Marauders at TEOTWATKI Your Opinion to a Perhaps a Partial Hypothetical

Any place in a city environment is not suitable for long term once the SHTF. Don't matter if you have 6 months worth of supplies or 6 years. The only option to continue living is to GTFO as soon as you see things going to hell. The living on the 25th floor part MIGHT gain you another 2 weeks of hiding, but not likely. In fact, it might doom you even sooner as the smell of your cooking will drift even further. The reason you'll need to GTFO as soon as you see the situation going to hell, assuming a City of at least 1 million inhabitants, and NONE of them have any interest in YOUR personal survival. While 999,998 will be developing more & more & more interest in what you have & possess the longer the situation goes on. So enjoy your perceived convenience & culture now, but when SHTF, kiss it & your ass goodbye.

We've all seen mini-shtf scenarios of riots & looting popping up over imaginary injustices. Just think how much faster it'll get much worse when those kinds of people KNOW there will be no one to oppose them, & they think their survival is at stake.

 

Two schools of thought,
Be invisible.
Be extraordinarily visible.
A place that can't be easily seen, MIGHT be over looked.
A place that is bustling with activity (most people armed) not an easy target .
Generally criminals are going to pick the easier targets, desperate people with nothing to loose are looking for mercy.
It does not mean they have any thing to offer in exchange for help. basically democrats .having hoped for government hand outs.
Every ply for pity will be exploited, real and invented.
This case most importantly ,giving needs to be done as anonymously as possible if you are going to do it. once you are recognized as a resource the demand will not end til you are seeking help your self.
The life boat is designed to hold 10 adults 15 are aboard , how much more compromise are you going to yield till all die ?
Discrimination may be a social taboo ,but it will be the law if the group is to survive.
Hard decisions will have to be made. Non productive inactive, decending members are a liability.

 

Environmentally.. No heat, no air, no working sewage, Individuals or gangs interested in searching/looting an apparent empty building will: secure the building and work their way up... 25 flights of stairs may seem like a lot at one time buts as they loot a floor they move up it may take 2 weeks but at the two week point you are in pretty bad shape with no escape...

I would move toward the fringes of your city and prepare to bug out... other wise I wish you the best of luck....

 

Ed just likes to troll with various wild scenarios and see who rises to the bait.

 

Sometimes has positive results, though.

 

For an actual account of surviving in a city when things fall apart, survuvor FerFal's account is here:
ferFAL Some first hand experience A brief story of Argentina

Speculation is one thing, real experience is another

 

The same has been said of me...but as outlandish as some of his scenarios may seem, he does offer opportunities to battle/game (mainly) urban survival scenarios through, as if they were feasible situations that people might get caught up in. History, and recent world events have demonstrated that the urban landscape can become a virtual 'hunger games' environment where some will become predatory, some will become gormless victims, and some, will band together and try to retain what vestiges of humanity they possess, and work hard at the project of surviving as families, clans and tribes.

The western world has, over the past couple of centuries, become highly urbanised. In a site such as ours, it is appropriate that that environment becomes the concern of those who live in it, or are likely to become impacted by it if / when the world goes pear shaped and life as we know it becomes an unrelenting existence of hard hardscrabble survival. I believe that cities, and even large towns are likely to become utterly unsustainable in most enduring socioeconomic disasters / crises. Case in point, hurricanes, earthquakes, and other natural disasters have required massive relief resources external to the affected area to recover from such shocks to what are fairly fragile systems. However, such events are usually fairly localised, and in large nations, unaffected areas can come riding to the rescue. In a general economic collapse, the availability of resources to put things back in working order just won't be there.

Cities and large towns, are by their nature, reliant for food, energy, fuel and other necessary economic inputs, external to the city or town to be sustainable. Small to moderate sized villages, hamlets, and towns will often have the self sustainability to provide a stable living environment for those who live within them, albeit without the support of services that come from cities and large towns. The self sustaining community's problem will not so much be one of providing the basic necessities of life (food, water, shelter,) for their residents, but providing security against the golden horde escaping the larger towns and cities where those requirements for life no longer exist.

 

Sorry folks. Ed died in this scenario.


He successfully respawned at the rallying point but he was naked and all his kit was reduced to a single sharpened stick.

 

Sounds like he has been playing 'Miscreated'

 

I can't find fault with the scenario proposed by the OP. After all, millions of Americans now live exactly as he described. Chellovik's comment, to me, are on target regarding the reality of living in these congested cities. I am of the opinion that there now exists metro cities that many, if not most, of us would find disagreeable and possibly unlivable.
When I read of formulating "bug out" plans for someone who does live as the OP described the word 'fantasy' pops into my mind. Exactly what signs would these people look for to reach the decision to leave? Many cities exhibit those signs now. Why are they not leaving?
I would liken living as how described as living in a building whose roof you think will one day collapse and come crashing down on those inside. You hope to spot the signs of impending collapse in time to get out because that's your plan. But in reality you will not likely get out of the building in time. Human nature is to discount those first few clues and wait for others in order to be sure and by then its too late.

 

I believe that it is called normalcy bias...





A classic example was the rise of Hitler, and the steadily increasing persecution of Jews and political enemies of the Nazis. Generally Those who recognised the signs, and had the resources to flee Germany early, especially if they sought refuge outside of continental Europe, survived; those who, for various reasons delayed their departure, and were caught up in the pogroms that ensued and most likely didn't survive. Many could not believe that that such a holocaust could be conceivable, and invented all kinds of justifications for not leaving, only to find that their rationalisations were not justified.

The sunk cost fallacy also comes into play when decisions are made to stay or go....The Sunk Cost Fallacy Is Ruining Your Decisions. Here's How



The question one needs to answer is, at what point does one walk away from what might be considered 'valuable' assets such as a job, a house, preps, etc in order to survive elsewhere.

 

Had never heard of the "Sunk/Loss Fallacy", but recognize it immediately from watching the video. I've done the same myself, as in... this meal tastes horrible but it cost a lot so I'm just going to choke it down!

 

I have trouble really believing feral criminals doing and orchestrated and determined attack on a skyscraper while enduring losses. Sure, some biker clubs or a cartel boss could want the high ground for some reason but BLM....nah.

I could envision some sort of neighborhood group doing a coordinated search for potential assets in a big building. They may be pretty hardened to strangers after a really short while.

These groups could be organized off the members of any religious, ethnic, or geographic commonality. They would include not just the toughs but the grannies, babies, and everything between doing just what we would do.

 

One time my late wife was giving me grief over nothing driving me nuts I had a lot invested but I made it clear that I can start life over again, those things, this relationship is not going to tear me down.
I can start all over again. she learned that I cannot be manipulated by stuff or her approval or disapproval.
She simply wanted to argue to no point, just to argue. she admitted it.
I have a mindset that I entertain every day particularly when not at home,
I imagine that all my stuff is gone burned down to the ground.
If it is all there when I get home, OK another day, I"m fine with that. and believe me, I've got tons of stuff.
On one hand, if it is all gone I am free to do something different and move on.
Even less to anchor me here.
I've been homeless before it is no big deal, God watches over me a lot.
Another way I look at "things",
I was once a warehouseman, for the state forest service, and other camps would come and get what they needed.
My job was just keeping track. that was it nothing more not even handleing money, just handing stuff out. .cool job .
Now days what I do is consider what is in my charge, God's stuff.
Some one serving God needs something, I pray about it, and provide what I am instructed.
As an example, A missionary running an orphanage in Mexico needed a generator and an air compressor, I gave him both and not a week later two more were given to me delivered to my house and these knew nothing of what I had done.
I am not an organization or business, If money changes hands I's mine buying parts to fix things as needed.
Another investment I make is in experimentation for the sake of verification and possible future use or at least to help others the have the need. One of which is a Ram Pump. and that education has already paid off as expected.
Much like the How Tos we share here , God provided me a creative gene and I love to help people with it.
I have learned something about invention.
Just like dreams every one has them, but we all do something different about them.
Some have the fortune to go about development and some do nothing, and some are frustrated with wanting to build but lack the funds. There is no fault, it is just the way life is.
I can invest hours even days weeks and even years on a project on the drawing board but do nothing because of al the usual resistance. time money information.
You can't get too attached to these ideas because like I said other people are having similar dreams.

 

Real World update: Yes I know it's Haiti, but the levels of marauding are extreme so you could imagine something milder happening in your city. Just imagine all the iceHeads on the rampage if they were denied their fix? Haiti has truly gone Zombie Apocalypse. This is basically what happens when people are denied the services of modern urban life. No one wants to go stoneage.

Haiti health system nears collapse as medicine dwindles, gangs attack hospitals and ports stay shut

31 Mar 2024 — Armed gangs in Haiti are burning and looting hospitals, clinics and pharmacies leaving Haitians, especially those chronically ill, ... https://www.miamiherald.com/news/nation-world/world/americas/haiti/article287208205.html


Armed gang in Haiti takes hundreds hostage at hospital

 

The scary thing that no one wants to admit is that we are all Haitians! We tell ourselves that we would NEVER do things like that, we are civilized...but civilization is just a thin veneer...miss nine meals and it disappears! Humans are capable of great and terrible things, usually the two are mutually exclusive and sometimes they aren't!

 

I already have a bunch of times.