How much silver/gold should I have stacked.

It will just take longer.

 

This is the new normal.

 

While I don't anticipate a Zimbabwe or Venezuela type situation to hit the US it is impossible for things to continue the way they are going. More and more have left the workforce never to return. I will be getting a check from Uncle for the rest of my life. The charts TnAndy shared tell of a currency in decline. I have enough brass and lead, I am buying PMs right now, especially gold, as silver seems to be in a bubble and I have plenty. I think you should have enough to weather a two year storm, a half ounce of gold and ten ounces of silver for each month of that storm. This is not a get rich quick scheme, it is insurance.

 

Yeah!...Right!...Gotta try and remember that!

 

Local retailers are crying for help down here, Most have decided to sit on that ass until these so called ''benefits'' run out.
Everyday its one vendor after another on the news,We need to hire people but no-one is applying?

 

Today at work several workers called-in and we were short-handed all day! Apparently Rural King is paying SOME people too much money cause they can afford to lay-out! Next week they will be asking if they can work over-time!
We are conducting interviews constantly and even have walk-in interviews, but we are still short-handed. We pay $10-12 per hour and offer decent benefits, which is good for this area. However we can't compete with Lowe's, Target, Wal-Mart, and Home Depot, but then some of the people that we hire won't be working at those places...ever! We do have a high turn-over rate and some do leave for better jobs, but too many simply don't want to work!
And yes, it is hard to compete with Uncle Sam!

 

Local Harbor Freight here has big "Help Wanted" sign in the window with $12/hr crossed out, replaced with $14.25/hr

 

Does that include Gold Eagles, Silver Eagles and junk silver (90% US coins). I could understand calling bars, rounds, and novelty and foreign coins collectables, but coins of the realm?

 

There was a business that paid workers very little. but they paid in Silver eagles. Taxes? Almost nothing, the 'pay' was so low.

The IRS caught on and shut it down, hammered the business owner for tax evasion simply for paying with legal tender.... Never heard how the lawsuit turned out....

Crack down hard enuf and a black market soon shows up. The current 'underground economy' is estimated today to be running at (at least) 15% of GDP. Bound to grow with inflation and tax hikes....

 

Didn't Texas at one time pound out their own state silver dollars as legal tender in Texas?

 

Wildbilly, sadly, this includes gold and silver eagles also - which makes no damn sense to me since they are consider currency but most of what happens in this damn country anymore makes no sense to me. Anyway, yes, even all the coins.

 

I've always thought that precious metals were not the best investment in the event of world collapse. You can't eat it, it won't keep you warm, you can't even make anything worthwhile from it except jewelry (which surely won't be important come the collapse of society) except cast bullets. Items of need (firearms, ammunition, food, clothing, etc, etc) will be in need. And none of it is for sale or trade for precious metals.

People should read "Alas Babylon" by Pat Frank. It is about a small town in Florida that survives nuclear war and how it copes with the collapse of society. Precious metals are far down the list of items bartered between people for continued survival. The three book series by William R. Forstchen that starts with "One Second After" is also a clue as to how valuable precious metals are when finding something to eat or defending against marauding cannibals has priority.

 

Yes. All that is quite true, in a full blown Mad Max situation, gold and silver probably won't be worth a whole lot. Have we ever had a full blown Mad Max event in your life time ?

Now consider THE MOST LIKELY EVENT.

The world continues go along pretty much as it is, and has been for all of my 70 some years. The Federal Reserve and the Feds continue to print and spent and borrow and print some more, slowly destroying the purchasing power of the dollar. Or they speed it up some, as seems most likely of late. Or the dollar is rejected as world reserve currency.....also a more likely chance than "One Second After". You've saved some paper dollars for old age....you get a social security check, and you find neither buys much of anything because neither of them keeps up with inflation. In that situation, having saved some in gold and silver is the difference in poverty and living a decent lifestyle.

 

Actually my social security and my savings do just fine. The only thing that will affect them is world collapse. And, just saying, but unless there is a "Mad Max" scenario all that "SHTF" stuff is no more than conjecture and dreaming of that scenario.
However, due to the confusion of nuclear weapons, that some seem to have disappeared, and that some unpleasant regimes are working overtime to construct nuclear weapons, the "One Second After" thing isn't quite science fiction. As for "in your life time" that doesn't mean much in the entire scheme of world history, right?

 

But your social security and savings might not be doing fine... if inflation, national debt, over-printing of money reduce the purchasing power of the dollar, or if the dollar is replaced as the world's reserve currency! Your savings and social security are in dollars! All of these things could happen, and there are people/countries around the world working to make it happen. The US Government doesn't seem to give a though to borrowing/printing a trillion dollars anytime they need/want some money. China and the EU have been wanting to replace the dollar as the world's reserve currency for decades, and that would translate into an instant reduction in the US standard of living. Social security is a safety-net that is there to keep you from starving and/or freezing in old age. It wasn't designed to allow the elderly to enjoy up to 30 years of care-free retirement. Maybe your finances will be fine, maybe you will get lucky and die before everything goes to hell, or maybe you will find yourself having a yard sale to scrounge up enough money to eat or keep the power on...until you run out of stuff to sell!

 

Oh, and unless the President and Congress get their asses in gear and do something about Social Security it's gonna go broke in about 10 years or so, and then everyone gets a 20% reduction in their checks! It would be easier to do something now rather than waiting, but this is the Federal Gov't were talking about... so I'm making plans that doesn't include them! The Republicans can't do anything cause everyone thinks they want to abolish Social Security and the Democrats can't do anything cause everyone knows that they want to expand Social Security to the breaking point. So plan accordingly or....!

 

In madmax Silver will be quite valued for its antibacterial properties and you can make explosives out of it.
Oh and platinum for its ability to electrolysize highly oxidizing compounds and not become part of or be consumed by the reaction.

 

ssi and ssdi, will not languish, it will be the keystone marker in reperations... after the end

 

SS will never go broke as long as there is a gov existing that can print. What the results of that printing are is yet to be determined.

Alan Greenspan, 2005, testifying to Congress: "We can absolutely guarantee payments (of SS), but we can not guarantee purchasing power"

 

Small Greek coin I had mounted in a pendant for my wife. Dates from 400 BC. Silver has been money for at least 2500 years based on this....I'm betting that ain't changing any time soon.