salt

SALT


I’ve made many an article before on getting the heck out of a crappy location, so I won’t subject you to another one thousand words ( granted, half are curses, ramblings, misinformation and fear disguised as wisdom, but I’m still taking credit for the whole thing ), but just a short update/reminder/senseless repetition here. What prompted this was yet another discussion over at http://americanenergycrisis.blogspot.com/2011/04/why-housing-will-never-come-back.html#links

on the housing situation in YuppieLand. My basic question is this. What would you prefer, relocated and working minimum wage ( if homeless crackheads can get hired for minimum wage, now, today, are your chances as a solid citizen with a proven job record really that dismal? ) so you can afford land and shelter on a cash and carry basis, or staying in a socialist craphole that won’t allow you to move out of a conventional house? The socialist craphole might let you earn twice as much money, but after the monopolized/zoning Nazi regulations are done with you your take home pay is less. All you are doing by staying put is ensuring a better credit rating so you can be in debt your whole life. You look prettier, your thermostat stays over seventy in the winter as long as we keep the middle east occupied, but you stay a debt slave. Don’t you think our Masters understand all too well how to mimic human mating calls? It is a crappy tradeoff in the end. You attract a fellow Barbie or Ken ( fake and plastic outside, hollow inside ) and you both stay chained to the same treadmill. Ah, how romantic!

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Regarding comments on the flower pot water filter. A month to drip a gallon? The whole idea for a flower pot was pointed out to me by a minion, using a commercial company in Thailand ( or was it Cambodia? ) that sold similar pots for the express purpose of poor rural households getting affordable filtered water. They used the things everyday. And they must work, what with swamp water being filled with all kinds of crap. My only guess as to why yours didn’t work was you had made it airtight and nothing could flow. Anyone?

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A minion mentioned salt ( or sugar )as a form of wealth preservation. As opposed to diamonds as we were just talking about Friday. If mobility wasn’t a problem. As mentioned, once transportation is cut, how do you get sugar or salt ( or, far more importantly, coffee- okay, I’m only slightly kidding )? It is so cheap right now to buy sugar imported from overseas. Forty or forty-five cents a pound for around 1500 calories ( I know they are empty calories, but if you don’t make that your only daily food they will still fill you up. And if you rot your teeth really quick then you don’t have to worry about living too long after the collapse ). But forget sugar, we’ve recently talked about that. And, never forget coffee, but for today’s discussion we at least won’t mention it again. You simply must have salt and there is no substitute ( sorry, Yuppies, the MRE packs don’t hold enough salt for long term survival ). As Rawles has mentioned ( let’s not rag on Rawles, despite philosophical differences he still has plenty of offer ), the cheap way to stockpile salt is to buy bags of water softener. You must get Sodium Chloride. Do not get potassium chloride. If the bag doesn’t state which it is, don’t buy it. They sell for between three or four bucks a bag. This is a heck of a lot cheaper than buying diamonds, silver, gold or rimfire ammo. Not that there is anything wrong with rimfire as trade goods, but you can’t barter with them until after widespread law and order are reestablished. Otherwise you get shot with them. Salt however, folks will need that pretty darn quick. Yes, I realize that almost every household has an open one and a half pound container of salt in the cupboard, ready to replenish the shaker. That might mean everyone had many months worth of salt stashed away, except for two things. Americans are accustomed to huge amounts of salt in their diet. And meat needs to be preserved.

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We eat a heck of a lot of salt, but most of us get that through processed foods. Almost everything you buy has a lot of salt added to it. Not so much as a preservative as a way to boost the weight for almost no cost, cutting back on the expensive items. Granted, this wasn’t a huge conspiracy meant to hook us all on sodium and make money with medical care. Consumers love salt, we got salt. After that came the boost in use to cut costs. Once mass produced foods are forced out of our diet by an ill timed collapse ( the perfectly timed collapse is the day after I die ) I imagine the table salt shaker will get a lot more use than normal. We will crave a heck of a lot more that we must add. And once refrigeration is gone, salted meat will make a big time comeback. A little cardboard tube worth ain’t going to cut it. If the collapse never happens, you have wasted a few bucks on water softener and again as much on buckets. Literally just a few bucks. Every survivalist not in the vicinity of salt should have several buckets. Even if the salt mine is ten miles down the road, you could still see shortages after an invasion and occupation of the mine. I would only feel safe with salt if you lived on the ocean ( of course, you take your chances with radioactivity ). Look at Europe. A small continent. Yet salt mines were worth gold even if they weren’t too far from the ocean. If trade is constricted, you need a local source or salt will once again be a form of currency. You can’t think of distances like we do now, where a hundred miles is an hour and a half drive. Without petroleum, just a few miles can be your new universe.

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And remember, you need iodine in your diet. Stock some iodized salt for your own use if you can’t get ocean fish in your diet. Don’t use iodized salt to preserve meat though. Salt, the alternative barter item.

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