Last week in Senior Seminar, Jim Bang mentioned a book that he called "humor for nerds". I ordered this book because I felt that it would be a fitting read for the holiday; Economics of the Undead. This book covers important issues like how to attract to perfect living dead boyfriend, how humans and zombies may co exist, and how to political economy would act to the introduction of supernatural beings. as you can tell there are the issues we need to be worried about!
Once article in particular deals with how humans will trade when the zombies take over. The authors explore this concept in the context of The Walking Dead. We are very accustomed using money which will have no value in the apocalypse. There will be tone of objects of value laying around when the population is dramatically decreased. You could loot all the houses in the North America however eventually goods will become scarce in a world that has no human production. The authors make sure to note that the ever present danger of a zombie attack will likely make all survivors nomadic.
Trading for resources will be both a benefit and a hardship for the traveling bands of humans. Without the safeguards of laws and property rights, distrust will make trading difficult. How can you trade the other tribe half your stash of weapons for food and not be worried that they will turn those weapons on you for the food back? Trade will be necessary as members of tribes specialize in certain things, find special items looting, and find themselves unable to find or make badly needed items.
Without the aid of money, trading will be a complex series of arrangements. You must hope that the person you are trading with wants what you have. If you don't have want they want, you have to find someone that does and also will trade whatever the other person wants with you. So what is the best items to have? Moonshine or the knowledge to make moonshine would probably be a good choice. When choosing items of value to you hope to trade keep three things in mind: inherent value, divisibility, uniform quality, and a relatively high value to weight ratio.
While this may seem like a silly book right now, when the zombie invasion comes someone looting my house will find this very helpful.
This idea of post-apocalyptic trading although unlikely is very interesting to think about. I would agree that without the aid of money, trading would become much more complex mainly due to the fact that it is hard to put a value on an item without this. One of the main factors that would be used to do this would be the instrumental value of an item. This basically has to do with the value of an item based on whether it helps us get or achieve something. For example a gun would have high instrumental value because it helps a person kill the zombies. All in all trading in this world would be fairly complex and have quite a few factors that would affect the value of something.
ReplyDeleteFirst off love the topic, and its interesting to think about an economy where trading is highly valued but comes with a high risk. In terms of trade, as mentioned, it would be considered hard to see what's fair as their isn't a monetary value on goods and services. In this topic capital good would be highly valued more specifically survival goods and medical services. However one of biggest dilemma on trading wouldn't be the trading aspect but rather protection from the zombies, raiders and thieves while making the trade. In some aspect their should be an insurance while making a trade.
ReplyDeleteI think the terms of trade, in regards to price, would be driven more by individual demand than anything else. Due to the likelihood of a nomadic lifestyle of survivors, all supplies and resources would have to be lightweight and/or mobile as they will need to be transported to each new campsite location. This means that bands of travelers will already be carrying what they need to survive on a daily basis and when a new need arises - like a new medical kit to treat a festering wound - the demand for that item has just increased substantially. Because there is no medium of exchange in the form of currency, the price of acquiring that much needed medical kit may costs you or your tribe several other items that you consider to be "needs" as well. This is where having a valued form human capital may save your life. If you the guy, or gal, who knows how to make moonshine - chances are your tribe will be willing to pay the high costs to keep you alive.
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