The ONE Lesson Americans Refuse to Learn

I’ve been preparing myself and my family for emergencies for well over a decade. In fact, I think I started this blog back around 2010 but, to be honest, I’d probably been interested in preparedness for about twenty years now. I believe that getting married and having children had something to do with it, and I’m sure my parents managed to teach me a few things along the way whether I realized it at the time or not.

I’d say the last year, in particular, should have been a wakeup call for many of us. With the shortages at the grocery store (especially of toilet paper) due to COVID-19 panic, the more recent power outages in Texas, and the wildfires along the west coast late last year, you would think that Americans would learn this ONE lesson: you simply cannot prepare for disaster after it’s already struck.

That seems obvious enough to me, but so many of us continue to fail to learn it that I’m of the mind we, as Americans, never will. Really, if you’re completely unable to survive for a week or two on your own then I have to ask: what are you doing in life? What are you spending money on instead of the items that are truly necessary to survival, like more food and water?

I’m not saying we all have the capability of surviving for years on end or enough money to buy a fancy bunker–I sure don’t–but we do always have a choice in what we do and how we spend our money. It’s time we make the seemingly hard choice to prepare for hard times instead of purchasing fancier cars and increasingly larger smartphones.

The truth is that, yes, you will spend some money on preparedness items that you may not find a use for in daily life (like on water barrels or generators) but most of the money you spend on preparedness WILL be used in the future. I’m talking about buying extra food, toilet paper, soap, batteries, clothing and shoes, fuel, medications, and all the other supplies we make use of day to day. It’s not hard to figure out, and in some cases you’ll actually save money by purchasing in bulk (e.g., bulk food).

Please stop trying to prepare after the fact!

Now that I think about it, there’s another, related lesson that we continue to fail to learn, and I believe that the recent Texas calamity is a good example as to why: you simply shouldn’t rely on others for your very survival. Granted, I know there’s more to the situation in Texas than that, but we need to stop assuming that the water will always flow, that the electricity will always be on, and that life will be like it always has been.

I realize that modern life makes it easy to be complacent, but it’s time to start being more self-sufficient than we are. This isn’t just about stockpiling more food and water and other supplies, it’s about having the capability to acquire more should times get truly tough. And this is something that I intend to work on over the next few years assuming, of course, that the world doesn’t come to a complete end before then.

In any case, I would encourage you to do the same. Because, while we never know precisely what will befall us, we can be assured that disasters will strike when we least expect them to and that others won’t always be there to save the day.