What are you preparing for?

[Copper Catcher]

I think it is interesting to hear different opinions.

"Making preparations" mean different things to different people!

Probably none of us on the discussion board have had any real experience of living day to day in a country where the value of the currency was worth close to zero. What would that feel like and how would you survive?

My point to this conversation is answering that age old question:

How much is enough?

At what point is one willing to be satisfied that you have done what you can and now you must live the plan in action. Living, the here and now, versus expecting disaster to strike at any second.

For some folks ....their goal is to preserve as much of their current wealth as possible and most are doing so by buying gold and silver etc. The thinking behind this level of preparation is that if everything does come crashing around precious metals will be seen as something stability and their value will increase.

For others being prepared means having food, water and other supplies handy for a specified period of time.

Some some I know this means being able too at some point go off the grid and live off the land having the knowledge to do so.

So what say you....is the end near? At what point do you begin to act on your plan?

[Mossy]

Consider several possible problems. Consider the preps for each. You will find that many specific problems share common cures, or that the difference between them is minor. Once you have one set prepped for, feel free to tackle the next set. Most are inexpensive to prepare for, being mostly just planning, learning, and thinking.

I recall something attributed to a Jew who escaped a pogram in Europe, along the lines of "you can only own the riches you hold in your hands as you run for your life". Something to keep in mind.

FerFAL suggests owning places to live in other countries. Excellent way to prep for disaster. Own property in enough different places and, sooner or later, will lose one or more to localised problems, but you still have a place to go to if the place you lose is where you are currently living.

Many rich people would be called "survivalists" if they were not so insistant that they have merely "diversified" their investments. How odd their preperations, stripped of the glitz, so resemble what a survivalist would do, had he the assets, hmmm?

[Nickelless]

I'm preparing for economic collapse, with a very large focus on food storage and protection. My fiancee is disabled, so we're making plans to hunker down right where we are instead of bugging out to other locations.

[ardorlan]

In order of likely hood (my personal opinion)
#1 - 10% per year inflation
#2 - Car crash / cancer / death to family unit member.
#3 - Local Weather issue (earthquake etc..)
#4 - Default of the dollar/hyper inflation
#5 - Massive EMP
#6 - Pandemic
#7 - Nuclear War
#8 - Mass Food poisoning
#9 - Splitting of the classes into master and slave.
#10 - (highly crazy) Ice9, Nanorobots, Wireless Mind Wipers / Mind Control, Terminators etc...

I am really only worry about issues 1 through 3, and aware of the issues 4 though 8, while I think issues 9 and 10 are just crazy talk(but they are on my radar).


I like this question, if my power, water and internet got shut off and I could not leave my property would my family be ok for 2 weeks?

[Nickelmeister]

In order of likely hood (my personal opinion)
#1 - 10% per year inflation
#2 - Car crash / cancer / death to family unit member.
#3 - Local Weather issue (earthquake etc..)
#4 - Default of the dollar/hyper inflation
#5 - Massive EMP
#6 - Pandemic
#7 - Nuclear War
#8 - Mass Food poisoning
#9 - Splitting of the classes into master and slave.
#10 - (highly crazy) Ice9, Nanorobots, Wireless Mind Wipers / Mind Control, Terminators etc...

I am really only worry about issues 1 through 3, and aware of the issues 4 though 8, while I think issues 9 and 10 are just crazy talk(but they are on my radar).

I like this question, if my power, water and internet got shut off and I could not leave my property would my family be ok for 2 weeks?

#9 has already happened

[Mossy]

In order of likely hood (my personal opinion)
#1 - 10% per year inflation
#2 - Car crash / cancer / death to family unit member.
#3 - Local Weather issue (earthquake etc..)
#4 - Default of the dollar/hyper inflation
#5 - Massive EMP
#6 - Pandemic
#7 - Nuclear War
#8 - Mass Food poisoning
#9 - Splitting of the classes into master and slave.
#10 - (highly crazy) Ice9, Nanorobots, Wireless Mind Wipers / Mind Control, Terminators etc...

I am really only worry about issues 1 through 3, and aware of the issues 4 though 8, while I think issues 9 and 10 are just crazy talk(but they are on my radar).
I like this question, if my power, water and internet got shut off and I could not leave my property would my family be ok for 2 weeks?

My personal opinion: ("sb" = "should be")
1 sb 1
2 sb 2
3 sb 4
4 sb 3
5 sb 8
6 sb 5
7 sb 6
8 sb 7

[ardorlan]

One of the reason I ranked EMP so high is my understanding is it only takes one small device to go off at "line of sight" (airplane height) in the middle of the country, to wipe out all non emp shielded devices.

[Mossy]

"EMP" is the sort of term I hate. At face value, it simply means an electromagnetic pulse, such as a flash of light (electromagnetic radiation), or the flare of a match.

In context meant, there are three sorts of EMP devices, one is a super radar pulse from a small, generally reusable device such as this:

http://www.amazing1.com/emp.htm

The second explodes and creates a stronger pulse, giving it tactical weapon utility, but it is still short ranged:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Explosivel ... _generator

The third, and most damaging, EMP device is a nuclear bomb, but it has to be exploded above the atmosphere, far above where airplanes can fly so the particles created by the explosion can react with the magnetic field and atmosphere:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Electromagnetic_pulse

We can prepare for all on a small scale. The simplest preparation is to have spares in a shielded area. Faraday cages work, but you must have them smooth on the inside, and they don't need to be grounded no more than your cell phone needs to be grounded in order to work. The real tricky and expensive part is to shield something you want to use while it is protected. Easier, and cheaper, to just have spares.

"Nationally"? "Fuggetabutit."

[Devil Soundwave]

Oh we're all pretty much doomed, we should just accept that now and quit worrying.

We live on a planet that can sustain 2 - 3 bilion people max; current population about 8 billion. There is no good outcome.

We're constantly told that we shouldn't drink, or shouldn't have too much salt or do X as it's bad for us; but at the same time none of our governments are able to look after us when we get old as there are not enough resources, and not enough money, and too many people and it's only going to get worse.

So our choices are limited: turbo-alcohol-fuelled-sex-death at the age of 45, or lying destitute in a pool of our own poo at the age of 85.

I know which one I'd rather have...

[Mossy]

Soundwave, we have a heck of a lot of waste in "the system", mostly because it's cheaper to be wasteful than frugal. I don't think we are anywhere near the real, /physical/ limits to what the planet will support. Today, most, maybe all, famines are caused by politics and greed, not actual shortages. The "famines" in the Horn of Africa are excellent examples of this.

Yeah, quality of life would really suck for the lower social levels. Always has (just read Dickens and Swift).

[Devil Soundwave]

Consumerism is a broken system. Every cafe, every shop wasteful. Starbucks, every night, every branch, throw away perfectly edible good stuff that has gone "past date" which they won't donate or let staff have as they *could* make someone ill if it's turned and thus *could* get sued. Multiply that waste by all the cafes, shops, restaurants, coffe houses etc globally. What a total farce.

[Mossy]

I don't know what "consumerism" is. I do know what "sue happy, shyster lawyer" is. Likewise "over bearing bureaucrat" and "power hungry politician".

That "could make someone ill" actually means "we could get sued". The only winners are the lawyers and the judge.

[ardorlan]

I think this is a good thread and to help bring it back on topic.

It seems we are pretty happy with my list of "worries" and just debate the order of them.
so lets keep order out.

"10% per year inflation" - One of the things I am trying to start doing is, to make more and buy less.
For me the first phase of this is going to be this years Christmas, I make a good amount of money and in the past we have easily spent 1,000$ on Christmas. This year we are doing a handmand Christmas, I am building my oldest daughter who will be turning 4 in march, her own computer out of my spare parts. Still not sure what I am doing for my youngest.

One of the best things about making more and buying less is giving you a reason to pick up a new skill or refresh an old one. I also order the mini-farming book (this will be my 4th book on "homesteading"), and hope next year to grow 50% of our family food.

I think my making more and buying less would go out the window if I could work 20hr extra per week overtime, but I can't so I have extra time these days.

[Mossy]

"Inflation" is calculated as an average for everyone put together. I put off tracking my actual expenditures for food, etc, so I cannot go back and see how much more I've spent, but, for me, inflation is much more than 10%. There are a few places around on the net that allow re-examining inflation, but I don't have the links and don't visit them anyhow.

Little kids can have a great holiday with inexpensive stuff, if you choose wisely. I don't know what goes through the heads of parents, but maybe it's "I wish I had that as a kid" or "this is the fanciest thing in the store, that will say how much I love the little one".

Wrong idea.

It should be "what will catch his (unsophisticated) eye and he can have fun with?" I gave a friend's kid some cheap toy, I forget what, and wrapped it in lots of loose paper, and he had as much fun tearing that open as he did playing with the toy (his parents wrapped their presents "oh, so perfectly" and they had to open them for him and he liked my gift better because I selected it for him to have fun with, while theirs was "eductional"). Another kid got a can of those "snakes in a peanut can" (but I used two cans worth of "snakes") and he nearly drove the adults crazy with that one.

Hard to say what I enjoyed more, him and those stupid "snakes" or how annoyed the adults got. One adult stole the can and hid it, the rat.

[Rosco]

Prepared up to 4 some what, but concerned thru 12 which are other crazy's. I spend time looking up a ceiling an thinking what can we do about this after reading posts here an on Survival Blog. Have not found answers but it is Hardening my Position on Immigration an Politicians, Then I say we have it pretty good I'm going South an play in Sun again this winter. Taking our friends Pb an hole maker along just for grins

[Copper Catcher]

I'd love to hear others comments.... What say you?