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#254212 - 12/02/12 10:53 PM Re: Are doomsday preppers just wasting money on gear? [Re: ]
Russ Offline
Geezer

Registered: 06/02/06
Posts: 5357
Loc: SOCAL
I worry about the price of base metals getting prohibitively expensive so I bought lots of brass, lead and copper in various sizes and configurations. That's not hoarding, it's investing. wink Definitely not wasting money.

...and steel, lots of steel ...

mine came dressed in Ironwood and leather

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#254214 - 12/02/12 11:19 PM Re: Are doomsday preppers just wasting money on gear? [Re: Russ]
Bingley Offline
Veteran

Registered: 02/27/08
Posts: 1577


Oh, the kit is for a single-shot 12 ga. shotgun. That changes the desirability of such a kit, even if it works, considerably.

I guess this kit is for the sort of survival situation where the local gun stores are all closed (Lord, no!), Midway and Brownell no longer deliver the toys to you every week, and you have to rely on found ammunition to hunt as you roam from gas station to gas station, looking for what little is left in the reservoir.

No, I don't think I'll get it.

As for the question in the thread title, to me emergency is like preparation: you have x% change of y happening, so you do z to make things easier for yourself if y happens. There is a cost to this (your insurance premium). Based on your financial situation, you have to decide where the cut-off point is. Do I prepare for stuff that has a 0.1% chance of happening? How about 0.001%? How much am I willing to pay for insurance? Some models insure their body parts, and they may have a legitimate financial reason to do so.

I think what gets weird is when preparation becomes "a way of life" rather than an insurance policy. It is no longer a rational strategy for helping to continue your normal way of life in the event of disasters. That's when preppers could become millenarians.

Some of the people featured on the show may be trying to make a living from it. One of them is apparently selling products already. Well, that means he's becoming a professional. I guess he can do that for himself, but I hope that his customers can find rational uses in the tools.

For me, preparing is partly for insurance, but it's partly a hobby, too. I like gear. I like acquiring skills. The last thing I did was acquiring the Red Cross certificate for "professional rescuers." (I'm putting this in quotes because it wasn't that hard.) I'd prep for the end of the world just for fun, but I don't have the budget for it. In the mean time, life goes on, I work, I eat, I work out...

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