I agree that the article is not talking about anyone and everyone who prepares for unexpected circumstances.

This article is very similar to the kinds of articles you saw leading up to Y2K and the people getting ready for everything coming to a grinding halt when midnight, 2000 came around.

However, considering the kinds and frequency of events that happened after Y2K--9/11, the War on Terror, two devastating tsunamis, Katrina, massive wildfires in the West/Australia/Russia, the Dot Com/real estate/financial crashes, $147/barrel oil, the worst economic downturn since the Great Depression, the H1N1 pandemic, and on and on--I don't think the readership reacts quite the same way to stories about the TEOTWAWKI crowd as they did before Y2K.

Instead of reading about these folks with amusement, a whole more people now are probably thinking, "I really should do something to be more prepared for the unexpected..."