The Argentina Collapse

The topic is not a new one. When Argentina spiraled into social and economic collapse in the late 90’s life changed for everyone. Regardless of the causes, there is much to be learned from a country that was once prosperous and is now recovering from economic crises that put about 60% of the people into poverty.

argentina-collapse

Argentina’s Economic Collapse Documentary

A popular article in the survival sphere entitled “Lessons from Argentina’s economic collapse” from  Ferfal documents the struggles of living in a collapsing society. Download it here in pdf Argentina Collapse or simply read below.

Lessons from Argentina’s economic collapse

Part I: Urban or Country?
Part III: Gray/Black Market
Part III: Guns, Ammo And Other Gear
Part IV: Interlude
Part V: Necessary Items
Part VI: More On Security
Part VII: tea With Aunt Sheeply

My brother visited Argentina a few weeks ago. He’s been living in Spain for a few years now. Within the first week, he got sick, some kind of strong flu, even though climate isn’t that cold and he took care of himself. Without a doubt he got sick because there are lots of new viruses in my country that can’t be found in 1st world countries. The misery and famine lead us to a situation where, even though you have food, shelter and health care, most of others don’t, and therefore they get sick and spread the diseases all over the region.

What got me started on this post is the fact that I actually saw this coming, and posted on the subject here at Frugal’s, months before the new viruses spread over the country and the news started talking about this new, health emergency, which proves that talking, thinking and sharing ideas with like minded people (you guys), does help to see things coming and prepare for them with enough time. So I started thinking about several issues, what I learned (either the hard way or thanks to this forum) after all these years of living in a collapsed country that is trying to get out an economical disaster and everything that comes along with it. Though my English is limited, I hope I’m able to transmit the main ideas and concepts, giving you a better image of what you may have to deal with some day, if the economy collapses in your country. Here is what I have so far:

Part I

URBAN OR COUNTRY?

Someone once asked me how did those that live in the country fare. If they were better off than city dwellers. As always there are no simple answers. Wish I could say country good, city bad, but I can’t, because if I have to be completely honest, and I intend to be so, there are some issues that have to be analyzed, especially security and security monitoring methods. Of course that those that live in the country and have some land and animals were better prepared food-wise. No need to have several acres full of crops. A few fruit trees, some animals, such as chickens, cows and rabbits, and a small orchard was enough to be light years ahead of those in the cities. Chickens, eggs and rabbits would provide the proteins, a cow or two for milk and cheese, some vegetables and fruit plants covered the vegetable diet, and some eggs or a rabbit could be traded for flower to make bread and pasta or sugar and salt.

Of course that there are exceptions, for example, some provinces up north have desert climate and it almost never rains. It is almost impossible to live of the land, and animals require food and water you have to buy. Those guys had it bad; no wonder the Northern provinces suffer the most in my country. Those that live in cities, well they have to manage as they can. Since food prices went up about 200%-300%. People would cut expenses wherever they could so they could buy food. Some ate whatever they could; they hunted birds or ate street dogs and cats, others starved. When it comes to food, cities suck in a crisis. It is usually the lack of food or the impossibility to acquire it that starts the rioting and looting when TSHTF.

When it comes to security things get even more complicated. Forget about shooting those that mean you harm from 300 yards away with your MBR. Leave that notion to armchair commandos and 12 year old kids that pretend to be grown ups on the internet.

Some facts:

  1. Those that want to harm you/steal from you don’t come with a pirate flag waving over their heads.
  2. Neither do they start shooting at you 200 yards away.
  3. They won’t come riding loud bikes or dressed with their orange, convict just escaped from prison jump suits, so that you can identify them the better. Nor do they all wear chains around their necks and leather jackets. If I had a dollar for each time a person that got robbed told me “They looked like NORMAL people, dressed better than we are”, honestly, I would have enough money for a nice gun. There are exceptions, but don’t expect them to dress like in the movies.
  4. A man with a wife and two or three kids can’t set up a watch. I don’t care if you are SEAL, SWAT or John Freaking Rambo, no 6th sense is going to tell you that there is a guy pointing a gun at your back when you are trying to fix the water pump that just broke, or carrying a big heavy bag of dried beans you bought that morning.

The best alarm system anyone can have in a farm are dogs. But dogs can get killed and poisoned. A friend of mine had all four dogs poisoned on his farm one night, they all died. After all these years I learned that even though the person that lives out in the country is safer when it comes to small time robberies, that same person is more exposed to extremely violent home robberies. Criminals know that they are isolated and their feeling of invulnerability is boosted. When they assault a country home or farm, they will usually stay there for hours or days torturing the owners. I heard it all: women and children getting raped, people tied to the beds and tortured with electricity, beatings, burned with acetylene torches. Big cities aren’t much safer for the survivalist that decides to stay in the city. He will have to face express kidnappings, robberies, and pretty much risking getting shot for what’s in his pockets or even his clothes.

So, where to go? The concrete jungle is dangerous and so is living away from it all, on your own. The solution is to stay away from the cities but in groups, either by living in a small town-community or sub division, or if you have friends or family that think as you do, form your own small community. Some may think that having neighbors within “shouting” distance means loosing your privacy and freedom, but it’s a price that you have to pay if you want to have someone to help you if you ever need it. To those that believe that they will never need help from anyone because they will always have their rifle at hand, checking the horizon with their scope every five minutes and a first aid kit on their back packs at all times…. Grow up.

SERVICES

What ever sort of scenario you are dealing with, services are more than likely to either suffer in quality or disappear all together. Think ahead of time; analyze possible SHTF scenarios and which service should be affected by it in your area. Think about the most likely scenario but also think outside the box. What’s more likely? A tornado? But a terrorist attack isn’t as crazy as you though it would be a few years ago, isn’t it?
Also analyze the consequences of those services going down. If there is no power then you need to do something about all that meat you have in the fridge, you can dry it or can it. Think about the supplies you would need for these tasks before you actually need them. You have a complete guide on how to prepare the meat on you computer… how will you get it out of there if there is no power? Print everything that you consider important.

WATER

No one can last too long without water. The urban survivalist may find that the water is of poor quality, in which case he can make good use of a water filter, or that there is no water available at all. When this happens, a large city were millions live will run out of bottled water within minutes. In my case, tap water isn’t very good. I can see black little particles and some other stuff that looks like dead algae. Taste isn’t that bad. Not good but I know that there are parts of the country where it is much worse. To be honest, a high percentage of the country has no potable water at all.

If you can build a well, do so, set it as your top of the list priority as a survivalist.
Water comes before firearms, medicines and even food. Save as much water as you can. Use plastic bottles, refill soda bottles and place them in a cool place, preferably inside a black garbage bag to protect it from sun light. The water will pick some plastic taste after a few months, but water that tastes a little like plastic is far way better than no water at all. What ever the kind of SHTF scenario you are dealing with, water will suffer. In my case the economical crash created problems with the water company, that reduces the maintenance and quality in order to reduce costs and keep their income in spite of the high prices they have to pay for supplies and equipment, most of which comes from abroad, and after the 2001 crash, costs 3 times more. As always, the little guy gets to pay for it. Same would go for floods or chemical or biological attacks. Water requires delicate care and it will suffer when TSHTF in one way or another. In this case, when you still have tap water, a quality filter is in order, as well as a pump if you can have one. A manual pump would be ideal as well if possible. Estimate that you need approximately a gallon per person per day. Try to have at least two-four weeks worth of water. More would be preferable.

POWER

I spent WAY to much time without power for my own taste. Power has always been a problem in my country, even before the 2001 crisis. The real problem starts when you spend more than just a few hours without light. Just after the SHTF in 2001 half the country went without power for 3 days. Buenos Aires was one big dark grave. People got caught on elevators, food rots; hospitals that only had a few hours worth of fuel for their generators ran out of power. Without power, days get to be a lot shorter. Once the sun sets there is not much you can do. I read under candle light and flashlight light and your head starts to hurt after a while. You can work around the house a little bit but only as long as you don’t need power tools. Crime also increases once the lights go out, so whenever you have to go somewhere in a black out, carry the flashlight on one hand and a handgun on the other.

Summarizing, being in a city without light turn to be depressing after a while. I spent my share of nights, alone, listening to the radio, eating canned food and cleaning my guns under the light of my LED head lamp. Then I got married, had a son, and found out that when you have loved ones around you black outs are not as bad. The point is that family helps morale on these situations.

A note on flashlights. Have two or three head LED lights. They are not expensive and are worth their weight in gold. A powerful flashlight is necessary, something like a big Maglite or better yet a SureFire, especially when you have to check your property for intruders. But for more mundane stuff like preparing food, going to the toilet or doing stuff around the house, the LED headlamp is priceless. Try washing the dishes on the dark while holding a 60 lumen flashlight on one hand and you’ll know what I mean. LEDs also have the advantage of lasting for almost an entire week of continuous use and the light bulb lasts forever. Rechargeable batteries are a must or else you’ll end up broke if lights go out often. Have a healthy amount of spare quality batteries and try to standardize as much as you can. I have 12 Samsung NM 2500Mh AA and 8 AAA 800mh for the headlamps. I use D cell plastic adaptors in order to use AA batteries on my 3 D cell Maglite. This turned out to work quite well, better than I expected.
I also keep about 2 or 3 packs of regular, Duracell batteries just in case. These are supposed to expire around 2012, so I can forget about them until I need them.
Rechargeable NM batteries have the disadvantage of loosing power after a period of time, so keep regular batteries as well and check the rechargeable ones every once in a while.

After all these years of problems with power, what two items I would love to have?

  1. The obvious. A generator. I carried my fridge food to my parent’s house way to many times on the past. Too bad I can’t afford one right now.
  2. A battery charger that has both solar panel and a small crank. They are not available here. I saw that they are relatively inexpensive in USA. Do yourself a favor and get one or two of these. Even if they don’t charge as well as regular ones, I’m sure it will put out enough power to charge batteries for LED lamps at least.

GAS

Gas has decreased in quality as well, there is little gas. Try to have an electric oven in case you have to do without it. If both electricity and gas go down, one of those camping stoves can work as well, if you keep a good supply of gas cans. The ones that work with liquid fuel seem to be better on the long run, since they can use different types of fuel.
You can only store a limited amount of compressed gas and once you ran out of it, you are on your own if stores are closed of they sold them out. Anyway, a city that goes without gas and light for more than two weeks is a death trap, get out of there before it’s too late.

A DIFFERENT MENTALITY.

I was watching the People & Art channel with my wife the other night. It was a show where they film a couple for a given period of time and some people vote on who is the one with the worst habits, the one they find more annoying. We were in our bed, and this is when I usually fall asleep but since the guy was a firearms police instructor I was interested and managed to stay awake. At one point the guy’s wife said that she found annoying that her husband spent 500 dollars a month on beauty products for himself. 500 USD on facial cream, special shampoo and conditioner, as well as having his nails polished! If you are that guy and happen to be reading this, or if you know him, I’m sorry, but what an idiot!! “500 USD, that’s a small generator or a gun and a few boxes of ammo” I told my wife. “That’s two months worth of food” she said. We were each thinking of a practical use for that money, the money this guy was practically throwing away. Once the SHTF, money is no longer measured in money, but you start seeing it as the necessary goods it can buy. Stuff like food, medicine, gas, or the private medical service bill. To me, spending 500 dollars on beauty products, and to make it worse, on a guy? That’s simply not acceptable. The way I see it, someone with that mentality can’t survive a week without a credit card, no use in even considering a SHTF scenario.
And this guy is a firearms instructor?… probably the kind of guy that will say that a handgun is only used to fight his way to his rifle… and his facial night cream…

Once you experience the lack of stuff you took for granted, like food, medicines, your set of priorities change all of a sudden. For example, I had two wisdom tooth removed last year. On both occasions I was prescribed with antibiotics and strong Ibuprofen for the pain. I took the antibiotics (though I did buy two boxes with the same recipe just to keep one box just in case) but I didn’t use the Ibuprofen, I added it to my pile of medicines. Why? Because medicines are not always available and I’m not sure if they will be available in the future. Sure, it hurt like hell, but pain alone isn’t going to kill you, so I sucked it up. Good for building up character if you ask me.

Make sacrifices so as to ensure a better future, that’s the mentality you should have if you want to be prepared. There’s stuff that is “nice to have” that has to be sacrificed to get the indispensable stuff. There’s stuff that is not “basic need stuff” but it’s also important in one way or another. My wife goes to the hairdresser once every month or two. It’s not life or death, but it does make her feel better and it boosts her morale.
I buy a game for the Xbox or a movie to watch with my wife every once in awhile, just to relax. 7 or 10 dollars a month are not going to burn a hole in my pocket. Addictions such as alcohol, drugs or even cigarettes should be avoided by the survivalist. They are bad for your health; cost a lot of money that could be much better spent, and create an addiction to something that may not be available in the future. Who will have to tolerate your grouchy mood when your brand of smokes is no longer imported after TSHTF?

36 Responses

  1. Stevenson

    Thats insane! good article

    Reply
  2. ProudTexan

    Maybe we should begin to beat the saucepans today in the USA .

    Reply
  3. Dark-Star

    I am saving this article to my personal Internet Archive. Advice well worth following.

    Reply
  4. Observer

    Expect something like this in Latvia, Lithuania, Estonia sooner and a year later in Ukraine. Same scenario as far as I can see. I hope it's only a bad feeling, but gonna get prepared.

    Reply
  5. Blamm

    Were any of those brainwashed Nazi cops allowed to live ?
    If so. Why ?

    Reply
  6. klaus

    Seems to me if we have a civil war in this country anyone who leaves for another country should not be allowed to return. Why should we sacrifice, kill each other then let these scumbag citizens of the world return to rule and put us back in the same situation. After all isn't this what we have now, ruled by citizens of the world?

    Reply
  7. russell

    cool blog thanks learned alot. j

    Reply
  8. Mark Blair

    I was an upaid ‘conflict journalist’ cum trade-union-theory teacher during the insurrection in Indonesia in ’98, at the height of which I was a refugee for seven days. I made a habit of standing in the middle of riots, and wrote journals all the while.

    Indonesia suffered much as Argentina did, though a lot of the circumstances were entirely different – for example, no guns. I’d be as pleased as punch to answer questions about my experiences in this environment.

    Reply
  9. Andrew

    Thank you for this article!

    Reply
  10. Donald Paul Wagner

    Being a computer cave-man, I find there's no way I can send this excellent Argentina survival saga to my E-Mail. Would someone who's in charge of maintaining this site please be so kind as to do so for me? I've signed my name & put my e-mail below. Thank you very much. (DPW – New Orleans) / seahorse

    Reply
  11. AmericanAnon

    ¡¡¡ Wow, thanks for all of the invaluable info!!! God bless

    Reply
  12. Margie

    Thank you sooo much for taking the time to write this all down. This is incredibly useful , and is exactly the kind of information I've been searching for. It allows me to think further on plan of action. Your insights are great, and it was also really useful to take into account the mental shifts that I might need to make. Thanks again. And I hear that despite the crisis, spain is still pretty nice ;) I will send others to your blog!

    Reply
  13. Black Paladin

    Has this article been removed?

    Reply
  14. Robert

    For water and health issues, look to find a bag of Calcium Hypochlorite, also known as Pool Shock. A quarter teaspoon will have a bathtub of water clean of all contaminants in less than 2 hours. The water may not be clean from dirt particles, but they will not do you harm. You can then just filter the water through clean cloths to remove particles. If you put meat, chicken, etc in a pot with just a sprinkle of Calcium Hypochlorite, even if the meat is slightly spoiled, it will not cause sickness if eaten because all microbes that are harmful to the body will be killed. Rinsing raw vegetables in a pot of water sprinkled with it will also make it safe to eat raw, even if it were previously contaminated with E. Coli.
    Another mineral that does much of the same as Calcium Hypochlorite is sodium chlorite, but that mineral has to be specially activated.
    For more information on the power of these two "miracle" minerals, look at the website, jimhumble.biz. In it you will find ways to use these minerals to even cure people who are already ill with diseases. I know because I've cured myself of the cold and flu several times, and I used it to cure many other people, including some who had led or mercury poisoning.

    Reply
    • Survivalspot

      Very interesting concept – thanks for sharing. I had not heard of this before now. Can you typically find this at your local pool supply store?

      Reply
  15. Robert

    For water and health issues, look to find a bag of Calcium Hypochlorite, also known as Pool Shock. A quarter teaspoon will have a bathtub of water clean of all contaminants in less than 2 hours. The water may not be clean from dirt particles, but they will not do you harm. You can then just filter the water through clean cloths to remove particles. If you put meat, chicken, etc in a pot with just a sprinkle of Calcium Hypochlorite, even if the meat is slightly spoiled, it will not cause sickness if eaten because all microbes that are harmful to the body will be killed. Rinsing raw vegetables in a pot of water sprinkled with it will also make it safe to eat raw, even if it were previously contaminated with E. Coli.
    Another mineral that does much of the same as Calcium Hypochlorite is sodium chlorite, but that mineral has to be specially activated.
    For more information on the power of these two "miracle" minerals, look at the website, jimhumble.biz. In it you will find ways to use these minerals to even cure people who are already ill with diseases. I know because I've cured myself of the cold and flu several times, and I used it to cure many other people, including some who had led or mercury poisoning.

    Reply
  16. Mike

    Well guys the time draws near if pete james is right about what he says in his blog @ wakeup.host-ed.net
    and i will be checking my food stocks and tools next week.

    my grandad lived to be 90 and belived he would live 4-ever :)

    Reply
  17. LoboSolo

    Are you still in Argentina? I’ve been there checking it out and would like to get a few more insider’s tips.

    Reply
  18. travelssolo

    Found your comments and this site by chance, all excellent points, trained in a lot of areas and have to say for a lay person, which sounds like you are then not really but for all intents and purposes here I say good for you and to all of the others that want to stay a step ahead of the "game" though it really isn't, just pay attention and deal with your surroundings as if they could be the last place your are, and does any of us want to know where our last place will be, in the military we never had our photos taken and it was keep your head up not down but the logic is there either way but for soldiers, you know what i mean, as to finding weapons in Argentina,been here a few months and the average protection can easily be found, as to pistols and ammo, slightly more difficult, always travel with a weapon but it's not legal, sort of like not stopping at red lights, which I don't at night, always look for a way out, and sadly the writers comments about how you look are true, weakness is simply that, however this said many a tough bad ass I have had the pleasure to know or not know were not the terminator types but the average built, all this said aside, I like Argentina, have a girlfriend, whom probably thinks I'm slightly the dangerous type for all my precautions and sometimes rude behavior(she says) when my space is invaded, but I think your post is relevant and to the point, now about them hi powers-a ppk would be my choice,ammo anyone????>>>>>>>>
    of course this is all fantasy to they that read this and think we are the one causing the trouble, we are not we are the ones you will look to when the SHTF– hu ah

    Reply
  19. Anonymous

    I live in the USA and our economy is going down surely but slowly. Obviously this has left me with numerous unanswered questions, all of which this article adressed thoroughly. It is a great concern to think of our way of life transforming into something ten times worse here. But this is really eye opening, especially in regards to my lazy way of life. This type of crisis may end up becoming a huge wake up call for myself and many others soon enough.

    It would be extremely wise for anyone ending up in a situation like this to do tremendous research on body language. If you know body language, you can send signals to would be thieves/kidnappers that you aren't to be f'd with. Obviously this wouldn't always work but anyone who sends off submissive body language could benefit from this type of education, to convey more assertion/dominance through posture, eye contact, tone of voice etc. Also convenient with learning body language, would come the convenience of being able to read people better and detecting deception before it's too late.

    Super article. Hopefully things don't get this bad, if they do at least I know what to expect. Thank you.

    Reply
  20. Also anonymous

    I also live in the USA. I've been thinking about a collapse here and trying to prepare for it for a while now. I used to think it would be sudden, but now with current events being the way they are, i can also picture a longer and gradual decline where people are increasingly desperate such as the case described here. This post is full of very valuable first-hand info. Thank you. I just hope that more people in the US can wake up and prepare for the probable problems ahead rather than staying oblivious and becoming helpless and dangerous to everyone else.

    Reply
  21. Spc anon

    "Antibiotics are precious here, with all the viruses that are floating around"

    That statement bothered me. Antibiotics are useless against viruses and using them in this manner will in fact only serve to further the evolution of antibiotic resistant bugs, which is bad for all of us.

    Otherwise great article, great to hear from someone who's been forced to use this skills in a real world situation.

    Reply
    • Dean Norris

      I’m sure the author was including bacterial infections when he mentioned viruses. Just think a minute – he’s not in a situation where he can order lab tests at the drop of a hat is he? Besides – it is a little discussed fact that the majority of antibiotic resistance comes from routine commercial dosing of animal feed to cause weight gain eg in beef, not from overuse in humans. Google it.

      Reply
  22. economiccollapsedad

    Great article. I've been preparing for an economic collapse for the last year, and the points the OP went over is very relevant. I always thought that living in the city is going to be better than living in the country in terms of safety, infrastructure, medical services….etc.

    Reply
  23. Harry

    Viruses cannot be treated with antibiotics. In the book I am writing I discuss bacterial immunity and overuse of antibiotics.

    Reply
    • Chip N Sawbones

      True, but you will see a dramatic increase in bacterial diseases in situations like this. Lack of heating oil or gas will lead to pneumonia. When electricity is unreliable or expensive, wet clothes drying in the living room over a wood stove are a great way to spread TB. Garbage in the streets, no sewage system, shallow emergency wells and contaminated water cause all kinds of bacterial infections. Cuts get infected really easily.

      Reply
  24. Chip N Sawbones

    Excellent article. It brought back lots of memories of my time in Gambia, a country that is permanently on the edge of something like this. Most American survivalists don't bother thinking about trash, cooking gas and antibiotics, but they are issues that really are just as important as personal defense.

    Reply
  25. Multi Tool Chart

    Awesome article. I remember having 2 friends from argentina always talking about this collapse. Everything was over priced, people were afraid, it was a really big mess. Thanks to new law policies the situation was improved and now they are full recovered. Similar cases will come in the future, but we need to keep learning from our past.

    Reply
  26. Rob

    Thank you for this blog. I live in the US and I am of the opinion that eventually, such a crash will happen here. It seems to be utterly impossible to avoid with the almost 17 trillion US dollars that we owe and neither party seems to be making any proposals as to how to tame this beast. Add to that trillions in unfunded liabilities and one has to question just how much longer the can is able to get kicked down the road. This information you have posted here is something smart folks in the US should be thinking about…..

    Reply
  27. Doug1943

    Has anyone read The Civil Defense Manual? [CivilDefenseManual.com]. It seems to cover most of what you need to know/have/do in a SHTF situation, although this essay from an Argentine who’s been there is an extremely useful supplement, especially about how day-to-day life changes in “semi-collapse” situations — stores still open, you still go to work … but the environment is far more dangerous.

    Reply

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