The world is full of greedy and aggressive people and conflict inside and outside of nations shows no sign of ebbing. I don't claim to understand how commodities trading works, but there is never any shortage of crises in the world and the next time one heads our way, the price of gold will probably climb again.
Having said that, I still think the best investment is to build your skills and tools- in food production and storage, in first aid, in makeshift sanitation and water collection and purification, in heating and cooking with passive solar or wood - just because you never know when hard times will come to you personally or to the place where you live. YouTube has a large number of vids on these topics - many of them offer low cost, homemade ways of
accomplishing various self-suffiency goals and often they use recycled materials for projects. You have to use discernment, of course, because not everyone truly knows what he or she is talking about. For something like canning, I would probably talk to your local extension office for instance just to be on the safe side. But otherwise, there is an amazing amount of innovation on YouTube regarding these topics.
You can only sell gold or electronics with gold in them if there are buyers. But if you have something someone actually needs for survival, you can barter if for something you need.
People fear a collapse of civilization if the economic system collapses but I think the more that neighborhoods, towns and cities can take care of their own needs, the less likely that would be. My grandmother told me that our area wasn't hit as hard as the cities during the Great Depression because we were a farming community - she had chickens in the backyard and they lived in town.
Bookmarks