What will your unprepared neighbor have to barter?

I see that many folks advocate storing "extra" to barter with. I would like to know what you anticipate getting from your unprepared neighbor with your extra goodies?? Somehow, I just don't see this angle so I am curious what you might have in mind in your own SHTF scenario.

Mule

 

They could have skills that you don't have, ie medical provider is the most sought after. Let's say your daughter needs a life saving procedure to save her life, the doctor next door has a daughter that is starving.
No matter how much you prep, you cannot cover every posibility, and that is where survival bartering comes into play.

 

Well lets see...I'll take his wife, and truck Alright, on a serious note, my one neighbor is very considerate, so I would give him some slack, but the others around here, I'd take a horse complete with riding gear....though the wife and truck does sound juicy

 

I live in a rural area and the guy 2 farms over builds race cars as a hobby and is a machinest, he also has most of a machine shop in his basement, so might be able to get some work done on a vehicle or maybe I need a tool made thats beyond my scope. Several of the neighbors run cattle so beefs would be a good thing to get from them, one of the guys a couple miles away has a huge pig farm so theres pork. Many of them also have tractors and farm equiptment so may be able to get a garden tilled or plowed for a couple boxes of .22s.

Then there would also be a lot of the jobs we do now (or dont have to do presently) that would require a lot of manual labor to take care of. A bic lighter or some other token might well be worth a days labor under some conditions.

Aside from those items and needs or other services like mentioned by others I figure there could also be goods they have that would be of little to no use to them but could be useful if prepared or for me specificly. I have done some blacksmithing and could set up a basic forge pretty easy, if I can give them a roll of toilet paper or a pound of spare nails for a wheelbarrow of coal from along some tracks or for some good steel that of little use to them then I benifit from it. If I have a solar panel up or even a generator with stored fuel then the batteries from their cars with no gas could extend a battery bank.

There would be a lot of diferent things I figure the unprepaired may be able to provide me with. One of the more important, which would not work as well in a lot of areas but should here, is that even if I dont gain much or even lose some just to help out the neighbors who out here COULD feed and shelter themselves if they had to even if not real well, then they are more likely to be in a bit better shape and more capable to come to my aid if needed just as they would now.

Like I say that wouldnt apply to every place but the machinest/mechanic neighbor for instance, built me a new engine for my truck a few years ago and installed it...just to be neighborly because he found out I needed it, 'no charge, we'll be neighbors for a long time and can help each other out'. I volunteered and helped put his roof on but he hasnt aske for anything in the several years since.

Location, location, location.

 

I don't have many neighbors unfortunately. Ya know, if I could make cow manure into energy, he has a hole pit of it right across from my mail box...I'd take a few gallons off his hands.

 

While it wouldnt be a high demand comodity, if its dried in the sun it burns, it makes great fertalizer and if you goolge up methane digesters you should be able to find info on how to build them (can make small simple ones as well as the big complex ones) and with one of them you can turn the cow manure into natural gas/methane. Cars and generators can be converted fairly easily to run on natural gas. So it could be valuable so long as you have the means to use it.

 

I live on a military base so PSHTF I imagine to leave the base (to scavenge supplies) or to get back on base (with no questions about what's "under the tarp") I'll need to buy some people off to get passes and such.

 

Rodge: Man, I wouldn't bet on being able to come and go through the front gate if "t s" really hits the fan.I.E. Martial law,IIRC it was fairly common for people to be restricted to base overseas during times of trouble..with Northcom the Us is considered a theater of war for planning like any other region.
could be wrong...

NO?

 

My next door neighbors ( a retiredcouple)have a garden patch they've been building up for 17 years( leaves/manure /compost) he can grow hair on a bowling ball in there. Share-cropping a row or two of spuds would be nice insurance to my feeble patch.

 

...thinking of the 'new' neighbors and others on the block...

Well, one has medical training. That could come in handy, I s'pose, although one hopes one never needs it. Other unprepared neighbors - one has those fancy schmancy candles (she's a Party-Lite rep) who really has nothing else except for usual bumper crops of pears - to which I already have open permission and access. The others are retired type folks too fond of liquid euphoria who, to my knowledge, don't have any barterable skills (could be wrong, but don't think so) nor goods. One neighbor is a young man but shiftless in that he really has no drive nor purpose yet and another has virtually no practical skills whatsoever. In days gone past, they'd likely be 'culled' as leeches on the society.

Well, crap. Looks like we'll spend a chunk of time defending our stuff from those who don't have stuff, don't think they need to save stuff and don't intend to store back stuff when they can simply try to sneak my stuff!

(As is evidenced by last year's tomato crop. Those pretty little red globes disappeared at an alarming rate last year right before full ripe ...... )

 

Depending on the situation, they could also be very useful for security if set up right. If you are just the 'snob' liveing high on the hog as they starve the neighbors may help them selves when oprotunity presents its self to your things and sure wont care if others do. OTOH, if say you have a huge area for a garden and let them know its a comunity garden plot and they will get some of it, now its also THEIR stuff some one is trying to steal and they have a vested intrest in preventing it. If you have say 3 people in a house then its impossible to keep guard 24/7 AND acomplish any of the other tasks needed, IF you have 3 folks in each of 5 houses then its no big deal to be able to have some body keeping eyes ouat every minute and ready to sound an alarm.

By what ever means, if you become an asset to the neighbors then instead of them being a threat they become alies.

 

Good point Monkeyman, none of us are John Rambo (even if we think we are). I'd rather have allies than enemies any day.

Hungry allies will help with the garden work, Hungry enemies will kill you.

 

I Agree ammunition and good will last a whole lot longer.We're really all in this together...

 

Probably just their teenage daughter and she's kinda fat.

 

She won't be if the household has to barter to get food.

Unfortunately we have quite a few nearby that feel they are owed something from the government.

 

Base security depends on whether your base is one that goes belly up or not. I know at my little slice of heaven, our camp or very small base, the gates wouldn't stop a car or anything bigger that wanted to get through. I will not describe any of the 'well thought out' security measures, though let's say that a piece of swiss cheese is better.

As far as my 'neighbors' go, well anyone need a crack pipe or used hypo needle? In my own twisted way, I hope that this place is wiped off the map for the good of humanity. Anyone else who may be here or close to here, well, you know it should happen.

 

If shes like most the answer would be just point her to the microwave.

OGM