Masterful dystopian novelist here, reporting on the predicted end of the world as we know it. Yes, Myron is a novelist, but with a TWIST (heh-heh). Take a multi-year career as financial advisor and Wall Street observor, throw it in the blender with avid disaster movie freak, and you’ve got one weird dude, able to predict a billion different futures, most of them gritty.
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Ok, let’s take a quick detour through the disaster movies. I’m not talking Zombie apocalypse or invasion of the bug-eyed monsters (boring, and shopping beforehand won’t help you anyway), but how about Blade Runner? For that future, you’ll need a trenchcoat, a meager paycheck and an attitude. Or how about 2012 – the one with the giant tidal waves inundating the Himalayan mountains – closer to home on the economic issues here, since you’ll need a lot of cash and/or a Nobel prize to buy your seat on the high-tech ark. And I paid close attention to The Day After Tomorrow, in which New York City first drowns, then – bonus! – freezes solid, and Dennis Quaid makes his way through the new Ice Age on – must be – pure testosterone, since we never learn how he paid for his dogsled or snowmobile or whatever it is he uses to get around….
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So, dear readers, shall I advise you to stockpile gold bullion and bullets? Noooo, actually end-of-the-world economics will not be based at all on gold — can’t eat it, and it won’t prevent sunburn or cure warts or do anything else useful, therefore you won’t be able to trade it for much because in addition to being useless, it is heavy to carry around. You and everyone else will have more important things to think about than jewelry.
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Ok, what about bullets? Yes, you would think they might be a good medium of exchange, at least until they are all used up or the guns break or rust. But bullets will not be a universal currency — only those with the right type of guns that utilize the type of bullets you happen to have will be interested in bartering with you. And once you’ve given them the bullets for their gun… well, how long will they let you keep the stuff they just gave you for the bullets? Maybe this will work if you have more and better guns than they do. But the odds are against being able to get the stuff you want with bullets, unless you put the bullets in your own gun, thence to rob and/or kill, which brings up more fundamental issues than dystopian economics…
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Returning to the subject at hand, let’s look at other possible media of exchange. How about coffee? Soon to become rare, coming all the way from Central and South America, and valuable as a stimulant. Say, speaking of stimulants, might as well throw some of that Columbian marching powder on the back of the donkey or in the hold of the sailboat as you bring it north…
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Hmmm. Sailboat — now there’s an idea — a boat that can carry heavy loads from place to place without fossil fuel. Might be handy to have.
But since not everyone will acquire a sailboat — or a donkey — just in case the world might come to an end, let’s bring this down to a more basic level. How about band-aids and antiseptic ointment? Aspirin? Chapsticks? These are small and inexpensive items, easy to stockpile, that just about everyone will want once the world comes to an end, since there will be a lot of headaches, infections and chapped lips. Could I trade you two chapsticks for a chicken? Well, alright, I’ll make it three.
by
Author of Twist
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