How many of you really think it is possible??

[crazyaboutchickens]

Quote:
I disagree 100%.

Only because, take for example, the hurricane Katrina incident; hundreds of people died because they had no drinking water, while being surrounded by 10 feet of water they could not drink. Now according to your logic,

It doesn't matter what you have or don't have right this second

So according to you, you would just give up and die because you had no drinking water, because it doesn't matter what you have squirreled away, because if it's your time it's your time.

WORRYING IS IMPORTANT, to a point, and it ABSOLUTELY matters what you have- even for something as simple as safe drinking water! One of the strongest human instincts (as well as animals) is self preservation. Even cavemen knew that if they didn't store up enough plants to eat they might not make it through the winter... I guess that makes the difference between the people that will survive and those that won't.​

100% correct, although I don't believe "worrying" is the right term. Worrying is the act of thinking about something that scares you, and doing nothing about it. PREPARING is thinking about something that scares you, then acting to protect yourself from it. Don't know if that's the dictionary's definition, but that's the way I always think of it.

That's actually why we got into gardening and chickens; the economy's tanking, so we decided to become as self-reliant as possible.

Excessive preparedness and paranoia are not healthy, though, and the following quotes sum up my views on the matter of TEOTWAWKI.

"How much pain have caused us the troubles that have never happened." - Thomas Jefferson

"If you see 10 troubles coming down the road, you can be sure that 9 of them will run off into the ditch before they reach you." - Calvin Coolidge

 

[booker81]

I think that if we would have had an economic disaster, it would have happened in October 2009. As it is, I'm not sure how we made it out of THAT mess still alive. We did however, and though some of the actions taken might not have been honorable, for some reason things are still chugging along.

 

[I have WHAT in my yard?]

I love this forum.

I go away and come back and you are all still having a civilized debate about uncivilized times.

You all have such great perspectives! Age is a big factor in how people see things. While BP was spewing oil in the gulf people were talking about it being the ecological disaster that would start the end times. My FIL said more oil spilled in that gulf during the 6 years during the build up to and WWII than was spilled by BP. I did the research and he was right!!

BUT, it was and IS an ecological disaster for the creatures in the gulf and for those humans living by the gulf right now. Will it all recover, yes, probably, will THEY recover - maybe, maybe not.

SHTF is personal for most, but it could get bigger easily. People just don't realize what things are sawing at the social bonds which hold it all together.

 

[ptots]

Once my dad had a 56 chevy that I wanted.He said get a job and buy your own gas and you can have it. So that's what I did. That was 1968 Until 2009, Ive always had more trouble getting vacation time, than finding work. It's getting to be pretty slim pickens in my section of the world, and yes at my age that worries me.

 

[SillyChicken]

Heck, we're stocking up food just because we don't like what the food industry is doing with our food. I'd like to live a little simpler. We don't like being that dependant on anyone. Whether anything happens or not, I think it's prudent to have food and other things stored for basic emergencies.

Storms, could do some temporary, localized damage.

What if my DH or I lose a job, a high possibility, especially being in Michigan... could be a few months to a year or more before we could recover.

Economic collapse, possible, it's happened before.. Whats the saying, "Those who forget history, are doomed to repeat it".

Civil unrest.... depends on the elections and how the government handles things...

Natural disaster, well we'll never really know... we could be slammed with a meteor, which could be about the only event that could really screw up the planet!

Then there's the aliens!

 

[bakerjw]

The only time I get worried is when I'm not prepared for something. One of my favorite sayings is "If you're prepared for 90% of what can happen you have a good chance of handling the 10% that you did not expect." Me, I am along the likes of Boyd. I am almost prepared. All I need now is a few solar panel to power our well and to handle a freezer and I'll be close to being set.

Is a collapse certain? No. Nothing in this life is a 100% certainty.
Will it likely happen? I believe yes.

As an example.
Let's say I make $80,000 a year yet I spend $120,000 a year.
I also have $350,000 of debt.
And I am not changing my spending habits and am also allowing my children and wife to spend however much they want. All I do is go get more credit with no plan in place to face the inevitable.
That would be a recipe for a financial disaster for my family yet it is what our country is doing right now.

The day will come when the cash flow ceases and in the end it really doesn't matter who caused it. Be it the Dems, the Reps, CNN, MSNBC, Fox News, The filthy rich, the poor, the hard workers, the lazy. If a collapse happens then it won't matter.

An example of the American mentality that I like to use is the event at a WalMart a few Christmas seasons ago. A security guard was trampled to death by people rushing in to buy crap. Junk. Presents. A man lost his life because people were motivated by desire. Now imagine if food shortages were to occur. How would the average American react? I would be curious as to what the average time was that Americans have gone without food. I've gone 7 days once by choice and it wasn't an easy thing to do. I could only imagine how hard it would be to do it without choice. If things start to collapse then people will go hungry and spoiled hungry people would be quite motivated.

People here on BYC come from all sectors and for the most part we do raise chickens and garden for food. IMHO it is prudent to have a way to protect what you have in case things start to get nasty. Barbed wire is cheap and currently firearms and ammunition is also at pre 2008 levels. Always prepare. Be well.

 

[Dunkopf]

Quote:
What happened in October 2009? I'm not being facetious, I just need a memory jog.

 

[Dunkopf]

If we have serious problems it will be food based. People start literally starving and there will be problems. Don't see that happening except in the event of some kind of ecological/biological disaster. Financial issues will just result in people downgrading. Sure there will be more crime. I'm in the insurance industry and we have a pretty good spike in insurance fraud. People burning their own houses and cars, or paying someone in a bar to drive their car somewhere and torch it. Claiming old damage again. Stuff like that. If it gets worse, you'll see more robberies and stuff. Mostly we'll just see a lot more people on corners. Small riots and stuff like that.

The government has been juggling for many years. If they would not have done the stimulus thing and the unemployment extensions, we would have a lot worse situation than we do now. When a business is in deep water, they usually get a loan to do research and start down a different path. At the same time they reduce their overhead. That's what Ford did before the recession became full blown. They were ahead of the curve and benefited from that and the fact that they borrowed from a bank instead of the gov. The situation can be handled. They just need to do it and quit playing their political games.

They need to do a better job of controlling their social programs and defense spending. Do some spending cuts on their own workforce. Eliminate salaries of representatives that have a certain level of wealth. They don't need to be paid if they are rich. Put some meaning in to serving the public. The level of power they have should suffice. Obama said he was going to use a scalpel to go through the budget. It's time to start doing that.

 

[Steve_of_sandspoultry]

I don't see it as being food based directly, I think it will be an economic domino effect. I'm sure everybody remembers when gas hit $4 a gallon after the gulf hurricains and if that didn't put a strain on your budget then you are doing very very well. My paycheck hasn't even come close to keeping up with inflation but we do okay for a couple reasons. #1 the kids are grown and out on their own, #2 food wise we are very self sufficient, #3 we are at the stage of our lives when just about everything is paid off. Anybody just starting out would be hard just to make ends meet.

I think something has to give but it will take trigger. For now most people are putting their nose to the grind stone and plodding along hoping it will get better. I hope I never see it but I think once the domino's start to fall it's going to ugly.

Steve

 

[Q9]

Quote:

The phrase in italics cracked me up. That's pretty much my view, especially the part about hope. I sure as heck hope that we "paranoid survivalists" are wrong.

(No, I do not consider myself a survivalists. For some reason, though, that label tends to get thrown on me on certain other forums.)