What has value?
Once, while browsing a forum, this writer saw a post from a traveller who'd been present at multiple total systems disruptions primarily in Asia: total breakdown of society, money had no meaning, etc. He noted that the following commodities very quickly became bartered within the disaster economy:
- coffee
- tea
- vodka
- opium
- tobacco
- rice
- sugar
Each of these items has obvious intrinsic, practical value. The value of some is tied to the inflated need of addicts (how many people could face a day without a cup of coffee?). Furthermore, according to the poster, the need for these commodities was apparent within a day or two of systems disruption.
Consider other uses for each of these items:
Friday, July 15, 2011
What has value during a system disruption?
Via Global Guerrillas
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Coffee and tobacco.
ReplyDeleteThey keep me sane and from becoming the idiot everyone is looking for as a solution to the problem.
RS
If you can't eat it, drink it, wear it, shoot it, or smoke it, it will have no value. :) Just my thoughts.
ReplyDeleteIt wasn't mentioned, but white rice stores well, but not brown.
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