I keep watching the news and I keep hearing of people running around buying gas mask, gun, and survival stuff. Paying tons of money for it, the poor bastards. Granted I don't have a gas mask and probably not enough MRE's and such on hand, but I am satsfied and content with what I have.

I really do not understand why people do not get prepared. They do get prepared with other aspects of life. I.E. College tuition, retirement, insurance, etc. Why not the intangibles in life? Really boggles my brain when I lived in CA(earthquake country) I have known many people that did not keep stores. Specially after the Northridge quake. They were out of power and water for a week afterwards. So that drove people out of their homes, granted most could afford nice hotels in the community, but their homes were at risk for looting. Now you would think these people would start getting prepared for the next time. Well I had a friend who's family lived in Simi Valley, 5 min up the road from Northridge, they did not even bother. Geez, you figure they would say "never again will I be flushed out of my house". Really amazing. Where I work now, I hear talk of getting shotguns and such. The funny thing is aside from that people have no clue of what else to get. Did not dawn on them that if these power plants are hit they might need to get out of dodge or have to go without power for days.

Well at least I'll have my Spam. You KNOW I'm happy and content for now.

In my opinion Doublefeed sees the problem!!  Experience is the key.  An lot of people have never really known fear.  Other than a rollercoaster ride or a fright flick they have led a sheltered life.-- If a person has'nt been roughed up enough in life to get the edges off they won't be too slick about anything.  Thats why the strong,(experienced) survive and the others, might not live long enough to get the needed experience a situation might call for. -- Sad but true -- ALLONS11

I always said that in the event of a bugout... as long as I have the basics and some firepower I can take whatever else I need from the unprepareds. Darwin was right.