It seems as if every generation at some point thinks Life As We Know It will end with that generation.

Cormac McCarthy's "The Road" made survival after apocalypse entirely unappealing. Since I don't wish to survive that horror, it's one off the to-do list. [ I remain amazed that Oprah plugged that book ]

America's population has been mostly urban for a long while. Even before the era of just-in-time inventories, in a dire scenario the cities would have been desperate places pretty quick. I sure wouldn't want to be around here when the supermarkets emptied out. Don't think it would have been any less dire in the 1970s.

Even if everyone had a couple acres and plenty of seeds, a society addicted to Doritos, juice boxes, Big Macs and other processed foods would have a hard adjustment.

How long does it take to grow carrot sticks?

My household is in very good shape to deal with a month or so of deprivation. Keep the gas tanks topped off most of the time, have bikes and bike trailers, loads of camping gear, a camping trailer in storage near the mountains.

But the grim reality of a long-term disaster, economic catastrophe or mass evac while living in the DC-Boston corridor overloads my circuits.

While the economic theory is interesting, I believe the most plausible horrific non-natural disaster is a dirty bomb or bio attack where the damage would be localized. Probably in DC or New York City.

Quite possibly in my zip code.

Really need to put "move" higher up on the to-do list.