Post-collapse barter has been a hot topic for as long as I have been lurking around the Survival Community. Yet each time I read the offerings on the subject they have left me feeling like the whole story is not being told. This is an attempt to tell that story.
Post collapse barter is often presented in romanticized ways of a simpler and happier life such as depicted by Eddie Albert playing the role of the Persian peddler "Ali Hakim" in the Rogers and Hammerstein musical "Oklahoma". He went town to town peddling everything from perfume to frying pans with his horse and wagon. A Spartan life to be sure but he was the model of happiness. After all, he had a girlfriend in every town! Or the notion of an impromptu open air market in the town square where people gather to fellowship and trade.
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In that sort of circumstance, more portable valuables like gold and silver naturally become practical currency. The problem with where we are today is that fiat currency is created so that a central form of control, and manipulation, can allow a small minority to profit and leave less for the overall majority.
A truly free, resource based economy allows all to have a much greater chance of individual success, leaving less opportunity for barons to take over an industry and control the population through economics. If paper dollars are replaced with a completely electronic system, I would expect that system to only widen the wealth gap. There's something to look forward to...
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