Apart from anything else, it's such a hit and miss business. You don't know exactly what you're preparing for so you don't really know what you should be stocking up on or making provision for. An economic crisis? A war? A biblical plague? Climate collapse? Aliens from outer space? It's all so nebulous.
Personally I've never had the slightest urge to prepare for some dire future emergency. I've survived for 72 years without taking any special precautions, and I doubt there'll be an apocalypse any time soon.
In any case, where do you put all the stuff you've set aside? You would need a very large house or basement and how many people have those? You would also need plenty of cash to buy all this extra stuff.
There was a wonderful story a couple of years ago about Joseph Badame, an American guy who had spent $1 million making massive preparations for a possible economic crisis, was made bankrupt by medical bills after his wife's stroke and faced having to dispose of everything he had stockpiled - including huge amounts of food.
At the estate sale, he met a Puerto Rican food truck operator hired to work at the sale and she told him of all the Puerto Rican families who were starving after Hurricane Maria had hit the country.
He arranged for all the food he had stockpiled - thousands of dollars' worth - to be shipped to Puerto Rico.
So something good came out of his personal tragedy.
Pic: Joseph Badame
All wackos. Political at the very right side with strange arguments. I buy every day what I need fresh fruits and vegetables and have maybe 1kg of rice, pasta and potatoe in stock. That's all. The only things I accumulate are books, I'm an avid reader.
ReplyDeleteChloe: Wackos indeed. I don't stockpile anything at all, I buy the same sort of stuff as you (I'm vegetarian) as and when I need it. Jenny and I are also avid readers; there's something like 1000 books on our bookshelves.
ReplyDeleteThey also seem to be very keen on having guns and ammo....just in case someone comes looking for their food, I suppose...
ReplyDeleteI have stopped stockpiling, it is a family thing. Running out. Could be that cellular genocide thing that studies have proved linger on in our bodies.
ReplyDeleteBut consciously, I stopped. I get what I need for the week only now.
We have lived under fear since the cold war but nothing I do will stop whatever comes down the pike.
Spontaneous combustion would be a gift.
And I also stopped stockpiling books. Library. Send them a list on line and they provide what I want. Nothing like it.
XO
WWW
Helen: Yes, guns and ammo seem to feature quite a lot in the survivalist community. As you say, presumably in case of thieves (and panic-stricken crazies).
ReplyDeletewww: Jenny likes to have plenty of toilet rolls, but apart from that we don't stockpile. You're right, we just have to deal with whatever comes down the street, which could be a total surprise even to the survivalists.
Spontaneous combustion would be a nice way to go (as long as it didn't take too long!).
I have been a minimalist the past decade or so and can't even think of stock piling anything for any kind of emergency. I can't understand people who do.
ReplyDeleteRamana: Jenny and I are minimalists too, so we share your aversion to piling up stuff we might never need.
ReplyDeleteI prepare for only two things: blizzard and fire. For the first I keep ready to eat food and solar powered flashlights on hand. For the second we keep important documents in a backpack we can grab on the way out the door. Anything truly horrendous we are not likely to survive anyway.
ReplyDeleteAndy and I are too lazy to do it, but I don't think people who do are all whackos. Who knows, maybe it will come in handy for them someday, and at the very least it may keep them from feeling helpless. Who are we to judge?
ReplyDeletePS As you know, I think we're all a bunch of nuts. Do you really think we're any less whacky than they are?
ReplyDeleteMy youngest daughter was a mormon for about fifteen years. Long enough for me to be fully indoctrinated into what hoarding, especially food, looks like. I could never invest that much money in food, or make room to store that much clothing. Different priorities.
ReplyDeleteLinda: Blizzards are virtually non-existent here in Northern Ireland, so no need to prepare for that. As for fire, like you we have folders containing all our important documents so they can be easily grabbed. But we also have smoke alarms.
ReplyDeleteJean: You're right, who are we to say someone is a wacko when they're just doing something to protect themselves in an emergency. Unusual perhaps but not totally nuts. And yes, I'm pretty crazy myself.
ReplyDeleteJoanne: My mum was interested in mormonism for a while but thankfully soon abandoned it. This is it, you'd need an awful lot of money to stockpile on a grand scale. Think how many people can't even afford the next meal, let alone stockpiling.
from another minimalist since the age of 16...
ReplyDeleteI'm with you Nick.
I live in a 550 sq foot apt. … where would I put it anyway?
America seems to be running on fear of EVERYTHING these days.
I'm just living a simple little life here and loving it. xo
Tammy: Exactly, if someone has a tiny apartment, where would they put all this extra stuff?
ReplyDeleteI agree, there's so much fear everywhere. Politicians stoke up all the fear in order to bring in repressive policies that previously were unacceptable. Like the draconian measures the British government is applying to migrants and EU citizens.
I have zero interest in stockpiling. I remember people doing it with Y2K and thinking they were nuts. My daughter knew a Mormon girl growing up whose basement was full of crap.
ReplyDeleteBijoux: Like many, I was fooled by all the Y2K scaremongering, which turned out to be a lot of nonsense. I imagine many basements are full of crap discarded from upstairs and quietly mouldering away. Luckily we don't have a basement.
ReplyDeleteLike you Nick I have survived 70 years without stockpiling or making special arrangements. Also there are too many people who take pleasure from scaremongering.
ReplyDeletePolly: Indeed, some people greatly enjoy scaring the rest of us to death. Journalists in particular in their constant quest to sensationalise everything.
ReplyDeleteMy survival instincts are a little slap-dash. I might buy an extra tin of beans occasionally, just in case.
ReplyDeleteSx
Ms Scarlet: We're thinking of buying some extra tins of baked beans ready for the Brexit apocalypse.
ReplyDeleteThat's a great story - hope the donation brought him some good karma.
ReplyDeleteMy feeling is that if there is some sort of apocalyptic event, I'd like to be one of the first to go. I have no interest in fighting for survival if all the world's gone mad.