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When I recently looked at some of the national averages w/ the # of Americans on social services or underemployed, and how many of us actually live pay check to pay check w/ no real savings to speak of. How long would we last before it all went haywire?
It's a Domino effect folks if one system falters or fails that millions of Americans depend on for survival wouldn't we see those people turn to violence quickly to obtain the things they need in order to survive?
Take the last shutdown it lasted for what 3wks, heck I didn't even know about it until it was well into it's 2nd week, from sounds of it they scraped together enough funds to pay the military but that wold even last for so long. Once the Military stop getting paid wouldn't they start doing like in New Orleans and confiscating goods for themselves, ultimately creating another group of people w/ out and forcing them to fight or scrounge for food.
So how long would you make it before turning to other means? How long would u give the country?
In a real collapse? Those of you in BFE would be pillaged out of house and home in short order. That's what happened in Argentina. Complete lose of law and order in rural areas while cities actually survived fairly well as the government concentrated all of its resources there.
Most of the people here don't want to hear it as they've literally bet everything they own on moving to BFE but they've backed the wrong horse. Or at least they would have if a collapse ever happened but that's not likely to ever happen in our life times. That's just a wet dream fantasy for losers.
Yes... someone starving to death, without transportation, stuck in the middle of a large metropolis is going to travel 400 miles through a desert with absolutely nothing along the way (including roads) to find some old hermit that he somehow knows lives out there in the desert canyons somewhere, in order to seize that one-man's worth of provisions that he might have. Sounds reasonable to me. Problem is... NOBODY is that stupid, including the "zombies."
As for the OP question. If there were a real economic collapse, your savings may not be worth a thing. If you are really worried about that sort of event, you'll need to actually stock provisions, food, tools, etc, not money (at least not much money). Think of it this way: if you have food for a couple of months, you don't have to worry about your money not buying the food or the food not being available.
As the other poster implied (in reverse logic), there would be a real problem with looting, raiding, etc. Any place a reasonably intelligent bad guy might reasonably look for plunder is in peril. That would include large and small cities and any place close enough for a raid. It, however, would not likely include someplace where very few live or venture now. Why would anyone venture there in a SHTF situation? If nobody is there now, it's doubtful they will be there in bad times. Besides, even if the area had a few people scattered here and there, it's not worth the bad guy's time to find them. His gain would be less than the energy and provisions expended to raid the here-and-there hermit types--who presumably wouldn't have much that was worth anything anyway.
However, if the democrat even thinks for a moment that they may lose in 2016 you'll see a REAL crisis. I guarantee it. What exactly? Hard to tell. It's the new method for insuring Democrats in power...and it works. Look for a repeat.
Happened in Europe post WWII, extensively. Read up. It's nothing new.
However, if the democrat even thinks for a moment that they may lose in 2016 you'll see a REAL crisis. I guarantee it. What exactly? Hard to tell. It's the new method for insuring Democrats in power...and it works. Look for a repeat.
Happened in Europe post WWII, extensively. Read up. It's nothing new.
katrina was a good example of what happens when the police are not available. many foolishly allowed themselves to be disarmed and locked up at the superdome.
if you are armed and mobile (bicycles are ok) and wiling and able to use your arms to keep your transportation. u wont have a problem in a real crisis u will evade most trouble. the real trouble will be in areas where there are lots of people and those willing to use their numbers and force to get what they want.
Assuming all the pharmacies have been pilfered/vandalized, I will last approximately 8 weeks after my prescription medication runs out. I try to keep at least a 6-month supply on hand.
When you look up the term "old fart" in the dictionary, there's my picture...
if you are armed and mobile (bicycles are ok) and wiling and able to use your arms to keep your transportation. u wont have a problem in a real crisis u will evade most trouble.
As a long-term/experienced "preparedness geek" and an equally long-term/experienced bicyclist, I must confess that your post gave me a grin. I understand that I may have mis-read your post, or that you may have been excessively terse. For full disclosure, bicycles and 2-wheeled cargo trailers are included as a tertiary (aka "when all else fails") part of my emergency plans.
Now, with that said, I know that being "bicycle-mobile" is feasible only if you're (a) taking relatively short round trips from a fixed and well-supplied base, or (b) moving from one fixed and well-supplied base to another. If you are planning to be "bicycle-mobile" 24/7/52, and taking all you need with you, you'll quickly find that it won't work.
As a simple, practical and illustrative matter, water weighs about 8 pounds per gallon. Any reasonably-active person needs at least one gallon per day -- a bicyclist pedaling all day may need twice that. Therefore a five-day supply of potable water easily weighs 40 to 80 pounds. Take careful note that this does not include the weight of other supplies -- food, clothing, shelter, first aid/medical, ammunition, etc.
So, unless you have secure, pre-positioned caches, I'm afraid that you and your group will quickly become part of the problem -- for the rest of us.
Last edited by Nighteyes; 11-25-2013 at 01:24 PM..
When I recently looked at some of the national averages w/ the # of Americans on social services or underemployed, and how many of us actually live pay check to pay check w/ no real savings to speak of. How long would we last before it all went haywire?
During the Great Depression banks closed. Their doors were locked and your savings was gone.
Having savings in a bank, might be nice when there is no SHTF. But post-SHTF savings in a bank is as good as teats on a boar hog.
Also consider some forms of SHTF, may include super-inflation. You save and save until you have 4 years of income saved; then SHTF happens and your savings are instantly worth one load of bread.
I recently read an account of how two very different hospitals in NO fared during Hurricane Katrina and its aftermath. Hospital A was a private institution with lots of the latest and greatest equipment and a staff of great doctors and nurses with training in all sorts of specialities. Hospital B was a charity hospital in a rough area that took on mostly medicaid/medicare patients and was always underfunded. The ER doc's were considered the "cowboys" of the medical profession and often used unconventional treatments on their patients when all else had either failed or was not available.
Hospital A lost something like 46 patients before it could be evacuated. Hospital B with its sicker. poorer patients lost none - as in 0. How could this have happened?
Turns out the staff of Hospital A were so used to their highly sophisticated machines and medicines that they became paniced when the electricity cut out and they had to treat patients the old fashioned way or even make up entirely new ways for keeping patients alive. Hospital A fell apart from the top down. There were no more regular shifts, no specially assigned duties. A group of patients on one floor who were actually assigned to a different hospital and had only come to A because of Katrina were largely ignored by the Hospital A's staff. These outsider patients had high mortality rates because they "weren't anyone's job."
Meanwhile, scrappy Charity Hospital (Hospital B) was used to stuff like the electricity going out, shortages of medicines and machines, etc. They worked around or through these problems and didn't throw up their hands and walk off like some of Hospital A's staff was later accused of doing. Charity Hospital maintained its staffing structure. Doctors and nurses showed up for their regular shifts and were given regular time off duty where they could sleep and regenerate for the next round. They had frequent meetings involving all the staff in decision making and they even had a talent show just to keep everyone's spirits up.
Moral of the story: Head for the scrappiest group of folks you can find. Better yet, be scrappy yourself. Stay away from the pampered types who don't know how to shoot a 12 guage, skin and cook a rabbit or grow a garden of something besides roses. Me, I think I'd do just fine exactly where I am. I'm surrounded by solid Colorado farmers and ranchers whose ancestors pioneered this place. There's plenty of irrigation for a huge vegetable garden, plenty of fuel in the form of Colorado's forests nearby and a sense that we're all in this thing together. If we end up having to plow the fields with a mule, we'll do that, just as we'll milk our cows the old fashioned way, keep the skunks out of the chicken coop and cut the head off that old hen that isn't laying anymore so we can have chicken and dumplings for dinner. We don't need to go anywhere. We have it all here.
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Problem is... NOBODY is that stupid, including the "zombies."
