The S may not HTF. How many of us prep for that?

I believe the US represents $750 billion of the Canadian $1.74 trillion GDP - It's going to get bumpy. I'm not sure if the world could handle $15 trillion default let alone $50+ trillion debt. This is why I wonder if the central banks will just extend the debt repayment date.

http://business.financialpost.com/2012/10/16/imfs-lagarde-pace-of-austerity-measures-must-take-into-account-economic-health/

to display how much money that is...
1 million seconds ago was 12 days ago
1 billion seconds ago was 32 yrs ago
1 trillion seconds ago was 31,688 yrs ago (neanderthal days)

So.. imagine what 15 trillion would be.

The US borrows .40 cents on every dollar every day so 15 trillion this year is about 18 trillion next year. If the US took all the money from all the people making over $250K per year, took Bill Gates money and liquidated Microsoft, Took Warren Buffets money, Took all the money from Exxon and the car companies and just kept on taking... this would add up to about 15 trillion. Enough to wipe the debt clean. BUT... what about the year after that? It would be back up another 2.5 trillion because it keeps borrowing from the federal reserve. Right now China owns a good chunk of the US debt. which means US is kind of in their back pocket now. It will get much worse next year. The US economy IS crashing... no doubt about it and the question remains... what happens then?

Looks like we are going to find out.

I should also mention... the US also has unfunded liabilities such as Medicare and Social security to name a few. These total up to about $117 trillion. Yikes.

I think there is one thing that people are not considering at the moment, and that is world history. perhaps this is a subject for its very own thread, in fact I think I will make one for it lol. You have to believe that a national entity like the united states WILL HAVE A PLAN no matter the outcome of their financial crisis. The government agencies are the biggest preppers of all, you can count on that. They will not sit idle while the walls come down around them. THEY WILL TAKE WHATEVER ACTION IS NECESARY... because if they dont, another government will. Take for example the Nazi party in 1920's germany. (the point of my new thread.)

Scotty did you happen to watch this?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TRaLytkf6vU

Yup, thats where i got the info from. I posted that video just a few days ago in another thread. People really need to see it.

Buggie I am sure you are correct. If fact I would wager they have a plan for just about every eventuality. However that may not good news for us either as Canadians or preppers. Just a guess but I think their plan would be based on the same system that is about to fail but with much less personal freedom.

Great question! I believe that is a line that we should be walking all the time.
If I truly believed the world would go to crap and Canada follow quickly along, I would have sold my laptop ages ago for #10 cans. I'm into practical prepping for your average emergency. It doesn't hurt to know all the skills of survival but I am not willing to uproot my family and move to the boonies in a house with a bunker over my possibly irrational fear. My kids get two educations, the one the world offers and the one I teach them about survival skills and emergency preparedness. It is my hope and belief that nothing huge and negative will happen in my lifetime so I prepare for them to live in this world and go to college, and get a job, and make some money. If things go another way, we'll manage. If they don't, it's important to equip them with the skills they need to make a life like we had to, in this world that we now live in.

An interesting 'what if?' video someone made...
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t6SmRz3y4ps&feature=g-high-rec

Very interesting "what if", plausible too. I think the time line is way too short, government agencies just can't react that fast.

Good Question Glasshouse! Interesting comments from everyone...

Personally, I'm inclined to believe there's a certain inevitability to S hitting the fan at some point, in our lives. I think a global economic collapse is in the works... I sure hope I'm wrong but it's mathematically impossible for the world to recover from its massive debts that are nothing short of a noose around its neck.

Given what's going on in the world and ever-increasing, I'm apt to err on the side of preparing for something to happen much sooner than later. I'm sure that could be argued forever. But I simply view "preparing" as common-sense and a personal responsibility for me in caring for my loved ones, all the time, regardless of the scenario, its scale, or when it might or might not happen.

My grandparents and their parents, back on their farm/homestead, did what we call "prepping" nowadays, as a normal part of proactive preparations for the proverbial rainy day, or the storm of the century, or winter blizzard from hell, so to speak. I spent many of my summers on the farm as a kid... I remember their dark and dry cold rooms downstairs in the basement of their old farmhouse. One had potatoes stored up, another apples, another coal, and another was shelf after shelf of my Grandmother's canning... years of canning in there...jars galore of everything out of her garden. I even remember, (and here's where my age will show), blocks of ice hidden in sawdust in large buildings back in the local farm town that people could come to, to pick up some ice, even in the heat of summer. Yes, along time ago, people ACTUALLY DID SURVIVE quite well without electricity and natural gas, or heating oil. We get freaked out nowadays when our power goes off for an hour or two...

I say all of this to say, that once upon a time, "PREPARING" WAS TOTALLY NORMAL AND COMMON-PLACE. And it was done without a thought to what S might hit the fan or what disaster or crisis might ever appear that might affect them.

They just knew to do it. It was natural, instinctual... You did it cuz' you knew it was good to do it. Your harvest may not be that great next year, or a drought might happen, or a thousand whatevers, or what-ifs...

Look at what just happened with Frankenstorm Sandy in the U.S. How many people were caught unprepared even without enough of the basics of food and water, let alone no contigency in place for losing their electricity? Fortunately, the first responders and relief agencies were much more prepared and ready this time around that with Katrina. In a sense it was worse, and in a sense not nearly as bad in loss of lives.

When you see or hear of something obvious coming, common-sense would at the very least say, do something. But many still don't. We need to train ourselves out of our sense of entitlements and dependence to where we can actually look after ourselves if need be, if something serious happens, wherein we perhaps cannot depend on or hope that others will help us. We whine and complain about the gov't, but then depend upon them for our very lives at the first sign of trouble... Is that how ready we only want to be?

Everything you do to prepare for whatever emergency, crisis, or disaster that you believe might ever happen that could affect you, IS WORTH IT. It sharpens your survival skills and reflexes. It gets you readied for the "what if" that just might one day befall us. And... how much better to be prepared and rehearsed and practised in it, that to suddenly have it be upon you and you haven't got the foggiest idea of what to do next... i.e. no plan of action but to wait and hope for the government and relief agencies to bail you out, assuming they come soon enough, and with help enough.

Whatever my wife and I have for emergency preparedness and survival gear, supplies, food and water, and a thousand et ceteras, we also USE regularly. It's NOT just in the backroom behind closed doors for the day when it may need to be called upon. It could be the survival food that we rotate out regularly and occasionally use in our meals or to supplement our menu. It could be the survival gear that has much in common with our camping gear given that we're the kind of people who have "roughed it" for years in the Northern Ontario wilderness, camping, hiking, backpacking, and canoeing where it was only us and the bears or wolves and few people around. We USE what we have prepared, the tools, the gear, the skills, the food supplies, but we make sure that we always keep those supplies ready for grabbing on a moment's notice if the SHTF, or anything happens to whatever degree wherein it could come in handy. The kits and the bags are always packed and ready. We don't need 15 minutes to get ready if we needed to head out the door. It would take us about 5, I'm guessing, cuz' it's all up to date. We regularly pay attention to our gear and supplies. It doesn't sit there outta sight, outta mind. It's ready for when we may ever need it.

For us it's not about preparing for something so specific that our gear or food stocks only pertains to just that crisis or disaster scenario. To me, that's a bit naive as most crises and disasters quite naturally lead to others or are many in one. They usually require having considered the bigger picture of the ramifications of those other scenarios, too. And we always factor in that it just might take longer to get back to normal, too. What good is a 72 hr. bug-out bag if the emergency you find yourself having to survive in takes a 2 or 3 times as long. There is an over-confidence in "certain things always going a certain way". But the one thing you can count on in survival scenarios is that they usually don't go the way you hoped, anticipated, or planned. NOTHING IS GUARANTEED. So... don't box yourself in. Thing EVERYTHING through carefully in your considerations and contingencies.

Prepare as though this was normal and common-sense to do so, just in case you might ever need it. For example, don't stock up on many years worth of food (that you've never even tasted or cooked before, or know if you even like it) and never use it, or think of it unless a disaster happens. That's foolhardy. Anyone whose emergency supplies are little more than an insurance policy that never gets looked at until the day it's needed, is missing the whole point of prepping. In my humble opinion, they're also making huge assumptions. If I may put it this way, prepping is a lifestyle that has to be adopted not just "feeling safe" cuz' you have a bug-out bag or food stash in the back room. Rather, adopt the "always prepared/always readied" mindset, and live that way every day. Live in a state of preparedness for anything. Let it be an under-girding foundation in your life.

You could be driving in your car from Calgary to Edmonton, or Toronto to Ottawa, and then suddenly the winter blizzard of the century happens and you're stranded for literal hours to days. Or you could be enroute to your favorite hiking trails in the Rockies and then suddenly gale force winds knock down trees in front of you sending you off-road into the ditch. Your car is damaged and won't start. Your cell phone doesn't work and now what do you do? Hopefully, you've got your Emergency car kit in your trunk, right? We always do and so should everybody. Or that previous blizzard storm has you stuck in your car with zero vizibility and it's obvious you'll be spending the night in your car as the roads are buried in snow drifts and your wipers can't clean the windows fast enough. Even these minor emergencies can be amply and easily prepared for... and we're not talking here about the SHTF, are we?

Or maybe, you lose your job and possibly your home soon, too... USE your food supplies that you've been stocking up on... I could go on with all kinds of other examples, but I think you get my point. Prepping is not meant to just be some kind of insurance policy, as some would deem it.

Yes, the S may not HTF soon... Who really knows? But those physical, mental and emotional preparations you do, can help you for anything lesser than some big disaster, that you might ever encounter, too.

So, to get back to answering Glasshouse's original question... We don't prep for just this or that disaster. We prep for anything that might happen wherein our lives were suddenly forced into some degree of survival mode. We live daily with the "always better to be safe than sorry" thinking and decision-making going on. When we go shopping (for whatever), our decisions always factor in any "what if's" that we might want to cover off, too, JUST IN CASE. Just because times may be good right now, we don't forget that one day they may not be. But we don't live in fear, or paranoia, either. To us, it's simply being proactively prepared so you can cover anything and not be inconvenienced. It is, usually, within everyone's power and ability to do that for themselves... if we just think things through a bit.. and consider it all.

There's wisdom in emergency preparedness. If ANYTHING happens you won't be caught unaware or unprepared. And if NOTHING happens like we might have thought it might, it's still no loss to have done so. It's made us better, stronger people, with some survival skills, some serious resolve and passion for living life to the fullest, ALWAYS, even in the midst of what could be for many, fearful, desperate or dangerous times, depending what might happen.

We can CHOOSE how well we can handle what life brings our way. We can choose and learn in advance to survive well, or merely survive as in (whew! we made it just by the skin of our teeth). What you put into preparations, is what you'll get out. And remember that it's NOT just physical prepping you need to do... that's part of it. You need to be prepared in yourself, too... the mental, emotional prepping.

All crises and disasters have a heck of a lot in common. What you do for the one scenario can be applicable to whatever degree for many a scenario... But... it can also be applicable to your day to day living and any sudden surprises you may encounter.

Prep for the same old common-sense reasons that previous generations did. We have the benefit today of being able to know what's going on around the world. They couldn't even know what was going on a few towns over, back in their day. But they lived life ALWAYS in a state of preparedness/readiness for whatever. Usually it was just to get comfortably to the next season, the next year, day by day. We have to get ourselves out of the "convenience store just down the block" kind of thinking... Cuz' if we don't, there's a pretty good chance we won't be prepared for what life might bring our way that isn't quite so wonderful or desireable, sometimes. Generally-speaking, this generation, our generation, doesn't know what it means to really have to suffer hardship. We freak out if we can't find our misplaced cell phone, or suddenly realize we didn't take out anything for supper...

We need to toughen ourselves up and get serious, and a little less dependent, too. Yes, the S may HTF. Or it may NOT. But either way, live your life in a prepared state just in case of anything... and I mean ANYTHING, big or small, serious or not so serious.

And then with what you know, help others with it. Encourage others. Many people have no idea of what to do or even why to do it.

I guess that's why I wrote a book to do just that... I'm not supposed to advertise it on this forum, so I'll shamelessly only make mention of it to any who are interested. It covers everything everyone's touched on in this post and more. "Surviving What's To Come" is on Amazon if you simply do a search for it. I spend a lot of time answering Glasshouse's question in it... "To Prepare or Not to Prepare, That is the Question".

And so, I'd say yes to prepping, whether the SHTF or doesn't.

And let me say one more thing... Don't stack your "preparations" deck all one way. Nothing is guaranteed to go just one certain way in any crisis or disaster. You must learn to live and prepare for the unexpected and ALWAYS factor in extra contingencies just in case. At least that's my opinion and my experiences in life which have served us well.

SHTF or not... it actually matters not, I would think. I'd still choose to be wisely prepared anyway. That being said, I think something's on the horizon, perhaps on more fronts than one. Or to put it another way, I think there's begining to be a lot of S's HTF these days. What's next people? Inevitable global economic collapse? Nuclear war in the Middle East? Read "between the lines" of today's current events...and you're not apt to be caught by surprise.

And... we don't even have to look for those serious scenarios to prepare... Look at all those affected by Frankenstorm Sandy... right? That was indeed some serious S hitting the fan for many people. And this is yet minor compared to what could be coming down the road...

Prep for day to day living that includes being able and ready to survive anything that comes your way. It IS possible to do so. Learn to be in a state of preparedness. That's my two sense. I'm guessing most of you know this already, but some may have needed to hear it again. 🙂

Wow well said

I read 75% of that and agreed wholeheartedly with what I did... you need to throw in a tldr summary 😆

Thanks dsnexus, I think you nailed it. Especially the homesteading. I think mankind as a whole has maintain a balanced relationship with the land. A great book to read is "living the good life" by Scott and Helen nearing. On a planet with finite resources we have to embrace wisdom instead of our microwave lifestyle. The homestead is all about your family, you work and play together. Nowadays, we are so go go as a society we have forgotten what's really important.

I think we all do to a certain degree. For us we have taken control of our debt, we are in much better shape than 5 years ago. We are much less concerned with our monthly payments because they have dropped due to paying down debt.
We have a lot more food in the house than ever before. We can literally shop at home when we are not sure what we want to eat.
We have purchased the acerage for a semi retirement home. Can be left to the kids if something happens to us.
We continue to live life as it comes. We enjoy the moment we don't fear it.

So if nothing ever happens we have reduced our stress by taking control of our financial situation. We are teaching the kids fiscal responsibility. They understand having extra put away for emergencies or helping neighbours. If we are supposed to be nuts or strange to others I guess its all about perspective.

We watch Doomsday Prepper now mostly to try and find normal people in the show, without much luck. What bothers me as a prepper is these folks embarrass me. They are the extreme end of the spectrum. They don't live in the now at all. The EVENT (whatever that is) is just around the corner. Even if they admit they have prepped for 20 years for the EVENT life has passed them by.
The show could have done a lot better but I think they were looking this these extreme types.

I keep on living as best I can (while prepping for the worst) and try to improve on my current lifestyle. BTW my life style is not gleaned from books magazines or trends, but from what makes ME happy. While my home is pretty simple, the view of numerous birds hopping around a pine tree outside of my picture window is my personal avian display per say. A flight filled aquarium if you will. I take personal delight in watching their social antics while sipping morning coffee and do find it very relaxing. I truly enjoy the sound of near silence and choose when I am forced to hear noise for the most part. It beats the hell out of being crushed on a mass transit morning commute, incessant traffic noise and people barking at each other. I now know both sides of that story and by far prefer the side I live in now.

Knowing that I am somewhat prepared for a SHTF scenario gives me comfort while I enjoy that morning coffee. (BTW I have 8 lbs of coffee that I enjoy in the 'Mormon cupboard' so I doubt this little personal delight will come to an end any time soon.) I have an insulated beverage holder with "If you are not living on the edge you are taking up too much room!" printed on it. While having a humorous aspect, I prefer living well back from the 'edge' and something like 2% of the population agrees with both you and me.

In answer to your question I'll offer... "Make your life as good as possible at present and attempt to improve on that, without living outside of your means." I truly hope the root meaning of this message is not lost on most of the people who read it. Stress free is the life for me and I prep for that whether or not the SHTF.

Radar