not all investments are designed to make money. Some are designed to lose the least. Hopefully by the time your country collaspses you will be well spread. And being spread doesn't mean you have to be long one and short the other. It can mean being short everything. For instance in USA, what is the proper mix? Long stocks long bonds? Long stocks short bonds? Short bonds short stocks? The money I had in bonds is now sitting in cash. It's a losing investment and I knew that going in. And a small percentage has been sitting in GLD since way up there, another losing investment. I'm not trying to make money in cash or gold, but I will lose a little there if it makes me feel better. I'm only losing what I already made in the market. That's why they tell you to invest aggressively when you are young and spend your old age trying to protect it. If we are all going to lose 90% the one who starts with the most will yes lose the most, but also end up with the most. I would not advise waiting for your country to look good before investing. My country has been on the verge of bankruptcy since 1776 and even did go broke once. You will need all that money made investing when it really goes bad. Hard for those of us too lazy to work with our hands, but if you want to get in there and get dirty there are always some opportunites. Whiteshoe investing usually involves making a lot of money and then losing a lot of money. Not really sure what the country has to do with it, they are all bad.
In order to answer this question, a precise definition of "collapse economically" is required. If the collapse occurs as high inflation or hyperinflation, then buy risk assets (property, stocks, gold). If the collapse occurs as deflation, then hold government bonds (if you are confident there will not neither a default, nor hyperinflation at a later date), bank deposits (if you trust the bank and/or deposit guarantee) or gold.
or you could just invest in my company which takes a very soft metal like gold and converts it into a very strong metal which can be used to make a shovel which will be very valuable when the current economic system collapses www.goldintoshovels.com
I don't know the PROBABILITY of our government stealing from us, imposing ultra high taxes, or ETF's collapsing, so I continue to invest in precious metals and agriculture. Gold and silver have retained their value for thousands of years and the world has to eat.
I know some farmers in Texas. They won't even know it if the country collapses. They produce food and own property and are perfectly prepared to team up to defend it all. That is one order of complexity lower than the urban investor type for sure but nonetheless a good financial position in a collapse. In Germany 1944-45 people traded straight across one suitcase of precious metal for one suitcase of veggies...