preparing for the next great depression... - Page 4

[Aura_Kitten]

Actually, along that line of thought: what / where is a good source for iodine? (not the disinfecting kind but the kind you take after a nuclear war / disaster)?

[ShaggyDaddy]

even CVS stocks anti-radiation pills. Keep in mind that mostly nuclear reactors make Iodine-131, a dirty bomb for instance (the most likely successful nuclear attack) will not release Iodine-131 and therefore Potassium iodide won't do anything.

Also if you have had your thyroid removed, the pills do nothing, as you are immune to Iodine-131 poisoning.

[Aura_Kitten]

Originally Posted by ShaggyDaddy

even CVS stocks anti-radiation pills. Keep in mind that mostly nuclear reactors make Iodine-131, a dirty bomb for instance (the most likely successful nuclear attack) will not release Iodine-131 and therefore Potassium iodide won't do anything.

Also if you have had your thyroid removed, the pills do nothing, as you are immune to Iodine-131 poisoning.

Wow wait a minute, so you're telling me if I have my thyroid removed I can't get radiation poisoning?? Why aren't we requiring this to safeguard our citizens against a nuclear attack???

[staceychev]

Because if the Synthroid factory gets bombed out, no one will be able to get pregnant! It'll be like City of Men or a Handmaids' Tale all over.

[Aura_Kitten]

Originally Posted by staceychev

Because if the Synthroid factory gets bombed out, no one will be able to get pregnant! It'll be like City of Men or a Handmaids' Tale all over.

So like, what, that's the worst concern? No babies?

Why not build an underground bunker for the breeders and then ----


/ getting caught up in a sci-fi scenario, errrr nm back to your regularly scheduled thread

[ShaggyDaddy]

Originally Posted by Aura_Kitten

Wow wait a minute, so you're telling me if I have my thyroid removed I can't get radiation poisoning?? Why aren't we requiring this to safeguard our citizens against a nuclear attack???

You can't get the most common type of radiation poisoning that results from nuclear power plant breaches. Most of the more deadly poisonings that result from dirty bombs and nuclear weapons are not so easy to prevent or treat.

The radiation pills are rediculiously simple. All they do is fill your thyroid up with non-radioactive iodine, so that the radioactive iodine cannot fit in the gland, so the radioactive iodine has nowhere to collect and concentrate to make you sick. In the early days of Ireland's nuclear power production, each citizen was issued a ration of radiation pills.

[Belleweather]

Originally Posted by ShaggyDaddy

the fundamental difference there is, building wealth that will work in a near collapse, vs building survival tools/skills that will work in a total collapse.

Though being able to feed yourself and others will always be beneficial, gold is probably more realistic, because throughout the rise and fall of each civilization gold has remained constant.

I guess you just have to know what you are preparing for: the great depression, or the "apocalypse".

Actually, I'm not sure it's a Depression/Apocalypse issue as much as it is what you're concerned about -- are you worried about remaining solvent financially or are you concerned about remaining fed? And as far as the coming depression it probably depends on what cards you're planning on falling and in what order, which is obviously something that reasonable minds can disagree on!

I guess my feeling about carrots is this: In the scenario that I consider most likely to happen, I'm reasonably confident that our family can scrape together the cash needed to pay the rent/mortgage. We've already made choices to make sure the cash needed to pay that bill is as low as possible. But if we're in a situation where that's ALL we can scrape together, or in which we're doing it through a much-reduced locally based economy, we're far safer and more sustainable if we can limit the amount of other cash outflow required (ie. energy efficency, food production, sewing, etc.) and maximise any income we might have from a (probably megre) surplus. Because even if I did invest in gold, gold is finite and I'd have to draw down reserves to meet expenses. Carrots -- at least, open-pollinated ones with saved seeds -- are not.

Luckily, it's not entirely a choice of one or the other, and you've definately encouraged me to start thinking about in/stag/de-flation shelters for the money we aren't using at present.

[Free Thinker]

Ummm... I thought we were talking about an economic depression, not an apocolyse! I don't believe in the apoc. or anything remotely similar, I do not think we will go back into the caveman era at all. I just think that economically we may have a recession, a time to balance the scales and get Americans back on track spending-wise. I think the US$ may take a dip on the world markets, but I don't think it will be the total end of our government. The housing slump and the CC debt is one thing, and apocolyptic dire predictions are another. In our history recessions have happened and people recovered from them. The Great Depression was harder b/c of the dust bowles and crop failures, but we still survived. ANd it really was only a period of about 10 years, which even in my lifetime doesn't seem like too long of a period of time.