Previous

Contents

Next

What You Didn't Want to Hear
by A.X. Perez
perez180ehs@hotmail.com

Attribute to The Libertarian Enterprise

Before I begin, I'd like to thank Scott Bieser and Ted Ball for their responses to a question I sent out a few weeks ago. Briefly I was asking for thoughts on why the price of gold, dollars, and euros are so inconsistent against eachother. Basically what it gets down to is which is needed for financial transactions on a given day rather than the economic health of the United States or European Union. This of course may change as Stimulus Inflation kicks in or different strengths and weaknesses in different nations affect the long range value of currencies.

That said, the lucky few of you who can afford to (not me by a damn sight, unfortunately) should build a stash of each currency (and we are talking about gold as a medium of exchange here, that makes it currency) and a couple of others against The Day (reverbrations and dum, dum dum sound effect). Which day? The day your paranoid nightmares come true and you need to have one or the other available.

The rest of us, and the fortunate few, should keep up a stash of trade goods, such as cartridges, batteries, computer chips, and other goodies that people will find themselves needing. A stash of coffee, tea, chocolate, booze and tobacco will be nice. A curing kiln and still (or parts and know how to make one) will also be handy. So will a green house or the knowledge and parts to make one. Be sure to be able to make uniquely flavored, tasty booze and cigars or pipe tobacco as the old factory stuff gets used up. Seeds will be valuable. Contacts for trade networks will be valuable.

Hemp rope for dealing with those who think that they have the right to take without offering a fair trade will be a valuable specialty item. Speaking off hemp, certain products that are illegal to obtain will be suddenly decriminalized by the lack of a state to enforce prohibition. Knowledge and skill to make pharmeceutical grade products for medical use and not simply recreational quality drugs will become very valuable. Know how to make antibiotics in survivalist conditions?

Be sure to develop a salable skill, brewing and distilling, carpentry, masonry, blacksmithing, etc. This is because there is a difference between home repair and a professional job in each of these and being able to do this work will give you something to sell if cut off from your trade goods.

Having these skills may be what get's you into the Ark, or whatever name the survival community you reach is calling itself. If you go lone wolf having something to trade and worth trading for means the new Bosses may have an incentive to leave you in peace rather than trying to kill you to warn the new serfs what is waiting for them if they forget their place.

Since I was a kid people have lived under the fear of the failure of civilization, due to nuclear war, economic collapse, weak government failing to keep home grown barbarians in line, ecological disaster, tyranny, rebellion against tyranny, and take your choice. Everyone thought in terms of taking off for the hills with their loved ones and surviving until... until what?

The obvious answer is until civilization restarts. Guess what folks, the civilization so generated does not have to be freer and more decent than the one we have now. So make sure you take the skills and goodies with you to restart civilization. And be ready to work really, really hard to create the kind of society we claim to want. Better yet, use the skills and goodies you have to help keep civilization together and to help remake America into a freer, wealthier, more stable society before a collapse happens because we failed to do so.

That is the point of The Libertarian Enterprise isn't it?

[Betcha ass, Al! Preventing it from happening is even better—Editor]

An earlier uncorrected verion of this article was forwarded to several people before the complete, more or less corrected version was sent to the editor. I do this on a regular basis because i may be invoking ideas they developed or in which they have more expertise than me and am fishing for corrections and improvements in final articles. I apologize to anyone who feels I was talking out both sides of my mouth when i send them a copy that is different than the one I end up submitting to TLE. All errors in the final product are mine, and I am grateful to people who have made me sound smarter than I really am, often without proper recognition.

Help Support TLE by patronizing our advertisers and affiliates.
We cheerfully accept donations!