Canfield
Member
Wouldn't it be easier to buy that stuff now than to stockpile some other commodity hoping you can barter for those items in the event that things get so bad you have to barter?
Handgun Economic Fodder
- Thread starter SharpsDressedMan
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Wouldn't it be easier to buy that stuff now than to stockpile some other commodity hoping you can barter for those items in the event that things get so bad you have to barter?
SharpsDressedMan
member
Guns and ammo stockpile and store more easily than toilet paper and food.
mes227
Member
Perhaps. But you can't possible prepare fully for every possible type of disaster. So, what I your are well prepared for, say a general economic collapse but failed to anticipate a nuclear disaster. While you have plenty of beans and water you have no potassium iodine or docimeters.
I keep two week supply of food and water. I would not buy more because if car runs over me it would be shame for large stockpile to go bad. Never understood people who buy Christmas stuff after holiday at reduced cost to use next year....never plan that far ahead myself.
Canfield
Member
You also can't anticipate what someone else in a hypothetical barter situation might want in exchange for their goods. That's one of the problems with barter.
If you collected Mauser Broomhandles, GI 1911s, German Lugers, Colt Peacemakers and so on, I think you could end up with a portfolio that is valuable in both good and bad times. If you've got a heap of police turn-in Glocks, I don't think you'd ever get your money back unless you are gambling on coming out ahead in the Apocolypse.
Certaindeaf
member
Cheez Wiz lasts four thousand years and costs forty seven cent. Give me all your amoe and I'll let you smell it.
MtnCreek
Member
If this is a plot to convince your wife that purchasing a lot more guns is a sound financial plan, then I’m all for it. If your wife is going to read this thread, let me know and I'll delete this post so she doesn't get wind of your plan. 
If you're in it, you kinda already missed the boat...
cougar1717
Member
Bomb shelter sales through the roof.
Ammo and gun sales back up.
This is how I know it's an election year!
SharpsDressedMan
member
Unlike the stock market, guns don't seem to lose 30% in a bad econimic year.................
beatledog7
Member
Two ponderings:
The US Gov't once confiscated all civilian-held gold, or most of it anyway. They've never done the same regarding firearms.
When the economy goes kaput and "precious" metals' intrinsic value will be proven to be only speculative. A coin is functionally worthless when nobody is willing to trade anything for it.
The US Gov't once confiscated all civilian-held gold, or most of it anyway. They've never done the same regarding firearms.
When the economy goes kaput and "precious" metals' intrinsic value will be proven to be only speculative. A coin is functionally worthless when nobody is willing to trade anything for it.
dogtown tom
Member
Only bullion, not coins.
SharpsDressedMan
member
By demanding surrender of gold certificate and silver certificate curency, the US government pretty much confiscated the gold and pure silver coin.
dogtown tom
Member
Uh........they printed silver certificates into the mid 1960's. At no time was anyone required to surrender any silver certificate. Gold certificates had to be turned in in 1933.
Dr_B
member
My thoughts on societal collapse:
- Have one, maybe two, reliable revolvers, a rifle, and a shotgun. One of the handguns, and maybe the rifle, should be in .22lr.
- Have a fixed-bladed knife.
- Have a few boxes of ammo for all guns. But have lots of .22lr. .22's will be currency. They're light and can serve all sorts of purposes. For weapons other than .22, ammo is heavier. If you have to move somewhere else, how much .45ACP can you reasonably carry? Not as much as you could carry if it were .22lr.
- Money you had in the bank or in stocks, etc. will be worthless. Forget about it. Skills you possess will make you worth something.
- Hunting will only go so far. The .22 will be the cartridge of choice for killing game and that will not be due to its power. What do you think will happen to the animals available to hunt once everyone is hungry? How long will the blackbirds, deer, pheasant, and neighborhood pets last when everyone suddenly has to find their own meat? If you shoot an animal with a high-powered rifle, everyone who can hear it will know that A. You have a rifle and ammo and B. You probably now have food. Shoot it with a .22 and at least fewer people will know.
Books to read on the topic:
- One Second After
- Earth Abides
- Alas, Babylon
- The Road
- Have one, maybe two, reliable revolvers, a rifle, and a shotgun. One of the handguns, and maybe the rifle, should be in .22lr.
- Have a fixed-bladed knife.
- Have a few boxes of ammo for all guns. But have lots of .22lr. .22's will be currency. They're light and can serve all sorts of purposes. For weapons other than .22, ammo is heavier. If you have to move somewhere else, how much .45ACP can you reasonably carry? Not as much as you could carry if it were .22lr.
- Money you had in the bank or in stocks, etc. will be worthless. Forget about it. Skills you possess will make you worth something.
- Hunting will only go so far. The .22 will be the cartridge of choice for killing game and that will not be due to its power. What do you think will happen to the animals available to hunt once everyone is hungry? How long will the blackbirds, deer, pheasant, and neighborhood pets last when everyone suddenly has to find their own meat? If you shoot an animal with a high-powered rifle, everyone who can hear it will know that A. You have a rifle and ammo and B. You probably now have food. Shoot it with a .22 and at least fewer people will know.
Books to read on the topic:
- One Second After
- Earth Abides
- Alas, Babylon
- The Road
Certaindeaf
member
True. Honor and ability do and will have worth.
I've tried to cover both my bases. I used to be someone who made very, very poor financial decisions but in recent years I've tried to turn that around.
1) Retirement plan - Stocks, options, mutual funds, real estate. I contribute at least 10% of my income (and try to hit 20%) for retirment. My goal is pretty traditional - growth on average in the 8-10% range, and early retirement if I hit a set number. I'm a hands-on guy who dabbles in a variety of investment philosophies (i.e. both random walk and value investing), but so far I've done better than the market so I know its possible.
2) Survival plan - 30 day supply of food on hand (next goal is 6 months). 2 weeks worth of water on hand, with the option to filter more (long-term goal is to have an out of the way place with a well). A modest gun collection and ammo to feed them. Decent aid bag on hand (long-term goal is to meet and marry a good-looking trauma surgeon
).Plan 2 exists in case plan 1 fails. It's completely separate, and I don't cross the wires on the plans; I wouldn't cash out my 401k and IRA for firearms.
To me, if scenario 1 fails due to the economy, retirement as I had hoped it would be is now gone. While it's possible that certain firearms will go up in value, there's also a chance that the law could be changed to turn you into a felon for continuing to hold your collection, and separate from any lawless SHTF scenario. Examples NFA '34, GCA '68, AWB '94. In that case, your investment goes to zero or damn near. I consider it possible enough that I wouldn't bet my retirement on it.
SharpsDressedMan
member
Silver certificates have been withdrawn from circulation continually by the Feds for years, whenever they pass through systems allowing for same (just as worn out bills are pulled). Collectors, etc, still hang on to some, but probably 95% or more have been removed from circulation. Your paper money will no longer get you real silver anymore....may be silver plated copper (or now, maybe even a cheaper metal alloy). As our economy fails, so will the effectiveness of government. With less taxes resulting from less nationwide employment, government layoffs will cause social services to decline, and that will include law enforcement. Any new gun bans will, in all practicality, probably not be enforceable, and the problem of prison space will become a bigger one as there will be less money for prisons and guards. With the number of guns in civilian hands, and all the other problems that will escalate from a collapse, do you really think any remaining police will be able to disarm the populace, or dare to try? Katrina's gun confiscations were only possible because the disaster wasn't big enough, and people will only be fooled once (well, maybe twice)
)
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Owen Sparks
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I have posted this before but some survivalist bought a pallet of .22 LR in bricks to use as barter items in case of an economic collapse.
Dr_B
member
After all the stuff I posted in #40 above, I still have a couple of guns I rarely use and am holding onto only because they are no longer made. Let's all hope we never have to find out for real how far a brick of .22's will go as currency!
jackpinesavages
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Hey Doc B, is your sig line from Tom Robbins?
Why not? Despite the hope of a certain segment that sits in mom's basement and fantasizes about SHTF scenarios, our society is not a collapsed one. You could make a good argument that the US is in decline, or that it's going that direction. In my glorious birthplace of Wahpeton, North Dakota the police are still hassling teenagers out past curfew, so why would a gun ban be unenforceable if it happened tomorrow?
Further, if we're talking about a federal ban of one kind or another we now have more federal law enforcement officers than at any other time in history. Both they and the local/municipal/county types are much more militarized than they've ever been in equipment and tactics. Slap a terror label on violators of the new ban and incorporate it into the see something, say something psychological operations that Homeland is running, and there will also be public support.
To relate it back to the OP, those class 3 items you put your retirement into then become worthless in dollars but rich in the hard time they can get you if you don't turn them in during the amnesty period. Fair warning, I've spent more time out of the country than in it these last couple years, so maybe y'all are living The Road and I just haven't gotten the memo here. Or is there another reason new bans would be unenforceable?
Dr_B
member
@ jackpinesavages: It's from The Lyttle Lytton Contest.
SharpsDressedMan
member
psyopspec, my belief regarding the economic collapse is that we will face the weakening and reduction of of all levels of government, and their ability to enforce law as a result of widespread public chaos, and WAY less police to interdict. Consider this: the US dollar suffers global devaluation due to our government buying things it can't afford, printing money it can't back, and selling off assets to foreign countries. We will suffer a lack of confidence in the international market, and unless our total workforce accepts less money for what they do, we will not compete with foreign manufacturers, etc. If a drastic reduction of our present tax base disappears, then those public employees that are paid with those taxes will be laid off. They are not going to show up for work for free. The government might still try to print money to avoid this, but that will just make our money buy less on the international scene. If there are less police, people will care less about compliance with laws the government passes, especially if those laws don't do anything constructive.
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