Is Prepping Selfish?

We've seen a lot of preppers, especially those who aren't normally vocal in prepper forums etc, who actively think about wanting to help their community in a crisis. Big motivation for those who get involved in CERT and similar programs.

I did some mainstream interviews lately, like a CBS Sunday Morning one coming up, and they always try to draw this zero-sum choice of "well if you prep, aren't you selfish?" or "if you prep, doesn't that mean you've given up?" -- No! Having health insurance doesn't mean you've given up on taking care of your health.

And we definitely advocate that people should share their prepping knowledge and recruit their inner circle (friends, family, neighbors). Have been very happy to see this convo growing the last years, to offset the lone wolf imagery.

 

Preparing for bad times is not selfish in any way...not prepping is IMHO saying that you expect handouts. Our door is not the one to try that on.

A good neighbor or friend who has fallen on hard times is a different story - if they are willing and able to help themselves...

Edit to clarify...if they normally are willing...injury not withstanding.

 

I share knowledge

 

If you are my tribe what I have is yours, if you are not then No. Don't have a crab pot.......... but the hogs can always use more protein in their diet.

 

Don't underestimate people with nothing to lose.

 

Shedding those rules and values that ones was raised with is hard to do. How often does one find themselves falling back to old behaviors.

I think the homeless would do better then most. They are used to doing without and have a degree of survival that most do not have. Many homeless survive outside during a mild winter- IMO that is skill and knowledge.

I have read on prepper sites that people are selfish to hoard old nickles. That is the truth. Some think it is bad or negative to collect old silver nickles.

I snipped your post but I agree with everything you said. I cannot imagine helping my fellow human being. I have trouble seeing and animal suffer. Does that make me weak because I believe in helping? Some say yes bet that is my nature. I really like your post.

 

Watching The Grapes Of Wrath, Shows how much sharing and not sharing in hard times.

 

And it reminds me of the time I lay on 12 inches of gravel removing the transmission from my car, in a little backwater Gulf Station on US 80 just outside of Cuba, Alabama.

Help was my two hands and the $100 Western Union Wire Transfer check I had just walked 20 miles at night to retrieve in Meridian, Mississippi. Distance between Meridian, MS and Cuba, AL

Yes I am aware of the caring of locals for someone alone on the road.

I know a lot about being prepped and selfish, taught to me by others that use lip service of the religious as their daily message of a caring christian.

But it was my lucky day, the rebuilt transmission worked perfectly and it only took me 30 minutes to scrub the grease and dirt from my torso with the cold water and LAVA soap in the dirty bath room.

BTW here is the Ingredients of Lava Soap: Sodium Tallowate, Sodium Cocoate, Pumice, Water, Glycerin, Coconut Acid, Sodium Carbonate, Fragrance, Sodium Chloride, Tetrasoidum Etidronate, Pentasodium Pentetate, Titanium Dioxide, Chromium Hydroxide Green D&C Yellow No. 10.

 

I do not prep for myself, I prep for others whom I love. Having taken the red pill it would be immoral for me not to prep. Everybody has access to the same information I have and the same opportunity to prepare for emergencies, disasters, what have you as I do. By the same token I do not whine about the wealthy as I have had the exact same opportunities and made decisions that led me down a different path than they.

Some of my preps, however, are for my neighborhood and community though they in turn help me as well. For example I have IDEN comms enough to secure my neighborhood and a plan to to do so. Amateur radio fits in as well as my focus on first aid and CERT for this coming year will be of benefit and at the same time make me more valuable to my neighbors in a crisis.Outwardly it's about skills and not supplies.

 

That Lava soap back then was a real scrubber!

 

Sounds like the Three little Pigs at story time. How long can you feed the world? No good deed goes unpunished. When the word gets out that you have something to share, there will be those who want to take it.

 

I was going to school in Miami FL and at one on the drive thru there was a guy that had a sign by where you ordering said tips welcome so I asked hip if he wanted a tip he said yes I told him if he got a real job and not bum money he would have a job and real money his tip go f my self

 

Heck I would go so far as to say don't underestimate anyone.

 

That’s a neat base argument but, it applies at this moment to your savings account. Do you feel compelled to give your money to the starving children of the world?

 

I think there is an old Army saying that uses about 8-P's
Something about Planning, Performance, etc.

 

NO! I have seen those adds for years and the breeders just keep on breeding.

 

Starving children of the world, No. But I do donate to local charities that collect food for the hungry. I act locally. Those church ladies are real organized and they do a great job distributing food to those in need.

 

@Motomom34
I think the homeless would do better then most. They are used to doing without and have a degree of survival that most do not have. Many homeless survive outside during a mild winter- IMO that is skill and knowledge.

Here in Ak, the 'homeless' would, IMO, be the first to die.

They are, as a group, wholly dependent on handouts from working 'others' either donating voluntarily or the taxes stolen form working people for their every need - food to medicine to booze to dope. They could not exist otherwise. Some don't use the soup kitchens, they dumpster dive - when all of that dries up....what then?

I have worked face to (ick) face with these folks in an ER setting. Most, I believe, would be better off and wish to be - dead. Sadly, most are doing their damnest to be just that - dead. It is hard to have any kind of compassion for people that messed up. Chronic substance abuse is not a survival skill or strategy.

/rant.

 

I heard it in the Navy...... The Seven Ps.
"Proper Prior Planning Prevents P*** Poor Performance!"