The.Philosophers.Buttler

I see what you're saying about the necessity/utility of the prepper behaviour. I would be interested in prepping only granted a large disposable income, and I'd have to have so many funds, that investing to make more money wouldn't appeal to me. I agree with you that if you don't have money to blow, then 6 months of emergency supplies seems reasonable and sufficient. After all, one would think most disasters, at least natural, would dissipate within months, or, as you said, individuals would have to find a sustainable living source. However, if a nuclear disaster would occur, I would assume that the earth would remain uninhabitable or dangerous for a period longer than 6 months. If you look at examples of instability overseas, such as civil wars, those events can persist for years as well. Also, of course a good prepper would acquire the knowledge/experience to operate and match their equipment. I see preppers as buying a kind of insurance through their actions. If you don't have a lot of money, you may not spend what little money you have on insurance, but may opt to take a risk instead. For example, I do not have a lot of money so I have minimal liability insurance on my car. If you have more money, or are more worried about the risk you are trying to avoid, you buy more insurance. Someone with limited resources and time might opt to prep for 6 months, while another who is more wealthy/concerned might wish to prep for longer.

My name is Michael. I'm 23 years old and reside in Canada. A year and a half ago-or two- my eyes were opened to the state of the world. This sounds a bit pretentious. I mean that my viewpoints were revolutionized-a paradigm shift that occurred within me and gradually developed over time. I've long been skeptical of religion and the government since my days of youth, though I used to consider myself a liberal, and support liberal policies, blame corporations, and the like. I began learning about a few topics through documentaries. I remember one of the first things I watched was a documentary showing how companies like Coke and Pepsi extract water resources from countries largely free of charge, at the expense of the "public," the taxpayer. At times, water would not run out the tap to people's homes, but would be siphoned off to the coke factory. The documentary showed water to be more expensive than Coca-Cola in many places. The documentary was also showing how the IMF/World Bank encourages countries to privatize their recourses and grant them to select government interests. Anyway, without droning on about this particular documentary... I next watched a historical documentary about the Rothschild family, and was amazed that one family could become so affluent and rich. This was perhaps one of the most eye opening moments of my life, and I very much enjoyed that documentary and attempted to share it with others... to no avail. Eventually, I discovered Alex Jones, and watched his documentary Endgame. This was also highly influential to me in my early awakening. I was surprised to discover his program that advertised such unique products as water filters, which I gradually became more interested in as I learned more. I would search the internet for confirmation of the various claims made by Alex and typically confirm them, such as that fluoride consumption is linked to lower IQ. So I began to identify as a libertarian. Over time I shied away from Alex's program, but was still reading a lot of alternative news sources I trusted, and various other articles, studies, etc. I love to research, verify/disprove things I hear, with academic literature, think critically about things, and consider myself fairly well researched. Nobody around me really matched my interest or enthusiasm at the time. I began implementing things I'd learned into my life, for example, filtering my water, eating organic. Eventually, I was exposed to STEFAN MOLYNEUX, perhaps from his guest appearances on the Alex Jones Show, or through the "recommended videos" section, a miss-click... I'm not quite sure. Regardless, he must've sparked my interest because I continued to watch Stefan on YouTube. His arguments resonated with me. I've long been accused of being argumentative, and there was Stef affirming the value of coherent logical arguments. I'm pretty intelligent (if you haven't ascertained so yourself ). I was a bit of a rebel, with a history of critical thinking. These reasons might have something to do with why Stef appealed to me. As I listened to his arguments/podcasts out of order, I knew I was being convinced of the anarchist position, though was resistant to it because of the connotations surrounding the word, and because I was reluctant to change my views without being fully convinced. Eventually I was, the more I learned from Stef, and the more I confirmed through my own research. As for my parental upbringing, I had a fairly good childhood compared to others- I mean, I definitely enjoyed it, particularly my younger years and my friends, though it was peppered with conflict. I was spanked. I'd hide in the washroom, keeping my hand on the lock as to prevent it from turning. I've seen my parents fight, my mom get pushed, cheated on, though this was by no means a regular occurrence. Yelling was more prevalent, and there was a bit of authoritativeness. In my later years I would get into trouble with my high school education, the law, smoking (not any harder drugs), troublesome relationships, which of course is not unrelated to my upbringing. I emerged from these situations, I believe, without a large amount permanent damage, but with situations that call for introspection and learning. Anyway, there is much more I can say about myself but I've invested much time into this piece and would like to get working on unrelated projects. I'm not sure who would be interested in reading this article about me, but if anyone will show curiosity, I think it will be the FDR community. I've tried to tell the community a little about me because I'd like to be an active participant on the boards and chats. Thanks everyone. If you've any questions for me, do not hesitate to ask! Sincerely, Michael