The mathematical case for prepping

[Paolung]

Interesting article.

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[NobullSKS]

Interesting article.

Thx for sharing.
I did well with trigonometry….but I can't express my brains math for having a plan for something that may (and I hope) never happens. Including loss of income, health issues, natural disasters , and acts of God. I play it kinda like a fairly healthy hobby. Never seen that "one less rifle" guy, but for sure he has another…. Talk about virtue signaling. And yes I'm trying to be "less screwed" overall.

 

[Caveman Jim]

Math hard…
I'll just go

 

[American123]

You don't even have to be labeled a "prepper" to see that having a volume of supplies on hand in case of lean times or an emergency can make a big difference in how successfully getting through that situation without serious turmoil will be.

For example: baby formula - when my daughter was born last year I calculated how much she was going through each week and then averaged out her likely increase in consumption as she grew to determine that I needed about 6 cases equating to several thousand dollars worth of formula (pre-panic prices) to get her through her time on formula. Now you can't effectively get it at the store and the website we bought it from is completely out of stock but we are still using up what I bought in bulk nearly a year ago. By the time we run out she'll just be on whole milk and strictly solid food.

Toilet paper - I always liked to keep a couple costco packs in stock just because. When the toilet paper craze hit I never had to worry because those two Costco packs lasted us until supply came back to relative normal amounts. Other people were not having a good time.

Primers, ammo, powder, you name it, anything that is subject to scarcity and is not easily produced locally is good to have on hand so when things get lean you don't have to be one of those people fighting over the shelf inventory scraps at the store.

 

[Whisky Tahoe]

I wouldn't call myself a prepper yet being prepared is something I'm always considering. The power was out in Tucson today for several hours. The first time since I bought the house a few years ago. We have solar but it has to be turned off when the grid is down so we don't electrocute the workers.

The US power grid is vulnerable or insert your preferred word here. Loss of power quickly renders most people unprepared. Having a plan or being prepared for power loss makes a lot of sense.

What's this got to do with flooding mentioned in the article? Floods are one of the ways we lose power.

Ok so what good is solar if you can't use it when the power is out? Well turns out you have to isolate yourself from the Grid and some have done this with switches, generators, and back up batteries.

I'm interested in electric vehicles that are rated for taking or giving a charge. Take the new Ford Lightning for instance. It has more capacity than 7 of the highly vaulted Tesla Power stations which run $11k each.
While the Lightning is still made with "unobtanium" at the moment, it is certainly more quiet than a fuel generator.

However a fuel generator is simple to setup and doesn't require an electrician nor 80amp circuits to connect your EV to the house. Looks like generators are still very viable as contingencies. Longest power was out in Portland Metro area was 2 weeks a few years ago for some unfortunate few during a cold winter. I guess how long you can survive without power could be a very important question for people to answer.
I know I got a dose of reality today.

 

[Paolung]

I wouldn't call myself a prepper yet being prepared is something I'm always considering. The power was out in Tucson today for several hours. The first time since I bought the house a few years ago. We have solar but it has to be turned off when the grid is down so we don't electrocute the workers.

The US power grid is vulnerable or insert your preferred word here. Loss of power quickly renders most people unprepared. Having a plan or being prepared for power loss makes a lot of sense.

What's this got to do with flooding mentioned in the article? Floods are one of the ways we lose power.

Ok so what good is solar if you can't use it when the power is out? Well turns out you have to isolate yourself from the Grid and some have done this with switches, generators, and back up batteries.

I'm interested in electric vehicles that are rated for taking or giving a charge. Take the new Ford Lightning for instance. It has more capacity than 7 of the highly vaulted Tesla Power stations which run $11k each.
While the Lightning is still made with "unobtanium" at the moment, it is certainly more quiet than a fuel generator.

However a fuel generator is simple to setup and doesn't require an electrician nor 80amp circuits to connect your EV to the house. Looks like generators are still very viable as contingencies. Longest power was out in Portland Metro area was 2 weeks a few years ago for some unfortunate few during a cold winter. I guess how long you can survive without power could be a very important question for people to answer.
I know I got a dose of reality today.

That's an endgame to prepare for in a lot of "prepping" scenarios… a long term power outage from EMP or a solar flare that permanently fries important parts of the grid.

 

[Jay Walk]

I am one of those extremists I guess.

Pretend you're someone with your eyes on the horizon. What would you be looking for, exactly? Increasing partisanship.YEP Civil disorder.YEP Coup rhetoric.YEP A widening wealth gap.YEP A further entrenching oligarchy.YEP YEP YEP Dysfunctional governance. 100%YEP The rise of violent extremist ideologies YEP such as Nazism and Communism.YEP Violent street protests.UHHH DUH YEP People marching with masks YEP STILL and dressing like the Italian Blackshirts. Attempts at large scale political assassination. Any one of those might not necessarily be the canary in the coal mine, but all of them in aggregate might be alarming to someone with their eyes on the horizon. Someone with disproportionate faith in the state is naturally inclined to disregard these sorts of events as a cognitive bias, while someone with little faith in the state might take these signs to mean they should buy a few more boxes of ammunition.

 

[Paolung]

I am one of those extremists I guess.

I don't find it extreme at all to prepare for a potentially catastrophic event that has a fairly significant non-zero probability of occurrence during my lifetime or that of people I care about.

 

[Member 3687]

I am old enough to remember many things we needed to prepare for or were told to prepare for. Cubin Missile crises, cold war duck and cover, Inflation during Carter, high gas prices during the 70s and so on, and so on.

I got out of the Navy in 81 and at that time Reagan passed an order that said I quit my job so I could not get Un-employment. I learned then that being prepared was a must as I ended up selling a lot of my stuff to survive while looking for a job. It was a 5-month adventure of eating once a day and doing any odd job until I found fulltime employment.

I told myself never again and now I always have extra on hand just in case there is no income and no prospect for one for a while. I may get sick of beans, rice, dandy lion greens and pine needle tea but I will be alive to complain about it.

From that point on my motto has always been, prepare for the worse, hope for the best and if you land on your feet running life is good.

 

[dplev4]

Interesting article. Even a bit self affirming. While I'm by no means self sufficient, a certain amount of preparedness and independence is a necessary component of responsible adulthood. My children learned this and practice it it. Would that more more folks today did the same.

 

[308]

I wouldn't call myself a prepper yet being prepared is something I'm always considering. The power was out in Tucson today for several hours. The first time since I bought the house a few years ago. We have solar but it has to be turned off when the grid is down so we don't electrocute the workers.

The US power grid is vulnerable or insert your preferred word here. Loss of power quickly renders most people unprepared. Having a plan or being prepared for power loss makes a lot of sense.

What's this got to do with flooding mentioned in the article? Floods are one of the ways we lose power.

Ok so what good is solar if you can't use it when the power is out? Well turns out you have to isolate yourself from the Grid and some have done this with switches, generators, and back up batteries.

I'm interested in electric vehicles that are rated for taking or giving a charge. Take the new Ford Lightning for instance. It has more capacity than 7 of the highly vaulted Tesla Power stations which run $11k each.
While the Lightning is still made with "unobtanium" at the moment, it is certainly more quiet than a fuel generator.

However a fuel generator is simple to setup and doesn't require an electrician nor 80amp circuits to connect your EV to the house. Looks like generators are still very viable as contingencies. Longest power was out in Portland Metro area was 2 weeks a few years ago for some unfortunate few during a cold winter. I guess how long you can survive without power could be a very important question for people to answer.
I know I got a dose of reality today.

Can't you just install a transfer switch to isolate your solar from the grid when needed? It's very basic.

 

[RobMa]

P(having the current admin label you a terrorist | they are anti-gunners and already see you as a threat to their power) = .9999999

 

[Paolung]

P(having the current admin label you a terrorist | they are anti-gunners and already see you as a threat to their power) = .9999999

That's really what it's about to them, isn't it?

It's not about protecting rights and it d@mm sure isn't about defending the Constitution (at least not as it was intended). It's about them maintaining and increasing their power and control. Because they only have our best interests at heart, of course

 

[Whisky Tahoe]

Can't you just install a transfer switch to isolate your solar from the grid when needed? It's very basic.

I'd need to consult an electrician familiar with Solar converters and grid connected systems before I can answer that. It may be that simple.