Storing food, storing energy, storing tools and weapons are a great idea and its just the tip of the ice berg. How does one man protect it all and his family against thousands of hungry desperate, sick humans that are not prepared. You would be lucky to survive a month before being murdered. If the world turns totally crap.....................there will nothing to help you survive a full life. Citizens can not combat against lawlessness, disease and hunger.
"Average people see gold as valuable, not necessarily silver." Probably, but they will learn rapidly what has value and what does not, what is losing value and what is not. JMO OC
In Zimbabwe, 5 years ago or so, 1 kid went in the morning to the baker to buy a bread, that he used in the evening to pay the bus driver. A global currency collapse (it doesnt matter whether the downtrend spans a day a year or a decade) is basically the a same scenario. Even more: the latter is the cause of the former. Not sure if you can call this 'mentality'. It's nothing terribly special or so, it's just people that try to rescue where they worked for, regardless of whether their time frame is a day (as in the case of the bread bus story) or decades and whether it happens in a single country or a region or a world.
I see a lot of predictions as to what will be best in a SHTF scenario but no criteria as to what sort we are talking about. lets look at a few options Pandemic - a global flu sweeps across the world reducing the population by 60% - very real possibility of this one in the next 20 years imho and when I worked at Zurich insurance they forced all employees to attend a "business continuation" seminar on this predicting a 1/3 fatality rate! need I point out insurers are usually good at foreseeing trouble. to survive you have to be lucky enough to isolate yourself quick enough so you are not exposed to the issue. you then have to have sufficient stores (silver and gold is not food/water and trade is not an option) to keep yourself isolated until either the pandemic burns itself out or a cure/treatment is found. afterwards with a greatly reduced population silver/gold isn't really going to be the real measure of wealth. rather useful skills will be eg doctors/surgeons/biologist/engineers etc will be in high demand during the world recovery period. People will inherit a great deal of wealth due to the high mortality but the value will be diluted by a lack of demand due to the lower world population. Resource crisis - this one you stackers should like, someone decides in the middle east that it would be a great idea to nuke Israel. The Israeli army enacts the "never again" (movie reference) order and retaliates against ALL known threats. Good bye middle east and with it vast oil resources that now have a long radioactive half life. the oil shortage leads to increased energy resource cost and flows on to higher cost of living. The stock market becomes volatile and people look for a new safe haven to trade. gold/silver starts to shine and prices go up relative to the cost of living. a loaf of bread cost $40 but an ounce of silver is $400 so your fine. This is until people find alternative sources of energy (solar will start to look good then!) and things settle down but you have payed your mortgage off with your stack so your home free. WW3 - so someone (not looking at you America) provokes someone else (coughchinacough) into a war due to an inability to service the debts they have booked up and new leadership declares the debt null and void and stop anserwing the phone to avoid the debt collectors. this leads to everyone in the world to have to pick a side and fight over money. some one loses, someone wins, I learn how to speak Cantonese real quick but in the mean time silver/gold is the only world recognised form of tradable currency for resources and the government decides we cant own it anymore again. we try to hide what we have but Minelabs does a roaring trade with government contracts supplying the police with metal detectors (note buy shares in minelabs) anyone caught with silver gets sent to front line, see you there. Zombies - yeh so if this happens, I will be able to stack my silver against the door and the zombies will never be able to break in, unless the are World War Z zombies then we are all doomed unless Brad Pitt gets his hands on a Hercules and special forces squad did I miss any?
In probably no particular order, but just my gut feeling, worldwide panic in the Bond markets, triggering a Wall Street crash, triggering runs on banks, triggering 'bank holidays', triggering government grabs at deposits, triggering riots and major social unrest. Then things get REALLY bad! JMO OC
The most valuable thing I am stacking for SHTF is karma. Anything I can do for anyone local I do it. Every skill I get the chance to assist and watch I do it. I demand no payment and make sure to give more than I take.
that will be more of a hiccup than a shtf situation. order will be restored by police in short order, well in Australia at least, we don't have 14 year olds with semi autos or large numbers of mentally unstable people with access to military grade hardware at their local hunting store .
PS, I very much doubt that WW3 will come to pass, at least not between USA and China or Russia. MAD applies! Bird flu is a possibility, but the WHO has had its scare and is well prepared , at least as far as medical science will allow at this stage. Social isolation will be VITAL! The zombies/bogans are all here in the LALOR electorate. JMO OC
I'm stacking cheap, small but obscure items that would normally get overlooked in any panic such as Stabil
one of the first people to die right here. Right after the guys stacking "hope" and the guys stacking "stay positive, everything will be fine" attitudes.
I don't think 30 days freeze dried survival bucket is the way to go, Basic foods will be available like bread and maybe MRE'S dropped off from a plane, that sort of thing. there's survival food out there, on tree's, under rocks, in rivers and oceans, and also growing your own, like beans, sprouts, easy to grow, fast and nutritious. learn about your native foods, nuts and plants that are edible in your locality, some weeds are highly nutritious, also learn how to use those plants for medical uses. Real survival will be in your head, being mentally stable is paramount, what makes you feel normal in SHTF? It's living and eating normal, just like good times. so stocking up on real food, food you actually eat right now is where it's at, build a preppers pantry with all the food you eat and rotate it through normal living conditions. if SHTF then for you life goes on as normal, especially if your cooped up in your house and can't go out, a packet of chips or tim tams will be your savior. Why not lock your fridge up and open one of your 30 day buckets, live off it for 30 days and come back, tell us how bad it was, that's what it will be like if you rely on that.
Secret - lower your standard of living, pretend your a hobo begging on the street - It's all a mind game. Shop at Aldi and save the rest in hard assets!!! 1st post and yes I am employed!
Thanks Caput, that's gold - hopefully ill find that multipurpose hobo knife at Aldi's bi weekly specials!
