In the fact that money is material and not necessary, a person can last without money forever unless they have lived with money their entire life and have come to re lie on money to do everything for them, in which case they may develop a physiological problem which could lead to them committing suicide in the worst case scenarios but these types of physiological problems require months of incubation before they fully set in. When it comes to food however, this is a necessary that all animals, whatever they may be require to live, an animal or person can however last at least a month without eating but being supplied with water and other liquid substances, if they do not,however, have liquid substances then the longest they could possibly survive is at least 11 days.
If people survive the first couple of days of a disaster, they may have a chance but it won't take hungry people long to just give up as they wouldn't have the strength to fight off anything or anybody or illness. I don't know when some one would realize they're in trouble and start acting radically because I think we're in trouble now.
Without water or food, the average person could maybe last a week before realizing that they have to act in order to survive any Armageddon-style scenario.It's basically survival of the fittest with people basically resorting to animal instincts to survive, whether it's by living off the land or looting.Any doomsday style movie has this theme, with mankind doing whatever it takes to obtain food or water.The BBC series "Survivors" dealt with mankind reverting to a basic agricultural self-sufficiency culture after a world epidemic.As for money, most people could do without it, as in a culture where it's not needed anymore, other tokens of exchange would be accepted.Those that enjoyed a priviliged lifestyle would just be glad to survive and be alive.
One,here in the states. They are already acting radically by stealing copper pipe out of new homes and cutting converters off vehicles for the platinum,even robbing banks.