THAT is the question!
Energy and food prices – outta sight!
Consumer confidence is DOWN,
job losses abound.
Infation,
stagflation,
recession, and depression.
We’re all gonna die.
Hoarding – you in or out?
It’s official – hoarding has begun!
March 7th news article: Already we have riots, hoarding, panic: the sign of things to come?
India, March 7th, news article: India curbs wheat purchase by firms to check hoarding.
February 18th, news article: Venezuela accuses company of hoarding food.
March 3rd, news article: Zimbabwe bans “unlawful hoarding”.
March 4th, news article: Pakistan rice hoarding give way to price hike.
February 21, news article: India – states get extension to act against wheat hoarding.
Woo-hoo! Bad times, bad times – what-chya gonna do?
Hoarding in bad times is good for you, bad for society. Good for you, because, in times of recession and inflation, you secured products in advance when prices were lower. If shit hits the fan, you’ve got a stockpile of resources that’ll be in mega-demand at mega-prices. Bad for society, because hoarding begets hoarding. One person starts it, others figure they’d better do the same, and suddenly the shortages aren’t a result of supply and demand, but because of hoarding. This happened post-Katrina even in Maine. The news media went wild with how much gas would soon cost, whether shortages would occur, and EVERYONE went to the gas station to tank up, top off, and fill gas cans. Gas stations ran dry – due to hoarding.
Of course, there’s hoarding and then there’s compulsive hoarding. Scope this action:
Ever meet a person that’s a compulsive hoarder? I have. It’s sketchy, they’re very protective of their useless crap. I find throwing crap out rather liberating, but maybe that’s just me. In any case, I’ve also met old dudes and dudettes that lived during the Great Depression. They all had two things in common: 1) they didn’t trust banks, and 2) they kept everything. Would that learned survivalist instinct make them compulsive hoarders by today’s standards? I don’t know, that’s too deep for a Sunday morning.
– Ranger Man
8 comments
I read a study where researchers dug down into garbage dumps and dated the layers of trash. They found areas with far larger than normal amounts of spoiled meats and other foods.
It turns out that during hurricane and other impending natural disaster warnings people rush to the supermarkets and buy up meat and other perishables – and end up weeks later throwing them out because of spoliage.
The thing is, if you are going to horde you should really do it wisely.
Hoarding is a word with big time negative connontations. Purchasing all the wheat in town during SHTF and charging 3x what u paid (if selling at all)would be hoarding but going to the local big box tommarow and getting a hundred points of rice would not be hoarding. Get ur preps somewhat squared NOW so u don’t need to fight over and “hoard” stuff down the road.
Matthew Simmons, the well-respected “peak oil” evangelist, is predicting “spot shortages” for gasoline this year.
{He runs Simmons Int’l, “the only independent investment bank specializing in the entire spectrum of the energy industry”
http://www.simmonsco-intl.com/research.aspx?Type=msspeeches }
I highly recommend his slideshow presentations. They are sobering.
As he tells it, there is an amount of petroleum liquids in all the pipes that is necessary to keep the system running — sort of like your “priming” a pump. He claims that as soon as people hear of a station or two running out of gas, everyone will start “topping off” their tanks, not running on 1/3 tank like they do now. This will rifle through the whole system …causing more and more shortages. We’re in for an interesting year.
Stockpiling the basics for your own use is “Hoarding”, Stockpiling so you can make absurd profits is known as “Price Gouging”, which is illeagal in some states after the TSHTF has happened. In a TEOTWAWKI, price gouging could very well be punishable by facing a firing squad.
Getting ready for the last nine years and the first thing that I did was to move the hell out of CA and into the woods of OR…..food for five years and all the water by gravity for free from a creek.
“To be ready is not”… Ponce
I pre fer the term” Food Collector” and perhaps a connisuer of all things freeze dried with a long shelf life. If I save all my money and put it in the bank is that Hoarding or being frugal with my resources? If I invest in things that turn a profit down the road ie.
food stuffs wouldn’t that be consider a wise investor in commidties Perception is always the determing factor.
If were fat when everyone else is starving then we will be a target so” use your head or you’ll be dead”………………….
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