What to do for "bartering" during/after collapse? Gold? Money? Goods?

I don't think having a store house of goods to barter would be a good idea.

Calling attention to yourself will just bring trouble in the form of ruthless gangs of ruffians and squinty eyed opportunists.

Read "The Road" or see the movie.

originally posted by: olaru12
I don't think having a store house of goods to barter would be a good idea.

Calling attention to yourself will just bring trouble in the form of ruthless gangs of ruffians and squinty eyed opportunists.

Read "The Road" or see the movie.

i was going to post this myself, but no point putting it twice so i will just star and quote you

NOTHING don't bring attention to yourself , when stuff runs out people will come for you.

Q

a reply to: odaeio

Your whole argument is contingent on an "if". IF the world bases its currency on this, but the world determines its currency organically at the time. Why would I want to waste 1 hour carving a chip when I could better spend my 1 hour doing something that actually helps my survival? If through doing this task, I accumulate more than I need to survive, I can use that extra to trade for something else I need. That is basic trade. The only things with value in a shtf scenario are things that directly help you survive. Chips, coins, money, gold is all meaningless in such a world. We can worry about making a standardized currency once we aren't worried about raiders coming and stealing our crap in the middle of the night because we've organized working governments to police against this.

Since I go back to the days of Y2K, I have some insights here. First off, I had rolls and rolls and rolls of toilet paper and paper towels in a cabin attic; boy did the mice love chewing it all up into confetti. Second, I have wanted to put aside whiskey for years, and had the idea of 'buy one, put one aside for a rainy day'.... but the rainy day is always tomorrow. Epic fail. But it's still a good idea. When TSHTF, a new bottle of something really good will be worth anything you want.

One can not eat gold.

Food, Booze and Pharmaceuticals

They will be big sellers.

Especially Pharmaceuticals. You cant put a price on life.

I know how to make anti biotics and I plan to take many rich people to town in a SHTF situation.

IE I want you house, you land and all your food and you can get these little packs of tablets to save you child from this now deadly infection

In the event of the end Booze and Smokes will be in extremely high demand for the first few weeks. But once people run out of what they have in there pantries at home then food water and guns will be the most sought after items.

I read an article a while back about the civil war in Bosnia or someplace. The government troops had completely blockaded an entire city of a couple hundred thousand turning it into a concrete jungle. Had some good info in it about how Ak47's were being traded for a 5th of Vodka and some smokes. But in the end only the people who banded together and had weapons survived.

I also remember them saying one man knew how to make karosine for lanterns and he never went hungry.

in a Mad Max world.... the product produced at Bartertown will be in demand, for all those people whio were astute enough to have a Diesel engine vehicle ---

specifically; a Diesel powered vehicle without all those electronic chips and technology which likely made the transportation useless at the first knock-out blow with a EMP from a Nuke or a CME from the Sun
RE:

Electromagnetic pulse - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Electromagnetic_bomb Cached
This article is about the phenomenon in general. For nuclear EMP weapons, see Nuclear electromagnetic pulse.

bio-Diesel can be made from all sorts of shrubbery/lawn-waste/garbage/bio-mass/ from all of nature around you...renewable resources galore... all you need is a fuel source to heat the Still full of bio-mass
and you have a constantly replenished source of diesel fuel to trade-barter-sell for a cut-of-the-action from the local strong-arm authority of the area

a reply to: odaeio

ITs going to be stuff to live on. Money, gold etc....wont be worth anything without food, shelter and water to live long enough each day and longer to spend it in stores that dont exist anymore.

It'll be "stuff" as the real commodity.

a reply to: odaeio

Ohhhhhhhhhhhhh, Gotcha.

Medicine. Antibiotics, insulin, inhalers, etc; There will be people dropping off like flies without these taken for granted essentials. I'm not saying this will be THE currency, but I'm sure you'd be able to get whatever you desire if someone in need of these had what you wanted. For example, say you are diabetic. Without insulin( depending on type), you are guaranteed to die. Now if I have some insulin but no fresh water, I can guarantee that if you don't kill me for my stash, you'd give up any amount of your fresh water to ensure your survival. That's just one example. It all boils down to essential items. Like others have said on this thread, I can't eat your gold. Heck, even those little no flame gel heaters will be the equivalent of a diamond necklace. Until the future world eventually can reform itself, you/we will be dependent on bartering.

I think canned food would be the only thing you could barter with that would be universally accepted as valuable by everyone in the event of a collapse. Everyone would need it, and it would be in increasingly short supply the longer after the collapse happened. If you are stocking up on tobacco or coffee, it's not worth anything to people who don't smoke or drink coffee (addictions would be a liability in such a scenario, anyway). Medicine is hard to stock up for, which I will explain later. Gold and silver are only worth something if society eventually recovers from the collapse and banking systems are started up again. To the individual it's as useless as rocks from a survival standpoint. So gold and silver aren't something you can barter with.

I would definitely have to say canned food. It lasts for years at room temperature, which is a key thing since there would be no electricity for refrigeration. It will only increase in value too, since it will get more and more scarce the longer after the collapse. The first concern for everyone after the collapse will be feeding themselves and their families. All other concerns are either secondary, or will arise from that single primary need. The need to defend yourself will arise from the problem of having food, when your neighbors don't. The same problem gives rise to the need for medical care.

As for medicine - we would all need to learn how to function in a world with no modern medicine. It's illegal to stock up on prescription meds - I don't get people who say they are "stocking up" on antibiotics - and it won't be made anymore after society collapses. After a collapse medicine will be bandages, salves, herbal remedies that you can grow or make at home. Just like the pilgrims did it back in the 1600's. Also I don't think most people would trade away their food for something they aren't in immediate and urgent need of. If you happen to have heart meds for someone who's having a heart attack right that second, sure you could get something for it. Otherwise it's better to have food.

If someone tried to barter wooden coins with me, I would laugh in their face. And then tell them to get the hell off my property.

a reply to: odaeio

Its a lot easier to dig with a spade, shovel's do a different job to spades, I cannot understand why people call spades 'shovels' .
Take a look at a snow shovel, totally different shape to a spade.

You want to have skills you can trade for money. Even in a regular economy, having physical strength, being able to transport people, items, repair and clean buildings, machinery and electronics are all skills in demand.

I don't know about any of you, but I'm going to be making my living by making antibiotics.

They're always in high demand after traditional distribution routes are compromised.

Skills will be for sale.

Bartering your abilities will be an asset.

Coinage is useful but has to be either made of something of value, or backed by something of value.

In a small community, a central treasury could be used to 'mint' said coins and keep track of the number in circulation.

It is an easy system as long as the coins are not horded by any 1 individual or a group of people.

I would have to agree that if LABOR backed a coins value, massing coins might be worthless as exchanging them for services would be more important than massing them.

A government will be needed as well to handle thieves and people disputes. Land owners will need to make up this council and will also have a full time job as well as be on the council. The council is a non-paying job.

You'll also need to protect our community, educate it and create flowing water as well as waste removal.

A doctor and nursing staff or at least folks skilled in these areas will be needed. A dentist would be nice as well.

You'll want a candle maker too. Light is nice to have at night.

A good community will recognize the value of all in the community and it should sustain itself.

I would be happy to be a farmer and smithy in this community. Sign me up.

I can bit, bridle and saddle a horse. I can trim the hooves of a horse and shoe one. I know how to raise chickens and I know how to farm. I am a machinist by trade but know and understand smithy work.

Just an idea, how about forgeting about bartering or any other form of divisive form of materialism, forget about anything that would further divide and instead do things out of universal loving kindness and empathy. Take the high road.

See the divine in everyone and within youself, this is the path to a greater civilization.

Forget about any sort of us vs them duality and understand we are all one. This is evolving beyond the need for whats in it for me and see god within yourself and god in others when you act.

Then we get on track to a truly wonderful society based on good principals like universal love which has no end, and not the petty selfish pride of materialism which has no end.

a reply to: FormOfTheLord

Yeah, that's a nice theory, but we all don't have one stomach, and something has to go in each of them, and I don't feel like paying a preacher to sit on his ass and talk about an imaginary friend while I make the medicine he uses to cure his STDs.

a reply to: odaeio

Services and goods are more precious than gold. I'd rather have a pound of lead than a pound of gold to feed my flintlock!

Many years ago my uncle wanted to remodel his home. He bartered his services and didn't pay a penny. That's how it will work in my opinion. I need food, you need work done, we sit down and come to a mutually agreed upon arrangement. No gold or fancy wooden coinage needed.

A deer processor friend of mine would work for a portion of the meat.

1) During a collapse and if the collapse continues like an overpopulated Mad Max style for the rest of our lives the best 'money' is stuff you need like fuel, toilet paper, seeds, bullets, cans of food stored safely. Silver coins will be useless during collapse and during an entire Mad Max future. No one trades silver for useful items.

2) If the collapse is not permanent and after any bartering period when regional zones have resumed trading with each other the best 'money' to have is gold. This is assuming that we still value things like fine art, statues, vintage cars, rare collectables, antique furniture, gems, baseball cards. If we value those things then gold will be the best way to transition large wealth reserves through collapse. Silver coins will not be useful for large wealth reserves, only gold.

3) If we return to a tribal life with only a few thousand human breeding pairs left on the planet the best money will be 'credit' and giving to the tribe in a gift based economy as we had before civilization. Silver coins will be useless.

Tampons.

"In post-apocalyptic Earth, first you get the women, then you get the power, then you get the money"