Return To Bartering?

barteringIs there a chance our modern society might return to the “primitive” notion of bartering? The National Inflation Association seems to think so and their theory on how we could regress makes a lot of sense to us at Holistic Survival. It doesn’t take much of an imaginative stretch to envision events playing out a bit like the following.

It starts with the present government’s out-of-control currency printing policies. Let’s follow that to its natural conclusion, which is runaway inflation like we’ve seen historically in the Weimar Republic and more recently in Zimbabwe. In inflationary America, the NIA foresees societal collapse leading to class warfare and Americans starving. Almost impossible to imagine, hmm? This nation has existed in a bubble for some time now, generally isolated from huge, lingering calamity. But how will we handle it when grocery store shelves are empty and it takes a weekly paycheck to buy a loaf of bread?

From class warfare and starvation we move on to isolated pockets of people who have returned to the system of bartering in exchange for goods and services. Those American dollars in your pocket? The only thing they’ll be good for is kindling when the nights get cold and you need a fire starter. With the government fallen and disbanded, there will be no currency for a while.

Eventually, a gold and silver-based monetary system will rise again, hopefully built on the lessons learned from the people in power now: the ones with a legitimate chance to achieve what the Redcoats, Nazis, Japanese, and Russians couldn’t – the destruction of America as a nation. Maybe it won’t play out like this and maybe bartering will remain a quaint footnote to primitive trade but, then again, maybe it won’t.

Do you trust the government enough to bet your life and that of your family’s?

The Holistic Survival Team

HolisticSurvival.com

Flickr / Martin Burns