I dislike the term Doomsday prepper because it conjures images of some very strange people barricaded in their residences that they have filled to overflowing with thousands of rolls of toilet paper, toothpaste, guns and ammo. The truth is that those people are the exceptions in the prepper movement. The dictionary defines doomsday as a day of reckoning and there are those who choose to apply the word only to end of world events such as a nuclear disaster but in reality it can be as simple as the end of your own comfortable world "as you know it." It can be the result of a personal challenge such as the loss of a job, illness or even surviving the effects of a hurricane or blizzard. It might even be a truckers strike that ends, even if only for a few weeks, the transport of everything we take for granted, from the goods that stock the shelves in the market to the fuel in the underground tanks at the gas station. I think that most of todays "preppers" are people who have returned to the mindset of previous generations who understood they were responsible for themselves and the government was not meant to be their savior from every bump in the road. As a prepper, I like knowing that if my power is out for a week or two, it is merely an inconvenience, not a disaster. I like knowing that I have enough food and water on hand that being unable to run to the market everyday will not leave me hungry or thirsty. I like knowing that I have not only goods stored but have taken the time to the master skills that I might need to provide for myself and my family if a true disaster strikes because preparation means more than a full pantry. Take a little time to think about your personal doomsday and how prepared you are to to meet the challenges that may come your way.
I am seeing a gradual, albeit accelerated, rise in costs of everyday essentials far exceeding costs of living increases. The dollar is being devalued and petroleum prices are not reflected by availability but rather, by speculation Futures purchases. Genetically engineered food crops are killing heirloom crops and have virtually wiped-out the small American farmer so Big Business now controls the food supply and it is even worse, considering that our government is equally culpable in this conspiracy by offering crop subsidies to produce only those things that are needed to control the market and keep it optimum for the manufacturers and processors. Take corn, for an example...the corn syrup is used as a sweetener in virtually everything and the prices are controlled for production of ethanol under the sleight of hand to supplement motor fuel production. This has wiped out catfish production on most scales because commercial catfish feed now costs more than catfish fillets produced from it. When you can locate catfish fillets, they now are priced over three times what they were bringing three short years ago. Do not forget to understand that it takes enough corn to feed a family for months to make a single fill-up at the local station for the family Escort. Everything that uses corn syrup has increased in price by at least 100%. Add a mass-media campaign to malign refined sugar, and the prices increase even further because sugar is an easy crop to produce on otherwise wasted wetlands. Add government restrictions on the private sale of home-grown vegetable, raw milk, cheeses, eggs, and we give Big Business a monopoly on life-sustaining necessities. Then we have the degradation of infrastructure; pipelines, electric transmission lines, hydro-electric plants, fossil-fuel plants, all are aging, being regulated to death, and not being replaced or maintained nearly as well as needed. Communications has been manipulated from hard-wired to satellite or tower transmission, internet based, digital...and totally under the control and authority of .gov, who can, by the way, shut it down with the pull of a switch in the event of a perceived "National Emergency". We have been conditioned to allow ourselves being searched on demand before we can get on an airplane, and that has expanded to buses, trains, any mass-transportation, and now, even includes highway check-points. We are being watched, for the sole purpose of just seeing how the mass will react so that new propaganda campaigns can be launched to garner public support and sentiment. There is a practical purpose for all this and while I tend to believe it is nefarious, has many sentient points regarding the "good" for the general population, public safety, and continuing the economic spiral. A select few will profit for all this but that is the cost of maintaining an ant-farm. My "Dooms-Day" has already arrived and I have lived most of my life battling it by producing as much of my food as I can, producing as much of my other essentials and luxuries as I can by doing it yourself, or barter, and steadily increasing this trend in direct response to and hopefully getting ahead of the trends and regulations that eventually have to either fail or be greatly reduced and equally divided by those of us that are not in the ruling profit-sharing class.
I live in earthquake country, I lived through the Rodney King riots, and I've seen a tornado hit the Los Angeles Convention Center. I'll hope for the best, plan for the worst, and take what comes.
Flood, fire, civil unrest, unwarranted martial law or without rule of law scenarios. Typical stuff, you know. The TV shows with "doomsday prepper" types characterized with extreme prejudices and strange conspiracy notions are entertainment as far as I am concerned. The real preppers are all at the Survival Monkey.
Heck, It is just the way we Live.... We don't Prep for any one thing, but have our Winter Supplies, on hand by Sept 1, because there will NOT be another Barge, till next Spring. (April 10) We still have 6 months of Winter Supplies, left, NOW, and that doesn't include our Long Term Preps, of Staples, and other goods, which could keep us going for another 18 months, minimum. ..... YMMV.....
Concert tours landing in Sydney by "exotic" overseas "entertainers" like Justin Bieber, The Pope, Ellen Degeneris and Oprah.
I trying to be ready and plan for the natural disasters, we may see regionally, cutting us off from supplies & services- power outages due to severe weather, earthquake, volcano, Lahar and flooding in general. I have a ways to go in those preparations, but I have a plan to get there and resources to go to, where I am weak in knowledge. My biggest concern is that I am ready by preparing for those items above, that I will be able to maintain and survive an economic collapse. That collapse may be either related to a national emergency such as EMP or solar flares dropping the national electrical grid, or the most likely in my opinion, the .gov pushing the economy to far with its financial policies. When the markets collapse for whatever reason, the banks don't open, the delivery trucks stop running, service stop's flowing and fuel is not available- there are going to be a lot of starving people looking for food, fuel and whatever you have to take. I will be ready to live, eat and fight as needed to protect my family, and those important to me. That is why I prepare.
Right now, my concern is, As the only daily Breadwinner, "What happens to my house and family, if I am injured, and unable to work for a length of weeks or months."? At best, workman's comp would pay half of what barely works now, and that, only after two weeks of nothing. I need to be able to bridge that gap in both money, and preps, for the continuation of our lifestyle. If I broke a leg today, I would lose my house, before I could recover. There must be a buffer, between what is, and what could happen.
Economic collapse. I do often wonder about a second civil war, I would hate to think things would breakdown that bad but it isn't an impossible thought. The only natural disaster here would cause us to have to bug out. We have no second location, that bother me at times but I have always wanted to live like a gypsy.
The horror! You need lots of anesthetic (alcohol? chocolate? beer?) to survive the presence of a Justin Bieber concert!
So sorry Chell but I see no way for you to pull through a Beib concert with any sanity. If any show up on the shores of OZ post in the prayer forum. It's all we can do.
For me it is everything to some degree. I try to focus on the more likely events such as local disasters if earthquake, snow freezing rain blizzard, volcano, loss of job, etc. But there are some larger events that are inevitable as well though less known in scope or consequences: economic collapse and continued breakdown of civil society while govt gets more oppressive. But I also try to do something for the less likely but more severe civil war or tyranny scenarios as well. So I prep for mostly bugging in, try to increase my DIY and marketable skills, and also acquire guns, ammo and lots of other tools and skills to pass on to grandkids, too. I believe prepping should be a mindset and needs to be practiced and shared so each successive generation has a foundation to keep building upon.
I would say weather or civil unrest... I think with our current leaders the people of the U.S. are going to get fed up with their stupidity and either try to take the country back or there will riots in the big cities, which is why i live in the country away from the big cities.
