Financial Planning for a US default

[Clark Griswold]

Levels of preparation relative to with what you think the risk is. My assessment is low, not impossible, but low, prepare as required then.

[joe1234]

This is such a fun thread, and I was originally going to leave it be, but conversing with someone who has such a radically different....perspective was too good to pass up. A few questions, if you will. I'm not intending to judge you or offend, I'm just looking for a civilized exchange of ideas.

1) In the majority of disaster situations that I've seen the world over, it's typically chaos in urban areas, a lack of supply in the rural, followed by the government eventually re-asserting itself as it is able through the military or civil authorities. Since the US military is one of the most powerful and well-outfitted organizations in the world, and you are (I assume) in the military, doesn't it stand to reason that your best chance to weather out a SHTF scenario is your association and access to a nearby DoD installation?

2) Defending your patch of land with a bunch of guns seems like something you feel the need to do in a SHTF scenario. If I'm a sociopath, what's to stop me from simply silently sneaking in your place at 3am and cutting your throat, rather than an obvious ranged frontal attack which seems to be the only thing you're ready for? Do you plan on posting guards on a 24 hr watch? How many people do you need to effectively defend a patch of land with a gun that rotate 24 hr shifts every day? I don't know, it just seems like a losing proposition to defend your poorly defensible, value-less land with so little manpower.

After all, absent a government authority to enforce property rights, it's not really "your land" anymore -- it's just land and ceases to have any value outside of what is on it. I would feel pretty fucking stupid getting members of my family possibly wounded or killed to defend a mass of wood and drywall if the National Guard simply rode in a week later establishing order and distributing relief supplies.

Logically, to me, your best defense is to hole up in a relatively unknown, isolated, concealed area that you can get access to within a few days of travel by foot, and camp out there until government control is reestablished. At that point, you live off the land and pre-positioned supplies, while utilizing a radio to build your SA on what's going on. It doesn't fit the narrative of being the gallant heavily armed patriot defending your land against thieves, but it sure as hell seems a lot more safe and reliable.

3) Finding "like minded people" just seems like wishful thinking to me, and an easy way to let your guard down and get taken advantage of at a time when people are panicky and desperate. It's like you're just kind of hoping that this guy you just met isn't going to kill you in your sleep and take your incredibly valuable of supplies to ensure their kids don't starve. Again, going back to #1, all the like minded people for me are the ones on the military base.

[disgruntledemployee]

Ooooh, can I try?

1. The military will be used to "invade" Texas. So, I'll stay away from any evil-government locations that will be used to subdue the population. Why do you think homeland got a billion rounds of ammo, target practice?

2. I have automatic motion sensing drones with a shotgun barrel attached that will sense enemies approaching and autolaunch and engage. They will know me and my family, but everyone else is a target. They'll be charged with a battery bank linked to solar power arrays. I have a reloading station in case of a large hoard. I'll keep adding drones until I get at least 50. And I'm installing well placed pop up gun turrets with that Bruce Willis gun mount. 3AM knife wielding sociopaths--dead!

2a. Those radio transmissions will be fake and cannot be trusted, so I'll stay on my "land" with its "mass of wood," but I don't have drywall. You see, I replaced the drywall with lead lined steel. And I installed a recirculated filtered air system to keep out the chems from overflying aircraft which will try to drug me and trick me into submission. Oh, and I have a moat with piranha around my "This Land."

3. Hah, all my like minded people are in my head and we agree. But I've adopted a bunch of little kids and trained them to defend me.

I'm indestructible!

Edited August 1, 2015 by disgruntledemployee

[Clark Griswold]

This is such a fun thread, and I was originally going to leave it be, but conversing with someone who has such a radically different....perspective was too good to pass up. A few questions, if you will. I'm not intending to judge you or offend, I'm just looking for a civilized exchange of ideas.

1) In the majority of disaster situations that I've seen the world over, it's typically chaos in urban areas, a lack of supply in the rural, followed by the government eventually re-asserting itself as it is able through the military or civil authorities. Since the US military is one of the most powerful and well-outfitted organizations in the world, and you are (I assume) in the military, doesn't it stand to reason that your best chance to weather out a SHTF scenario is your association and access to a nearby DoD installation?

2) Defending your patch of land with a bunch of guns seems like something you feel the need to do in a SHTF scenario. If I'm a sociopath, what's to stop me from simply silently sneaking in your place at 3am and cutting your throat, rather than an obvious ranged frontal attack which seems to be the only thing you're ready for? Do you plan on posting guards on a 24 hr watch? How many people do you need to effectively defend a patch of land with a gun that rotate 24 hr shifts every day? I don't know, it just seems like a losing proposition to defend your poorly defensible, value-less land with so little manpower.

After all, absent a government authority to enforce property rights, it's not really "your land" anymore -- it's just land and ceases to have any value outside of what is on it. I would feel pretty fucking stupid getting members of my family possibly wounded or killed to defend a mass of wood and drywall if the National Guard simply rode in a week later establishing order and distributing relief supplies.

Logically, to me, your best defense is to hole up in a relatively unknown, isolated, concealed area that you can get access to within a few days of travel by foot, and camp out there until government control is reestablished. At that point, you live off the land and pre-positioned supplies, while utilizing a radio to build your SA on what's going on. It doesn't fit the narrative of being the gallant heavily armed patriot defending your land against thieves, but it sure as hell seems a lot more safe and reliable.

3) Finding "like minded people" just seems like wishful thinking to me, and an easy way to let your guard down and get taken advantage of at a time when people are panicky and desperate. It's like you're just kind of hoping that this guy you just met isn't going to kill you in your sleep and take your incredibly valuable of supplies to ensure their kids don't starve. Again, going back to #1, all the like minded people for me are the ones on the military base.

Ooooh, can I try?

1. The military will be used to "invade" Texas. So, I'll stay away from any evil-government locations that will be used to subdue the population. Why do you think homeland got a billion rounds of ammo, target practice?

2. I have automatic motion sensing drones with a shotgun barrel attached that will sense enemies approaching and autolaunch and engage. They will know me and my family, but everyone else is a target. They'll be charged with a battery bank linked to solar power arrays. I have a reloading station in case of a large hoard. I'll keep adding drones until I get at least 50. And I'm installing well placed pop up gun turrets with that Bruce Willis gun mount. 3AM knife wielding sociopaths--dead!

2a. Those radio transmissions will be fake and cannot be trusted, so I'll stay on my "land" with its "mass of wood," but I don't have drywall. You see, I replaced the drywall with lead lined steel. And I installed a recirculated filtered air system to keep out the chems from overflying aircraft which will try to drug me and trick me into submission. Oh, and I have a moat with piranha around my "This Land."

3. Hah, all my like minded people are in my head and we agree. But I've adopted a bunch of little kids and trained them to defend me.

I'm indestructible!

We need help from Porkins here people...

We had an interesting side bar into the world of Coast to Coast AM, guns, bunkers and tin foil hats but let's return to the idea of how to preserve financial wealth if your government goes full retard and defaults, prints money to make debt easier to manage or some other financial tomfoolery.