yes. you should. absolutely.

but don't go out and be a panicky animal and spend $1300 on 'emergency food buckets' from overpriced fear vendors. smart preppers hit the grocery stores for protein/fat rich, canned/boxed, long-life food. hit the dollar stores/job lot/whatever you have and take $100. that's a good budget for about 3 weeks to a month of food consisting of canned items. you'll be amazed at the amount of off brand foods that are perfectly fine at off brand stores. generic spam/chili/deviled ham/tuna/chicken/beef stew/soups etc. big bags of rice (i do minute rice...less water/cooking time). boxed flake potatoes. SALT AND PEPPER AND SPICES. you don't have to live wihout flavor. also, sriracha. seriously.

don't forget water. don't waste space with gallons and individual water bottles (unless you have space, i do not). get the big 5 gallon 'water cooler' bottles from your grocery store. you can build racks for these easily if need be. they say 1 gallon per person per day, but we can live well off of less, and most of us do.

guns/ammo? your choice. i have plenty of both. i think everyone should.

take into consideration HOW you get everything you enjoy. water? is it well/city? if the power goes out do you still have water? no? do you have gutters? where do they empty? could you put a trash barrel under one for greywater (toilets flush, dishes, etc). do you know how a toilet works? serious questions no one ever thinks of until it's dark lol.

your stove. is it electric? does it work with no power? propane? how does it spark? do you have a way to cook if there's no power? camp stove from amazon and maybe 5-6 1lb propane tanks, stuff like that.

lights. have an oil lamp? no? you should. BOOM here ya go. don't forget the oil.

get some LED string lights. don't forget batteries.

i could go on and on.

yes, you should be prepping. something is going to happen soon. if you have a BJs/SamsClub/Cosco membership, use it.

we're good for up to 3-5 months, depending on consumption, WITH 4 cats. we've been prepping for months. hopefully we never have to use it, but i have the same feeling you do, buddy. be safe. and take this time to learn HOW everything in your nice comfy convenient home works while you can. before you're stuck doing it when it doesn't work anymore.

am i afraid? nope. i use the same mentality as when i put on my seat belt. "gee, hope this thing never HAS to save my life, but i feel safer having it on".

S is going to HTF. i know it, and so do lots of other people.

final note. don't be a fatty who has a year worth of food and can't defend it if someone wants it. cardio. walk every day a couple miles. curl some weights for ten minutes a day. basic situps/push ups while you watch tv. pass the time and get shit done. you don't have to be ahhnold, but if you look and feel like peter griffin, you're not gonna be much use in a survival situation. best of luck.

Good. Then you're already in better starting condition than most lol.

Now go get some basic stuff. Hit the dollar store, you'll be surprised what you can end up with for 20 bucks!

While I don't expect complete civil dissolution to occur overnight, or ever really...You do raise some good points. A lot of people would likely be unprepared for the loss of water and power for more than a few days.

it's honestly like, over 90% of the population. like i said, i'm no fearmongerer, but i have a wife and cats and ZERO plans of leaving if SHTF (i live in a pretty rural woodsy area), so i like being prepared. we have peace of mind.

it's not even just SHTF kinda stuff. in the mountains, we lose power a lot during stormy seasons (like, summer, fall, winter, and spring lol), and sometimes for days at a time. we only have a small generator, but it's sufficient for running the fridge, though not our well pump. we take care of what we can with what we have.

there's a real negative connotation with preppers, well...cuz a lot of them are dicks about it, and most of them are completely unrealistic. the majority are the super right-wing 'THUR COMIN TO GIT UR GUNNNSSS' kinda folk, who weigh 300lb, haven't physically walked or run further than their mailbox in 30 years, and just prep to have something to do. in a real situation, they'd probably be an easy target for the guy down the street who's in shape, has guns, and knows how to use them. it's why people laugh at them.

thus my seatbelt analogy. i'm not fearful. i honestly DO think we're due for 'something'. russia? china? EMP? nukes? i dunno. and frankly i don't care. if we're gonna die we're gonna die. i only do this so i don't HAVE to run to the store the minute the minute disaster strikes. most people can't even fathom the chaos that will ensue if something serious, and nationwide happens. this isn't the 50's where everyone will 'head on over to the town hall and see what the mayor has to say' lol.

it'll be chaos guaranteed. so why not stay home and avoid it all?

if you've never read One Second After, you should. i can't recommend this book enough. i know a ton about prepping and survival skills, but this book brought a lot of stuff i never thought about before to light. it's a fantastic (and pretty quick) read. it's about someone who lives in a small town, and his experience when the US gets hit by an EMP. the whole country goes down, and no one has any idea what to do, or even what happened, and how that all works out. it's so good.

If you have some extra money set aside and want to plan for the worst as far as water is concerned, Berkey has gravity filters that store gallons at a time and filter out just about anything.

Nothing really bad is going to happen. The economy will suffer, middle class too... but nothing compared to a daily life in south america, where EVERY election is a Trump/Hillary situation.

"plans are useless but planning is essential" - Eisenhower. I would rather be prepared.

Sure... but for what?

World War is very unlikely today for one reason only: Economy.

After capitalism got itself in every country, gave a sense of welfare for the majority of the war-capable countries, getting into a real world war would destroy the foundation of corporation control: money.

Well... just my 2 cents.

Exactly why I think anyone who brings up "war with China" is an idiot.

Why would China go to war with the US, the NUMBER ONE CONSUMER OF CHINESE PRODUCTS?!

Makes no sense.

Don't forget guns and ammo.

I second this

silver and gold wouldnt hurt to have, im pretty sure the world's faith in america is fading and so will the dollars buying power.

But def guns, ammo, food and water first!

it wouldnt hurt.

Probably. Though I haven't.

[deleted]

Then you will live on the street

Luckily enough my family is competent enough to be able to build a fairly comfortable log cabin in the middle of nowhere.

Nah, that's not good enough. You still won't be safe. I suggest moving into the sewers. Build yourself and your loved ones a nice shit hut. The men in black don't like to get their suits all gross.

It seems you forgot to switch to your alt, but I digress.

That comment of mine was assuming it got to the point of where we are forced to avoid contact with others. The home we own now is enough to live with assuming a natural disaster(ice storms, flooding, tornadoes, earthquake, yellowstone, etc) or similar event took place. The only thing we would have to worry about, in a hypothetical situation, would be radiation sickness.

I'm not his alt and it was just a joke. Relax, guy.

It's cool, but the way you replied had a similar writing style and was indirectly attacking me, so I assumed we had an issue. Oh well.

+1 I'm socially inept enough with one account and don't really even have the time for it. Not cool enough for alts 😀

Congratulations!

Seriously though? The world is not about to end. It's going to get a lot worse a lot faster if we don't take control of our government but in the short term I would recommend trying not to obsess over the what-ifs. I say this having had similar worries for the past several presidential elections. This is going to change very little, sadly.

We need to elect a new Congress who does our will. I hope that we can do it and i believe that we still have a bit of time to do it. I'm hopeful that this shithow of an election has engaged an unprecedented interest in our democracy.

I may be wrong.

Tldr: Relax 😀 at least about the survivalism bit for now

You should always be ready for an emergency. Never know when the grid might go down because of a bad natural disaster. April 2011, tornadoes knocked my whole area out for weeks. I was prepared, though, and it was basically like a long, relatively comfortable camping trip.

I browse the prepper, permaculture, bushcraft, EDC, and related subs for ideas.

Every unraveling is eventually stopped by a crisis and soft reset. In industrial civilization, it takes the form of banking collapse and world war, of which this current one, since it will eventually go thermonuclear, will be the last and greatest. They are trying to keep it conventional and by-proxy, managing it as a kind of global business enterprise, but the great wheel of history demands otherwise.

No. Geez. Nothing different from what is already happening will occur. Taxes will go up, services will go down, jobs will be scarce, freelancing, contracting and service jobs will increase. Get your shit together and save your money.

Look a presidential candidate is lauded by elites and praised by the powers that be. Our system has become completely corrupted, it's the new normal. The middle class is dying and you need to help keep your family in it.

Exactly why I think anyone who brings up "war with China" is an idiot.

Why would China go to war with the US, the NUMBER ONE CONSUMER OF CHINESE PRODUCTS?!

Makes no sense.