In a crisis, what will be the one thing you need to have the most of?
The world is already answering this question for us.
Apocalypse Wen?
I’ve mentioned this in the past, but I am a part of various nomad groups on WhatsApp and Telegram.
Let’s just say, the groups where the demographics tilt…..older are more likely to think, with a straight face, that there is a better than average chance we’re headed for a Mad Max style society due to the things going on in the world right now.
Sometimes I just can’t with these people.
But it does make for some very intriguing conversations at times.
And depending on where you live, the chances of this occurrence could be higher than it would in other places.
For example, if (when LOL) we arrive at peak zombie apocalypse, what are the things you will need to have on you to survive?
What type of barter system will we have in our society? (I answer this further down the page btw)
The common answers are guns, ammo, cigarettes, gold, and some people will add Bitcoin to this mix as well.
My answer is completely different here. And my very unpopular response is — you are going to have major problems trying to transact with any of those things.
Go ahead and fight me on this. Many have tried.
So let’s walk through a few scenarios here.
It’s post-apocalypse let’s say…..Michigan, and you and your family are hungry.
Lucky for you, Farmer VP and his obviously hot wife are right down the road, and have more food than they can eat.
Let’s make a trade!
You: Good day sir. We need some food, badly. What will you take?
VP: Well what do you have?
You: <smirking> I’m glad you asked. I always come prepared. I have what every man here needs. Guns, ammo, and cigarettes. How about a couple cartons of cigs?
VP: We don’t smoke
You: Yeah but you’re missing the point. You can trade them to somebody who DOES smoke.
VP: I don’t know a lot of people who smoke out here to be honest. And I wouldn’t even know what anyone would pay for them
You: They’re worth a lot, let me tell ya
VP: I don’t know that. And they’d just be too hard to liquidate. What else do you have?
You: You’re gonna need some firepower to protect your farm. And everyone needs ammo
VP: I already pay a guy with a gun to watch over things. We have guns and plenty of ammo in the house. It’s been 6 months, and I haven’t had to shoot anybody yet. The last thing I need is more ammo.
You: ……. do you need more guns?
VP: We have five guns sitting around the house already. And my wife and I only have two hands. What the hell would we need more guns for?
You: <confidence immediately turning into desperation> Sir, please. My family and I really need this food
VP: Tough shit, we’re in an apocalypse. I can’t be giving things away for free.
So now the only thing you can do at this point is plough my field in exchange for food. And nobody wants to have to plough somebody’s field just to eat.
When given this example, it’s natural to respond by saying you’ll simply default to your gold and Bitcoin for exchange purposes.
This is a better answer IMO, because regardless of what society becomes, we all need an agreed-upon medium of exchange.
So about that….
“Bro, Watch This Video”
We all have friends who like to send us a 10 minute video on something they think is funny or poignant.
And we never watch them. We may pretend to, but we almost never do.
Because even if the subject matter might be interesting to us, who TF wants to stop what they’re doing to watch a 10 minute video that somebody else found interesting??
Furthermore, how dare you attempt to hijack my time like this!
I get it.
I put up relevant videos on these blogs posts a lot these days.
But in my defense, they do mesh with the topic of the blog post itself, and I do provide commentary so you can either watch it along with me, or do what I’m sure most people do and just use my commentary as cliff notes.
All I can say is these videos are highly curated, and I wouldn’t put them up if they weren’t not only important, but the best explanations of the subject which matter most to us here.
This is a long video, and worth watching every second of it IMO. But I will section off the parts that matter most for this chat we’re having.
So George Gammon did a little experiment where he and his crew travel to Argentina, and the challenge was — they can only get money to pay for things by exchanging gold, silver, or Bitcoin for Argentine Pesos.
In a place like Argentina, who has seen a magnificent currency collapse (the main thing many doomers think will trigger the apocalypse), gold, silver and Bitcoin should be trading at an absolute premium.
After all, why would anybody want shitty Argentine pesos when you could have a real store of value instead?
Short answer, it wasn’t the answer. BTC places on the app he had weren’t really there, and he could trade in gold and silver, but got horrible rates on them. Watch the video to see what the gold/silver dealers wanted instead.
He made a video series out of it. I watched the Rosario episode, it was pretty wild. It also covered why George’s Spanish is so bad, even though he had a TV show in Colombia for ten years.
The early part of this video wraps up George’s trip and what he learned.
By the way, his guest, Chris McIntosh is a South African who lived in Zimbabwe for a good while, so he has some real experience here too.
I like these slow, mature conversations, which still manage to keep me engaged, and this video (the first hour at least) really did it. You guys know me, I wouldn’t send you a boring-ass video that isn’t worth your time.
The first 20 minutes talks about George’s trip, and it’s worth watching. I’ll still provide commentary in the other spots for you.
2:45 – In a place which has already experienced a currency crisis, nobody wanted gold bars or coins!! They wanted jewelry. They explain why later, but physical holders, take note.
4:00 – There were SUPPOSED to be places all over town to sell your BTC, but there wasn’t. Odd.
10:00 – Interesting explanation on how a CBDC would instantly create a black market for things. Even if the govt shuts your spending off, there would still be things available for you. I wonder how you would pay for these things? (I don’t really wonder this)
13:05 – Could you imagine this? Lines down the street to get cash, and all you can get is $40, and it runs out every morning?
19:20 – Exactly. In theory, things like gold silver and BTC should be perfect in this environment, but…
21:30 – Well what about Tether? Remember what we said earlier, what good is Tether when they can barely liquidate it at the bank?
23:40 – And there’s your answer. We’ll talk about it later in the blog post.
Solution
It was mentioned in the video, but I missed it the second time around when I made this blog, there is one thing you will absolutely need in a crisis, whether it’s hyperinflation like Argentina, or full-on Zombieland.
And the answer is — PHYSICAL CASH
The video said it, societies will default to what they know. And every modern society out there uses cash as a neutral medium of exchange.
And physical cash IS having money “outside the system”, just like gold silver and BTC are.
Difference is, you can actually use it, and get full value for it.
“But what about if a complete currency collapse is what brings on the apocalypse?”
Well in that case, the answer is — STILL PHYSICAL CASH
It doesn’t matter how much it’s worth, this is what people will use, because it’s what they know.
Almost nobody will know how to transact in gold and silver coins, nor will they know if yours are real or fake, nor do they want to sit there and figure it out. We are not going to revert to the 1600s just because. That’s absurd thinking.
And with Bitcoin — We’re just not there yet. We’re pretty far actually.
Get some physical cash and keep it on you. It’ no different than having cash in the bank.
I always have some at my place. And I’m on good terms with the local exchange guy when I’m outside of the US.
Conclusion
If you have a conversation with any apocalypse doomer, they will never have this answer.
But it is the answer. And the benefits go far beyond a situation which is very unlikely to happen.
We’ll discuss further in future 10-Minute Contrarian podcast episodes.
It’s about to get juicy.
— VP