What are your barter items?

[Bobby]

(26 January 2012, 19:40)Scythe13 Wrote:

(26 January 2012, 17:57)Reality Jones Wrote: Or I could end up starving to death looking at a room full of pretty but worthless metal.

(26 January 2012, 17:54)Bobby Wrote: RJ, the point of taking that gold is that one day, hopefully when things start to recover you will be sitting pretty having traded in and bought property/land.

Both points are equally valid.
Thanks for the info on the inhalers mate.
And I'm totally with you on the gold/silver thing. My point was that food on the table etc is of course the No1 priority, but if you're in the position to, take their gold.
Think about a scenario. Everything collapses and nothing goes back to how it was. The old conception of gold as valuable would be invalid. Gold would be but a meer shiney metal of little value other than jewellery. If mankind didn't develop better technologies, then gold would remain worthless. The reason Gold was used was because it allowed a standardisation of value and a transfer of property. Sounds complicated but it's not...Let me explain:

Gold was originally used as coins by the Romans. The barter system was too variable and a standardisation was called upon for taxing purposes. Since not all items held the same importance to certain people, a system of transfering those items was required. By standardising the monetary system, that allowed the Romans to better extract taxes from the people. Years later in Venice people used be in danger if they carried lots of gold around with them. They used to give their money to the gold merchants to keep in their safes, who used to exchange the coins for slips of paper saying they would recieve their money back when they presented that paper again. People found it easier, and safer to exchange these slips of paper instead of exchanging the gold coins.

That is the very basic explination of money's origins.

If mankind was able to return to how it used to be in the renaissance, then having a standardised value would be important. Gold would make it's barer a king again. In which case Bobby's view would be spot on. You'd be sitting pretty!

Having said that, you would have to survive until that point was reached. Initially stores of Gold would put you in danger, but before long people would ignore it's value. Instead they would be more interested in the items RJ suggests, seeds, and all that.

If mankind returns to it's usual self, we will be back to valuing gold.

If we don't return, or don't live long enough to see the return, then gold would be pretty pointless.

Both views are valid. It just depends on whether you think we will go back to valuing gold in our lifetimes or not.

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(26 January 2012, 19:27)Bobby Wrote: Hi Scythe, my inhalers have got ethanol & glycerol. Are they the same thing you say here? Hope so I've got loads!

Ethanol is pure alcohol. The effect on the body are the same as alcohol, just not as powerful (but that's only because of the small dose. Oh, and if you think taking more would make you drunk, don't forget alcohol is a poison....the strength of ethanol is so much that you'd get alcohol poisoning before you realised you were drunk). An inhaler shot of ethanol will lower your blood pressure, relax your central nervous system. I assume you have anxiety or panic attacks, and they spark your asthma? It'll a preventative inhaler, to stop you having the attacks in the first place, or it will relax you enough to give you back normal breathing control.

I don't know enough about glycerol, other than you can mix it with a nitrogen based fertilizer and sawdust to make dynamite. You'd need a lot of glycerol though. I don't think an inhaler would be enough.


I remember being a kid and getting a bit hyped from a friends ephadrine based inhaler. But as a barter item, I'd stay clear of them. They would be like waving a banner saying "I can save your kids lives, but it will cost you" That's the kind of thing that gets people killed.

Keep them for yourself mate. Safer that way.