That's not entirely the case. It's actually a matter of risk assessment. You need to consider the "cost" of being prepared based on the risk (likelihood x consequence).The effort/cost/maintenance of being prepared. Everyone has a different threshold.
100% agree. There's always a cost/benefit analysis in play. Nobody can truly be "prepared" for every eventuality, and even if it were possible in principle to do so, some preparations would have outlandish costs that would not weigh well compared to the likelihood of that event in question ever actually happening.
I self-identify as a "prepper" to a very mild degree. Eg, I don't spend half my monthly salary on stockpiling ammunition and food, and I don't have an underground bunker, yadda, yadda, yadda. I do keep a couple of extra boxes of ammo in the closet for firearms I own, and I do keep a (small) stash of certain dried and canned foods in my storage unit... but that's more a byproduct of that thinking that "I rent this storage unit anyway, why not keep a little bit of survival food in here just in case?" Not like I would rent a storage unit just to stockpile survival supplies.
But ya know... some people would (and do). Some people do build complex underground bunkers and stockpile thousands of rounds of ammo, etc. To each is own, I suppose. I'd like to think I take a fairly balanced approach of spending a small amount of time and money on things that could have a big return someday, or if that doesn't ever come up, can simply be taken out of storage and used normally or whatever.
At a certain point being "more prepared" is the wrong choice. For some people, in an urban environment, simply have a phone and some cash is prepared enough, and that's not necessarily wrong.
Yep, yep. I lean the way I do for various reasons despite living in an urban area. Some of it is that I grew up as a "country boy" and some of those life lessons were internalized at a young age. For me, carrying a knife, carrying a pistol, etc. are very normal, routine, expected things. Add in the fact that I do spend quite a bit of time outdoors, doing solo activities, the thought of carrying a flashlight and a ferro-rod or whatever becomes just another "cheap, lightweight, non-intrusive thing I can do that might never be required, but causes no harm or undue burden and might save my life one day."