>I think developing a few skills and generating a base of local customers (bartering services) is foundational to a new society. More so than the "stuff" you gather to prep, it's the skills and connections that'll likely prevail. The industrialized world will literally be on fire. Fires caused by infrastructure and machinery that is no longer in check due to the technological failures will soon burn everything down. How many chemical plants, oil refineries, power generation plants and the likes can go completely safe when no one can control them and the automated shutdown systems have failed from lack of electricity, water or other technology driven materials? Once these things explode or catch fire, the game is in extreme hard mode. Bartering skills and goods- that all becomes low priority compared to just trying to stay alive. The sky will darken with toxic smoke. The water will become more polluted. The land will be covered in poison. But yeah, let's barter! :) Go read about the Union Carbide plant incident in Bhopal India. That is the sort of stuff that can happen when things go wrong.