Or does anyone else have a problem with essentially being told there are limits to how prepared I can be for a situation?

I would like to think that it is up to me and my wherewithall as to how extravagantly I can equip myself for hard times. This idea that someone can just come and take whatever they want without so much as a by your leave really sticks in my craw. I put zero stock in remuneration when things get better; what if they never get better? I equate this to legalized anarchy, or PHRASECENSOREDPOSTERSHOULDKNOWBETTER., take your pick. The bottom line is I am growing quite weary of being compelled to forfeit my life's blood to people who neither appreciate it nor deserve it. It is one thing to mention the need and solicit my aid, quite another to yoke me like a beast of burden and put the whip to my back.

I came to Baghdad precisely because someone said there was a need and asked me to come help. No one is going to force me to stay here any longer than I want to without blood being spilled. It may be mine, but by God they'll know there was a fight.

What if you own a home in Florida and you go out and get all the lumber to secure it as best as possible against the impending storm, only to have some government official tell you you'll have to give up half of it for the guy down the road who waited too long and now has none, because the official thinks that you can do an adequate job with half of what you have? I'd be telling him to go pound sand if it were me, whereas if the guy down the road came and asked me for some, I would likely give him something, even if it took me out of my comfort zone.

I dunno, maybe it's just cuz I'm getting short here, but my opinion is the government doesn't have the right to compel us to charity, anymore than they have the right to give away our treasury to the poor and unfortunate. They never had that right, and as far as I'm concerned, they still don't. What they are doing to us with FITW and FICA is called extortion in my book, and if I thought it would change anything, I'd call them on it, but they've gotten too big for one man to make a difference, so I pay my taxes and bide my time and do what I must to protect the interests of me and mine. They can take some of it, but they will never take it all.

I agree, I would not be very polite with that "official". But should this neighbour come over and ask for himself, I'd tell him to grab a hammer: "help me put mine up, then we'll grab what's left over and go do your place!"

You can be prepared AND be a good neighbour... <img src="/images/graemlins/smile.gif" alt="" />

You just have to ask nice ...

My research tells me that officialdom looks askance at any who prepared ahead of time anyway. Many were treated worse than the looters and I understand lost equipment and supplies. Officialdom seems to be a necessary evil but to several people who were prepared for this years storms they were worse than a curse.

There's a bigger issue behind what you're saying than just preparedness, but this probably isn't the right place to discuss it, if you're interested in a perspective that is probably pretty close to yours, PM me... and hang in there!!!

Troy

IF there is a need, I help. Frequently before there is a formal request for assistance.

I dont' like taxes, particularly when the money wasted, but one of the functions of government is to help those who get stuck, literally of figuratively. I have no problem with welfare, for example- I spent a good chunk of my childhood on it. And guess what, I'm not a criminal, I'm not a junky, and I'm back in school becuase I like the paycheck of a full engineer better than that of a technician.

My feelings are not that people with a lot of supplies, or are so rich that a hundred grand is pocket change, should be forced to give up- I'm saying that they should want to give up because they are people, not simply humans. I'm not a niave fool, I had my naivete burned out of me before I learned to drive. I don't expect to be thanked, or liked, or appreciated, just because I’ve helped them. The human animal’s what it always was, and the important thing is to save people if you can. Not that they lie, cheat, take bribes or kill. And they’ll turn on you when you’ve done your best for them and hang you high in the sun as a warning to anyone else who thinks they are anything but animals with a handful of people in the mix. It's that tiny number of people I'm going to stick my neck out for.

I guess I just want to say, for whatever it's worth, I'm really disappointed and or discouraged with some of those on this list, who's opinions I respect. But I also know that most of you would open your door as far as you could in a crisis, to those who were worthy. It's just hard to remind myself of that when your knees are jerking.

I'm sad to say... I think you called it right, the new dark age... we're on the brink, maybe not TEOTWAWKI, but the end as we WANT it... and yes, I sincerely hope I'm drastically mistaken.

Troy

*points and snickers* You caught me between edits. :P I took the dark ages reference out becuase I while I don't mind stepping on people's toes, I don't want to kick them in the jimmies.

As for the decay of human society towards a new dark age, I really want to be wrong as well. I want to be wrong when I predict the fall of Pax America in favor of either Pax China or Pax India, but is easy enough to read the ignorant scribblings on the walls and ceilings.

Part of my survival preperations include things like saving old books, and protecting them. If they are so beat they can't be recovered, old books like my 1910 mechanical engineering handbook or my text on how to refine chemicals from raw sources from the 1880s get copied on archival paper and spiral bound. And these are guys I found in yeard sales, or library book sales!!! "Oh, it's just an old text book that is pretty ratty, someone will pay a buck for it as curiosity."

What I'd love to do is build the microfilm reader that I designed that only needed candlelight (sunlight too strong), and put everything on microfilm and store it in cans with nitrogen atmospheres.

The knowledge, that is what I will protect above everything else, including the lives of those I care about. And they know it. I might not put stock in organised religion, but I have the greatest respect for the monks who protected the written word through the European dark ages. Those guys are my heros.

It doesn't surprise me to hear that you're a fellow bibliophile, the web's handy, but nothing beats a good book... and you can't pull the plug on the printed word, can ya???

Troy

Of course- anything worth learning is worth writing down, clearly, so that others may learn it even if you should be runn over by a bus, have a massive heart attack, be eatten by the ravagening bugblatter beast, or anything else.

Ironraven, usually those that are worth helping are the same ones that are doing all the helping. Rich, poor or in-between, there always seems to be a core of people that you can count on no matter how the SHTF.

As for the rest, I will help as best I can, but I won't let them suck me down with them as they drown.