things aren’t produced here in the US at all any more and many of the skills will have to be relearned. If we banned imports of shoes most Americans would be barefoot in a year and how many shoe factories are left in the US? Other than a few small specialty manufacturers none that I know of so how much would that extra pair of shoes someone put up be worth then in such a situation?
>> Commence the trade war.<<
Romulan Ale is huge in the black market.
So your alternative I guess is to just lay down and die. If that works for you....
>>Booze, tobacco, and sugar are the top three trade items in history.<<
Who needs tobacco and sugar?
;)
(yes, I know sugar is what we cook with...)
The problem with all of these lists that I see is the short term emphasis. All of the stuff on that list sounds like the typical weekend rambo stuff.
Here is what people actually need: tools, skills and some raw materials. For example, that list has seeds on it. Ok, what are you going to do with these seeds? Dig them in with a stick? Harvest everything by hand?
Then the list says “pesticides.” That’s nice. Which pesticides? What do these pesticides treat? How do the author(s) intend to apply these pesticides? Most people reading this stuff couldn’t tell the difference between an insecticide and a herbicide, much less know that the most pernicious pest is often some form of mite.
The best investment most people could make is to find and download the USA Field Survival manual, then start efforts to find the Firefox series of books.
One better and older, but I wasn’t born with the right equipment. ;-)
>>So your alternative I guess is to just lay down and die. If that works for you....<<
If it gets to the post-apocalyptic point you suggest, we will all be winging it.
As I said, your list doesn’t even get you past a few months.
In such an environment, you don’t think a need will be somehow met, by someone desperate to support themselves? Cobblers were by and large a very local specialty. Some locales may get lucky and have a skilled one. Others may have to make do with inferior footwear for a while, but they’ll buy or barter for what they need. Others still might be near Old Gringo Boot Company, Carolina Boot Company, any number of shoe manufacturers still in business. You make do.
Garden greens thrive in the Pacific Northwest in the winter. Select seeds produced for your area. And you don’t need to water them once they’re established. And they may attract deer, which are delicious.
After that, you can take what you need.
Not my list the author’s list my work is noted in Post #4
>>The best investment most people could make is to find and download the USA Field Survival manual, then start efforts to find the Firefox series of books.
<<
The Boy Scout handbook is probably one of the best sources of long term survival.
But why plan for a scenario that is so improbable? I just volunteered at a food bank this weekend. There was enough food to feed an army for years. On one day’s donations.
So we hit 15% unemployment (improbable, even with this administration). The infrastructure continues to exist, people continue to buy, donate, transport, etc. The world as we know it is NOT going away, unless “Mars Attacks” or “War of the Worlds” happens.
Who said anything about banning any imports? I sure never have.
I advocate tariffs. Across the board tariffs. Tariffs which make imported goods more expensive, and *encourage* consumers to decide to buy things made, grown or drilled out of the ground right here in America.
If any country reciprocates and we get in one or several trade wars that’s fine. We’ll buy from OTHER countries which do not — or make what we need here.
What we’re doing now is obviously not working. Might as well try another approach.
I pray that we can keep it blow 15%, but unofficially we are almost there and we are just now entering the second dip. And once we do what happens to those that have already been out of work for years?
It might. Or, less might do. Or more. The perceived value would fluctuate with scarcity and plenty. Bumper crop of tomatoes, it’ll take more of them to exchange. People are sneaky that way, they have an innate ability to estimate fair value.
I’m not even out of my forties and can remember the “Rolling Grocery,” a converted box truck that came through the rural areas near my grandparent’s farm. Call in an order, Mr. Wall would bring what you need. He’d also trade if you had something he could sell. He started out in the Great Depression and survived due to barter. He got enough cash to keep the truck on the road and to pay expenses. The other items fed him and his family.
OH well Mom I did what I could.
>>Not my list the author’s list my work is noted in Post #4<<
Both lists are short-term. Your post #4 is better reasoned, but just extends short term by a short while.
If someone is concerned about violent flash mobs, one has an option: MOVE. The Chicago experience is merely a sign of what happens when liberalism settles in as a lifestyle. Think NOLA.
I don’t see flash mobs breaking out in Duluth or Fort Worth requiring people to paint signs saying “one gun and an ugly woman.”
Your position, although fun to contemplate in a “Twilight Zone” fantasy, really doesn’t make sense.
But everything on both the OP and your post #4 are good things to have on hand. Disasters can strike anytime and that is what those can help make it through.
Good list! Thanks for sharing it.
Do you have a ping list to which I could be added?
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