This is something that has bothered me in the past. I will be talking about how it is a good idea to have some cash around and someone will inevitably say “that cash would be worthless in a hyperinflationary economic collapse” or talking about PM’s and they would say “you can’t barter with PM’s during the Mad Max end of the world scenario I envision”. The implication is that since a given thing is not useful during that one specific event it isn’t useful at all. I am just coming to see this train of though clearly today.
The issue is simple. That something is not useful for X scenario does not mean it isn’t useful overall which is the implication of the above mentioned paraphrased quotes. Look at it like this. A Glock 17 is a poor substitute for toilet paper but that doesn’t mean it is not useful. Does the ridiculousness of that sentence explain the foolishness of this train of thought? You get a thing or learn a skill not for what it doesn’t do, but what it does.
Part of the problem is folks getting tunnel vision on one scenario. For some reason it is usually a very specific one and unlikely one. The guy who is worried that $500 in small bills would lose their value if hyperinflation hit is so fixated on that one thing that he discounts numerous, far more likely, scenarios where having some cash would be useful. Also he fails to see that there is a far higher chance that he will be able to use that cash to buy goods and services in numerous other situations than that it will go up in proverbial hyperinflationary smoke.
My point isn’t that you need to think or do like I do. Different folks have different concerns and at the end of the day we all pays our money and takes our chances. My point is that you need to look at the big picture, not just one possible scenario.
Don’t get tunnel vision.
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It's all about 'just in case'. Money, food, ammo, guns (or toilet paper guns too!), training, fitness, knowledge, etc.
Focusing on one thing is like an assembly line worker, you can do 1 thing great but you have no idea how the whole process works to get a finished product. You just put the X in the O in the widget forever.
Well said. This is a constant issue with a few "preppers" I know. Some of them just don't seem to see the big picture of being generally well prepared for any situation, but rather over prepared for just one type of situation.
The argument about PM's being worthless after a crisis strikes me as remarkably short-sighted. I usually respons with "Well, after a plane crashes the parachutes are pretty useless too, right?" But between that point where everything was fine and the point where the plane hit the ground, those parachutes were pretty much exactly what the doctor ordered.
Maybe you cant eat gold or silver after the apocalypse, but the apocalypse seldome happens at the snap of the fingers...it is usually a *process*. And during that process, when you should be stocking up like your life depends on it, is when PM's shine.
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