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Guest Post: Four Alternative Stores Of Value
Submitted by Simon Black of Sovereign Man blog,
One of the most successful con jobs in the history of the world has been the concept of unbacked paper currency… or fiat money.
Over the last 100-years or so, governments have been able to convince people that their pieces of paper, backed by nothing but promises, actually have ‘value’. This seems truly bizarre when you think about it. Governments tend to be untrusted, serial failures. Yet people readily accept their guarantees the world over.
The history of fiat money has proven to be an almost uninterrupted period of inflation, asset bubbles, booms, busts, bailouts, panics,and other crises… and thankfully, it is an experiment which seems to be quickly nearing its end.
As such, it’s high time for creative, thinking people to consider their options and start trading their pieces of paper for something of value.
We all know the familiar story about precious metals– gold and silver have a long-standing tradition as stores of value dating back thousands of years.
But did you know, for example, that in the early days of the United States, whiskey was both a store of value and a medium of exchange? At the time, the US had among the highest alcohol consumption per capita in the world… and people knew they could always trade whiskey for something else. As such, whiskey had significant value.
Now, today’s liquor fundamentals may not warrant rushing out to buy a home-brew distillery kit… or stocking up on Johnnie Walker. But there are a number of other alternative stores of value worthy of your consideration:
1) Ammunition and Firearms may be the new whiskey, especially in North America. FBI firearm checks have been going through the roof in the US over the last few years, and each one of these represents another buyer of weapons and ammo.
Consequently, both have handily withstood the effects of inflation. According to ammo.net, for example, the price of Remington .223 rounds rose 224% from 1999 through 2011.
2) Watches. A single watch can be worth tens of thousands… even hundreds of thousands of dollars. Imagine putting $200,000 on your wrist and leaving the country– it’s an easy way to move wealth.
As with most collectibles, scarcity drives prices higher in the watch market. Most watches are like cars, they depreciate. But scarce models (of cars, or watches… like a Patek Philippe) hold value.
3) Rare coins. Gold and silver are excellent, traditional stores of value. But while millions of new ounces are pulled out of the ground year in, year out, there are only a certain amount of 1907-1933 St. Gauden $20 gold pieces in the world… and they can’t go back in time to make more of them.
4) Agricultural property. Few asset classes are as inflation-proof as high quality productive land… because, no matter what, it will always have value. Human beings will always need to eat.
Farmland prices around the world have been rising rapidly over the years and have hit all-time highs in places like the US and UK. But farmland in Chile, Uruguay, Paraguay, and select other markets is still quite reasonable.
Like anything, you wouldn’t want to hold any of these assets without first educating yourself and becoming an informed owner. But given that the paper currency sitting in your bank account is depreciating rapidly… or at best, generating a tiny fraction of a percent in interest, it’s definitely worth looking into alternatives right away.
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You forgot original comic book art!!!
When it gets to the point where a person needs to use gold or silver to purchase groceries or a tank of gas then ammo should be worth about 10X its weight in gold. Nothing in the 2ND Amendment about any right to own/buy ammo.
I've been tricked!!!... I clicked to see more pictures of that hot chick with the camo & the automatic & found out I got snowed into an article by Simon Black...
Anything tangible is a good idea. The merits of precious metals is that they are the lead candidate for being the very last abstract form of wealth to be rendered worthless before we go road warrior.
I had a pawn shop guy tell me machine guns go up quite rapidly. This was years ago and my wife probably wouldn't be thrilled, but I thought I would pass this nugget off to you crazy bastards.
When I go into prepper mode (which I occasionally do), some colleague will say, "Oh. I'll just come to your house." After I push back the bile, I usually say something tasteful like, "Bring your daughter."
http://www.naturallycozy.com/order-pads.html
Long feminine hygiene, and you could pretty much name your price in a SHTF scenario.
I cannot believe Thomas said that. Flabbergasted.
I cannot believe Simon Black just reached a new nadir of stupidity.
Recommending Piaget watches as a store of value when he expects economic collapse?! LOL.
Yeah, everyone knows that Rolex is the go-to in a SHTF situation.
Long maxiIpads!
The key word is STORE of value, not liquid value.
I buy and sell gold and collectables all day long. Very few people walk in here expecting to get what they paid for a watch if it is only a few weeks/ years old. However, if that watch or collection is decades old then there is a very good chance they will walk it with more, in real terms, that what they paid.
Just last week, we bought framed signatures of Napoleon, Jefferson, Churchill and many others. The widows husband had purchased them in the 1980’s and had them framed. When they moved house they did not re hang them, just forget about them.
Needing money she brought them to us and walked put with a cheque for over $70,000. Not a bad store of value.
The problems occur when “traders” treat collectables the same as stock or shares and think they can jump in and out making a quick profit.
If you buy a Piaget for the pleasure or a coins for you unborn child, you really cannot go wrong. That is how to store money.
So Funny story.
I have 2 girls 10 and 11 and so I bought 40 packs or so of the above for collapse (Ill probably have to help their friends too because no one but me seems to have a brain- I bought cardboard applicator tampoons for my wife's friends).
So at a swim party here this summer the kids were running around some of the boys found the storage in their closet...I told them she had a heavy flow...
Ok, I didnt but they did find the stock which embarrassed them.
My Great Aunt used cotton balls. Pads are a luxury.
There's a reason why you don't burn the entire leave pile each year.
Oh, I remember Great Aunt Stinky. I never could figure out why she insisted on sitting on a red cushion every few weeks.
I see your Feminine Napkins and raise you...........a Diva Cup
'I don't trust anything that bleeds for five days and doesn't die.'
Yep.
No expiry date on tampons.
"...I had a pawn shop guy tell me machine guns go up quite rapidly. "
i call bullshit...what is a 'machine gun'...? how many pawn shops actually have a real 'machine gun'. a machine gun isnt a converted full auto ar or ak.
Some pawn shops are FFLs ... they are almost always way too expensive. That being said, his 'pawn shop guy' was correct, they have historically appreciated about %20 a year.
They are never inexpensive but for decent relative prices, try here: http://www.autoweapons.com/
fly - my comment is about 'machine guns'...not full auto ar types. they arent machine guns. a machine gun is a very large and heavy weapon...it isnt something you see everyday. any FFL could have a machine gun but they are extremely rare.
regular preppers are not buying machine guns or tanks or rpg's...at least not in my neck of the woods.
* a BAR (browning) is a machine gun....an ar15 can be a full auto but it isnt a machine gun...and actually there are very few full auto's as a percentage.
Traditionally, the difference between an Automatic Rifle and a Machine Gun is in operation. Auto Rifles (Rifles) fire from a Closed (and locked) Bolt position whereas Machine Guns fire from an Open Bolt position. A Rifle needs a hammer to strike a firing pin whereas a the Machine Gun can use a Breach Block in two parts, the rearward part acts as a hammer due to its forward inertia. There are differences in ammunition feed however, since many modern Machine Guns can use both link fed ammo and magazine fed ammo, this argument is mute.
Machine Guns are traditionally inaccurate so as to perform an 'Area Weapon' role with many rounds sent down range in a ' Cone of Fire'. Rifles are supposed to be accurate...Auto function mainly for instinctive shooting.
So,to buy a Rifle or to buy a Machine Gun?
That's a subjective question based upon your belief in how much SHTF you expect.
General disorder...Hand Gun
Looting and high crime...Rifle & Hand Gun or Shotgun
Murder and extreme crime...Semi Auto Assault Rifle
Panic Mag Level Mayhem...Steyr Aug all the way
Zombieland...Spaz12 & Mag58, lots and lots of link
Machine guns are highly over-rated ... everything after the second shot is wasted.
Transferable MGs went down pretty steeply for awhile in 2008. These are glorified collectibles, nothing to see here.
Hell, when I first got out to CA in the mid 90's one of the local gun shops had a de-miled M2 and a 30 cal for sale. If I had $8K at the time that Ma Deuce would be in my living room...
I had to log in just to give you an up vote!
Yeah, me too! I was lured in by that trick. But then, after all, a sexy babe weilding a death dealing machine is an excellent symbol for the fiat money system's reality. As many of my comments posted on Zero Hedge for about a month or so said, THE MONEY SYSTEM DEPENDS ON THE MURDER SYSTEM. A classic Kali image of a beautiful woman, armed to kill, is a quite appropriate image for what is behind the confidence trick of privatized fiat money! Such an image fuses the essence of production with destruction, just like many other ancient religions always did. Privatized fiat money is more than anything else a crazy cult that was able to become our state religion. A beautiful women with a machine gun is the kind of image we can understand, and immediately respond to on an instinctive level. The greater REALITY is global electronic fiat money frauds, backed by atomic bombs.
He forgot rubbers. Everyone likes to fuck when tshtf.
sildenafil citrate.
Rubbers???????????? I thought those were worn to keep your shoes dry when it rains?
Don't try it...even Xtra large Trojans won't fit over size 9's...
Agreed.
In a collapse scenario I will be a whorder. The man with a diversified stable of whores will do quite well for himself.
Item 8
Gain, store, and maintain the knowledge, skills, and special equipment that would enable you to do at least one third-world job. If you are a dentist, doctor, farmer, cowboy, mechanic, miner, fisherman, lumberman, mason, blacksmith, whore house piano player, plumber, butcher, or similar, then you are already set. If you are a derivatives trader, banker, realtor, healthcare administrator, politician, actuarial, benefits coordinator, DMV clerk, compliance officer, or similar, then get cracking.
http://www.zerohedge.com/contributed/2012-19-10/fear-we-are-returning-time-history-where-it-common-occurrence-fight-ones-life
What about a gigolo?
Cock will always be a buyers market
A ER nurse is your friend.
only if she'a good with her hands
Screw that! Won't it be funny to see who all the kids look like after the shit settles down?
In a word: Reload
In a word: Reload
Hey Tex,IF you ain't done all you need yet, get at it.That will be one of the first items taken away by the gestaporinos.
Unless you have an uber secret hide for it to all be set up, it is too heavy, along w/components,to wag anywhere.Good stuff weighs a ton.
So, assume the END is tommorrow, and make sure you have all that you will ever need, and more.Dessicant, and cans/mylar sealed, etc.
As an attorney, I would put forth that the Supreme Court would be acting extremely illogically and speciously if they were to rule that the right to keep and bear arms does not carry with it the right to have the ammunition that makes such arms useful as arms.
OTOH, this Supreme Court has behaved as though it is bought and paid for, and perhaps it is.
You may be right but then how many years would it take to sort out in the courts. In the meantime, duck and cover.
What does the Supreme Court and Logic have to do with each other?
I've thought about stockpiling children so that I can always sell a few off in a pinch, but I'm out of closet space to keep them.
I think that's a pretty saturated market, not to mention some hiccups in the barrier to entry side of things...
5) US Treasuries. The yield on the 30 year bond is at a phenomenal 2.93%. If you had bought 30 treasuries just over 30 years ago, you would have locked in a 15% yield and absolutely phenomenal capital gains. The ability to reinvest coupons in even more high-quality debt, makes this a first choice for savvy value investors.
6) Alternative energies. Wind farms and biofuels are the way of the future. If you’re looking to store value for the long term it helps to have a long term view of the energy market, and smart investors who position themselves for the carbon-free revolution will be richly rewarded.
7) High interest savings account. I realize that this isn’t a popular option with doomer libertarians and silverbug hillbillies, but this is a sensible and simple solution for the less sophisticated investors out there. If you’re worried about inflation, many institutions offer yields linked to the official inflation rate, so you can rest safe and sound knowing that your hard-earned purchasing power is safe.
One thing I can say with great confidence is that having kids is not--I repeat NOT--a decision you make based on economics.
What do you mean? Man is a rational being operating rationally within a micro economic system, which behaves rationally within an macro system which behaves rationally within realistic parameters.
It seems to me you don't understand economics.
I can't decide between the Rolex and the thirty year Tbond? Which one do you think my neighbor would trade me a couple of chickens for? Something to track time or something to wipe his ass with? My guess is he wouldn't trade either item for chickens, but I might get a few eggs for the Rolex.
I peed myself.
And I think a few of us know that if this was posted elsewhere the advice would be seen as sound.
Yeah in regard to number 6. I got a great investment opportunity for you, it's called Solyndra. Email me and I'll send you all the details.
Alternative energies... I'll go along with that... Wood gasification sounds just about right...
With a still and some basic knowledge, you can make both grain and wood alcohol. I would recommend knowing the difference too. :)
Operate farm equipmenmt with charcoal
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EbI6r7hPmHA&feature=related
Biogas. Rotten veggies in, methane out. Burn methane as fuel source for cooking. Next, compost used veggies to increase soil productivity. Burning methane changes methane into carbon dioxide and water, which is less of a greenhouse gas.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cVFHtLAv30g&feature=channel&list=UL
LMAO ~ TSHTF & faggy twits are going to be concerned about global warming?...
Not to really rain on your parade here (because your cycle is correct), but by the time nature were to work its course in that scenario (especially considering the volume you'd need to sustain multiple lives), you'd probably [all] be dead...
If you need quick compost, just find a local peat bog...
Throw a hippie into it so that future generations can see what brought down western civilisation of the third millenia AD.
5) Close, but no cigar. Toilet paper is what you should have said. It will be worth a fortune where there is no supply.
6) Close, but no cigar. Hot air harvested from people like you for natural heating, steam generation, etc.
7) Close, but no cigar. In word: Facebook!
Toilet paper ain't no big deal it is just a luxury. If it gets that bad people will be using t shirts, blankets, any real paper, leaves, whatever.
You'll think I'm crazy but if your on a regular diet of high fiber-if you eat oatmeal everyday with other fiber stuff after about a month or so your stool will change and you will hardly need any TP at all to clean. There have been studies on this look it up or better yet try it. It works.
Bullets and high quality sharp knives that is what will be important. And clean water.
Hey, JUMBO, apparently you have never been around WOMEN when there is NO toilet paper. JUMBO, you HAVE been around WOMEN, haven't you?
"Can you spare a square...I don't have a square...You don't have one square...I don't have a square to spare....."
All true. Also squatting to take a dump vs sitting keeps things cleaner. This is proven to reduce hemmorhoids, too - something you don't want to have after things have gone downhill.
As does losing weight, so your fat ass doesn't collect as much shit on the way out.
High Interest Saving Account
LOL, I remember when I thought MDB was serious...
The most precious metal is copper jacketed lead.
Treasuries and savings accounts aren't high yield. Treasuries can appreciate in worth but there is little room left for it.
As long as there is 'full faith and credit' on the part of the public everything is likely to be fine but people are notoriously fickle ...
Steve from Langley!
Hey buddy, what's the word? When are we going to send more troops to die in Iran? Has King Bibi set the date yet?
Tell everyone in the beltway they can suck my Goy cock.
Tel Aviv Steve...
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cF1D7fDRbQ0
MDB: Since a man in your position must dot every i and cross every t.
I got a couple of books you might enjoy:
"The Professor and the Madman"
"Eats, Shoots, Leaves"
Brilliant post. Whatever it is you're doing, don't stop.
I'm assuming your moniker wasn't derived from being a participant in the financial market.
5) UST would have have made you no capital gains whatsoever. You would have earned your coupon over those 30yrs yet gotten back only what you invested when the bonds matured.
They were repaid of course with dollars that are worth 40% less if your "official" inflation rate is believable. So offically, you had a 40% capital loss.
And you would have had to hit the market at it's absolute lowest point which lasted for 6 days to get that 15% yield. Not likely you paid leftist shill. Now go die.
Which makes the 5 year Japanese government bonds my wife recently cashed in look like the belle of the ball... from a dollar perspective.
But that boat has sailed.
MDB, you forgot commercial real estate.
8) Lottery Tickets. Risk is comparable to the above, but reward can be extraordinary.
You won't find a wind farm in operation within two years, tax credit is going away and so are the windmills.
MDB - you left your 'sarc' button off again, unless you're being serious in which case you are fucking hilarious
5). 30 Yr US Treasuries will be worthless in 5 years. The only place you'll get any value at redemption is a public toilet if they've run out of loo roll
6). Wind Farms and Biofuel - why not launch a steam engined motorcycle, see how it does/sells up against a Kawazaki 900? Oil, coal and gas piss all over green energy, it only survives because of Govt propping this uneconomic bankrupt crap up
7). High interest deposit accounts maybe linked to inflation, but the inflation index is rigged against you retaining value. Stick some coins in your pocket, cut a hole in the bottom and walk down a High Street, while you're losing at least some of the public benefit from your stupidity
MDB: This was an AWESOME post.
and be sure to average down on those solars, its a killer combo !!!
Sad thing is, most sheeple would believe MDB's bullshit.
They really believe inflation is only 1.5%, government said so, and they have no ideal why food & gas prices are going up so fast. Must be those terrorists again, hating us for our freedom.
They never heard of the US dollar losing value. They wouldn't believe it if you told them. US dollar can't lose value, it's the world reserve currency ...assuming they know what world reserve currency means.
They really do keep their money in savings accounts and CDs. Because they always did before. It's safe, FDIC insured, all that.
They know nothing about the '08 crash and don't want to know anything about it. They're just glad the stock market is back up almost where it was in '07. See, economy is recovering just like Obama promised.
Fed? What's that? Short for federal government? Central bank? Nobody cares, what's on TV?
QE? Yea, they heard something about "QE" one time, can't remember what it was. Nobody cares anyway, what's on TV?
Jerry Sandusky just got thirty years for a similar idea.
Timing is everything.
Closet space? Luxury. When I was little, we used to live in a shoebox in the middle of the road.
Carboard shoebox? You were lucky. We lived for three months in a brown paper bag in a septic tank.
At least you had the warmth and protection of the brown paper bag. Rich fucker.
Luxury. We used to have to get out of the lake at three o'clock in the morning, clean the lake, eat a handful of hot gravel, go to work at the mill every day for tuppence a month, come home, and Dad would beat us around the head and neck with a broken bottle, if we were LUCKY!
Man I love this place.
Deleted
...and dammit, we liked it!
ahh the fuckery... i spit water all over my laptop on this one.
fuck that...we grew up living in a crack whores vagina with a yeast infection. we thought our relatives that lived in a septic tank as the city slickers.
Listen to the spoiled millionaire brag! Living in a crack whore's twat....hey, at least you cushy bastards were *warm*.
I had to share a pair of winter boots with my brother, and it was uphill both ways to school.
Zero Govt --
You forgot to tell these nostalgia-waxing guys above me they forgot to hit their sarc button too.
s a r c /
At least you had a pair of boots, you spoiled brat! My family had to take turns hopping with a shoe sole stitched onto an old sock.
I thought I was unlucky for having no hat, until I met a man who had no brain.
Funny thing is, I seem to keep running into that same guy everywhere I go today.
Any relation to Jonathon Swift?
He satirically put forth the notion of selling children as food for the rich back in the 1700's in his book "A Modest Proposal".
Swift was truly prescient. Gulliver tied up by the Lilliputians is a perfect metaphor for business strangled by regulation today. BTW, the EPA wants farmers to find a way to till/plant their fields without raising any dust.
.
"I've thought about stockpiling children so that I can always sell a few off in a pinch, but I'm out of closet space to keep them."
Try the crawlspace; most can house 12-16 kids depending on age, or 20-50 corpses, depending on stage of decomposition.
Booze, is number one in my book and in my belly.
I stored it in my wife's breast implant...
Udderly invaluable...
get it?
Is your wife a cow?
Moron.
Down arrow if you think I should explain why...I put the O/U at none...well besides you that is...
"Moron.
Down arrow if you think I should explain why...I put the O/U at none...well besides you that is..."
I don't get this; have you been milking the old lady again?
190 proof grain alcohol (if you can get it... illegal in 15 states).
Only if you bottle it. hahaha
.
Your suggestion about tampons was spot-on (!) too Dr. Dick.
And a cyankali tablet for the case...
Fucking Jesus, why couldn't the topic just be COLLECTABLES!
FOFOA a couple of years back had a list which included; wine(I assume other valuable spirits), collectable cars, and art.
http://fofoa.blogspot.com/2009/12/gold-ultimate-wealth-reserve.html
And what is the difference between a currency and a wealth asset? Time and appreciation! The main difference is the amount of time that each is held. A currency is earned and spent in a short timeframe and wealth assets are accumulated and held for longer timeframes. Here is a list of some common wealth assets:
Endurable Wealth Assets
Real Estate
Fine Art
Antiques
Collectibles
Gold
Other Precious Metals
Gemstones
Rare Classic Cars
Securities
Stocks (Equity Ownership)
Bonds (Debt Ownership)
CD's (Currency Time Deposits)
What separates "endurable wealth assets" from the rest of the physical world of consumer goods is their tendency to appreciate against the currency. Take classic cars for example. They usually appreciate versus the dollar while regular every-day cars depreciate as soon as you drive them off the lot! The same goes for Fine Art versus Not-So-Fine Art, and antiques versus their contemporary equivalents.
Art is interesting because it is easy to move around and supposedly simple to sell. I imagine wine is the same.
I would add land to the list. Even land without a structure can be farmed or wooded logged.
If a collapse comes farmland would be more valuable than Gold. Not only would you have fresh food, chickens for example aren't that hard to raise, which you have grown. You could trade the excess for whatever someone else has.
Waving a bushel of Apples for trade will draw less attention than waving bright shiny metal.
http://www.survivalblog.com/2009/12/letter_re_the_bosnian_experien.html
Mr. Rawles,
I want to thank you for having this site and presenting people with opportunity two obtain useful information that could save their lives one day. I have been dedicated reader of your blogs for some time and now think that is my time to contribute some information instead of just reading it. I have survived through collapse of former Yugoslavia and the years of war that followed after. I will try to cover as much of different topics that pertain to every day survival. No matter on how much the person is prepared, it might not be enough.
I was born and raised on farm in Western Bosnia and we always had enough food and supplies on the farm to survive at least one year without any contact with the outside world. We grew our own wheat and corn and always had enough flour for at least three years. We also had cows, chickens and sheep for dairy products, meat and eggs. The sugar and salt would be purchased in the 50 pound equivalent bags. Besides the motor vehicles we also had horses that could be used for farm work and transportation. We even made our own brandy and had at least three years supply of it. During the peaceful times, before the collapse, we only had one firearm, Yugo M57 Tokarev pistol, with about 50 rounds of ammo, but after the things started to go down the hill, are family arsenal improved. We added a Russian PPSH 41 [submachinegun], a Yugo M48 Mauser [bolt action rifle] and a Yugo SKS [semiautomatic] rifle to our arsenal, but we only had few hundred rounds for the each weapon. A lot of times it was really easy to obtain weapons but getting the decent amount of ammo was more challenging. My father was in the reserve status of Yugoslavian Army so he was issued a M48 Mauser but only got 40 rounds of ammunition with it.
When the things started to go bad, we were under impression that we would be okay; since we are on the farm and that we can just live there until everything was over. Boy, where we wrong. When the fighting broke out, the villages, small towns and farms were systematically cleared of people, looted and destroyed. You had a better chance of surviving if you lived in an apartment in the big city of if you lived in the farm that was further away from the front lines. It does not matter how good your house is built, it will not sustain few direct hits from the T-72 tank. Also, it does not matter how well you are armed, unless you have numbers on your side (number of armed people), and you dig in and try to protect your property, you will be over-run and destroyed. Yugoslavia had a fairly strict gun laws before the collapse, basically, you could own pistols, shotguns and bolt guns but after the collapse nearly everyone was equipped with selective fire battle rifles.
I would advise that you don’t keep everything that you have in one location. I was forced to leave my house and take off with just my backpack and weapon. If you can, keep a bug out bag [cached] a few miles away from your house so that you could go to it, if you are forced to abandon your residence. Be prepared to not return to your home for years and try to have another place to live in another part of the country or even some other country. I was not able to go back to my home until years later. Stash as much ammo in different locations as you can. I did not have enough ammo in the first place and whatever I had was used or traded within first month of me leaving my home. Ammo was good trading currency and could get you a meal at any time. Local paper currency was basically worthless but if you had foreign currency, then you were in better shape. At that time German Mark was most popular currency in Europe and could get you anything in former Yugoslavia during the war. The Gold and Silver were good to have but it was harder to find someone that would accept gold and silver as form of payment .
People that lived in big towns also had their share of problems. If they lived in apartment buildings, they were dependent on central heat and when the things started to go bad, there was no more fuel to heat these apartments. Not that many people had wood burning stoves and the winters in Eastern Europe can get really cold. I would advise that if you don’t have a wood burning stove, to get one and store it somewhere until you need it. You will need it not just for heat but also for cooking. The people that had stoves or were able to obtain them or make them then had another problem, getting the firewood. If you live inside of city that is surrounded and you can’t just go outside of city and cut some trees down, obtaining firewood can become your daily battle for survival. Burning your furniture, books, park benches, trees from the parks and every other tree that you can find will be normal. I would advise that if you are going to have a stove either store at least one winter supply of firewood (if you have a place to store it at) or have a plan where you get that firewood when you need it. Another issue that people from the cities faced was the shortage of water. Some people ended up digging wells in the courtyard of their apartment buildings but majority of people who tried this were unsuccessful since they were digging where there was not water or old city utilities were under the places where they tried to dig. Most of the people were forced to make daily runs to water points and bringing the water back to their families. Water points were favorite targets for snipers. Having extra water jugs will help you minimize your visits to water points.
Since this is my first post, I will not make it too long and will stop here until the next time. - A Bosnian Survivor
http://www.survivalblog.com/2010/09/letter_re_survival_tips_from_a.html
The following is one of those anonymously penned items that keeps getting passed around the Internet. It dates back to the Siege of Sarajevo in the ethnic civil war in the former Yugoslavia in the early 1990s:
orly?
WORDS!
Many words.
Word.
The watches thing kills me. Watches and cars do the same thing when they leave the store. I can also spend 120k on a laptop to custom spec, doesn't mean I would ever be able to sell it.
I'm long three ply tissue
When your post is longer than the oringinal article, its too fucking long.
Zap Powerz
I guess you didn't bother to read the advice given by survivors.
I would be glad to read it if it were on the front page of Zero Hedge and submitted by Tyler Durden. :)
G.F. --
Appreciate not having to mess around with the link. Thanks for posting.
You got a CliffsNotes version of this?
...
OK I'll bite:
Gully Foyle i have seen your story written a dozen other areas but still it is a good story but you leave out the number one problem...the next collapse will be world wide. all these stories of 'how i survived in bosnia' or switzerland all had one thing in common. the outside world was still there and functioning. what foreign currency will be worth anything later. bosnia still got food aid. what happens when china stops sending out food.....it will be different this time.
Unless you have lived in the fourth world(forget third) you have no concept of how
this is going to go down.After a month or so, most people will be so debillitated by various
illness that they quickly succomb to death.Even dysentry will kill,let alone typhus etc.
If you are puking and shitting blood simultaneously, its real hard to aim.
You can find safe cheap antibiotics online. google "fish-mox"
alldaychemist has everything you need
"In just a few days after ordering from alldaychemist fraudulent charges started to appear on my credit card and I started receiving hundreds of spam email. I used this card as an emergency back up for the purchase of gasoline in case I didn't have the cash in my wallet. Before ordering from alldaychemist, I hadn't used the card in over four months so I'm sure of where the fraud originated. Luckily the bank called and I canceled the card."
Watch that site. Found that on www.ripoffreport.com
Great tip.Thanks very much.
Even with anti- biotics though just dysentery wipes you out
for a week.I know from personal experience(twice)even though I thought I was being carefull.
There is no such thing as being too careful.
Then theres the Hepatitis which antibiotics do not help.
.
Winston - tip for raging runs - two tablespoons of Vinegar. If you hold it down the acidity will kill just about anything and you won't shit for a week.
Wow, you survived Switzerland?
How did you ever manage that? /s
If you post is going be that long, at least go to the effort writing something ORIGINAL.
CTRL-P in that quantity is Bernankesque
Or, rather than burning through 18000 words, you could just do what the guys in the video posted here last week (Faber & Rogers?) suggested: buy anything you can nail down. Actaual tangible assets. Gold, Silver, Guns, Ammo, Liquor, Food, Cattle, Pussy, Farmland.....
What always bemuses me about folks who think the currency's gonna collapse - and I'm one of 'em, BTW - is this attendant notion that civilization *must* therefore collapse along with it. The USA **will** turn into Mad Max-land overnight, because....well, just because. ZH ran another post awhile back (http://www.zerohedge.com/news/monetary-endgame-score-date-hyperinflation...), detailing the 5 dozen or so hyperinflations/currency collapses of the last 125 years. Am not a history major, but off the top of my head, I'd say there was a 'total societal collapse' in only about 10% of those cases - and most of those were due to revolutions or a ruthless authoritarian government doing whatever it took/killing as many as it took to stay in power. (The Congo in 1991 & '98; Zimbabwe in 2005-'08; USSR '22-'24, etc.)
Outside of, say, Detroit & Cleveland & Newark & St. Louis & New Orleans, do y'all *really* think that's gonna happen all across a country where the people own at least 250 million firearms? If the currency or government falls, and the cops stay home, and the feral assholes try to run wild, do you *really* think death squads won't form up quick quick to hunt 'em down and put an end to that shit? Do you *really* think full-grown men will stand by and just watch their friends and family be butchered by the feral scum? Srsly??
" do you *really* think death squads won't form up quick quick to hunt 'em down and put an end to that shit?"
Am I the only one that got a boner reading that?
Who are they going to hunt down?
Libberuls?
Uhm, you're talking about some serious kink here:
Pussy you can nail down?
Not that there's anything wrong with that...
Dilithium Crystals...next gen value storage!
Precious metals... lead, brass and blued steel.
Buy, buy, buy!
Original comic book art.........
How long does that burn?
5). Hot babes with machine guns in their hands and a camo crop top!!
Hubba Hubba! That'll draw 'em into Barter Town!
There was a gun in that picture? Hmm, let me look again.
Is hot until they chase you out of the house and down the street with one...
She's guarding my front door.
In case you're wondering.
Who's guarding your back door?
The Bernak.
darteaus
Just ask some Greeks
Red Mercury.
I don't buy the rare coin argument. Hell at least rare wine you can drink.
well you should know Mad Max was way into rare die break error coins. And alpo.
And luxury watches are some of the most retarded investments ever. If you spent more than $500 for a watch, you're an idiot. My watch cost $150 and has a titanium shell that doesn't leave glaring scratches, with the actual glass being on a lower plane than the metal, which means the glass never gets scratched with lateral movement on a surface. I opted for a leather strap and shit is heavy duty. If you want a good watch, this is what I'd recommend. A $200k watch is actually... *gasp*... not worth $200k.
http://www.bertucciwatches.com/Bertucci/WATCHES.html
I think the key is using an expensive watch to transport your wealth, across borders etc. if you don't have a gold watch you have a gold soveriegn sewed in your pants.
Here's Simon Black trying to barter his watch... "It tells time simultaneously in Beverly Hills, Monte Carlo, London, Paris, Rome, & Gstaad"
~~~
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jLo7tHDHgOc
Hey Simon ~ In Philadelphia, it's worth $50 bucks...
Haha this is just spot on
Gold belt buckle.
gorilla glass watches.
thanks, those are kick ass watches, I have added them to my list.
http://thinkingaboot.blogspot.ca/2011/10/not-survivalist.html