What is common to all these scenarios is a very deep pessimism about the social fabric - we will be faced with a problem (CME, earthquake, inflation) and society will totally collapse into anarchy and chaos. We, the preppers, will be the only survivors.

What does happen? We have had major earthquakes in Chile, Japan, and Haiti recently with serious challenges. Haiti, already a disaster area is still struggling, even with significant outside help, so definitely life in a marginalized society is never good. Chile seems to be recovering and Japan certainly has problems but is working on them as well. I haven't heard about anything like a societal collapse, roaming armed bands, etc. (Indeed, how many thousands of yen have been found and turned in to authorities? Good luck on that happening in the USA!

Point is, when we have our magnitude 8 in southern California, life will be both tough and interesting. We will need help. I think it is realistic that we will get it. The USA is a well developed society and has shown a reasonably capable ability to respond to disasters.

Any prudent person should realize that the help won't come right away, and one needs to be self-sustaining for a good bit more than the traditional 72 hours. I don't personally think that bugging out will be very useful in the event of a quake, at least where I live. Fortunately, i will be living on the dandelions, oranges, and avocados in my yard or nearby (and a reasonable stockpile of other food). Hopefully I won't have to slaughter our cats...

i guess I am skeptical about intense preparation for an off the charts, over the top, extreme disaster, that actually is rather unlikely, at least in the magnitude envisioned.

Of course, they just might be right. Who says you have to go to Las Vegas to gamble? It is true that it wasn't raining when Noah too up shipbuilding........