I've known a few prepper types. They had plans for escape rooms, a significant cache of weapons, some ammo, and a few MREs in the closet.
Nobody had more than maybe a few liters of water per person in the home, and when I asked about an escape plan (e.g. there's a fire, get out and meet at John's house on the next street over) they looked at me like I was insane. Oh, and of course they're all in fairly bad shape.
In my opinion, most of the "prepper" stuff is about fantasy role playing. I see it as related to the "middle aged man porn" we see lately in the form of the Taken franchise of movies. It perhaps it gives a feeling of smug satisfaction in a chaotic life. You're angry that you were cut off in traffic on your way to a job that might have layoffs tomorrow, but at least you can tell yourself that when the apocalypse comes, you'll succeed while that jerk will be fodder. Sort of a tough guy variant of the classic "ass pennies" comedy sketch.
The 2nd best investment is to invest in your community and friends, because survival as a group is much easier than being a loner.
Stockpiling supplies I don't think is very relevant until signs of the collapse are obvious. A lot of medicines and some fuel don't last very long either, afaik.
Also, stockpiling should be done smart. If fuel doesn't last long, make sure you're using things like fuel extenders to keep them usable. And ideally, make it part of your daily life. Stockpiling 5 or 500 gallons of water in your apartment or house is a great idea (when the water main breaks after an earthquake, would you rather be the person who can help others because you know you're taken care of, or the guy who's fighting off dehydration while he waits for the red cross to arrive?), but keep using it. Don't buy one of those blue tanks and just leave it in a corner, buy 10 and use them, replacing them as you use them. Same thing with food, and fuel.
Going to extremes, of course, give you diminishing returns (like anything). So stockpiling several million rounds of ammunition and more medicine than can be used before it expires doesn't make much sense.
It would be interesting to have the same perspective in, say, 1913. In that period virtually no one expected the catastrophe that would become World War I, which led into the catastrophe of WWII. Really, really bad things can happen; because they haven't since 1945 doesn't mean they won't again. The 1913 mindset is part of what I channeled when I wrote this: https://jakeseliger.com/2016/11/28/trump-fears-and-the-nucle...
World leaders had known conflict was possible for a long time and had been preparing for it - the build up of alliances both was an example of this and the ultimate cause of war. Conflicts in the Balkans preceded WWI by several years. If you think Trump is crazy try Wilhelm who was widely known as an egomaniac.
The shopkeepers may not have known what was coming but the world leaders certainly did. We don't have anything that could jump start a world war in the same way. In fact, it's more likely that we'd have seen conflict with Russia via Clinton than we would with Trump, and that would be our main threat of nuclear war today. As far as conventional war goes, there's nothing like pre-WWI in place with America being the clear global hegemon. Neither China nor Russia have the military to engage in anything but localized conflicts.
> "This armed conflict is often categorized as the most important sociopolitical event in Mexico and one of the greatest upheavals of the 20th century."
Or maybe you just settled on different hobbies. I'm not being facetious, we all spend our time and money on different things, and from my POV many put together a narrative that "requires" them to buy fun gadgets. For you, perhaps home automation. For others, prepping for an end-of-world scenario that they themselves know is unlikely to happen.
Or maybe they are all a little nutty, I dunno.
Also, (nuclear aircraft carriers and submarines|jet aircraft engines) can be (very|relatively) quickly brought into duty producing electricity locally in every city, way before any pandemics and mass starvation.
Longer term, converting from the refrigerated fresh food system of today, to a system based on pickling/curing/canning/iceboxes/etc. is hardly black magic.
Coronal mass ejection
>Also, (nuclear aircraft carriers and submarines|jet aircraft engines) can be (very|relatively) quickly brought into duty producing electricity locally in every city, way before any pandemics and mass starvation.
That doesn't scale.
>Longer term, converting from the refrigerated fresh food system of today, to a system based on pickling/curing/canning/iceboxes/etc. is hardly black magic.
>In the short term hundreds of millions would starve or die from heat or cold. Cities only keep on hand weeks worth of food.
However, this response does not scale well.
That would end our civilization.
It would, obviously, be a long, slow, agonizing, random and exceedingly chaotic process.
Hopefully that's not what will happen.
I feel like we're more likely to die from old age than anything from space or zombies. Maybe I just can't do the level of paranoia that some people take on. It seems an unnecessary waste of your brain space to always be on alert.
or maybe i'll just be the first to die. shrug