Before & After - Where do you think you would fair better?

[SAR-1L]

The more I read these forums the more I learn, and the more I learn, the less I know.

I find I am a generalist, which is specifically useful or useless in nearly every situation. But at the same time I am specialized by my priorities in regards to my prepping, skill sets, and mentality.

Knowing that less than 6.5% percent of Americans supposedly have even basic survival skills is something I could believe. But realistically what we are prepping for isn't the other 93.5%, we are prepping to survive or co-exist with whatever x% of us is left when the dust settles.

Prepping feels a lot like playing the lottery to see how things will go wrong and hoping your preps are generalized or specialized enough based on thousands of multiplied unknown variables to give you an advantage.

I come on these forums and it is easy to feel out gunned, out prepped, and out skilled. It is like a fat chick staring at Victoria secret models all day, not noticing most of the women around her are even fatter.

Btw: 68.8% of adults are overweight or obese; 35.7% are obese in the US.

I could afford a nice fire arm, but I know I can't find ammo for it. So instead of being the fat chick that eats more junk food in front of the tv hating herself, I adapt, my one advantage. I learn how to weaponize common house hold materials of little value, spend time reading medical books and picking up skills just to make sure I am more useful to someone alive than dead in comparison to the value of the crap I carry in my b.o.b.

I don't care if you are terminator cross breed with rambo, no matter how good you are, without the advantage of numbers you are royally f'ed, unless you are so good at being invisible and leaving no trace that you are undetectable, I can't say I know anyone even all the guys who have been specially deployed that wouldn't eventually be flushed out, after years of living in substandard conditions, even day to day we slip.

I ask this cause I looked at Kiva the other day and people loan money to people who are poverty stricken, but in their photos they have more shit than I do! The only difference we have over most is clean water frankly, and with drought conditions increasing in the US that is becoming more and more of a rarity.

Our food is filled with additives and chemical shit, which makes our bodies rot from the inside out, if everyone actually ate healthy food there wouldn't be enough to go around, we would have people like those feed the children commercials instead of fat people. I mean we eat the same hormones and crap used to fatten cows and pigs. Yet we are just as unhealthy and malnourished as the rest of the world, but mass society is fooled that it is better off.
But you can see it in our rise of cancer, violence, mental issues, and over medication which exacerbates the issues.

Quality health itself is only available for those who can afford it honestly.

I don't wish for one second that STHF, but I wonder if some of us were better suited for a life dramatic course correction or reset. End game and honestly so much of it is out of our control, but I can't help but think, how well will I actually do? How well will any of us do? Who feels that they will do better after than they are right now?

[paraquack]

The more I read these forums the more I learn, and the more I learn, the less I know...
Prepping feels a lot like playing the lottery to see how things will go wrong and hoping your preps are generalized or specialized enough based on thousands of multiplied unknown variables to give you an advantage...

I only take issue with your analogy to prepping being a lot like playing the lottery. IMO, I try to teach prepping is "REAL LIFE INSURANCE". Having car insurance doesn't prevent the accident. It allows you to get on with your life afterwards. I look at prepping exactly in the same way. The odds of a real SHTF event is small, in my opinion. But even if the odds are 1 in 13 million, like winning the lottery, people do win, so I feel something bad will happen. I agree our food supply is polluted with too many chemicals, and who knows what the long term effects are. I can only change the things I have control over and try to do the best I can. To worry about the rest is wasting my time.

[Kidzthinkimahoarder]

I've often wondered the same thing. Part of me hopes it never happens, I pray the world as we know it doesn't collapse, and my children have to be made to suffer. Most of us on here work, and work hard just to have the priveledge to pay taxes, light bills, house payments, more taxes upon taxes, auto insurance and payments and more taxes. I sometimes wonder if we aren't in a survival situation as it is, we work to survive. How many on here are living paycheck to paycheck as it is? We in this household have never been granted a free ride through any gov handout...Am I complaining? Not really, just stating a fact. My husband complains that we seem to always be broke, but I'm smiling cause all the bills were paid and gas/gro were bought and what things purchased that were needed. We see it two life two different ways.

And I sometimes wonder if we wouldn't be better off in the other event? If the Gov was to shut down and no electricity....(my scenario) and the light bill was due, I guess it would be, "Oh Well...." It wouldn't be like they'd be coming to cut something off that didn't exist, so I saved that now worthless $300.00 a month. But I'm sure someone would come to collect something on it just to make your life hell. To some extent I like to fantisize about a peaceful life afterwards, to be left alone to co-exist with whomever is left. Give me the "Little House on the Prairie or Grizzly Adams" scenario...But in reality, that would be to easy.

[inceptor]

None of us has all the answers. I have been prepping for over 20 yrs and have made many mistakes along the way and wasted money doing it. What I have has been built up over time. At one point I lost half my guns because I had sell them. Out of work, bills to pay, etc. I am starting to build that back again. My preps have been up and down depending on our financial situation. I don't make a lot of money but I do what I can with what I have.

The skills I have took me years to acquire and I keep them because I enjoy doing those things like building and fixing. Fortunately my hobbies work well with prepping. I am also a ham radio operator.

I have no military training (they would not take me) but what I have learned about shooting is mostly self taught. It wasn't until recently that I started taking classes. 40 yrs of bad habits are hard to break. I do love to shoot though. I never learned to hunt but that's another story.

I am not one to sit back and wait for things to happen. That would drive me nuts. OK, maybe even more nuttier than I already am.

Mostly I rely on guidance from God and pray daily. If he decides it's my time to go, nothing I can do about it. In the mean time it's up to me to prep for my non-believer family. When the SHTF they will be looking to me and I will be there. I will do the best I can with what God has provided.

[Go2ndAmend]

For me (and family) I will be much better off if a SHTF situation never develops. I am planning for the worst, but life without all of the modern conveniences would not be easy.

[Montana Rancher]

The more I read these forums the more I learn, and the more I learn, the less I know.

I find I am a generalist, which is specifically useful or useless in nearly every situation. But at the same time I am specialized by my priorities in regards to my prepping, skill sets, and mentality.

Knowing that less than 6.5% percent of Americans supposedly have even basic survival skills is something I could believe. But realistically what we are prepping for isn't the other 93.5%, we are prepping to survive or co-exist with whatever x% of us is left when the dust settles.

Prepping feels a lot like playing the lottery to see how things will go wrong and hoping your preps are generalized or specialized enough based on thousands of multiplied unknown variables to give you an advantage.

I come on these forums and it is easy to feel out gunned, out prepped, and out skilled. It is like a fat chick staring at Victoria secret models all day, not noticing most of the women around her are even fatter.

Btw: 68.8% of adults are overweight or obese; 35.7% are obese in the US.

I could afford a nice fire arm, but I know I can't find ammo for it. So instead of being the fat chick that eats more junk food in front of the tv hating herself, I adapt, my one advantage. I learn how to weaponize common house hold materials of little value, spend time reading medical books and picking up skills just to make sure I am more useful to someone alive than dead in comparison to the value of the crap I carry in my b.o.b.

I don't care if you are terminator cross breed with rambo, no matter how good you are, without the advantage of numbers you are royally f'ed, unless you are so good at being invisible and leaving no trace that you are undetectable, I can't say I know anyone even all the guys who have been specially deployed that wouldn't eventually be flushed out, after years of living in substandard conditions, even day to day we slip.

I ask this cause I looked at Kiva the other day and people loan money to people who are poverty stricken, but in their photos they have more shit than I do! The only difference we have over most is clean water frankly, and with drought conditions increasing in the US that is becoming more and more of a rarity.

Our food is filled with additives and chemical shit, which makes our bodies rot from the inside out, if everyone actually ate healthy food there wouldn't be enough to go around, we would have people like those feed the children commercials instead of fat people. I mean we eat the same hormones and crap used to fatten cows and pigs. Yet we are just as unhealthy and malnourished as the rest of the world, but mass society is fooled that it is better off.
But you can see it in our rise of cancer, violence, mental issues, and over medication which exacerbates the issues.

Quality health itself is only available for those who can afford it honestly.

I don't wish for one second that STHF, but I wonder if some of us were better suited for a life dramatic course correction or reset. End game and honestly so much of it is out of our control, but I can't help but think, how well will I actually do? How well will any of us do? Who feels that they will do better after than they are right now?

Sorry Typical list is coming:

1. Don't post on this forum when doing drugs, if you are not "doing" then you should be committed because you are way overthinking this.

2. We do not prep because we fear anything, we prep because basic logic concludes that you cannot spend more than you earn into eternity, eventually it will collapse

3. So if we cannot spend ourselves into prosperity, then we must prepare for the lack of prosperity

4. The way to prepare for the lack of prosperity is to have basic needs met, i.e. water, food, shelter.

5. Crap I can't think of the next point, but the conclusion isn't despair but hope.

[SAR-1L]

So you believe I am doing drugs or should be committed cause...

1. I know I am behind the curve when it comes to other preppers?
2. I admit a feeling of frustration, that I am trying prepare without knowing what I could be facing, or how things might happen?
3. That I know I am at a disadvantage against combatant if they have a firearm, and I do not have a projectile weapon?
4. That without a community, you are disadvantage if you are alone rather than having the safety of superior numbers?
5. That I am aware that no plan is one size fits all for every survival scenario?
6. That I am aware that seasoned survivalist for generations struggled, even though it was their life style, so it will be difficult adjust, and I will have to adapt and learn quickly.

... and here I thought these were all pretty realistic, fundamental basics to consider. I guess I should have been sane enough to jump on your wagon of unicorns and rainbows and shit mate, cause if thinking of self defense and the advantages of having a community is over thinking it... shit you live in much greener pastures.

It isn't about despair, it is a realism that basic things will be hard to come by, and competed for, and a process of what role will I play in a new world. Cause it will be just a little more complicated than choosing what pair of spare underwear you should bring.

[Seneca]

There is a difference between preppers and survivalists...A survivalist doesn't wear underwear and a prepper brings a second pair...

[Verteidiger]

I have to admit when I read this post the first time, I read it quickly and my first reaction was WTF, but then I slowed down and read more carefully, and I understand the original post better, although the thoughts are somewhat random.

The theme of the questions are what will I do, how will I fare when SHTF, how will others do then, and do people think we will be better off post-SHTF.

This all goes back to your definition of SHTF, but I will assume here it is a life-altering, previous existence changing, permanent break from the past, that is very widespread in terms of impact and one cannot escape the circumstances. Or as I prefer to say it, the only way out is to go through it....

Under such world turned upside down scenarios, I think no one is going to be better off. Even the best prepping will result in sustaining life, but with the normal infrastructure we all have learned to enjoy (electricity, running water, food readily available, medical help, fuel, a way to earn our daily bread, etc.) severely impacted, it will be worse for everyone affected.

Which is exactly why people prep. When the "normal existence" people enjoy is wiped out, preppers will do better than the unprepared. But life will still be harder than it was before, for certain.

I like the comforts of modern life as much as anyone, and being forced into survival mode will be the last thing I ever want to see happen. I am an outdoorsman but at some point I want a hot meal, a warm shower, clean dry clothes, and a decent place to sleep. Those simple life pleasures can be taken away in an instant and life may never be the same again.

So I invest in what will help me "survive" when the comforts of civilization have been laid to waste.

I am confident I will be okay and I can take care of my family. If I don't survive, I hope I leave them what they need to survive. But I am a survivor and I plan to keep going until I cannot go any more. Never quit. We have survived as a species through numerous setbacks.

As for me, i have no idea what the future will hold, but I plan to be one of the ones on the other side of whatever comes, whenever it happens.

[Smitty901]

Our preps in general serve many proposes. They are the types of preps that can be useful in SHTF or cases of weather related problems .
They are things that are generally a good idea anyway.
Security is something you always need if you think you have it you are only kidding your self.
Food supply is never a bad idea
Back up power options how can that be bad
It goes on and on. Prepping is not a one step task nor is ever done. You do what you can when you can each step you take leads you to other options to consider.
Being prepared has made our group safer both short term and long term, it has made us healthier and ensured we will never be on a roof top with signs begging for rescue or help after a storm.
We will on the other hand be the ones offering helps to others . Not to prepare is easy sit on your tail and wait. It is your life roll the dice or in vest in it.
I did not get where I am by rolling dice.