Preparing for Uncertainty and Self Reliance

[C-Mag]

I killed my deer last Saturday. As of this moment, he is in the Freezer. divided up between steaks, Jerky, Breakfast Sausage, Burger and Thuringer. 120 LBS of Meat, and I'm tired as hell. A lot of cleaning left tomorrow.

[SuburbanFarmer]

I killed my deer last Saturday. As of this moment, he is in the Freezer. divided up between steaks, Jerky, Breakfast Sausage, Burger and Thuringer. 120 LBS of Meat, and I'm tired as hell. A lot of cleaning left tomorrow.

Holy hell. Nice job!

[LVH2]

How much do you think your prepping is motivated by the fact that you enjoy it?

A lot of this stuff sounds fun and/or satisfying to me. But it's not quite my cup of tea.

The degree to which it is purely logical varies, I think. If I had a bunch of kids and grandkids it might make a bit more sense. I'm a genetic dead end, as Nuke would point out, and 41. Probably half way done anyway.

I think it's utility maximizing to plan for getting the most out of average and good situations, rather than getting the most out of horrible situations, all other things being equal. This is because the average and good situations provide a greater quantity of potential utility.

In other words, I want to cut down my risk of serious health and money problems in the future and to have a decent time and be in a position to help others, assuming the world doesn't fall apart. Travel. Eat well. Getting a few extra years crammed into a bunker, shooting my neighbors isn't a reward worth pursuing. Not dramatically better than being dead.

Based on the TV shows I watched, and I watched many, a lot of preppers seem to have the opposite approach. For example, they might be overweight and drive unsafe cars so they are taking serious risks there, but they are covered in the event of an alien invasion, or so they hope.

I guess it's not an either/or thing. And if prepping is fun, then you don't lose anything if the fan remains clean.

Also, I think it's probably good for OTHER people to prep. If the shit DOES strike, then I guess the chance of future generations existing and recovering goes up the more food and tools are available.

Above all, I will never forgive myself for not buying some bitcoin. I even have a wealthy friend and bitcoin skeptic who was selling his version of bitcoin. Give him $XXX, the current value of BTC, and then he'd sell it back to you at the current value whenever you wanted.

This is one of the commercials I was talking about.



The message is, your phone holds all the answers, you don't need to do anything yourself.

Perhaps stating the obvious, but I guess that's kind of a feminization thing. "Why change your own tire instead of having someone do it for you?"
"Because I can do it myself." "But why, they can just do it for you?"

I'm getting more into doing my own basic maintenance work, though sometimes it really isn't worth it.

[SuburbanFarmer]

How much do you think your prepping is motivated by the fact that you enjoy it?

A lot of this stuff sounds fun and/or satisfying to me. But it's not quite my cup of tea.

The degree to which it is purely logical varies, I think. If I had a bunch of kids and grandkids it might make a bit more sense. I'm a genetic dead end, as Nuke would point out, and 41. Probably half way done anyway.

I think it's utility maximizing to plan for getting the most out of average and good situations, rather than getting the most out of horrible situations, all other things being equal. This is because the average and good situations provide a greater quantity of potential utility.

In other words, I want to cut down my risk of serious health and money problems in the future and to have a decent time and be in a position to help others, assuming the world doesn't fall apart. Travel. Eat well. Getting a few extra years crammed into a bunker, shooting my neighbors isn't a reward worth pursuing. Not dramatically better than being dead.

Based on the TV shows I watched, and I watched many, a lot of preppers seem to have the opposite approach. For example, they might be overweight and drive unsafe cars so they are taking serious risks there, but they are covered in the event of an alien invasion, or so they hope.

I guess it's not an either/or thing. And if prepping is fun, then you don't lose anything if the fan remains clean.

Also, I think it's probably good for OTHER people to prep. If the shit DOES strike, then I guess the chance of future generations existing and recovering goes up the more food and tools are available.

While I do enjoy gardening, I'm not doing it for the lulz. You won't see me shopping for tacticool 'gear' to hoard, but I do want to ensure a food/water supply for the family. If/when that's ever completely secured, I'll move up Maslow's pyramid, anticipating future needs, but slowly. Most people on tv are on tv because they're ridiculous and entertaining to look at. Not because they're balanced people, trying to provide for the family.

Above all, I will never forgive myself for not buying some bitcoin. I even have a wealthy friend and bitcoin skeptic who was selling his version of bitcoin. Give him $XXX, the current value of BTC, and then he'd sell it back to you at the current value whenever you wanted.

I had an office-mate buying any and all Bitcoin 5 years ago. I thought he was kinda crazy. He's fucking loaded, now.
Shit, I owned a few shares of Apple and Microsoft 20 years ago. I got bored and sold them. They'd be worth 100x or so, now.
These things happen. Don't get caught up in sunk costs, or you'll go insane.

[LVH2]

Yes, a lot of the people on TV are put there to be ridiculous. But I noticed many of the more sensible ones were also significantly overweight. Which makes sense because this is America and we are fat.

But, if you are obsessed with surviving for as long as possible and you are overweight, it's clear to me what your first priority should be.

How much do you think your prepping is motivated by the fact that you enjoy it?

A lot of this stuff sounds fun and/or satisfying to me. But it's not quite my cup of tea.

The degree to which it is purely logical varies, I think. If I had a bunch of kids and grandkids it might make a bit more sense. I'm a genetic dead end, as Nuke would point out, and 41. Probably half way done anyway.

I think it's utility maximizing to plan for getting the most out of average and good situations, rather than getting the most out of horrible situations, all other things being equal. This is because the average and good situations provide a greater quantity of potential utility.

In other words, I want to cut down my risk of serious health and money problems in the future and to have a decent time and be in a position to help others, assuming the world doesn't fall apart. Travel. Eat well. Getting a few extra years crammed into a bunker, shooting my neighbors isn't a reward worth pursuing. Not dramatically better than being dead.

Based on the TV shows I watched, and I watched many, a lot of preppers seem to have the opposite approach. For example, they might be overweight and drive unsafe cars so they are taking serious risks there, but they are covered in the event of an alien invasion, or so they hope.

I guess it's not an either/or thing. And if prepping is fun, then you don't lose anything if the fan remains clean.

Also, I think it's probably good for OTHER people to prep. If the shit DOES strike, then I guess the chance of future generations existing and recovering goes up the more food and tools are available.

While I do enjoy gardening, I'm not doing it for the lulz. You won't see me shopping for tacticool 'gear' to hoard, but I do want to ensure a food/water supply for the family. If/when that's ever completely secured, I'll move up Maslow's pyramid, anticipating future needs, but slowly. Most people on tv are on tv because they're ridiculous and entertaining to look at. Not because they're balanced people, trying to provide for the family.

Above all, I will never forgive myself for not buying some bitcoin. I even have a wealthy friend and bitcoin skeptic who was selling his version of bitcoin. Give him $XXX, the current value of BTC, and then he'd sell it back to you at the current value whenever you wanted.

I had an office-mate buying any and all Bitcoin 5 years ago. I thought he was kinda crazy. He's fucking loaded, now.
Shit, I owned a few shares of Apple and Microsoft 20 years ago. I got bored and sold them. They'd be worth 100x or so, now.
These things happen. Don't get caught up in sunk costs, or you'll go insane.

[SuburbanFarmer]

Yes, a lot of the people on TV are put there to be ridiculous. But I noticed many of the more sensible ones were also significantly overweight. Which makes sense because this is America and we are fat.

But, if you are obsessed with surviving for as long as possible and you are overweight, it's clear to me what your first priority should be.

Totally agree. But that's not really the point for me, or most preppers. It's about the kids. I'd be just fine with watching the world burn from my sofa, but they need a fair chance. That's why I do what I do. Once they don't need me, I don't really have a reason to do it anymore.

[SuburbanFarmer]

Canadian mint caught selling fake gold. Can't imagine how it happened.

http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/ottawa/fa ... -1.4368801

The Royal Canadian Mint is investigating how a sealed, "pure gold" wafer with proper mint stampings may in fact be a fake.

The one-ounce gold piece, which was supposed to be 99.99 per cent pure, was purchased by an Ottawa jeweller on Oct. 18 at a Royal Bank of Canada branch. Yet tests of the bar show it may contain no gold at all.

When neither the mint nor RBC would take the bar back, jeweller Samuel Tang contacted CBC news.

[Speaker to Animals]

Yes, a lot of the people on TV are put there to be ridiculous. But I noticed many of the more sensible ones were also significantly overweight. Which makes sense because this is America and we are fat.

Nah. That stuff is deliberate and it's purpose is to cast American traditionalism in a negative light so that people don't get the idea that seeking independence and preparing for hard times might be a good idea. They go out of their way to find fat asses or people preparing for alien invasions because they want to make traditional lifestyles a thing to mock, and normal preppers are not really easily mocked. Most of them just grow a lot of their own food, stock up on things, and try to gain some skills for emergencies and small trades they can use for barter.

I don't even like the word prepper anymore than I like the word survivalist. There's some of that aspect to it, but the core of it is just traditional value of working towards self-sufficiency rather than dependence.

What you see on television is propaganda designed to keep you dependent on the system and vulnerable. Step one is turning that fucking thing right the fuck off.

[C-Mag]

Conventional wisdom in survivalist and prepper talk is always based on getting out of urban areas to the safety of the countryside, doubled with avoiding the hordes of mass exodus from urban areas. But I don't see the historical record showing that is the case for humans. Let's look at the siege of Sarajevo and the Argentine Economic collapse as recent examples.

In the Siege of Sarajevo, which is as bad as anything we've seen until the recent Syrian civil war. The pre war population was approx. 525,000. Prior to the siege, but after the war started the population dropped to 435,000 or a 17% drop. After the siege the population dropped to 350,000 or Two-Thirds of it's original population. Even after all that.

So, where's the mass exodus that has been the Red Meat of survivalist fiction ?



https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Siege_of_Sarajevo

[SuburbanFarmer]

Conventional wisdom in survivalist and prepper talk is always based on getting out of urban areas to the safety of the countryside, doubled with avoiding the hordes of mass exodus from urban areas. But I don't see the historical record showing that is the case for humans. Let's look at the siege of Sarajevo and the Argentine Economic collapse as recent examples.

In the Siege of Sarajevo, which is as bad as anything we've seen until the recent Syrian civil war. The pre war population was approx. 525,000. Prior to the siege, but after the war started the population dropped to 435,000 or a 17% drop. After the siege the population dropped to 350,000 or Two-Thirds of it's original population. Even after all that.

So, where's the mass exodus that has been the Red Meat of survivalist fiction ?



https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Siege_of_Sarajevo

Well, that was a siege, involving an encircled city...

I think you'd have to get more specific about which type of threat is happening - if economic, history shows people swarming into the cities. When infrastructure breaks down, the first links re-established will always be to population centers.

In the case of a disease, you might see some people spread out, but they are more likely to end up dying on the road, or in refugee camps than forming Mad Max road gangs.

I'm having a hard time thinking of any scenario in which people, in general, would actually abandon the cities by choice, for any length of time.