Well, this almost isn’t fun anymore! Prepping is “main stream” and everyone is looking around and thinking “Holy Shit, things really COULDcollapse and I might be on my own for a while!” The good news is that you are waaaaay ahead of the curve and you’ve been stockpiled for a while… RIGHT? Of course you have!
In today’s survival and prepping climate you can feel free to be a little more liberal with who you tell about your survival or preparedness tendencies. Who knows, you may even make a survival buddy or two. Of course they may be “fair weather” survivalists and when things begin to stabilize they will cease and desist their survivalist ways, but that shouldn’t stop you from trying. If you are a single survivalist feel free to post a risque online dating profile. “Camouflaged, well armed, paranoid suburbanite seeks canning enthusiast who enjoys .223 rounds, rotating food stores and can signal ‘I love you’ in Morse code via eye blinking“
You know prepping is main stream when Kiplinger gets into the fray! Aren’t they a frickin’ finance magazine? Anyway, here is a decent article on main stream prepping along with some financial survival advice. God knows I could use that right now! Doesn’t anyone have a good recipe for pigeon stew? I am getting hungry and I seem to have no money anymore.
Here is one BIG positive to the whole “the US is crumbling into a pile of dog feces” debacle … Illegal immigration declines as U.S. economy falters. It turns out that if the US isn’t so pleasant and ripe with opportunity illegals immigrants stay OUT… Maybe we are onto something here?
Not to stray too far from the discussion of finances and disaster but here is a really interesting article on the new “currency” in the prison system. It has been said that the prison system is a glimpse into the future of a apocalyptic world. They have their own rules, regulations, currency and hierarchy. Usually dominated by gangs and run by the toughest and roughest hombre in the group the prison system is based on the survival of the fittest. It seems that once cigarettes were banned, the inmates needed a new currency or store of wealth and decided the packets of mackerel. WTF? No one would eat them and they were available at the commissary so they were the perfect medium for exchange. This just proves that even the simplest of economic systems needs a currency. When the dust settles and new world begins to rebuild, there will have to be a new form of currency. I truly believe it will be based on gold and silver. It would be almost impossible to rewire the survivors’ brains to not believe in gold and silver as a place to store value. Or it could be mackerels… What do I know?
WARNING: Of the Topic Personal Rant Ahead: Ok, WHEN WHEN WHEN are we going to cut foreign aid? SERIOUSLY, we should be getting it from other countries right now. It is like your neighbors, you know the ones… they spend more than they have, they are so far in debt they don’t know what life without debt is like, they refuse to stop spending and they are GIVING MONEY AWAY TO PEOPLE WHO HATE THEM! The US gave away $21.2 BILLION dollars in 2007! Source. That money should be here AT HOME HELPING AMERICANS!!! COME ON, THE TIME TO BE PROTECTOR OF THE WORLD IS OVER. BRING IT HOME!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Keep up your prepping. Everyday gets us a little closer to complete self sufficiency. I truly believe that everything will be fine but I am not betting my families life on it! ARE YOU?
Filed under: SHTF, suburban survival | Tagged: chaos, SHTF, survival
BRAVO! You really broke out on this one. Hilarious and very useful. Proud ot know you.
[...] Survival and Prepping In the News « Suburban Preparedness and Suburban Survival Well, this almost isn’t fun anymore! Prepping is “main stream” and everyone is looking around and thinking “Holy Shit, things really COULDcollapse and I might be on my own for a while!” The good news is that you are waaaaay ahead of the curve and you’ve been stockpiled for a while… RIGHT? Of course you have! [...]
It’s not fun any more? It’s about time survival became mainstream. It certainly was for our grandparents, great grandparents, and back beyond that. We’re finally coming down to earth. Things are just getting good–and fun!
John
There are more mainstream preppers, including me becoming more interested in survival info. I think it’s a good thing – less people to try to steal my preparations. I’m still cautious about who I tell at work and in my family, but I do know one or two people that when I mentioned it were very interested in learning more themselves. Knowledge is a good thing in this instance.
http://www.survivallady.com
You’re damn right about talking about currency when our social system collapses. Those of us who believe that eventually that TSHTF will happen, we should be brainstorming over what currency will be the most used.
On my site:
http://theaspiringsurvivalist.blogspot.com/
I talk about what to stockpile, and I think that once our monetary system goes out the window, it will be human vices that are worth their weight in gold. Things such as opiates, cigarettes, liquor, beer, etc…
Thanks for bringing this idea up!
You meant it when you said it wasn’t fun. More than 2 months since an update?
Looks like you’ve shut down… thanks for your thoughts. They were helpful.
Just a reminder that even though these fair weather survivalists (as you so keenly called them) may be friendly and happy to absorb your information now, they may also be hoping to drop in on you if the SHTF and take advantage of this new found ‘friendship’…
Remember your OPSEC.
Was looking forward to more postings. Hopefully your blog will be revived. If it does, please feel free to contact me about exchanging links to my Suburban Survivalist blog. Best wishes!
JUNK SILVER IS USELESS FOR A SHTF SCENARIO!
If you disagree with my statement above, do me a favor. Borrow $5 in fiat currency from some sheeple you know. Then pay them back with a few dimes, quarters etc., in pre-1965 coins and watch their face as they get pissed! Then try to do the same thing while buying $5 worth of stuff at the neighborhood 7-11 store and see how far that gets your with Sanjay the owner. In the mind of sheeple, there is NO DIFFERENCE between post and pre-1965 money. If you’re not dealing with an informed survivalist or a numismatist you will NEVER CONVINCE them that your shiny pocket change is better than their shiny pocket change no-way no-how. Not to mention, the average American idiot couldn’t solve a math equation to determine silver content in 40% or 90% coins to save their idiotic lives. Besides, is a SHTF scenario really the time to conduct math classes with your uninformed trading partners? Heck, you might even get shot for your troubles when they think you’re trying to cheat them with your extra- special shiny dimes and quarters…and the last thing you’ll see will be all your lovely 90% and 40% coins getting kicked into the gutter while they check your pockets for something really valuable.
Now, don’t get me wrong. I have a soft spot in my heart (and in my head) for silver. I have 500 American Silver Eagles which I bought as a hedge investment and in case of a hyperinflationary situation without major political or socioeconomic collapse (non-SHTF in other words). Should hyper inflation kick-in my plan is to go to the local coin shop and exchange a few coins for some paper money to buy groceries immediately before they become even more devalued. Of course, the Silver Eagle has the words One Ounce Fine Silver .999 on it so it has more street cred immediately, but the coin shop owner won’t need me to explain to him why they’re worth more than the $1 face amount anyway. Junk silver has value in this hyperinflationary non-SHTF case as well, and doesn’t carry as much buyer premium as my pretty American Silver Eagles. However, in a SHTF scenario Maslow’s Hierachy of Needs will kick in ASAP. People will be looking for shelter, food, medicine, ammo, clothing, liquor, sex etc. Shiny metal will probably only get you killed in your sleep by someone who doesn’t see the benefits of trading perfectly good food for your precious shiny metals like silver or gold. Most especially if the shiny Junk metals look exactly like (to their uneducated eye) as the jingling crap in their own threadbare pants. To paraphrase an old anti-drug slogan, “There’s a reason they call it JUNK!”
you’ll be much farther ahead learning to make what you think you need, and learning to repair and maintain it then stockpiling gold or guns.
ammo, anyone can buy ammo in most USA states, free ones anyway, grab some 22 bricks and save them for trading or wht have you
we have a large group of us that can feed, clothe ourselves and can maintian or build anything we could want , we are self sufficient to the Nth degree and we all work together as a unit when we have need, or sometimes only for the fun or it.
we ofcourse are Native Vermonters, a rare and rapidly vanishing species, but there are pockets of similiar cousin species scattered all over this country, some back alleys in Hoboken have self sufficient folks, some right off the boat and making their way fixing what you can’t or won’t fix yourself.
I dont know what you’d have to show up at our doors with to make us trade with you, or not shoot you on sight Pilgrim, but a handful of gold (useless for welding or metal work/repairs) and a couple glocks (that we cant get parts or ammo for) aint gonna do it.
” hey, I’ll trade you 500 rounds of ammo for all the smoked meat and fish I can carry and I’ll be outta here right away”
….now that might make me open the doors., Meat we can always get esp with 500 more rounds, not that our 20,000 rounds on hand is running out….but still…more ammo is more ammo.
Binoculars, ammo, iodine, gasoline, medical supplies, these are things we will be running out of and can’t make ourselves or can’t repair once damaged …trade bait will always be the things that run out first, are in short supply to begin with, and are in use daily or are deemed “essentials”.
gold and glocks ? good luck with that