Cash on hand, a gun with ammunition, canned food, and bottled water.
Disaster planning for regular folks (2015)
11–20 of 140 posts
Re: Disaster planning for regular folks (2015)
#12> In the US in the 90s, your lifetime likelihood of victimization was estimated to be around 80%; the odds of suffering criminal injury hovered at 40%. Any source? These figures seem absurdly high, and I say that as a former resident of NYC in the 90s.
I found a 1987 report from the bureau of justice statistics: https://bjs.ojp.gov/library/publications/lifetime-likelihood...
Uses data from approximately the 1975-1985 period, so not about the 90s.
Re: Disaster planning for regular folks (2015)
#13Of course, there is a non-trivial cost to spending time dealing with this stuff, particularly the less likely outcomes. As with any risk assessment, one has to judge the probability of certain events and act accordingly. The thing that bugs me about this culture -- and I don't include the author of this piece, who sounds imminently rational and level-headed -- is that a lot of people in this space seem to want these…
I've noticed (from an external point of view) that 1/ many people use it for some kind of escaping (myself somewhat included) 2/ Fantasize about being the hero of a post-apocalyptic novelbut IRL
Re: Disaster planning for regular folks (2015)
#14First line, from 2015. "In the public consciousness, its portrayals have all the makings of a doomsday cult: a tribe of unkempt misfits who hoard gold bullion, study herbalism, and preach about the imminent collapse of our society." Well, that hasn't aged well...
Why?
Do you think that society is more coherent now, after the past 2 years? Are things improving or are the wheels coming off? The Canadian government was freezing people's bank accounts like they are North Korea, and most cheer this on? With Russia going to war? Etc etc.
If you had bought gold 7 years ago, you would have doubled its value.
Re: Disaster planning for regular folks (2015)
#15For me, planning for a five day power outage in the winter seems like it's something that takes only a limited amount of effort and resources and could come in very handy indeed. Make sure you have enough water (and a way to make it potable), heat, food, light, 1st aid and communications.
Going all in and getting a year of supplies seems excessive.
As always, YMMV :-)
PS: In Germany, the BMI (interior ministry) publishes a free guide for preparedness at https://www.bmi.bund.de/DE/themen/bevoelkerungsschutz/zivil-... They recommend a 10 day food and water supply.
Re: Disaster planning for regular folks (2015)
#16The book Eternity by Greg Bear had an interesting take on this. In that book (spoiler) there is an exchange of nuclear weapons between the U.S. and Russia, which devastates the surface of the Earth. But many people survive, and a society quickly develops post-war. But it is dominated not by those who were most individually prepared, but by those who contributed the most to their neighbors and communities. There is so…
Enjoyed this comment. Vibes with an essay by Cory Doctorow about needing a “bug in bag” not a “bug out bag”, to run towards community to help versus running to the mountains, as you need collective action to survive.
https://boingboing.net/2015/12/21/a-survivalist-on-why-you-s...
Re: Disaster planning for regular folks (2015)
#17Earlier quoted context omitted.
Why?
Do you think that society is more coherent now, after the past 2 years? Are things improving or are the wheels coming off? The Canadian government was freezing people's bank accounts like they are North Korea, and most cheer this on? With Russia going to war? Etc etc. If you had bought gold 7 years ago, you would have doubled its value.
> If you had bought gold 7 years ago, you would have doubled its value.
Over five years VTI is up 77% vs gold at 54%. VTI is up over 100% since Jan 2015. GLD is only up 45%.
Re: Disaster planning for regular folks (2015)
#18Of course, there is a non-trivial cost to spending time dealing with this stuff, particularly the less likely outcomes. As with any risk assessment, one has to judge the probability of certain events and act accordingly. The thing that bugs me about this culture -- and I don't include the author of this piece, who sounds imminently rational and level-headed -- is that a lot of people in this space seem to want these…
But, many of the catastrophic scenarios are nature-made instead of man-made. I’m not aware of any way to avoid volcanoes, earthquakes, hurricanes, tornadoes, wildfires, floods, drought, etc. unless you are suggesting that everyone move to someplace where none of these things can exist.
Re: Disaster planning for regular folks (2015)
#19The book Eternity by Greg Bear had an interesting take on this. In that book (spoiler) there is an exchange of nuclear weapons between the U.S. and Russia, which devastates the surface of the Earth. But many people survive, and a society quickly develops post-war. But it is dominated not by those who were most individually prepared, but by those who contributed the most to their neighbors and communities. There is so…
There was a Simpsons episode were they had a bunker but not for enough people.
Flanders had not enough space and was left outside. Then everyine started to emerge from the bunker.
People who think they want to survive an apocalypse so badly that they romantify a bunker live might not have thought through it deep enough.
I want to be protected from a fallout so I can move out of my region after the fallout but that means survival of a few days not month or years. And I definitely don't care much for lifing on a totally destroyed planet.
Re: Disaster planning for regular folks (2015)
#20Earlier quoted context omitted.
Why?
Do you think that society is more coherent now, after the past 2 years? Are things improving or are the wheels coming off? The Canadian government was freezing people's bank accounts like they are North Korea, and most cheer this on? With Russia going to war? Etc etc. If you had bought gold 7 years ago, you would have doubled its value.
Turn off the news and step outside to interact with real people. The situation is much nicer when you’re not letting a 24/7 stream of news and hot takes teleport your attention to whatever the worst event in the entire world happens to be at the current moment.
> If you had bought gold 7 years ago, you would have doubled its value.
And you would have made the wrong investment choice, because the stock market outperformed gold.
Gold has a reputation as a great inflation hedge but it hasn’t really lived up to that reputation at all in recent history.