another look at barter

ANOTHER LOOK AT BARTER


Barter and survivalism usually goes something like this. Stockpile cigarettes, alcohol, mass produced items not possible to duplicate such as needles and matches and rimfire ammunition. I’ve written these kinds of articles myself, being pretty shameless when it comes to talking about anything and everything just to fill a page with blather and drivel. As far as that goes it is fine, but we also need to look at the big picture trade wise to even see if this is a great idea. Plus, this idea runs into the same problem as all your other stockpiling plans. Namely, short term solutions. Now, while I must say my solution to this quandary was simply brilliant ( assault and occupation of a dollar store as the rest of the idiots battled over empty National Guard armories or Wal-Mart or gun stores ), all that did was extend the time frame rather than solve the problem. We need a better solution. And, since a Minion First Class came up this article idea, I need to put a fresh twist on this just on principle ( okay, it probably isn‘t even a new twist-I‘m reaching here ).

*

All the good barter items are consumables. While this makes for a great built in market, it also ensures that no matter how rich you are and how much you stockpile, you will run out quicker than you think. Look at it from the standpoint of feeding people. You struggle and scrimp and save and bucket up a ton of wheat. This can feed you ( please set aside all the objections about wheat-oh, its bland and boring/oh, I simply must have freeze dried foods/oh, I’m a spoiled whore Yuppie puke and can’t eat basic foods-we’re just going with a calories example here ) for five years. It can feed you, the wife and two point five children, plus the dog, for a year. As soon as two more families show up you are all starving after three months. All that inventory, and you went from five years to three months. As soon as more than a person or three become your customer, you run out of inventory. A hundred bucks in tobacco or booze doesn’t last long at all. You’ll still need thousands of dollars in inventory and it will last about one season. Or worse, you misjudged the market. What are you planning on, becoming the sewing needle king? If one out of ten houses have a partial package ( assume a hundred per dollar store pack ), the market is flooded with needles. Your “investment” of a hundred thousand needles is sitting around as a loss. Sure, for a time, your disposable razors are selling at a huge mark-up, but it won’t take long for a single barber with one straight razor to put you out of business.

*

And ammunition is the worst possible barter item, ever. Not because you might get shot with your own inventory, although that is possible, but because modern ammunition will never be made again. Period. Each round is the product of mass scale, cheap petroleum/coal power production. Even if smokeless powder can be primitively reproduced, it won’t have the quality control and/or it won’t be as affordable as you would like. I don’t think we will fall back to bows and arrows ( and, why would you? A crossbow, while perhaps less accurate or having less range, is useable by a novice whereas a bow takes years of practice ). At worse, we will regress to flintlock black powder. Optimally, we could still see modern powder bolt actions. The powder would be inconsistent to a degree, and we might be forced into using paper cases, and the primers, needing mercury, would be the weak link, but at least we would retain most of the advantages of modern arms ( all except rapid fire ). But until that happens, if it does, you need to keep every stinking round of modern ammunition you have for yourself.

*

Another great alternative others have come up with is learning the skill that makes the modern equivalent of what you want. A blacksmith, cobbler, greenhouse tobacco grower, etc. All well and good. No problems there. Except. As our favorite “all is well, do not panic, you have two hundred years to the end” slow collapse Druid Dude points out in his new book “The Wealth Of Nature” ( he covered the same thing on his blog, but by mentioning his book perhaps I can get a few suckers to buy it and give me a commission ), the collapse of Rome destroyed centralized production and long distance trade. Everything contracted. The village or town became the new universe which few ever left. You might think that this is great, barter is all that is needed. But, with such a reduced customer base and so little surplus food or energy, if any, your new profession might not be supported, regardless of demand. He also covered how the guilds, despite modern propaganda, actually helped customers and craftsmen by overseeing quality and fair pricing. No room for penny pinching Yuppie scum who make their profit off selling junk made by foreigners. But the point is, despite best planning and preparation, worse case your great service/product is unaffordable.

*

I think the most likely outcome, given any kind of severity in the collapse ( remember, the cop out answer is “like Rome”, long but slow and a transformation to cope. I think the real answer is “like the Mayans”, who knows how fast but the end result is 99%+ die-off and no recovery, ever ), will be only primitive barter, at best. No luxuries, just eggs for corn kind of basics. Most likely, we mostly make all we need ourselves and a few things we barter services for, in our spare time. For instance, we grow all our own food, as does the part time blacksmith, so we trade some knife sheaths for a knife. I think that today’s mass produced items should be stored in bulk just for our own use. Forget trying to be a trader or merchant. Barter will be from our part time “hobby” activities, not from our stockpiled items and not from our regular day job, which is just trying to feed ourselves. Things are going to contract past the point that any of today’s economic activities will be replicated. Trade and merchants are a product of economic surplus, not of a basic survival only atmosphere. Surplus after the collapse will be far after our lifetimes.

END
The Official Bison Web Site http://www.bisonpress.com/

*
My e-mail is jimd303@netzero.com
*
Anyone can submit a guest article. No minimum word length, no writing skill necessary ( just get the idea across ). You retain copyright ( this must be your original writing ) and I’ll just use the once. I’ve yet to turn down an article, just don’t use the N Bomb or libel another that can sue me. Send by e-mail ( please, label as “guest article” so I can find it easily later ). Payment will be your removal from my enemies list.
*
By the by, all my writing is copyrighted. For the obtuse out there.
*
Please support Bison by buying through the Amazon links in each article. You can purchase anything, not just the linked item. Enter Amazon through my item link and then go to whatever other item you desire. As long as you don’t leave Amazon until after the order is placed, I get credit for your purchase. Thank you.