If the US dollar falls, does that mean that the government will no longer pay welfare, social security, VA benefits, or military retirement?

If the dollar has no value, you'd better find a skill you can use to barter. When the money fails, all that is left is service and skills.

There are pockets of people here in the U.S. that still barter for their foodstuffs and other items. I have in-laws in West Virginia that can trade eggs for sugar and the like at some of the small rural country stores.

If the economy would collapse, these people would survive much longer than urbanites in a similar situation.

They may not be able to trade eggs for new parts for their automobile, but they could get many of the necessities to survive until the economy was started on the road to restoration.

Hunting, fishing, maintaining large gardens, canning foodstuffs... they do all of that in the normal course of living their lives so that they are somewhat self-sufficient.

JDub

Is it possible that after a collapse on such a large scale, the only source of relief would come from foreign support. And if that's the case, would people be marked so that the ammount of rations that the individual gets could be monitored?

Certainly a black market would arise in this senario. But it would be real handy to know how to grow things to eat. Self-sufficiency would be the goal. Unless of course you accept the MARK. Then things would be doled out according to the importance of the service you provide. Northern Canada is looking real good.

Livestock will retain its value, so will precious metals retain theirs (esp. gold and silver).

I don't see any reason why the mark would be necessary, unless you were taking state relief aid or something, and they have some sort of system established with the mark to prevent people from taking multiple rations.

Anyway, livestock is always a good bet.

That's what I mean. I wonder what the ratio of people who would take govt. aid over those who wouldn't would be.

Also, how far would this stretch. Would I be able to make a workable living if I were to move to the Caribean? Would I be allowed to leave the country after the incident? Would I need to be marked to leave?

Why would there be such a programme in the middle of an economic collapse? If it happened, then the last thing anyone would be thinking about would be creating a registry or database of citizens, let alone tagging them, whether via tattoo, rfid implant, or collar. If the economy falls apart, the US government isn't going to be able to initiate a big new programme.

I doubt that any other country, or organization, would be able to do so also. Maybe some collectives or somethihng would tag people in order for them to get onto food lines or something like that, but to be able to transact business??

A monied economy is the only one in which the mark makes sense. In a non-monied one, people would be trading stuff on their own, not interacting with a regulated system.

I'm only imagining a chaotic situation where the existing government, no matter how financially unstable, would be attempting to organize the citizens, who would most likely be in a state of mass panic and confusion.

Personally, I thnk that the US govt has money and resources in forms other than the USD, and would probably use it as an excuse to take their control one step further. Similar to the way the Pat act did after 9/11. to go one step further, I think that the economic collapse would be an organized thing for the sole purpose of enacting another 'Pat act'.

Originally posted by Rasobasi420
I'm only imagining a chaotic situation where the existing government, no matter how financially unstable, would be attempting to organize the citizens, who would most likely be in a state of mass panic and confusion.

Personally, I thnk that the US govt has money and resources in forms other than the USD, and would probably use it as an excuse to take their control one step further. Similar to the way the Pat act did after 9/11. to go one step further, I think that the economic collapse would be an organized thing for the sole purpose of enacting another 'Pat act'.

This is a hypothetical scenario:

The dollar collapses and the country faces depression. Many people are now out of work. The citizens are in a mass panic. Rioting is taking place in many cities. Enter the government with emergency jobs for the masses. Peacekeepers are hired to assist the Nat’l Guard and police forces to control the mobs. All government employees are issued RFID-bio ID cards.

As the country sinks into chaos, the government issues propaganda to turn citizens against each other. The government takes control of all private businesses. Anyone wishing to work will have to have “the ID card.” It is the only form of accepted ID and will be required for any financial transaction.

Civil war erupts and IDs are stolen and or forged. To combat this, the government begins chipping people. Anyone without the chip is held in detainment camps until they are willing to be chipped. Those “terrorist” who refuse the chip are killed on the spot.

Many people fear that the current government is waiting for any excuse to declare martial law. The above scenario would require a few years to develop into what I have described in a few paragraphs. It could happen. The question is: Will it?

I think that if anything even approaching this scenario occurred there would be multiple phases to the collapse.

Stage 1: The government would attempt to deny and/or minimize the problem by scrambling behind the scenes to shore-up the status quo while they attempt to find a quick solution.

Stage 2: It all starts to come unglued. There are product and service shortages. Panic, urban riots and wide spread looting break out. People who are able begin an exodus from the cities. Curfews and Marshal Law are imposed.

Stage 3: People retract to personal survival mode. Commerce has all but shut down. There is alot of looting and crime as people attempt to get the things they need to survive. Schools are closed. There are significant intrruptions in services. The government sets-up ration stations that are poorly managed, under-staffed and inefficient. There are riots at these stations and they become unsafe.

Stage 4: Mutual support networks start popping-up on the local level. Neighborhoods, especially outside the urban areas, begin to bind together. This trend begins to move outwards and government starts to decentralize to the county/state level. The federal government is mired in national security issues and mass defection of federal staff.

Stage 5: Large scale fault finding as the country begins to stabilize, albeit on a decentralized basis. The world economy at this point is in a massive depression because of the cessation of US trade. The standard of living in the US has fallen across the board.

... just my view. Everyone owes it to themselves and their familes to plan for this now. Create a stockpile of the things you'll need to survive for a period of several months at the minimum. I'm a child of the Cold War. I grew up in a home that always had food stores, water and essentials stockpiled. Maybe you'll live your life and never need them. But if something should happen and you do, you'll be screwed. I know, I know.... you have a REALLY big gun and will just go and get what you need. That only works if you don't happen to run into someone else who has their OWN really big gun. And then it's game over.

the economic collapse, more realistically would more like hyper-inflation
of some items/products....and hyper-deflation of other goods/services.

an individual, queing in line for gov't rations, ration cards, food stamps,
or whatever will be investing lots of time for little reward...
it would be better to group up, and assign/volunteer individuals to certain
time consuming resource gathering.

BTW, if a collapse of Depression Type proportions does come,
i kinda think the coins & precious metals will be confiscated...
there's already many, many metal detectors out there...they will
only have to be placed in strategic places instead of airports or
sporting events as they are now.

the control of the masses by gov't, will outlaw trade & barter along with metals, we will get our meger sustinence from soup kitchens, Red-Cross & NGO/faith based providers must be certified & authorized by the authorities.
a revamped FEMA will play a role.
as will OPEC & the OIC, but that's all in a possible but improbable timeline

even if all the economys in the world collapsed life as usual would go on... forms of payment would be people doing favors for each other the way it should be! paper money only kills trees. numbers in a computer only uses up electrisity but memory in your head thats somthing diffrnent