Planning for societal collapse. Guns or gold?

[toobigtofail]

I think guns and ammo will have more value than gold, because of the immediate need for arms. But gold will always have value, so having both would probably be a good idea.

 

[torpedoman]

Go for the guns gold is only useful if someone wants to sell something in a real shtf deal no one will be willing to sell you anything that you need because they will need it for their survival.

 

[toobigtofail]

Yeah, but gold is good if you want to hold on to a lot of value in a small thing. An M4 might cost about a thousand dollars, but it might weigh eight pounds and be about three feet long. An ounce of gold is currently worth more than a thousand dollars, and if stuff gets worse, it might go up in value.

 

[doghouse]

My wife and i have an agreement she bye jewelry i by guns and we both stock pile food ammunition . The people that only by gold and have nothing too keep it with or anything else they own will lose everything too someone with a gun.

 

[DAE51D]

I personally don't see this as an either/or situation.

I spend some of my paycheck every month on precious metals of all kinds (silver, gold, platinum and palladium). You don't have to buy a lot to amass a lot if you're consistent. You also don't have to buy in 1oz increments. You can get smaller gold coins. I get the silver and gold for SHTF and to cover small/large "purchases" (i.e. trade), as in, "Hey mister Piper Cub airplane pilot guy, I'll give you these 1oz coins in exchange for a ride to Canada" let's say.

I don't think that if SHTF, in an economic sense, it will be worldwide (at least, not at first). Precious metals have real value in EVERY country on the planet. Always have, always will. This is why we don't trade in beads or salt or tobacco anymore.

Then I get the Palladium and Platinum for in case SDNHTF. I'm making a sound investment. Sure it fluctuates from day to day, but the trend is up. I bought some 1oz Palladium bars for $340 and now they're $547 not even a year later. My grandma gave me a 1oz Gold maple leaf she got for $300 only like 8 years ago, now it's $1168!

I used to buy boxes of ammo right after Obama came into office and things started going bad (and I voted for the guy! Hey, IMHO, he was the lesser of two evils. Palin is a joke and McCain looks like he's going to die any day of old age). Ammo was VERY scarce. It used to be about $12 for a box of 50 9mm, and it shot up to like $25 a box -- if you could even find any! So I purchased it then as an investment as well.

I have about 1000 or more rounds of 9mm, .40cal, .22cal, 5.56mm/.223cal each and even some boxes of .45 and shotgun shells (and I don't even own those caliber guns!) just "in case bubblegum" (as Chris Rock would say)

I've thought about stockpiling food/water, and I have some... Heck, you can get 35x16oz bottles of water at Safeway for $5 (and they make great targets if you put food coloring in them!). And I do have "some" reserves like that, tuna fish, canned foods, etc. but not a ton. I have one of these 3 day kits in my bedroom closet, and another little kit in my car.

The reality is, after giving this a LOT of thought, if there were some huge cataclysm like an asteroid, super volcano, atomic war, killer disease/plague/pandemic or zombie attack, I don't think I'd want to live through it all that long... I just wouldn't want to go through life hunting/fishing/farming watching friends and family die of things that "used to be" preventable (like an infection from a scratch, or child-birth, broken bones, insect bite, or whatever).

Sure, it would be fun to go zombie hunting for a few days or weeks, but always living in fear and trying to fortify your home/stronghold like that would kind of suck after a while.

Being around nasty smelly dirty people every day would also suck. People would have gnarly teeth and breath. Girls wouldn't wear makeup or shave. You couldn't drive your car for fun. Gas would be a commodity to kill/die for ala Mad Max style. Music would resort to old fashioned stringed/blown instruments (I need my electronic music!) No TV. No Internet. No nuthin! It would be like being Amish or thrust back into the 1900's where lawlessness and brutality would take over. Those people here who talk half-in-jest about, "With a gun, you can get gold" only proves my point. Decency and doing what's right or "legal" will be the exception, not the rule. Sure you could find some small village and maybe be lucky enough to join them, but again, I just wouldn't really want to live like that I don't think.

What if martial law was declared? What if it was some homeland invasion like Red Dawn? I wouldn't want to live like a "prisoner" either. So I'd probably get all "Wolverines!" on someone and take one for the team.

So, I prepare for the worst, but hope for the best. And if SHTF, then I'll deal with what I have to deal with initially and plan my "exit strategy"...

Yeah. I don't want to live in this place: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hbLgszfXTAY