It really is a serious question.
Desperado's thread about single trunk towns and redundancy got me thinking about it.
About things like flat spare tires or empty first aid kits, stuff like that.
So how many people do you know who use their emergency gear and never replace it?

Funny that you mention that. I just put new tires (5) on son#2's truck this evening. He had a blow out and had to put the spare on. It was the original spare from the GM factory... in 1997. Seems it was a little brittle looking, so I had a new spare installed.

I check air pressure every Sunday on all of the vehicles including spare tires. This results from a 12 mile walk home in a cold rain as a teenager due to a flat spare.

My "Favorite" thing to find is an empty/defective fire extinguisher. I have had that happen twice. Both were in an employees' company truck. I allowed 2 hours each Friday at the end of the day for what I called PMCS from my army days. Preventative Maintenance Checks and Services, meant make sure EVERYTHING was ready in the vehicle. Both fella's had to find new work really fast.

I bought a matching wheel to replace the non matching spare then bought 5 tires so I can do the 5 tire rotation. This way my spare gets used as much as the rest and gets the air checked and doesn't get old.

Forgot to mention, I also carry a valve core tool and spares and a patch/plug kit.

I have had the occasion to put a spare on a car, and have it be flat. Even through I try to do air pressure checks (incl. spare) every 6 months, some times Murphy butts in. In all our cars now, I have stowed a small 12-volt air compressor to address this. They have already come in handy (filling other people's tires).

Hopefully that was the lesson they needed. Seems a shame that we don't learn until we experience something very difficult. Human nature I guess. We're lucky if we get to be around after those choice "life lessons".

I have a full sized spare and a donut in my car.

I also have a Roadside Emergency Kit, BOB, Axe, Prybar, Shovel, FAK, extra fluids and so on. It really weighs down my little Toyota Corolla. LOL

It is interesting you mentioned the donut spare.

One of the ideas behind that tire was to deliberately make it just good enough to get you to a tire repair but not good enough to drive for a longer time on it.
This was supposed to prevent people from driving around with a flat spare tire in the trunk.

The fact that it took up less space and cost less to make were important considerations too, but not the only ones.
There was a lot of market resistance to them at first, enough that a full sized spare was still offered if you wanted it.

Speaking of donut spares, how many are aware that they are designed for short term, low speed (usually 45mph max) usage? If you are "bugging out" ahead of a hurricane or something, with a destination that might be hundred of miles away, what are you going to do it you have a flat and a donut? I have no doubt that they can probably make a couple hundred miles, no matter what it says on the sidewall, but I personally wouldn't want to chance it. Every time I bought a car with a donut, the very first thing I always did was buy a real tire and wheel...

i replaced the toy spare with the "best" tire out of four when i bought a new set..the price of a rim at a junk yard and mounting was worth the peace of mind.i also keep a couple of those cans of sealer/inflators..i do a fair amount of back road driving and leave my car for weeks at a time by the canoe landings out of cell phone range so a good tire is a must.

The point is not about whether donut tires are better to drive on or not.
It is about how many people use up emergency gear and never bother replacing it.

I remember an oilfield services company at Ft. MacMurray.
They expect their crews to work in isolated areas, often 40 miles out of town and 20 miles into the forest, sometimes a lot farther.

They had 5 pickup trucks at their field office and one of them had a tire go flat while sitting in front of the office. The company had to call a tire service truck out from town. None of those trucks had a good spare tire even though they had all been issued with 2 spare tires.
It was also realized that even with the same manufacturer and all the same size trucks not all of the rims were interchangeable.

Tires are just one example.
Desperado mentioned fire extinguishers.

There are many other examples.
Empty first aid kits, empty eye wash bottles, empty reserve fuel cans, missing spare light bulbs, electrical fuses, water cans. The list of individual items goes on and on.

It applies inside of houses and workplaces too, not just vehicles.