(14 June 2016, 19:50)CharlesHarris Wrote: I’ve been following the ongoing collapse in Venezuela with interest. People are shooting each other in the streets over food – not ammo, cigarettes, liquor, gold coins, silver coins, or any of the other crap that preppers love to stockpile “for barter when TSHTF”.

Turns out that good old-fashioned food is the only thing that you can actually eat in a collapse, and as worthless as the Venezuelan bolivar is right now, “sound money” is pretty much totally absent from all the discussions.

Venezuelans “holding physical”, could possibly exchange that stuff for bolivars, but given the very tight currency controls that the country is under right now. They won’t be getting USD for it, and they certainly aren’t going to trade it for food, because, again, there is no food.

In a collapse, food is scarce and people are hungry. Nobody is going to trade you a KrugerRand or a box of 12-bore cartridges for a chicken, because unlike the latter two things chickens are edible, and edible stuff takes priority.

(I think gold has its place in any portfolio, but as insurance, not speculation.)

As the Venezuelan collapse illustrates, you need to have your priorities straight.

A dependable source of calories should top the list. Don’t get suckered into wasting money, time, and space on stuff you can’t consume but that you think someone will trade you a bit of their food for, because you’re certain to be gravely disappointed.

(14 June 2016, 23:56)CharlesHarris Wrote: Let them eat their TV...

Me, I'm putting away another couple buckets of rice, dried beans, lentils, split peas, curry powder, salt and tinned butter...

(5 March 2015, 19:56)Devonian Wrote:

(5 March 2015, 17:57)Mortblanc Wrote: What sort of personal information do you feel your gas meter is relaying to TPTB ?

Are they not generally inside of cabinets or some such over there ? (Over here they are usually on the exterior of the dwelling)

I think I would prefer the meter relaying a signal to the office than to have a reader tromping through my home monthly. I did not even like them walking through the garden to read the meter back when that was the norm.

As for shutting off your supply remotely ??? What is the difference between that and turning a valve at the wall ? All of my utilities are on remote reading and remote access. That is simply the way our utilities work. Cable, gas, phone, internet; any of it can be shut off remotely. What's the difference?

I never heard of a utility that required ones permission for a shut off. Just breaking the rules, or nonpayment is enough.

Three years ago this month we had a SHTF situation in my area. A tornado touched sown and wiped out a path for 100 miles, destroyed countless homes and killed 20 people.

The electricity for the entire region was shut off for three days to prevent fires. My cell phone service was shut off for two days and all cell usage reserved for emergency services. I was standing beside a police officer who was talking on his government issued cell phone and mine was stone dead.

I do not think a bit of tin foil is going to restore your control over something you never controlled to start with.

For me, the concern with Smart Meters is the ability for suppliers to implement "load limiting".

At the moment there is no need for this, but in the future if additional capacity was lost, the supply companies could easily start to restrict the flow of gas or electricity into either individual properties, or entire regions where the properties are fitted with smart meters.

So image if one or more of the UK's main power stations had to be taken off line, or if gas supplies were restricted by Putin, then these are the types of scenario's when load limiting could be applied to households who have smart meters in order to try and reduce consumption and preserve the nations reserves.

(15 June 2016, 17:28)harrypalmer Wrote: A lot of preppers bang on about hoarding gold and silver but if things did hit the fan in a bad way, what would more valuable, a purse full of gold or a 25kg sack of rice?