I guess I'll add a small twist to the plot here. Add in dietary restrictions for you and/or yours. Lets say you have been building up your pantry as best as you can but your choices are limited by something like celiac disease (no wheat or related grain gluten for you) and/or some other food allergies. The gluten free thing is especially tough since even foods that should be gluten free are often contaminated with enough gluten to cause a reaction.

So no MREs (may be a blessing in disguise) or typical emergency supplies, almost no prepared/easy foods and the ones that are available are hard to come by normally and have short shelf lives. Even a minor disruption in the supply chain can have long term impacts to local availability. Hopefully you can at least depend on beans and rice smile. All those unprepared others will have a far easier time getting assistance when the National Guard or Red Cross or whoever ride into the rescue.

Similarly keeping a good supply around for what ever reason (job cutbacks, snowstorms, hurricanes, etc.) is critical because your needs (beyond beans and rice) will be the first to disappear from your local stores and the last to reappear after things start getting back to normal. Most of these suppliers are very small businesses since they cater to less than 3% of the population so some things may never come back from a larger disruption like a major recession.

Under these circumstances I would be a lot less willing to share my supplies, especially if the dietary restrictions applied to my kid.

- Eric



Edited by Eric (12/07/08 10:49 PM)
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