Doomsday currency

[Quintillus]

I think I'd rather have a few mediums of exchange. If I only had enough money to buy one gold coin on Dec. 20th of this year, I wouldn't buy it because then all my coin is in one coin, and if no one wants gold I'm outta luck. I also am inclined to think gold probably won't be that valueable after the apocalypse, due to its limited practical value. Plain old food may be a better option than liquor too, although both do have calories.

But if I were going to buy 80 fifths of liquor, I wouldn't make it all my favorite. You have to have variety so you can sell the right one to the person who's willing to give you a lot for it. I'd probably go for a mix of common options that I could trade relatively easily if need be, and rarer ones that would pick up more return in trades but might have to wait until the right person was there. My favorite is in the latter category, so going all for that one would be a bad idea. Maybe even worse than the gold, though if I reserved a couple bottles for samplers, probably not.

13-37 for options 1 vs 2 right now. I'll abstain from voting.

 

[Hygro]

Do you really believe this is anything other than gibberish? Honestly?

He literally pointed out your argument, and then you called it gibberish

You just called your own argument gibberish.

My choice would depend on my other supplies. If I felt my short term welfare was secure, I'd go with gold. But if I didn't feel like my short-term bartering power was sound, I'd prefer the liquor.

 

[Yeekim]

Somewhat relevant article:

And I adapted too. By late 1991 I had become a journalist, reporting on events from around the former USSR. In some places I “paid” for things with a bewildering mixture of old and new roubles, which I carried in multiple plastic bags. But elsewhere, barter was better: I used tins of caviar to buy hotel rooms in Latvia and Estonia and I bought – or bribed – my way on to a plane in Baku with a cassette player. The only currency that was accepted everywhere was a grubby dollar bill (closely followed by the Deutsche mark or Swedish krona in the Baltics). But the exchange rate was a lottery. And since dollars could not be used for small transactions, I used Marlboro cigarettes as “currency” too; these were light and could be divided into small denominations (ie single cigarettes) more readily than dollars.

http://www.ft.com/cms/s/2/c6bea54c-10cc-11e1-8010-00144feabdc0.html#axzz1eGTCGtLK

 

[Traitorfish]

Still curious how one raises children in an anarchistic society.

I'm still trying to figure out how you raise kids in a capitalist society. We're still running on a holdover feudal model, here, and it's kinda falling apart.

 

[classical_hero]

Liquour, because Scotland would instantaneously become the per capita richest country on Earth.

Then they would drink it all and be back to square one.

 

[Quackers]

I will be once I take over your idyllic little town.



That may be true in the distant future after the apocalypse, when things stabilize a bit, and gold can be acquired in reasonable amounts as to actually make it a worthwhile currency.

But in the direct aftermath, people are going to put much higher value on useful commodities, metals such as iron and copper, food, weapons, etc., and so it would be wiser to stockpile those rather than gold.

Uhmm, iron and copper? Why?

 

[Traitorfish]

Then they would drink it all and be back to square one.

We'll put the Edinbuggers in charge of it. They can barely bring themselves to drink the money they have now.

 

[Leonel]

Uhmm, iron and copper? Why?

You can make good weapons and armor with them I figure. If you were to heat iron ore hot enough and for long enough, you can make steel, which would be very valuable in protection, building structures, weapons. Copper can be used with water pipes or, if electricity is rediscovered, being an electrical carrier.

 

[Joecoolyo]

Uhmm, iron and copper? Why?

Because you can actually use them to make/build stuff.

 

[Quackers]

leonel you play too many videogames . Body armor made out of iron and copper? I don't even see the point of that nowadays ;p

..and Joe your going to teach yourself how to fashion copper and iron to something which is useful in your day to day life, like what exactly? How are you going to teach yourself in the first place? I guess 99% of people do not know the first thing about blacksmithing! And in an doomsday scenario its going to be damn difficult finding someone to teach you and then you got to carry around the actual copper and iron! Iron is heavy! Where are you going to find the forge and the tools to craft anything?

 

[Joecoolyo]

leonel you play too many videogames . Body armor made out of iron and copper? I don't even see the point of that nowadays ;p

..and Joe your going to teach yourself how to fashion copper and iron to something which is useful in your day to day life, like what exactly? How are you going to teach yourself in the first place? I guess 99% of people do not know the first thing about blacksmithing! And in an doomsday scenario its going to be damn difficult finding someone to teach you and then you got to carry around the actual copper and iron! Iron is heavy! Where are you going to find the forge and the tools to craft anything?

Just because it requires skill, does not mean it's not valuable nor useful.

I assume some people might want to rebuild after civilizations collapse, and I'm thinking that they're not going to be making hammers and nails out of gold.

 

[Quackers]

Uhmm, when did I say that? My whole argument is that being able to create something useful out of copper and iron is extremely difficult because a) you need training and b) you need a forge and tools to do it. Where are you going to find all of that? In a doomsday scenario?? So basically its useless ;p

 

[Joecoolyo]

You're implying that I'm actually going to be using the iron instead of, I don't know, trading it to people who need it at inflated prices?

 

[Quackers]

Pretty reasonable considering you said:

Because you can actually use them to make/build stuff.

in response to:

Uhmm, iron and copper? Why?

Anyway i think this discussion has reached a dead-end

 

[Abegweit]

Yes. I believe what you're saying amounts to saying life is a dictatorship. If that's your definition, fine, but it completely negates any meaning of the word dictatorship.

I'm saying democracy is a dictatorship. The notion that voters have any control over what happens is a complete fantasy. As Emma Goldstein said, if voting could change anything it would be illegal.

As for life, our private lives are not dictatorships. We freely choose our friends, our grocer, groups we choose to associate with, and the websites we frequent. Only our relationship with government is dictated to us.

To be governed is to be watched over, inspected, spied on, directed, legislated at, regulated, docketed, indoctrinated, preached at, controlled, assessed, weighed, censored, ordered about, by men who have neither the right, nor the knowledge, nor the virtue. ... To be governed is to be at every operation, at every transaction, noted, registered, enrolled, taxed, stamped, measured, numbered, assessed, licensed, authorized, admonished, forbidden, reformed, corrected, punished. It is, under the pretext of public utility, and in the name of the general interest, to be placed under contribution, trained, ransomed, exploited, monopolized, extorted, squeezed, mystified, robbed; then, at the slightest resistance, the first word of complaint, to be repressed, fined, despised, harassed, tracked, abused, clubbed, disarmed, choked, imprisoned, judged, condemned, shot, deported, sacrificed, sold, betrayed; and, to crown all, mocked, ridiculed, outraged, dishonoured. That is government; that is its justice; that is its morality. - Pierre-Joseph Proudhon.

edit: though if you weren't able to decipher what I said, I take that as a complement

You're welcome. It's still incomprehensible but now you have at least explained what you meant by it.

 

[amadeus]

Somewhat relevant article:

http://www.ft.com/cms/s/2/c6bea54c-10cc-11e1-8010-00144feabdc0.html#axzz1eGTCGtLK

R.A. Radford, an economist who was in a POW camp wrote an article about POW camp economics and the use of cigarettes as currency.

 

[Oerdin]

Liquor is something people can use while gold is abstract. In a real doomsday everything is breaking down so money is useless and real things people can actually use (bullets, food, pots, liquor, a blanket) becomes the really valuable stuff.

 

[Joecoolyo]

Pretty reasonable considering you said:



in response to:



Anyway i think this discussion has reached a dead-end

Well, I didn't mean I was going to use them, I don't know the first thing about smithing.

I thought it was kind of implied considering this was a thread about currency...

 

[CavLancer]

The hoarders of gold or silver or even booze say that when everything breaks down they can trade it for a chicken. My question is, who is hoarding chickens?

There isn't going to be any chickens, so I'll take the booze and binge my way to doomsday.

 

[Quackers]

Well, I didn't mean I was going to use them, I don't know the first thing about smithing.

I thought it was kind of implied considering this was a thread about currency...

So your not going to use them for smithing now?