Preparing for civilization's collapse | Hacker News Reader

Preparing for civilization's collapse

reuters.com

10 pointsdmitriy_ko5 comments

The trouble with a major disruption is that crime rates go through the roof. (In the worst-case scenario, you get roving bands of raiders.) How does preparing with a well-stocked kitchen help if a bunch of armed hooligans show up?

I don't prepare for the worst, simply because the worst is so unthinkable; I'm not prepared to shoot looters.

Most of the folks stockpiling for the end-times are extremely well-armed and will have no problem defending themselves. There has been a related push to expand "castle" or "stand-your-ground" laws to permit the use of lethal force as well.

I am a 'prepper' and I am heavily armed and very prepared to shoot looters. In TX we can legally shoot anyone on our property (you can even shoot a mugger in the back once he turns around).

To me having a few weeks of extra food and basic supplies can never hurt, it is a lot easier than most people think for global supply chains to fail. If you have ever been in a natural disaster you would be surprised at how fast the shelves at a walmart completely empty.

Actually, in most major disruptions, crime rates don't go up much (usually, they go down), and people tend to help each other.

It depends a lot on how hopeless the place was before the disaster; Haiti becomes even worse, but someplace like Montana with heavy snow becomes even safer and more community oriented. Not a whole lot of violent looting at the Tsunami which basically destroyed major parts of Japan.

Goal: live in places which won't turn into hell after a natural disaster.

I can understand wanting supplies to survive some natural disaster that cuts you off from civilization for a couple of weeks. But I can't understand wanting to survive the fall of civilization itself. That would make 1994 Rwanda look like a care bear picnic, and I'm not going out of my way to spend a long futile lifetime experiencing it.

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