Practical Preparedness

“A patriot must always be ready to defend his country against his government.” - Edward Abbey

Since this is a blog with "Preparedness" in the title, you may wonder, why do so many of the posts deal with government or the economy? My philosophy is Practical Preparedness. There are other sites dedicated to The End Of The World as We Know It (TEOTWAWKI) but that is not my style. I'm not an ex-marine or a gun owner who will protect the homestead when civilization collapses. The odds are that the World will not end during my life time.

The early Apostles after the death of Christ sincerely believed the world would end during their lifetime, "I will come like a thief in the night", "no one knows the time". Paul wrote in his letters that it was best to be celibate (no sex, no kids) but if you lacked the self-control to wait for "The End" then it was better to marry than to burn in hell for the sin of adultery. The Shakers were a religious group that took this idea seriously and as a result I think there is one living Shaker today, a young person who converted decades ago before the last of the sect died of old age before the End occurred.

In this blog I focus on events that can and do happen - taxes, debt, medical issues, recession, unemployment, first aid, accidents, and so forth. Preparedness requires two things: knowledge/training and supplies. In theory there are idiot-proof supplies like modern heart defibrillators and the super-McGyver types who can survive by wit alone but the majority needs supplies and the skills to use the supplies properly. There are families who never use their buckets of whole wheat because they have no clue how to cook with it.

With supplies you can take the extreme approach of a year's supply to stockpiling for TEOTWAWKI or the more practical approach of a cache that will get you through a local disaster or help buffer unemployment and other serious life events. This is one week to 3 months of supplies of Food, Water, and Money.

The money cache is important - especially if you get laid off like I did. You can not pay your taxes and bills with canned goods. And so I include in this blog posts about the government or economy that can affect your take-home pay. The most serious of these is high-taxation which is a drag on the economy and discourages job creation. Both the Federal and State governments have the attitude that it is the duty of the public to pay high tax rates to support government programs. This is a dangerous reversal on the principles of the Founding Fathers of minimal-government and the protection of individual rights.

Bottom Line

Americans now work to support the government and this is a very, very difficult thing to change. Hence the many articles on the subject to raise awareness.