Lkorrow,
Heh! Thanks for the ideas, but I don't think those suggestions are going to work. I'd need to build a few climate controlled barns to store enough toys and tennis shoes for them to really matter - unless you're talking about the pricey things like the new 3DS or whatever this year's equivalent of Air Jordans might be. I'd otherwise be at a loss trying to decide whether my TEOTWAWKI preparations should consist mostly of stockpiled Barbie dolls or Hot Wheels!
Mind you, I *have* stocked away a few pairs of tennis shoes and a lifetime's supply of rubber and leather boots, but they're for my use, not for black market trading. I know I'll spend a lot of time walking my land in the years to come. Boots hold up well and are very useful, but I don't see the demand for them ever being great enough to buy thousands of dollars' worth today.
Some of your other ideas are good ones, but they won't work either. Food can't be preserved. Even dried food has a 20 year life span at best, and its nutritional value decreases throughout that period. Clothing gets eaten by bugs. Shelter . . . can't be stockpiled and is a net CONSUMER of wealth, not a real means of preserving it. (How much is the typical home from 200 years ago worth today??? The answer is ZERO - since it was long ago demolished.) And almost all of your ideas take some serious amounts of space.
Your maybe we can just avoid economic collapse isn't too helpful. That's out of my control. Yours too. It's also completely unrealistic. You must not have really looked at the numbers.
The Federal debt is around $600,000 per household . . . and growing rapidly. Throw all the other types of debt on top of that, and I don't even know what it comes to. A million dollars might be a good ballpark figure. Factor in the complete apathy today's politicians have for the problem, and I don't see how you can possibly think this thing is survivable. We've already hit the iceberg. The only question now is when and where the ship goes down.
My guns are small and probably average $500 apiece. They'll last practically forever, they're useful, and demand for them will probably go up. If times get *really* bad or the nation continues its plunge toward European-style socialism, certain people will give me a lot for them. And yes, I'm thinking here of the black market demand.
Ammunition is surprisingly expensive already. Many of my bullets run 75 cents apiece... and some are over a dollar. Peoples' guns will be useless without bullets.
So that's the sort of thing I've been buying in quantity now that I'm no longer falling for the fallacy of continued "saving." Savers are PREY these days. I'm not going to be stupid enough to encourage these damned parasites to feed on me and my family by putting all of my hard-earned money into the same places sheep put their money, and then seeing how long it takes for the wolves to take it away.
Is that YOUR plan, btw? Or do you plan to just keep hoping that economic collapse is avoided . . . somehow??? (That's clo's plan. You see how the Conservatives and the Liberals can actually be very similar?) At some point, you'll only have yourself to blame if this thing collapses on you. It might take me out too, but at least I'm TRYING to get out of its way.
You're a smart lady. You know enough to do the math, reach the correct conclusions, and prepare. If you don't do that, then the amount of moral high ground you can claim will be considerably less than you might end up wishing it was.
If you have any other suggestions on what I should be buying, please let me know. So far, I've only been critical, but I *do* appreciate your toughts. You, at least, have your brain engaged. I wish I could say the same about the overwhelming majority of others.
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