Desperate Cashless Greeks Are Now BARTERING (And Americans Should Pay Attention)

Residents of Greece are so strapped for cash that they have returned to a primitive barter economy.

Farmers, workers and even corporations have begun bartering because of a shortage of cash reminiscent of the Great Depression in the United States, Reutersreported.

“It’s a nightmare,” cotton farmer Mimis Tsakanikas told the news service. “I owe many people money now – gas stations and firms that service machinery. I have to go to the bank every single day, and the money I can take out is not enough.”

Average Greeks can only withdraw 420 Euros ($458.57 US) a week from banks because of currency controls imposed after the nation defaulted on its loans to international creditors. The restrictions have prompted many companies, including PayPal, from ceasing operations in Greece. That means bartering is the only commerce a lot of Greeks can use.

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Why silver and gold won't protect you from the economic collapse that's coming

by Michael Smith (Veshengro)

Silver and gold, especially in the form of so-called trade rounds, are often advocated by people in the survivalist community – who also have a vested interest in doing so – as the currency after the event of an economic collapse or such like.

However, silver and gold coins, and even less so bullion, will not be accepted as a means of exchange, that is to say as currency, by anyone after such an event and the reason for this is first and foremost that no one has the faintest idea as to how to value such coins nowadays.

There may come a time, long after the initial collapse, that such coins will become the coin of the realm, so to speak, again but even that is questionable. Thus acquiring and hoarding such – and investing money in them – would be more than foolish.

Mean of exchange after an economic collapse or other such or similar event will not be silver and gold coins or bullion, unlike it was the case after the two world wars and during the Great Depression but skills and products and, yes, the original currency of the country, in cash. Anyone who thinks and believes otherwise will be in for a very rude awakening.

The skills that will enable you to barter for things you want and need and cannot produce yourself will also not be academic or high-tech but will be skills of the hand and of working the land. Anyone not possessing such skills will do well to learn them and, in addition to that, it will be advisable to keep money, in the form of the currency of the realm, in cash somewhere safely stashed.

Look at the sites that advocate silver and gold coins and also bullion and think laterally when you see all the adverts for the vendors of such coins and bullion advertising on the site (or in the magazines). It should give you some idea as to why they are advocating such as means of economic exchange. They pander to their advertisers or, alternatively, they are very naïve and believe that people really will accept silver and gold coins and precious metal in other forms as means of payment for goods and services.

This, as said, while that worked after the two world wars will not in the modern world when the economy collapses or the political structure as we know it today, and it will. The reason is a simple one. After World War One and World War Two people still understood the value of silver and gold, having not so long ago had such coins in their currencies, very much in the way that the Pound notes in Britain did state “I promise to pay the bearer one, five, or whatever Pounds Sterling” and the Sterling here referred too Sterling Silver. It was directly valued against the value of such silver. Not any longer and thus the belief that such coins will be accepted are total hogwash.

The means of economic exchange after a collapse will be barter, and that means skills or products, and cash, and, maybe, much later, when the current cash no longer circulates, in the form of tokens, alternative currencies, and, maybe, later still, once again in silver and gold. Though I cannot see going any further than the alternative currency part, to be very honest. “Money” issued by regions, towns, villages, and such like, similar to today's Ithaca Hours, Mountain Hours, LETS (local exchange trading systems) or such like.

So, invest in skills and lay by cash, and don't waste money and time on acquiring silver or gold. Be wise not foolish.

© 2013

Only cash makes anonymous payments possible

by Michael Smith (Veshengro)

Only cash (and we are not talking here about Johnny with the same surname) makes a nonymous payments possible and secures and ensures individual freedom.

Using the cashless payment system, which is being pushed on all of us by all the banks and by the government(s), on the other hand, we open the door to the surveillance state with each and every transaction and every item bought registered by some government computer.

In fact each and every transaction and every item purchased – so if you don't want them to know how much ammo or how many knives or how much storage food you buy don't use your debit or credit card – regardless of where and what shows up in the statistics and are available to the spy agencies at the click of a mouse.

There are many people who suggest that in order to be prepared for a time of crisis you should have silver and gold coins as means of cash currency but that is utter baloney as no one today, almost, will deal in that material, Cash,as in greenbacks, Pound notes or Euro is what you need and not precious metal coins.

There will be no shopkeeper or trader who is going to accept silver or gold coins after the proverbial hits the air moving device, not one, and not for a while to come thereafter. Cash, as in currency of the realm, is going to be king and not some trade round in silver or gold.

Thus, rather than investing in those get a safe, the best you can afford, and have at least some of your money at home in this place. While this may be considered nearly as bad as having your savings stashed under the mattress it is a great deal better than that and it also means that you can get at your cash as and when you need it when the chips are down.

The amount that you see on your bank statement is just a promissory note, so to speak, and IOU, which the bank promised to pay you but, when the chips are down and the ATMs not working then this is but an empty promise. There is no way that you can get at it and as the people in Cyprus learned when the government decides to have to pay for a bail-out they will, quite happily, seize your saving and your assets held in your accounts at the banks.

We have always been told that having cash at home was bad because burglars could take it from you and that having in the banks was a great deal safer, and this claim has been going on for ages. However, already the Great Depression showed the world of savers that having their money in a bank was not the safest way to go as the banks could not, actually, pay them back the money.

In fact, if everyone would go to take their money back from the banks they actually would collapse as they would not have the cash to hand to actually pay everyone. Banks do not have all the cash of all the people in some vault somewhere; far from it. Most of the money that they “hold” is, in fact, lent out to people and corporations and they have a great problem fulfilling even the requests to pay out several thousands in whatever currency and, in addition to that, paying for anything at around a thousand Pounds Sterling, in the UK, or the same in Dollars in the US, will, more than likely immediately bring the police into the game as sellers have to, by law, inform the police immediately if and when someone tenders cash in large sums for payment and they will stall you for so long until the police arrives on scene.

However, having said that, when the proverbial hits the air moving device or has hit it then cash will truly be kind (once again) as no one will be accepting debit or credit cards or even checks. Those will then just be worthless pieces of plastic or paper, nothing more. Only real money – and not even, as said already, gold and silver coins – will be accepted as payment, or you will have to revert to barter trade.

While barter will work with individuals, maybe, it will not, however, do so with shopkeepers and other traders, at least not for some time after the event. Thus the coin of the real, so to speak, is what will be needed, at least, as said, for some time to come after any breakdown scenario, aside from barter amongst individuals and groups.

If you want to make purchases, now or later, without leaving, especially in our current surveillance society, a paper or electronic trail then you will have to have cash ready to hand with which to conduct business.

However, because the powers-that-be do not like to be kept in the dark they try to push everything towards a cashless economy and society and are almost as far as outlawing cash for all but the most trivial of purchases. I can see a time coming not far hence when shops will no longer be allowed to take cash for purchases over hundred Pounds or Euro, or will have to involve the police if sums above such an amount are being tendered.

Our governments claim that the cashless payments are for our protection so that we do not have to carry (vast amounts of) cash around with us but in reality things are rather different and we best understand that now. It has noting to do, in the same way as CCTV cameras and other surveillance measures, with our safety and security but everything to do with government wanting to know what we buy and where we buy the things that we buy.

The problem is, however, that the majority accept the claims by the governments and swallow what they are told hook, line and sinker. And they, unfortunately, do that also with regards to CCTV and other surveillance measures directed against each and every one of us, spying into every nook and cranny of our lives. If you want to make anonymous purchases then cash is the only answer or barter or alternative currencies; nothing else will work.

© 2013

Living without money... can it be done?

by Michael Smith (Veshengro)

One young man from Germany, Raphael Fellmer, is just doing that, with his wife and young daughter. In fact, Raphael won’t touch money. When he finds a bill on the street, he leaves it there. When he needs food, clothes or other material goods, he scavenges through the trash.

For more than two years, this 29-year-old has been on what he calls a “complete money strike” to show the world how misguided we all have become about our material possessions and excess consumption, especially of food.

While he himself lives exclusively with no money, his wife uses the equivalent of around 280 Euro per month (made up from savings and the government child benefit) to pay for transportation, health care and food for their child.

Fellmer sometimes works as a guest speaker to talk about living without money, but he turns down all pay and during one of his lectures a young student mentioned, while he travels by auto-stop over long distances, and cycles everywhere else, the former means that he must rely on someone who does have a car and who buys the gas.

This shows that it all looks good on the outside to try to live on a complete “money strike” and while it may work to some extent, especially, if done right, and most Freegans can vouch for that, in regards to using food discarded from stores that is still perfectly good to use and eat, there are other things where it is not, necessarily, that easy if at all possible.

Barter worked for our ancestors and still is in use in many places, in one form or another and it could and can work again. Raphael Fellmer is lucky that he lives rent-free with his family at the Martin Niemoeller Peace Center in Berlin, in return for being the resident handyman/janitor and such and thus does not have to concern himself too much as to how he can pay for accommodation. Something other people do have to think about and while some who are going a similar way live in squats or other “free” ways it is not an option for the great majority.

However, the barter economy, to some extent, as far as food, goods and services are concerned, could work again, and we could all live on a lot less with a much smaller footprint on the Planet if we wasted less and if we would, legally, recover or rescue those things that others discard, including the food that is thrown away from food stores, bakeries, etc. at the end of the day.

We live in such a wasteful society that it should not be too difficult for everyone to make the conscious decision to use less and waste less and to use what they have and what comes their way.

Personally I love to make do with comes my way and like to make things for my use from such things that come my way or simply reuse and repurpose items of waste or what people have tossed out (or lost).

There are many other ways to live with less impact on the Planet and with less money and less consumption than pretending – sorry for saying it like that – to be able to live without money and buying things.

Having to rely on the kindness of others – and I have to do that at times when I need to pick something up, like was the case with my five hens and cannot do that by bicycle – as far as transportation is concerned but, like many of us, I am sure, I do not like to do that too often.

Traveling without money, as Raphael Fellmer does it, and not at all carrying any, even when one finds kind motorists prepared to take someone along is in the eyes of many sponging. While the person may go the way that I am going being able to offer something in return, such as a share in the cost of the gasoline, to some extent, or buying the driver lunch should be the norm as a little thank you for taking one along.

Where I cannot get to on foot or by bicycle I will use public transport, which means having to pay, but that is, in my view, part of life, and presently our system is such that we do need money in some shape or form, at least for some things.

As I said, I love to make as much as possible myself, ideally from waste materials and scrap but there are things that I cannot make or find but need and thus, as things stand still at this present time, they will have to be, in the main, paid for with money, whether we like it or not and thus, I would say, that living entirely without money is simply not possible, not for most, at this present time.

“Money strike” all sounds good and “cool” but there is an impact on a different level that also needs to be considered and while it, to a degree, works for some, entirely without will only work when we have returned to a barter economy where one's labor and one's products again have value in the eyes of people.

© 2013