United States Heading towards a Depression?

I think there is something to be said for a barter or trade system. Although it would probably have its own problems, especially outside a small community, and in modern times (like trying to order stuff off the net).

It looks like it's hidden in the UK...

[video=youtube;QwzvlN_jcj8]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QwzvlN_jcj8[/video]

 

I just remember the stories my German grandmother told me about Weimar where they went to the store with a bucket full of aluminum coins to buy 2 loafs of bread and a can of tuna not knowing where tomorrow's meal comes from while the people who bought gold were sitting pretty on the hill with no worries.

 

Yeah I can just imagine the reaction when people start digging up the English countryside.

 

If this is all you are worried about then do like Mormon do and buy enough food for one year and store it in your basement. If society collapses, there will be hardly any regulated market that you can sell your gold in and your local baker can demand 1 kg of gold for a loaf of bread.

 

inb4 the Greece default.

 

There are problems with barter system, even in small community, even in ancient times.. That's why it failed and replaced..

When society collapses, there wont be anything you can do to protect your an year worth of supplies.. Once people know that you have food in your basement, you will be over run and looted and probably killed in the process..
To protect your assets you will have to be the one in control, one of those select few elites, one of those who will decide what would be the cost of a loaf of bread.

 

You don´t need to be a big mouth and tell everyone that you have it and anyway you have a better chance to have gun and protect your basement than selling your gold.

 

You don't need to tell anyone, when the hell breaks loose, people run amok. People will know what you have if you are not on the street looting and rioting with them.
And gun are of no help in those situation, even a freaking cannon can't hold for long, before you get run over..

And you missed the point..

The point is in the situation that you are describing, no matter you have gold or coffee beans or whatever, unless you are the one controlling and running the situation, you are fucked.

 

That book has made me laugh at corruption. I no longer get angry at that crap, I just deal with it.

 

There is a huge difference between being in survival mode and living your everyday life accumulating wealth. Of course, if the world ran out of water, a glass would be worth 10 kilos of coffee if you are about to die of thirst.

Exactly.

 

You can not accumulate wealth by buying something at 6 times what is worth. What is happening is that you are doing a trade (gamble) and depending on the outcome you will gain some of the other person wealth or lose some of your wealth to some one else. It is a gamble and a zero sum game, no wealth is produced only redistributed.

 

How do you accumulate wealth mate, what do you suggest?

 

wealth production is the accumulated and undistributed part of labor. Wealth is quite different than being rich which can be achieved by redistribution of wealth in the society. In individual level people are interested in becoming rich while in society/nation level the interest is in production of wealth since play a zero sum game is quite silly in that level.

 

That is simply not true. It takes human labor and ingenuity to turn resources into products whether it is farming or whether it is digging up precious metal or oil. Then the process of refining, packaging etc. begins. Wealth to me would be land. Maybe land would be the currency of the well to do if there was no currency. But whether or not people successfully use that wealth to produce the goods humankind needs is up to them and of course, if someone fails, then it is almost inevitable that someone else who is more successful is going to challenge them in ways that their accumulation of goods can result in paying off those who do not use their wealth as efficiently in exchange for more wealth in order to expand their ability to produce.

 

I'm reading it as a literal guideline. In the "pick your poison" chapter, it has sound advice on starting your own business, pages 50-53.

 

But what is wealth? How do you quantify wealth?

Money is not wealth, Gold is not wealth, Consumables are not wealth.. Is land wealth?

 

Quite simply POSSESSIONS.

And that can cover a lot of things.

 

Tangibles.

 

Lot of things like what? Tangibles, as Mike said..
That includes Gold.

 

All I've ever sought or spent money on is tangible appreciable assets. Unfortunately man of those assets were way over valued long before I bought them and as a result, while not less valuable, they are not as valuable as they had been "perceived" to have been.

The nice thing is, they are things I enjoy, use, earn money from, and can enjoy for a very long time until I decide to part with them.