Mistakes survivalists make

Surviving in Argentina ^ | October 28, 2008 | FerFAL

[mad_as_he$$]

Yup they would bring Twitter and Facebook to their knees whining about how bad it is that Starbuck’s is closed.

[mad_as_he$$]

I can do a two day presentation on how useless most people under 30 are. They have no desire to work, no skills and no practical experience. Don't even get me going on the Ritilan infested ones.

[MileHi]

No doubt, keeping existing stuff, guns, cars, homes etc, working will be important. I bet most people you know can’t do any of those things. At least that is true for me. For most folks “self reliance” = Yellow Pages.

[Travis McGee]

Most people think light bulbs grow on bushes next to the tulips.

[djf]

The rich guys in the future might not be the lawyers and bankers.

It’ll be the guy who controls the access road to the dump!

The guy who knows how to hook up an alternator from a broke down Saab to a lawnmower engine and get a couple hundred watts of 110V out of it!

[djf]

Anybody know where I can buy a book on how to make a steam engine?
Sarcasm redacted

[DCBryan1]

Great thread. I think I’m going to go ATF Form 1 my watercooled M1917 today and drill some sideplates :)

[Cacique]

btt

[Cacique]

ping

[CPT Clay]

bump

[patriciaruth]

Why on earth would any conservative plan on “Surviving” rather than being an integral part of reclaiming the country through force of arms?

Ditto for Christians, some of whom may not go for the force part but would want to be part of helping the other people in their community survive, not just themselves.

In other words, the best of America would be trying to hold the country and/or their communities together, not just be out for themselves.

The more people bail out, the fewer people fight the fall, then the faster and further we fall, which is not good for anyone.

We need to connect with others in our community and get churches or conservative organizations to make contingency plans to assist each other in times of disaster, economic or natural.

After I return from my mother's funeral, I plan on starting with the local Boy Scouts and local Rotary Club and a local church.

[Errant]

Why on earth would any conservative plan on “Surviving” rather than being an integral part of reclaiming the country through force of arms?

IMO "surviving" and "being an integral part of reclaiming the country" are natural synergistic activities. It's wise to prepare not only for ourselves but also to put a little extra back for neighbors and relatives and community use.

If you think about what makes America different from most other nations, you will realize that even today it is our independent nature combined with the willingness to help our fellow Americans. You see this at the national level but more so on a local level through civic organizations, schools, businesses, neighborhood organizations, churches, and local and state governments (i.e. FD, SA, RC, PD, NG and etc.).

I believe as many that we have tuff times approaching. Maybe these will turn into even terrible times. But I know that with like minded people working together to overcome the challenges as Patriciaruth is suggesting, the severity will be lessened considerably. This coming tribulation will cause America to break the chains placed on her during the last century. The divine creation of a government of the people by the people for the people will grow from this to encompass the entire world IMHO.

Thanks for the ping of a very interesting and well worth reading thread!

[af_vet_rr]

How did you go about buying property in another country? I would have no idea how to do that.

Like angkor and PugetSoundSoldier said, visit the place. You don't need to be buying in an area sight unseen, you need to be familiar with it. Talk with real estate agents from the area as well. Many countries are quite happy to have Americans buying property there.

We've got property in Spain (thank God it was passed through my wife's family and we acquired it cheaply) and Canada. Close family members know where it's at, and we rent it out. We bought long enough ago that both will have paid for themselves within the next 5 years.

My family has a lot of land in South Texas, that's been in the family for generations, and while you could be self-sufficient, there is no way in hell I would take my family there if things went bad. We can't go a year without the outer buildings and hunting cabins being trashed and broken into by illegals either coming to the US or going back to Mexico. Hell, I'm not the most comfortable taking the female members of the family out to that area right now. If things went bad, I shudder to think about the amount of traffic through that area.

[af_vet_rr]

Remember how folks screamed (and are still) at the government about Katrina?

Everybody I know that lived in the affected areas got out in plenty of time. They didn't wait around for all of the school buses to be underwater or the police to desert their posts.

Many of the people who were trapped were poor and a lot of poor folks have the mindset of only thinking about tomorrow and not thinking about a week, a month, or a year out. When you have the mindset that you can't afford to plan ahead too much, or that the water is not in your neighborhood so it's not a problem, you're courting disaster, especially when the water is a few neighborhoods over.

[af_vet_rr]

Owning real estate means you have to manage it. You can manage a rental in France from Costa Rica- not without paid help to get the rent and to get it to you. You cannot rely on such help in hard times. That part is quite unrealistic. Food stockup makes sense. About which see the “Mormon one year plan” etc.

Financial networks maybe disrupted, but if you have that land, it's there if you can get to it.

As for food preparation, if things get so bad that food distribution is disrupted for more than a few weeks or a month, your problems will be much bigger than your next meal, and they will include personal safety. You won't be able to rely on law enforcement in such a situation, either. While there are plenty of sheep who will lay around bleating for the government, there are also plenty of wolves who will take advantage of the lack of police presence.

Food stockpiles are not a bad thing to have in this economy - stock up on the long-term stuff when it's on sale, because people lose jobs, incur unexpected expenses, etc. but I know far too many people who stockpile a year's worth of cans in their pantry and think they are "preppers" and ready for anything. That money they've spent has bought them a very false sense of security, and potentially a very dangerous sense of security.

The biggest preppers I know lost their home in the Texas wildfires last year, and while they were prepared for some kind of end-of-the-world apocalypse scenario where they could hole up in their property, and raise their gardens on their two acres of land, they weren't prepared for something as simple as a wildfire and only having half an hour in their house. My wife and I consider ourselves to be ready for many situations, but we learned some very serious lessons from their misfortune.