By far the best SHTF weapon is a large and well diversified, well dispersed net worth.
IMO you are both right and wrong. You give the impression that the stock market, the dollar and the banks are going to save you. You've mentioned having some gold but most here certainly see you as a big money wannabe. The stock market not only can collapse, but has several times. Of course, you're more big-time than this but most here aren't-a friend of mine, a gun dealer, lost over 100 grand when Enron collapsed. For a rural Kansan of what, ten years ago, that was pretty harsh. The government has become so desperate and venal that nothing they did regarding banking/money would surprise me. How will the debt ever be taken care of? Default? The dollar would go to nothing. You've got let's say a million in savings and overnight it is worth maybe $10000. You've got another million in the stock market and it goes overnight to $100k. You've got $100000 in Gold, it's secure, right? Another poster told the story of Roosevelt's gold confiscation. Where do you keep yours? (I am not asking and don't want an answer-it's rhetorical.) $100 grand in a gunsafe is pretty insecure. I don't care how safe you think your Fort Knox is. So you've got 90% of it in a lock box at the bank. This member's grandmother had hers in a safety deposit box in a Dallas bank. The Bank employees were deputized and went through everybody's boxes, removing the gold. So she had paper money when she went to take it out. Think about all your gold hoard confiscated even at today's dollar exchange, let alone after a complete collapse. So not counting real estate, you've went from $2.1 mil net worth to like $120,000 overnight. But hey, your real estate is worth something, right? Wrong. Nobody has any "money" except the big boys. The real estate market tanks, plus they raise the already exorbitant Cali real estate taxes and you're looking at being completely out of money and unable to pay them in like, two years. But hey, you've got your hoard of weapons that you secretly bought never letting any of your "buds" on the 'fire know you were taking their advice. You've got all that ammo, right? Where in the hell are you going to put all your shixt if you're homeless.
During the Great Depression, all us Kansas hicks, Missouri Pukes, Arkies and last but not least, Okies that caravanned out to the San Joaquin valley and picked fruit lost our lands not because we couldn't tough it out eatin' coons and jackrabbits and scratching a bit of wheat out of the ground. We lost the land because the government demanded their taxes. People who hadn't been in debt, suddenly were, and then a couple of years later, BOOM! They're wondering what hit them as they pile stuff on their Clampettmobile and head for Bakersfield.
If I were you, I'd spend less time trolling the rubes and take advantage of the fact that you've got more money than most of us here.
