The world has already changed. Most things on planet earth are seriously effected by the price of crude oil, one way or another. Crude has tripled in cost from January 2007 to July 2008. That change was just slow enough for us to adjust emotionally, and remain in denial as long as possible. It worked.
We are aware that things cost more. We denied things were really changing, or convinced ourselves that things will return to “normal”. Facts are facts:
The housing bubble popped, credit has nearly vanished, gasoline is twice what it was a year ago, everything we buy is going up in price. Our world has changed.
Get used to it. Adjust – or watch your life as-you-have-known-it be destroyed.
In the fall of 2007 some folks stocked their pantries as a means of saving money once they figured out that prices would continue to rise. Remember the rice shortage?
That is a good plan by the way – if you are alive you will need to eat, and prices are not going down. A thoroughly stocked pantry is a good savings account. You will use the food.
Many folks wound up with several hundred pounds of rice last fall (good) but no way to cook it if the power went out (bad). Do It Yourself Preparedness is a plan to do what you need to do to take care of yourself, while keeping a balanced perspective of your personal big picture. This is not so easy as one might imagine. It is really easy to wind up with a lot of some things you will need – and none of other things you will need even more.
There are so many ways our personal lives can be trashed. Job layoffs, sickness, living expenses rising beyond our ability to pay, a local disaster (think of a Katrina magnitude disaster in your neighborhood), and the worst of the bunch – these kinds of things happening to enough people that they get mad enough to rebel or riot – right down the street from you.
Without changing your life much, you can prevent many of these things from trashing your life by being prepared. For a tiny example, if your town's electricity went out for a week and you have appropriate food, a camp stove and extra propane, you would be way ahead of those without a way to cook.
There are 12 basic categories of preparedness. Don't buy anything till you have read about these and Levels of Preparation.
We have to walk before we can run – in all things.
It won't do your family a bit of good if you plan strictly for emergency X and then emergency Y (that you did not think of) happens. To cover everything pretty well we make the following assumptions for planning purposes:
There will be no public electricity, water, or stores open for shopping.
Police and fire services will be overextended and not available.
There will not be any government or agency help available (in time to save you) such as FEMA, the Red Cross, etc.
Most, if not all, of your extended family, friends and neighbors will not be prepared.
You may have to evacuate your home.
Sounds pretty grim. On the bright side, if you plan for this state of affairs you will be ready for just about anything. You won't go broke getting ready by buying all kinds of stuff that sounded good at the time, but winds up being useless when you desperately need it.
1 comment:
People are going to have to adapt to a changing lifestyle....or they're not going to make it!
RW
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