There has to be a practical limit to the amount of energy we give something.

I don't disagree. And don't mistake me, I don't sit around spending all day worrying about the impending collapse of society, or watching repeats of Doomsday Preppers or whatever. :-)

But I do spend some time thinking about possible future scenarios and trying to figure out if there are any (reasonable, for some value of "reasonable") actions I can take today to help "future me" deal with certain eventualities that might come to pass.