Post SHTF Community Economies Part. 1

I have touched on elements of community economies in several of my stories. Most use some of the various concepts below in various combinations. Usually starting out with direct barters and trade, and slowly incorporating both immediate and future labor trades, and then adding pre-1965 circulated US 90% silver dimes, quarters, and sometimes half dollars, plus US Mint one ounce silver Eagles and US Mint Gold Eagles in 1/10th, ¼, ½, and one ounce denominations.

I will sometimes mention foreign precious metal coins, and older US gold and silver coins, but tend to discourage their use in direct trading here in the US. I will address this more later.

Another element that is extremely important in a post disaster and/or PAW local economy is salvage. Some consider all types of salvage operations as looting. But there is much more to it. Taking something from the person or firm that owns it in a crisis situation is looting, just as it is in the types of riots that often occur here in the US.

Community Salvage

In a true disaster situation, where there is a large die-off of humans, transportation is limited, communication is limited, and there is little or no effective government left in the area to help organize things, property that very obviously no longer has a legitimate owner becomes just another natural resource that can be mined, salvaged, scavenged, recovered, or otherwise acquired for use.

Now, if the local government is relatively intact, or a community comes together fairly quickly to reform a local community government, that agency may lay claim to everything that no longer has an owner within a defined area. This is not necessarily a bad thing, if the government is actually working in the best interest of the entire community. If not… well then perhaps a new government should be considered.

Anyway, in the absence of such an entity, individuals, families, or small groups should take it upon themselves to recover anything and everything that could be of use in a post-apocalyptic world. That especially applies to short shelf life items that will quickly be ruined by the environment if not taken and stored in applicable storage areas.

Another important resource for people to recover in an area are things that could be used by people that will take advantage of the situation to carry out acts of aggression that they would never attempt in areas that have governments with legal law enforcement and judicial enforcement of the laws of society.

Weapons

Weaponry is the primary set of items, with anything else that could be turned against a peaceful group and used to destroy them and take their possessions. But there are other things that can be used, such as a bulldozer to get through barriers, home gas cans with fuel for mowers and such that can be used to make fire bombs, structures that can be used to either hide out or used as attack points against a community. Most of this does involve actually retrieving the items and bringing them into the direct control of the person or group. In some instances it simply means the item will be disabled or blocked in some way so it cannot be used without major effort.

Finally, there are things that might not deteriorate quickly, or be used as a weapon, but could be useful in the future, but would lose that usefulness by being damaged or destroyed by those that do not understand the importance of the item, are just being destructive out of anger or fear, or simply to get it out of the way for some reason. For heavy duty storage units simply trashed in a riot getting food, that could be used to store the things that are collected during the salvage operations. Insulation that might be needed for harsh weather conditions to make structures livable. Many, many things.

How does the subject affect the local economy? Well, in several ways. One is that there will likely be one or just a few people doing it and if they are not ‘nice’ people could take extreme advantage of others. Another way is if there is a mad scramble by large numbers of survivors to get what they can before someone else does it and destroys a great deal in their carelessness.

Control

If precious metals, fuels, and a few other specific items come under the control of just a few people, depending on their attitudes and resulting actions, they could badly skew the economy, either demanding extremes for the goods, or just giving them away, undermining any fledgling economy that is developing. In my stories the good guys usually will wind up being the salvagers and then use them to help the community. This will happen in real life, but certainly not always.

So it would behoove a group to make plans about if they will attempt to salvage if possible, where they would salvage, what they would salvage, and how they would use and/or trade/barter the items.

Back to the actual economy. As I said, immediately after our current currency is deemed by enough people to be worthless, barter and trade will immediately start taking place in a community. Even in the early stages there will probably be some people attempting to use precious metals. They may or may not be successful. Possibly with one or two, maybe more of like-minded people, but not the general population.

Barter & Trade

Unless, by prior planning, this beginning of barter and trade will be one-on-one trades, handled directly by the two people involved, at some safe location agreeable to both. If there is prior planning in a community, then a secure location has already been set up, or ready to set up, for people to come to in order to do their trading. A bulletin board for posting what people have for trade, and what they want to trade for should be available, preferably with weather cover so the notices are not destroyed or lost due to weather. This could be an actual cork board with pinned on paper notices, or it could be something like a chalk board or white board. It may or may not have to be monitored or protected if people start taking down other peoples’ notices or otherwise causing problems with the notice board.

It could be a permanent set up for people to make trades wherever and whenever they want, or it could be set up during specific trade days with notices for that day’s trading. Or both could be set up.

Hopefully provisions will have been made for some tables and even chairs so people do not have to lay everything out on the ground or floor on a blanket or tarp. If there is any likelihood of there being small stock, even large stock, available for barter and trade, provisions should be made to handle them securely, safely, and provide at least water, if not some food, such as a secure pasture.

And do not forget about environmental protection. Shade at least in the summer and wind protection in the winter. If one of the disaster you are preparing for is extreme weather conditions you might want to add a misting system for cooling in extreme heat and enclosures for extreme cold or severe lightning.

Fuel

If the community is going to use fuel for barter and trade, then provisions should be made for tankage and dispensing, with at least some containers (deposit required) for it. If it is just several smaller containers, then there probably is not too much danger. But any storage of 30-gallon drums and larger should probably be segregated and provisions taken to control ignition sources in the area, and containment if there is a leak or spill.

If there might be a doctor or other person with extensive medical knowledge and abilities, having some type of small clinic, even if nothing more than a tent for privacy if outside, or a room for the same if the facility is inside a building, would make bartering and trading medical services much easier. Especially if the medical person is part of the community. A fee could be charged to an outside person that needs the facility to do their work.

Depending on the community, it might be self-policed by the participants, otherwise the community will need to come together if there is not a government established and suitable people selected, armed, and stationed where they can prevent outside interference, and deal with any squabble that might occur between those doing the trading and bartering.

If this is not pre-planned, those doing isolated trades will probably set up something like this fairly quickly to make trading much easier, including setting up some threeway, four-way, or more-way trades.

One person might take on the responsibility and set things up and charge some type of fee for the use, much like current community flea market events with rented booths for those selling or trading their wares. Or it might just be people getting together and doing it as a cooperative group.

About the author: Jerry D Young is an Author, Prepper, Consultant, Philosopher who resides in Nevada. He has written over 100 books, many of which are available at this link:

“I have been a prepper for more than 50 years. I believe that the Boy Scouts and Girl Scouts have had it right for decades…”Be Prepared.” Unfortunately, we, as a country seem to have gotten away from that philosophy. There has been a disconnect from the “Old Ways so profound, some people don’t really understand where their food comes from. 

That’s not a problem until the “System” fails. Be it from a hurricane, earthquake, tornado, flood or even a closed road or train route. The system is designed to get JUST what is needed to the stores JUST when it’s needed. So if the “System” fails, then the things we need…the things we believe will be there aren’t. That’s when being a prepper makes sense. Being able to be self-sufficient for the the time needed until the “System” recovers…regardless of how long that takes. 

That’s why so many of my books incorporate the theme of “Being prepared.” Hope you enjoy them!”