Why So Many People Fail To Prep & Prepare – Even Though They Have The Money

They’re LAZY. Taking care of yourself usually requires work. Beach’n

Most of the above??

“It only happens to someone else, not me.” A lot of people think that’s true.

I love the picture you posted Ken. Another good one would be the three monkeys. Many people don’t want to HEAR about it, TALK about it, and even don’t watch the news so they won’t have to SEE it.

After all…what you don’t know can’t hurt you?????
???

I believe all the statements you made are the reality of the majority.

It seems that a large number of people just don’t think ahead. Working in a doctor’s office, I can’t tell you the large number of calls I got saying “OMG, I’m leaving town in half an hour and I need my med refilled RIGHT NOW.” You’d think they would have at least noticed that the bottle was almost empty a few days earlier.

Some people just can’t afford it. My sister has been struggling since before 2008 due to her husbands business not taking off at all.

She constantly came to me for $$ because they NEVER had enough to pay bills. Always behind in bills several months back, power & other things was always turned off. Now I have not had a job since May 2012, my car died in June 2012 not able to find job, I fell down back steps a few yrs. ago–affected me getting job-can’t stand over hr.

Sister still comes to me for money, how do you turn down someone who is family. Sad, but I now hide my Tp & PT when she comes. Sad. She is not able to prep cause whatever $$ she gets goes on school for son or for bills that are past due.

Spiritual warfare is very real too. I believe many are deceived and have chosen darkness over light. Their eyes are not opened and they’re unable to see the truth.

PT 2 I offer her canned beans & tuna. She doesn’t know how to make bread or cook. Leaves cooking up to her husband.

I REALLY appreciate this website because I have really learned a lot.
THANK YOU VERY MUCH

All of the above and people just don’t think that “it” can happen here. A friend of mine calls my pantry room something like the end of the world room and then rolls her eyes. BTW- she has never been in the room.

Normalcy bias is very strong. A number of Jews saw the approaching danger, and took the difficult step of uprooting their family and leaving their homeland (Germany) before the holocaust. The majority stayed and things didn’t go well for them.

You can not blame the sheeple too much. The corrupt manipulators are very good at hiding the truth.

If there were no EBT cards, you would see lines of people on the street waiting for their bread and tp – same as in Venezuela. We preppers are more skeptical about the robustness of the supply chain but others see no difference on the supermarket shelves (except for the prices).

Many of us see the fake financial system as certain to collapse, but most only see the results of printed money providing never ending credit. Yellen (the Fed) just stated that another 2T of printed money could prevent another recession. It is no different in other countries that I thought would fail years ago Japan, Italy, Spain, …. Printed money can keep these fake economies up for many more years.

Given that these catastrophes do not appear to be immediate, I prep for the more localized events; earthquake, tornado, ice storm, flooding if living on a flood plain near a river, power grid problems,….

I know people who know they should prepare but don’t. The reason I think they don’t start is the fact that once they begin to prepare then it all becomes real to them. So ultimately it’s fear. Paralyzing fear!

Most people have never really had to truly support themselves (lifestyles) their entire life. Growing up on a farm, we raised & slaughtered our own chickens, had our own garden, slaughtered pigs for meat, etc. Many people today think that’s awful, mean, horrifying.

I know of people that have never driven a vehicle their entire lives, (44 years old), born & lived in the city and rely entirely on government transport. To me, that’s horrifying.

People often don’t seek the truth because its a begets a mirror to painful to acknowledge. Denial has become a pretty well accepted train of thought these days.

I recognize MANY of the reasons/excuses listed. But, the big 2 I see the most:

1. People think something devastating will never to happen to them (or the corresponding belief that if something THAT bad happened and they survived that their house would be wiped out and their “stuff” would do them no good anyway, so why bother).

2. People believe that being prepared is fringe behavior for crazy people, religious fanatics, extremists and people who’ve read too many sci-fi books or are like “the guys on TV”.

Look at Germany, the govt there talks about people having 10 days of food, and the next thing you read is that Merkel is “fear mongering”. It’s a no-win deal – tell people to prepare and you are hyping fear, don’t tell people and when something bad happens they want to know why they weren’t warned.

I think it is hard for people to understand preparing for disaster when they really haven’t experienced a disaster happening to them personally.

Today, the government has taken care of them, and their friends and relatives took care of them if they were in trouble, so in their thinking there’s no dire need to prepare for themselves. After all, it’s a lot of work that they have no interest in when they’d rather be on social media smart phones and watching the Kardashians.

Also prepping and survival skills are mostly taught to children as they grow, introducing it into a lifestyle. I attribute a lot of prepping from farmers and pioneers from our ancestry, but the further away from these lifestyles, the further away from prepping given our modern society that draws them away from being self efficient.

I am two generations away from farmers and farming pioneers who made it a living to make most of their food, store food for the harsh winters without going to a store, and learned many skills that were nearly lost, just revived in the prepper movement. I had an interest given to me from my mom and grandparents to experience that lifestyle growing up and helping them at our remote cabin where I would spend my summers.

However, my sister and brother did not enjoy their time there, and did nothing to help so they are not preppers. If my parents forced them to work in order to eat, it may have made a difference. How many spoiled baby boomers are compared to generations before them! Those like my brother and sister learned nothing.

Again, I will repeat myself and mention the old cliché how “our parents worked hard to make it easier for the next generation” didn’t really make it easier, it made them lazier. ;-)

The picture that is posted with the article is a little misleading. Most people do not have their head stuck in a hole in the ground, their head is really stuck up their a$$ for all the reasons listed above. This is natures way of improving the gene pool after SHTF: so its not their fault, right!

All those reasons for different people. I think most of it boils down to “It couldn’t happen here” which is code for “I don’t want to think about it.” Regardless of what they’re fed, people would see the problems if they wanted to.

I add one more, “Since it never happen in their life time they believe it never will”. Even I haven’t seen real bad times in my 62 years. My parents and grandparents talked about the depression of 1929 so I know it can happen, but even that one did not cause a social collapse. This time we will not be as lucky.

This is a tough one Ken. Being so, I thought I would share a visit I had recently from my nephew from Portland and some of this discussions we had. To set it up a bit, he came down to NM for 4 days just to visit and talk a little about being prepared somewhat, He is very liberal as is his wife, well to say liberal is an understatement, but that’s another story. His main reason for visiting was to learn about firearms, seems he had some things stolen out of his home and now wanted to “buy a gun”, rolling my eyes and thinking “OMG here we go”…. So he showed up with suitcase in hand and admittedly with an open mind. So the first evening started off with 4+ hours of discussion (and a few beers) on what the HE11 he’s doing in life, why does he think he can just go out and “buy a gun” and magically feel safe, where is he going to keep it and so-on. Also was the discussion on being prepared for some sort of disaster. He literally had NO idea about what being prepared was actually about. Needless to say his responses were very bias that the good old government and FEMA will always be there to help them out…. OMG I went off my nut showing him case upon case where his good friends FEMA and the .gov completely failed to help anyone, and were actually a hindrance. How there are laws already on the books of how Martial Law could force him and his family into a very nasty place in life. He had NO clue at all. Well after the first evening when he got here I don’t think he slept so well…. The next morning there was a good breakfast and 9 million questions, he was actually thinking at warp speed, it was GREAT to see the light actually coming on some. Long story short, after 3 days 800+ rounds of ammo, a LOT of safety talk and showing how to maintain firearms, many good meals built from my “deep pantry”and a LOT of discussion he understood and started to feel as most of us do, “do NOT depend on anyone”. Unfortunately, He, like most, has little to zero idea where to start, what to do, how to store and keep “stuff”. So a lot of time was spent on educating him on a million things, I do believe he “got it”. And to be honest, I believe that that 97% Ken mentioned just don’t care what happens to the USA or the rest of the world, as long as they have that $9 Starbucks Coffee and a nice cozy place to sleep. OR there has been nobody to show them…… It takes a LOT of work to help someone “figure it out”. I’m actually working with my nephew almost every week, helping him figure it out for himself and more for his family. It’s amazing… Read more »

I’m pessimistic. I think people are generally stupid, preferring to watch rubbish on TV to taking care of themselves.

My grandfather patrolled the Swedish border to Norway against a Nazi German invasion during World War II. He taught me preparedness and self-reliance.

I did my military service during the twilight period of the Soviet Union. I was in the military for over a decade and saw the fall of the Soviet Union and the civil war in Yugoslavia up close. I know things can fall apart very quickly. If you want to find out how bad things can get talk to a veteran from Iraq or Afghanistan.

I grew up in a very poor family. It took my parents the bulk of their adult lives to LEARN how to manage their resources wisely. I had to learn all on my own, and am fairly ambivalent towards those who HAVE the financial resources to adequately prepare even for the most basic personal emergency kit, but refuse to do so.

We have almost a full year’s supply of food, other commodities including water for our present needs, plus some “extra”. We started out after we were married, by simply purchasing ONE EXTRA of whatever we could budget for at the time. We use coupons, as it IS “found money”, that goes unclaimed and takes us about one hour per week, combined to arrange for and to do while shopping.

I don’t listen to the excuses/rationalizing/justification as to WHY people exclaim, “I can’t, because….”.

With that ideology, and I believe it IS an adopted ideology, they will never BE ABLE to prepare for the next few days or even an upcoming well publicized storm that is OBVIOUSLY approaching.
I won’t let a child “starve” if I can help it, but, I cannot morally enable adults, who so willingly CHOOSE to be so myopic, simply because they choose so willingly to be lazy.

I would add to my comment, we are coming up on 39 years together, so we do have life experience, of both good times and. Tough times. I do not remember who to attribute this to, “Tough times never last, but tough people do…”.

I have come to the conclusion some people are just dumb with no common sense. I know this is a simplified response but I see this in all parts of our society.

People hike in the woods without pepper spray or a firearm, practicing unprotected sex, smoke, drink and never exercise, let their kids go to dangerous activities because it is cool, etc. You get the idea. I have a close relative who has no jack or take down tools for his vehicle and I just found out his daughter’s vehicle doesn’t have one either. After my shock I asked him why on Gods earth would you let your 18 year old daughter drive cross country without a jack let alone do it yourself. His response was, “we can always call AAA”.

I pointed out there is no cell phone coverage in many places they travel and he responded, “some one will come along to help” besides she wouldn’t know how to change a tire if she had to. This person has a high paying job and a masters degree. If this type of thinking is not dumb I don’t know what is. People who never prep or even consider what strategy to use during a crisis fall into this mind set.

People make time to do what’s most important to them. Apparently Pokémon, latest electronics and cable TV has their mind occupied. I think its an excuse to bum or loaf off another, when SHTF, I had preached for 6 months to a year to my closest family members. I will happily say “Sorry you can’t come here” & Mooch off my hard work, time, energy and preps.

My oldest son, who is a very astute businessman, and has built a multi-million $ business, just laughs when I bring up the subject,and calls me a ‘doom & gloom’ person.

The positive attitude that serves him well building his business, refuses to accept what he calls a ‘negative’ attitude about the future.

You know the saying: “To each, his own.”

I’m always sending preparation info to my family, most of which do not prepare for all the reasons listed in this article.

I just ended an email with prep info to them with the following excuses they use and my response to that excuse:

I don’t have time. – Don’t take much of it.

I don’t have the extra money. – You’d be surprised when priorities are in play. I can show you how to prep on an extra $5 each trip to the grocery store.

I have other fun things to do/spend money on. – Again, priorities.

I don’t have the storage room. – Awh-you can hide it in plain sight.

People will say I’m weird. – Grow a thick skin and soldier on.

It will never happen. – DON’T BE A Venezuelan !!!!!

I end up with more questions than answers when I think about this. For example,

Sixty-five years ago the country was more rural than urban. Now it’s reversed. Rural folk do those things which are necessary to survive such as those things we call preparedness now. And the children of the rural folk? They let the farms to go to the city. They didn’t want the lifestyle, even though they may have had the skills which we are relearning today if interested.

Yes, we did have more in the pantry (and we weren’t rural) but it was because there were less stores, open less hours (never on major holidays) and certainly not the proliferation of fast food joints on
every corner as you have now. Eating out was rare and a very special treat. When food is readily available and cheap you don’t give it the attention it deserves.

There use to be a civil defense program in the US in the 50’s and during the cold war. At least we had sirens, fallout shelters and safety drills in school. There is no national civil defense program
now. Children are not taught any in school and the burden has been shifted to FEMA and such so that it’s normal to think that the government will handle the big stuff where it has the resources where a local community could not. I don’t believe it’s a conspiracy to do so.

So basically, I guess I’m saying it’s lack of education and human nature to not think about the issue. But there are local communities where preparedness is taught and one area that comes to mind is the coast of Oregon where real education is being taught in schools and community signage to be knowledgeable about what to do when the megaquake off the Cascadian Subduction Zone occurs. Very good community work.

I believe the best we can do is to prepare for ourselves, set a good example for others, answer questions honesty when asked but not proselytize and lose converts, involve ourselves in areas in our communities where we can contribute and hope this can lead to a national level of civil defense
education.

The preparedness community is indeed a growth industry and I think this is how individual issues become national ones. It just takes time. Don’t become discouraged. In the vast scheme of things…

Over and Over I hear my neighbors say, We know where we are going if the SHTF, my house. I think not. Sometimes I feel like chicken little. They are vacationing, going to concerts, going on cruises, buying “toys” while I grow a garden, an orchard, can food I grow, and spend my social security check on preparedness things. I would love travel in my old age. When something does happen I know they will be at my door, but my question will be, “what do you have to bring to the table?”

AND…now for the one no one mentioned.
The believers that think ‘the rapture’ will save them. I attended church for two years with this group.
Narrow-minded? You bet!!!

I Timothy 5:8

That picture says it all very, very well and yet these slime STILL want to take away our rights and everything we have worked so hard to put together. There is only one way they will take what I have FROM MY COLD DEAD HANDS!

I’ve read the above article and the comments with interest and pretty much agree with what has been said, but still you have people that won’t do anything but will jump on you for doing saving or putting money away. The same is said for prepping.

Some yrs ago a woman that we have known for a long time accused us of ” hoarding ” our garden produce because we canned or froze all or most of it. We were doing what we were taught by our parents (Both sets of parents were the product of the 30’s). We have a fairly large garden now and we’ve had people that know us or drive by and volunteer to take some or all of our garden produce to ” help ” out. And we say sure, if you want to come and help with weeding and watering, we’ll be glad to give some stuff from the garden. Funny thing, they change their mind in a hurry.

An example is, my former son-in-law, his current squeeze thinks nothing of going to the store for fresh veggies or the farmer’s market, but doesn’t want a garden in their big back yard. And the government will take care of us if something happens. My problem is that I’m 70 yrs old and my wife has brain cancer and there is no close family nearby, what do I do ?

I can hear the cursing and screaming of folks as they pound on their neighbors doors whom they know have prepared. Oh Lord…..Well, there are enough reasons as people on why people do what they do.

But the bottom line is that once “something” happens to the majority of us we will have about three days before the second waves of SHTF starts. The false facade will quickly wear off and the violence will begin to escalate. I don’t care where you live, how well you have prepared, each one of us will be faced with someone with a screaming, hungry child, an injured spouse, or God knows what else.

Not only must we have out physical supplies ready, we had better be putting on the battle gear of God Almighty right this very minute. Every day I pray that The Holy Spirit opens humanity’s eyes to the dangers we are facing and prompt hearts to be changed. Hold boys and girls….it’s going to be a very bumpy ride!

I really think it comes down to those who have experienced hardship and disaster in our life, versus those who have not.

The former knows their vulnerability innately and we take steps daily to mitigate it.

The latter takes comfort in the contrived pablum they have been fed since birth.

I can count on one hand the number of folks who have genuinely helped me along my life path. Their kindness will be returned one day. As for the rest…. well, bye.

You’re ABSOLUTELY right! I’m dealing with this issue now.

Situation- I prep. I spend about 20% of my paychecks on a deep pantry and other “consumables”. No need to itemize, everybody here knows what they have for the reasons onto their own. I’ve planned to take care of 4 adults.

I have a brother who rakes in around 120K/yr. He has done ZERO. I tell him to get on it, you got the resources, do it while you can. He laughs and says that he’ll pick up everything he needs while the crisis is happening. I told him there may be a time when that piece of plastic or the dollars in your wallet will be worthless. He said “I’ll come to your house”. I told him “don’t show up with a bag of Cheetos and a milk jug of water and expect me to share; not happening”.

He’s banking that something won’t happen, I’m banking that it will. He banks on stocks and 401k, I bank on silver and long term food storage and skills.

The word “prepper” is not a dirty word to me. It defines the optimism and potential of those who visit this and other preparedness sites. Wear the badge proudly.

Prepare for the worst, hope for the best.

Some of the people I know and have heard comment, say things like, I will just deal with what ever, or nobody is taking my stuff. Problem is they are not prepared to deal with anything. I have begun to think some of that attitude is simple over confidence.

Most of those that can afford to prep but don’t are caught up in a routine and refuse to accept any change that would indicate a negative thought.

They also may think to anticipate something that could be negative in their future would bring negative karma into their life. Some may feel so secure that nothing will happen to them because they have had financial security for decades. These people may also deny that MSM would deceive the public.
they have become complacent, arrogant and most likely choose not to be in the bast physical shape.

These people will likely try to buy their safety when SHTF to no avail.

It’s Groundhog Day— in the drive-through lane for food, got some stylin flip-flops on, AC blowing high, slouched behind tinted glass, thumping bass-notes out the sub-woofer, fondly stroking the screen of my phone as I check my FaceBook page again… everything is awesome!

Between Ken’s list, and all the comments, I think the group has pretty much identified the key causes for the non-prepared. I think acculturation from an early age plays a major part in this phenomenon.

My sister and I were both adopted and, while we lived in the same family, we lived completely different lives. Our parents divorced when I was very young. Mom moved to town, with my sister, and they lived the city life while I spent most of my younger years with my granny, on my dad’s side, at their homestead farm.

Pretty much everything we ate we either grew, killed, raised, or bartered for. Mom and sis ate out a lot and mom developed the habit (she still lives by today) of stopping at the store every day or two and keeping a minimal supply of food on hand.

On our side, out in the Tennessee sticks, we understood the need for storing food, medical supplies, having good sources of water, and all the necessary tools for hunting, fishing, farm work, and gardening.

I have always been the black sheep but, to this day, I am fiercely independent and can’t imagine being “taken care of”. The rest of the family wouldn’t know how to react if they weren’t comfortable. I guess we have to be born into it to a certain degree, but it can also be learned, such as the case with NRP’s nephew, if the person wakes up and has the desire. I hope many more wake up soon…

I believe Clint Eastwood had it right:
‘The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly,’

In my travels, I have met them all.
Those that will help. Those that will ignore. And those that will hurt.
That’s the Human Race.

I agree… all of the above especially the normalcy bias and the belief that someone else will take care of their needs after SHTF, after all, that’s how it’s been for their entire life. This has rendered them totally incapable of dealing with life on life’s terms beyond their daily routine or whatever BS they see or hear coming out of Hollywood or the MSM, or their programmed group-speak. Believe me, rich or poor, it doesn’t matter, there are a whole lot of people walking around who appear to be normally functioning prepared humans when the fact is they are not but only know how to mimic what the herd does and are totally lost if left to their own devices and since the herd generally doesn’t prepare, they don’t prepare. I stopped talking to people about “prepping” a long time ago. I give away a lot of produce out of my gardens and share the things I have with others but today I try to lead by example instead of talking about it. On the other hand, I live in an area where everyone who has been here for any length of time has experienced a major hurricane and many (not all) have learned to prepare and fend for themselves to some degree or another. The area all around me was recently flooded where thousands of people lost a lot of stuff.(we were lucky, we didn’t have any flooding at our house.) Some homes were salvageable, some were not. Some people lost most or all of their belongings, some did not. The thing that touched me the most is how so many people down here, flooded or not, got up off their collective butts and rescued others, found shelter for them and fed them… doing it all on their own, helping each other during a crisis without government assistance and never once asked or expected the government employees or the Red Cross to come to their rescue. (on soapbox) Now the state and local governments are pushing to regulate self help beyond the pale. I think any legislator or fat a$$ bureaucrat who continues to push this BS needs to step back and think long and hard on exactly who it is they are trying to regulate. I would hazard to guess that most, if not all, of these nincompoop’s are non preppers and fall into the category of expecting someone else to come to their rescue after SHTF and would likely demand to see the rescuers permit or license (good luck with that.) This is a classic example of how stupid people bite the hands that feed them. (off soapbox). A lot of people are prepared for some things and a lot are not. Some people are prepared for more things than others and some only prepare to be prepared but never get a round tuit for some reason or another, or the tuits were all sold out when they went to get one. Some just think they… Read more »

Years ago, after a Category 4 hurricane struck our community, my friend took his chain saw up and down his road to help out. There were fallen trees on the road and in neighbors’ driveways. When he asked one neighbor if they needed help getting the large tree out of their driveway, they told him that they did not need for him to cut up the tree, and that FEMA would come along and take care of it. Days later, when the roads were finally passable, he drove by the neighbors’ house, and the tree remained in the driveway. This was AFTER a disaster, so I am not surprised when people do not take measures to prepare before a disaster.

Maybe they think their money or their perceived “power” will work the same way in SHTF that it does now. They may think they can get whatever they need at the last minute. If that’s the case, they need to “think again” on both accounts.

Because dammit the 0% credit card (for 6 mo. 22% after that) is charged to the limit and we have no place in the storage unit! Its filled up with the Bow-flex, juicer, boat, jet ski, the “too small” 55″ TV and all that other s**t we didn’t need… Anyway we’ll just come to YOUR house anyway!!!

I have casually responded to neighbors who tell us, “when the Schumerhitsthefan, WE are coming to your place!”

My response is as selfish (to them) as their opening to me, “Well, you will all die at the bottom of the hill with everyone else who chooses to be that foolish.”
This is always followed by their nervous laughter, and I’m not laughing at all.

Morons abound. Although a mere movie, I am fond of the two brothers in the movie, “Second hand Lion”, great attitude overall, makes me feel like I’m not the antisocial “neighbor” I am sometimes thought to be.

Note to the gentleman whose wife has cancer, do some reading on CHAGA. It is an old eastern european/Russian cure for a lot. Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn ,author of the GULOG ARCHAPELAGO wrote another book about how he was cured of cancer by its use.

Chaga can be bought at health food stores or as a powder to make your own, on the net. I am in cardiac rehab class with an individual who was sent home to die of liver cancer 11 years ago. He uses it several times a day. At his last cancer check up a couple months ago they ran x-rays, cat scans and MRIs and found NOTHING. I wish you well.

It’s funny. All these different answers from the same question. Crazy part is they all are the right answer to some degree.

It reminded me of something I read in the book World War Z by Max Brooks. (Movie is nothing like the book BTW!) I liked it so much I highlighted in the book.

It really fits what this post is about so here goes:

The first labor survey stated clearly that over 65% of the present civilian workforce were classified F-6, possessing no valued vocation. We required a massive job retraining program.

Anyone F-6 but physically able became unskilled labor: clearing rubble, harvesting crops, digging graves. A LOT OF GRAVES NEEDED TO BE DUG. Anyone A-1, those with war appropriate skills, became part of our Community Self-Sufficiency Program. A mixed group of instructors would be tasked WITH INFUSING THESE SEDENTARY,OVER-EDUCATED,DESK-BOUND CUBICLE MICE WITH THE KNOWLEDGE NECESSARY TO MAKE IT ON THEIR OWN.(capitalization by me!) Thanks to Max Brooks for that fine piece of writing.

Now they were talking about fighting Zombies but the bit about our workforce is dead on! (Maybe a little pun intended). Throw in all the clueless and the lazy and it’s a right fine mess we will be in when the Scat Hits The Propeller!
Coming soon to a town near you…LOL!!

No one has mentioned the obvious answer I have heard and read many times. “I would rather die than live like that.”

I am the only child among my brothers and sisters that has worked as a first responder for years in California for over 10 years. I am also big into preparedness as are a few other siblings who have asked me questions over the years. My parents were both into having supplies on hand having lived through the Great Depression and the internment camps for the Japanese Americans during WW 2.

Lessons on having supplies on hand when needed is most often a hard earned lesson with suffering and deprivation burning a long-lasting memory into the brains of observers and survivors. My brother has memories of having no money and no food in his memories of hardship. I still remember opening the pantry to a cabinet full of Ramen noodles and tea bags when my paychecks were delayed.(so I grabbed my rifle and a box of shells and went to the woods.) We made it through and did not starve. We also made a vow to ourselves that we never wanted to find ourselves in that situation ever again. That is why we prepare and lay in supplies to this day.

To everyone who replyed to my posting of 8/26/2016 at 4:50 pm, thank you, it is very much appreciated

Not to offend, just my .02. I think there’s a significant percentage of people who self-identify as preppers that may not be very well prepared for the most common challenges they’re likely to face anyway. And of the 97% that don’t self-identify as preppers, a good percentage of those are likely just as, or better, prepared than may be outwardly apparent. It’s all too common in preparedness circles to see and read of the plight of a few people that made poor decisions when disaster struck and assume that’s the same decisions any of the other 97% would make. In reality I think it’s more like the bottom 3% that were so unprepared, or lacked basic common sense, that it just made the news. They’re the exception, not the rule. Most people just trudge on, or sail easily through, most challenges life throws their way. I’m not a psychologist, but I believe many if not most preppers prep as a means to feel some measure of control over a life that they believe is largely beyond their control. Nothing wrong with that, if not taken to extreme. Think it also explains why a lot of preppers seem to be on the left-side of the wealth bell curve, even if a larger than average percentage are on the right-side of the IQ curve. It’s apparent even in the title of this article, people with money have more control over their lives and so feel less uncertain about their future – and money itself is arguably THE best prep to have for most disasters anyway. If you have money you are already prepared for most of the problems life can throw at you. Consider, assuming you survive the initial event, what calamitous aftermath couldn’t be handled by a 2-week supply of the basic necessities, and money? Take Venezuela for example, do the people there want fire starters, TP, heirloom seeds, or would many just prefer to have money (whether to buy whatever they wanted from the private stores or the black market where it’s available, or just to buy/bribe a passport and a plane or train ticket to somewhere better)? I’d bet that the turmoil in Venezuela will most likely resolve itself in the next 5 years, probably getting worse before it gets better, and afterwards the next Selco or Ferfal will emerge detailing how bad things were during the ‘dark years’ and how to prepare so it doesn’t happen to you. But the best stories of how to survive a Venezuela-like disaster would probably go something like, “then the SHTF, so we took our money and left”. So, imo, the answer to the title question is, “people with money are already prepared pretty well”. And least anyone think I’m just trolling, if being a survivalist is a mental disorder then it’s one I suffer from as well. I have significantly more than 2 weeks of supplies, but it’s money (currency and PMs, nearby and under my control) that I believe are… Read more »

Why do some people refuse to prepare for emergencies even when they have the financial resources to do so?

I suspect that the increase in narcissistic tendencies in so many folks in our country today may be one of the root causes. The mindset that “the world owes me a living” because “I am such a special snowflake” can really derail any hope of assuming personal responsibility for one’s actions. It’s always someone else’s fault in the eyes of the narcissist, so why should they prepare for possible disasters when the world should be meeting their needs?

The narcissist is a taker who is only concerned that others should gratify his/her personal wants/needs. As a result, narcissists fail to take personal responsibility or to consider the needs of their own families as important. Unfortunately, this self-absorbed/immature mindset plays out in many negative ways, not just in a failure to proactively provision for their families in the event of an emergency. Sigh.

My husband gave me the best advice while taking care of my elderly parents and also when our daughter was diagnosed with type 1 diabetes (and I was in nutcase mode) …there is NO cavalry. No one is coming in and saving the day, it is up to us to do the work. So that is my mode of thinking. In order to prepare and be safe you have to do the work. Thank you for your blog and your readers comments. It encourages me a great deal.

They don’t care.
They are living in the moment, and ignore the realities of it all.
They believe someone will save them because they have “Money”
Lazy
Ignorant
Self Indulged
“I’ll just go to your house”
They are “Better” than the rest and don’t need to (Entitlement)
Arrogance
Too caught up in the Kardashians life and others like them.
Too busy playing video games, or focusing on online social media sites.
Prepper Phobia
“I don’t know how to ____________” <— fill in the blank.
"I don't have time to learn ___________" fill in the blank.
"My family has a __________ in or at the ___________, I'll go there because its not in the city" fill in the blanks.
"TPTB will NEVER let that happen in the USA"
"I'll just wait for my neighbors to leave and take their stuff"

Ken this is off subject…….how do we send emails to you???????

I believe one forgotten group of thinkers is the ‘I will take what you have.’

In other words they are the Raiders, Marauders, and Bandits that are so numerous in media. They don’t care about you or your loved ones. Their mindset is you have it, they want it and will kill to get it or just kill off hand to cover any tracks.

They have weapons, they have friends. When SHTF they are the first to loot and steal, assault and kill, take and destroy. They also turn the masses against those who have things, they stir them up and try to get them rampaging in mob form happy to let others do the work so long as they reap the rewards.

1) Arrogance in that they think they are isolated from any event because they are living on equity of overly inflated home prices( CA especially).

2) Ignorance in that they believe the MSM propaganda, the status quo and that government “wont let that happen” or it “cant happen”.

3) They believe their “smart phones ” hold the keys to the kingdom and information eternal.

4) Many believe they will just be taken into others homes( friends, family, coworkers) and rely on goodnature and goodwill.

5) Most people don’t/cant think what I have termed ” 5 minutes or 5 feet” ahead. Most just push buttons in some office environment or “systems analysts” positions and haven’t planned any project bigger than grocery shopping, or fueling their vehicles( BIG accomplishments) if they even do that any more (eating out).

The information is out there, they just elect to ignore it. To busy worrying about the stats or drama of some “pro” sports douche.

I WILL NOT HELP/ASSIST ANYBODY. YOUR ARE ON YOUR OWN !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

All great, thoughtful responses. Yes, I have heard the “I’ll go to your house” to which my husbands response will be, Yes, and its now a labor camp. What do you bring to the table?

Talking with a woman from the middle east she said that American6s live in a pink chiffon world not like her home country where each day it was possible that they would be killed before sun down. The govt is the greatest problem regarding getting people to prep. Even people who lived through he great deprseeion era can be blind to the need to prep. Talking with a preper friend he lived in Germany as a kid under Hitlsr and was int the Hitler Youth. he survived as a kid feeding a machine gun for an older b5y who was the shooter. he knows the need for a food storage since he lived on tree bark and tulip bulbs for a while. Some people in his family killed themselves trying to eat things that were not eatable driven6 by hunger

The modern world has bred a whole herd of lemmings,(helpless grass hopping concrete walkers and I will come to your house) fortunely there are a few exceptions, the survivalists. Some but not all of us survivalists will survive a very major setback for modern mankind. Thinking outside of the box this might not be such a bad thing for mother earth as sad as a great die off would be for us. The survivors of a global disaster would have a very different mind set from those that passed. They would be life long peppers like many of our grandparents that survived the great depression. Do not encourage lemmings to hang around your house, know anything about your stuff, marry one or heavens forbid breed with one. Befriend like minded people and you will be far ahead in case of a disaster.

this is what us people who don’t prepare believe. The very thing that you prepare for that you fear will never happen. and there is some truth to that. Its always just what you never think about happening to ya that will reach up and bite you on the ass. you spend endless money stocked food that will loose its nutritional viability over time plus other survival preparations. and in the end you will find out you should have spent the money on health insurance or education or your retirement nest egg. sometimes I think prepper people want an SHTF so they can feel pride and satisfaction over others who criticized there fears. they seem to live a fantasy belief that they can actually live a better or normal life after the SHTF event. Or others will look up to them as a leader. We humans have one thing in common, and that is that we are all going to die sometime. preppers don’t want to face death. if we have something as bad as an EMP attack all preppers will die two or three years after the rest of us. This is the hard truth. There will be no going back to living as people did in 1900 or even 1800. The preppers will exhaust all there supplies or have it stolen from them and then they will eat all the horses and then they will eat each other. The living who scratch hard to live will end up envying the dead.

Jack, I like you.You are very funny so I decided we will eat you last…