We have a real SHTF situation going on that country. From a prepper / survivalist standpoint, has anyone heard stories from down there about what works or what doesn't work that we could learn from?
You'd do well to read "FerFal's" books on the subject and watch his youtube videos on financial collapse.
Basically:
First things first: Stop using Credit Cards or any form of debt in your life. That's right, take the Dave Ramsey Approach and use cash for everything. You won't be in good shape if the economy collapses if you are in debt. So cut up all your credit cards and pay off your mortgage ASAP. You can use a mortgage online calculator to figure out how much extra monthly you would need to pay off that mortgage in less than 30 or 15 years. Never use debt again. In fact, Ramsey says he doesn't even have a credit score, because a credit score is a measure of how good a debtor you are, and he doesn't use debt period.
1. Leave early (with all your money) when you start seeing the writing on the wall. Gold is a very compact store of wealth, many can transfer their entire life savings into a few gold coins and leave the country with it (sewn into their clothing). This requires you researching which countries will take you and your family in, as you're now considered one of them "refugees". This is also one reason why I never denigrate refugees, as you never know when the tides will turn.
2. if you're going to stay, have a retreat that's far out in the jungle and have your stuff well hidden, say nothing to anyone (you're basically a self sustaining island at this point, very tough to do without locals wondering why you aren't getting skinny like them, they don't see you in the long lines, they don't see your children hungry, etc.).
3. Put all your cash into precious metals, it's the only way to defeat inflation when the money becomes worthless.
4. Buy some junk gold too, not just 1oz coins. No one shows up in a town where everyone is starving with a bunch of 1 oz gold coins to barter or trade and lives to tell about it. Think small pieces of jewelry that you can justify "this is my wedding ring, or this is my wife's last pair of earrings" and then you can trade that for some cash to go buy what you are going to buy. As long as your wealth is in PM's the inflation cannot erase your wealth.
5. Leave early (with all your money ) when you start seeing the writing on the wall (repeated on purpose).
6. If you are in a developed country, it pays to find a way to get you and your family passports and citizenship to another country now, while the borders and systems are still open. This way you can open bank accounts and transfer some of your funds there to a different currency. That way you are one step ahead in leaving (side note: the ultra rich already have attorneys doing this for them on a regular basis anyways, e.g. offshore accounts, tax haven countries, etc.)
7. Read Bracken's story on escaping by Sailboat :
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-bloggers/3095240/posts
8. if you have caches of weapons, you alone won't be able to do anything with them. You'd need to have half the military behind you, something like what happened in Syria with the FSA (good luck with that). Pray that there isn't some foreign superpower aligning themselves or having interest in keeping the new commie dictator in place. If there is, leave, there's no going back.
9. Read Emergency by Neil Strauss (entertaining), Enemies Foreign and Domestic Trilogy by Bracken, Unintended Consequences, and both of FerFal's books (Fernando Aguirre survived Argentinian collapse personally). You can also read the famous "Coup d'Etat by Luttwak", to understand how these things come about. The communists in these South American countries most likely follow a formula laid out by Castro's regime. It's the same playbook everytime (A 1% rich, 99% poor country is the most vulnerable to this kind of revolution). Independent business owners (middle class families) are the backbone of the US economy.
10. Pray the US doesn't go this route. Ironically, by prepping (buying tons of gear) you are helping our economy. Anytime consumers are motivated to spend money whether it be for guns, or preps, or whatever it is you are spending on, it's a good sign the economy will continue to function.
11. As a last resort, if you can't beat them, join them. No one said survival would be easy.
There are also some interesting questions on Quora:
https://www.quora.com/Could-all-the...-police-in-the-event-a-dictator-takes-control