In my daily scouring of the Internet for barter related news, I often run in to articles written in major publications and on popular websites that describe a post-apocalyptic reality based around direct barter scenarios. YouTube is a great repository of such stories, with wild-eyed survivalists encouraging the masses to invest in the three G’s before the government collapses: guns, gold, and God. While I have no problem with guns or gold, and have a love of God, I have a problem with this kind of extremism and pessimism.
1. Civilization Will End When We Stop Caring - Look, the government may collapse (I don’t think so), the dollar’s value may crumble worldwide (I seriously doubt it), but civilization will never stop as long as there are caring individuals participating in an active government. Stop wondering when the government is going to end and get involved in your community.
2. Stop With the Scare Tactics Already - I don’t like extremism. In the last month I have run upon staggering numbers of extremists on both ends of the political spectrum. Rabid mouthed environmentalists who scream that if you doubt man-caused global warming (even in the face of some pretty convincing evidence that scientists hid real evidence of cooling) that you are a crazy person, or that if you don’t believe that Obama is a communist (which he isn’t) then you are crazy. Just stop it. Calm down. Back away from the extremes. When you harden your stance, you risk a tumbling defeat at the feet of a changing truth that comes eventually with time.
3. Leave Barter Alone - Barter has had a hard enough time in the last thirty years with insider piracy, local exchanges raping and pillaging their members and leaving little or no value in their barter currency. Modern barter will always triumph over the old fashioned barter system, and as long as there exists one barter professional in the world, the world will not have to resort to living on a direct trade system. It just won’t happen. The modern barter industry is healthy, vibrant, and coming in to the spotlight because of the real value it can provide to a weak economy like we are in right now. Leave barter out of your equation.
Gold prices have been artificially inflated based on this line of thinking, and now that the economy seems to be somewhat stable, gold prices are slipping. Where is your barter value now? With gold losing value, and your stockpile of bullets rusting in storage over the next fifty years when the cataclysm that the extremists on either side of the aisle predict does not surface, remember me, remember my words, and enjoy the fruits of your labor while I enjoy mine.
