Agreed that "it is the last thing people would seek" ... not the first. The time line is the key. A wise friend confided his family's three step philosophy to "be OK no matter if the SHTF or not". Independently sustaining land, shelter, food and 'outside' productive work. Continually increasing skill sets to operate, master and defend the first and PMs to recapitalize your family's operations if you are ingenious enough to come out the other side. For them, it was a financial insurance policy, if you will, where you keep the premium and the underwriting counterparty is completely unnecessary. The more I see of the vitriol and Behavioral Sink in our cities, the more I have come to believe he is ahead of the curve. I liked the "no matter what" part. Best regards, T
Tobacco is arguably more addictive than heroin. It was our first currency. Folks love that stuff. In many states its more illegal to grow tobacco in your backyard than marijuana.
What if things get "crazy" in the world, but we fall short of any "apocalyptic" scenario? What if economies around the world absolutely suck, but life goes on...kind of like the depression era or the 70's? Isn't this type of situation more probable than mass starvation or anarchy? These are the scenarios where gold and silver would still be king! Institutional money and rich people would still exist and therefore look for hard assets as safe havens. Gold is considered money...just ask the central banks around the world.
Gold is considered money only to plutocrats and hucksters. I always find it funny how gold bugs say that gold is "REAL MONEY," yet we don't use it as legal tender anymore because it was demonetized by law just like any other fiat money. Therefore, gold is the world's first "fiat money." Why don't gold bugs see this? I have no clue.
Skills would have great value too. The ability to fix things is a lost art in the modern American culture. Throw it away and buy a new one. Not good.
I wouldn't be hedging for a post apocalyptic scenario. 1. You don't know what bectomes valuable in a post apocalyptic scenario. If it's zombies, nuclear holocaust, ethnic genocide, or pandemic disease, you don't know what the outcome will be. 2. History shows that in those events survival is more or less random once the event hits. And you are more likely to survive if you aren't in the area of the event than being prepared for the event but in the eye of the storm. 3. It's an extremely unlikely event. Like 1 in 1,000,000. Instead focus your energies on a more likely event like a deep recession. You are better off buying life insurance for your likely death by cancer.