Small, Gradual Survival Preps

Anonymous advice to LostAtTheEnd concerning Why the Need for Urban Survival......."Just continue to pick up items you can as you can get them. At least part of that task is underway You will find at first you may not feel like you have help but there are good sites just like this one. We found LDS folks to be very helpful. Seems they have made life practice of being prepared they also are very encouraging even if you are not LDS (we aren't). Talk with your mom and dad it sounds like they have real fiber. They may not have all the answers but they certainly will have info you will find helpful and offer support . Hang in and keep on keeping on! Dollar Tree (ships different items at different stores), and General Dollar Stores offer some deals on extra supplies for your storage. We watch for sales on items (cheap) which I am sure you do too. Once you hookup with other preppers you will find they have extra items they may sell or even give to you. You begin to feel more empowered as you find others of like or similar mindset. Hang in there."

UrbanMan's comments: Roger the good advice. I have had too many people tell me "it's too late to start prepping", whether we are talking about food stocking for gold and silver procurement. I always say, "it's only too late to prep when someoneis shoveling dirt over your face."

In a severe case of minimal resources,...meaning, money for the most part,.... ....someone may only have a few dollars of discretionary spending every pay period (two weeks). Five bucks can buy a few lbs of rice and a pack of bullion cubes. Two weeks later the next five dollars of discretionary spending can buy a couple packs of pinto beans.

Some of the "too laters" had this mentality for the past several years. Imagine where they would be now if they did what they could, when they could and continued to build. They could have stuck their five bucks every two weeks into a coffee can then after six months have some decent buying power for a larger load or something more expensive.

Having a yard or garage sale; a second, part time job are both ways to build additional income and therefore fund your preps.

A home based business not only can generate additional revenue, but can help save on taxes owed. A home based business is built around Products, Services or Information. Take a a look at what your personal assets are such as experience, personality, skills, potential markets, etc. I know a lady who makes soap for flea markets and gifts for relatives. This business expanded into lotions, then gift bags, then an internet site for electronic orders. This generated a decent amount of income, not to mention built some real skills.....how much would you trade for a bar of soap, after not having seen any since the collapse several years earlier?

And of course barter. There are reports all over the U.S. about larger groups of Americans moving to a barter society,.....even if it is just a small token protest against massive taxes. One of the best areas of barter to get into is the trading of produce.

So, the argument that it is too late to prep doesn't hold water,...neither does the "I don't have any money" argument.

Urban Survival Planning - Urban Mass Migration,.......again

I have written before about planning of subtle or mass migration effected by a collapse and knowing how that may affect you and you Survival site. Wouldn't you hate to be located right on/or near a major line of communication (highway or interstate) 10 miles out of a large metropolitan area when the food and water drys up? How many of the 200,000 people walking or driving out of the city will pay you a visit?

Mass migration is happening now,...for less that cataclysmic economic collapse reasons. This is creating vast areas of metropolitan areas vacated by "normal" population and left open for the use of criminal elements.

Yahoo! News reports, entitled: American Ghost Towns of the 21st Century

There are several counties in America, each with more than 10,000 homes, which have vacancy rates above 55%. The rate is above 60% in several.

Most people who follow unemployment and the housing crisis would expect high vacancy rates in hard-hit states including Nevada, Florida and Arizona. They were among the fastest growing areas from 2000 to 2010. Disaster struck once economic growth ended.

Palm Coast, Fla., Las Vegas and Cape Coral, Fla., were all among the former high fliers. Many large counties which have 20% or higher occupancy rates are in these same regions. Lee County, Fla., Yuma County, Ariz., Mohave County, Ariz., and Osceola, Fla., each had a precipitous drop in home prices and increases in vacancy rates as homebuyers disappeared when the economy went south.

Data from states and large metropolitan areas do not tell the story of how much the real estate disaster has turned certain areas in the country into ghost towns. Some of the affected regions are tourist destinations, but much of that traffic has disappeared as the recession has caused people to sell or desert vacation homes and delay trips for leisure. This makes these areas particularly desolate when tourists are not around.

The future of these areas is grim. Our research showed that many have sharply declining tax bases which have caused budget cuts. Forecasts are calling for the fiscal noose to tighten on them even tighter.

These are the American Ghost Towns of the 21st century. Each has a population of more than 10,000 along with vacancy rates of more than 55%, according to the 2010 U.S. Census.

1. Lake County, Mich.

Number of homes: 14,966
Vacancy rate: 66%
Population: 11,014

Lake County is located in central Michigan, a few hour's drive from the industrial cities of Flint, Pontiac and Detroit. It is in the heart of the state's fishing district and has been a vacation destination since the early years of the car industry. Many of those second home owners are now gone. This has helped drive nearly 20% of the residents below the poverty level and the median household income to under $27,000 a year.

2. Vilas County, Wis.

Number of homes: 25,116
Vacancy rate: 62%
Population: 21,919

Vilas County is located at the uppermost part of Wisconsin, near the border of the Northern Peninsula of Michigan. The county is plagued by two things. The first is that it has been a tourist area for Wisconsin residents. The second is that a significant part of the county's economy depends on the logging, forestry and construction industries, each of which struggled during the recession.

3. Summit County, Colo.

Number of homes: 29,842
Vacancy rate: 61%
Population: 26,843

Summit County sits northwest of the Pike National Forest and due west of Denver. The area is near to several major ski resorts. The local paper reports on revenue "The decrease isn't linked to the dramatic dip in assessed property values in Summit County, expected to be near 20 percent lower than in the previous valuation period. Those changes will show up in property tax bills starting in 2011."

4. Worcester County, Md.

Number of homes: 55,749
Vacancy rate: 60%
Population: 49,274

The Maryland State Department of Assessments and Taxation recently estimated that the county would have a sharp drop in its tax base in fiscal year 2012 and "another, more drastic, revenue decrease" for the fiscal year that follows. The twin engines of county's economy are tourism and agriculture. Experts believe the tourism business in Maryland's Eastern Shore could stay crippled for years.

5. Mono County, Calif.

Number of homes: 13,912
Vacancy rate: 59%
Population: 12,774

Mono County sits near the Sierra Nevada and Yosemite National Parks. Ironically, Bodie, the official state gold rush ghost town, is in Mono County. Finance Director Brian Muir recently said he expected another property drop in property tax receipts. Like most of the other counties on this list, tourism is a major source of revenue for its economy.

6. Dare County, N.C.

Number of homes: 33,492
Vacancy rate: 57%
Population: 95,828

Dare County includes the northern-most parts of North Carolina's Outer Banks. The situation in the vacation area is so severe that the "Outer Banks Voice" recently wrote, "If Dare County Manager Bobby Outten was intending to sound an alarm by suggesting that the EMS helicopter and school nurses were expendable in the next budget, he probably succeeded." His comments are unlikely to be terribly different from those of other executives of counties on the list. Vacant homes and homes which lose double-digit amounts of their value each year irreparably undermine the tax base. And, as services fall, fewer potential homeowners will consider investing in the area.

7. Dukes County, Mass.

Number of homes: 17,188
Vacancy rate: 57%
Population: 15,527

Dukes County encompasses the island of Martha's Vineyard in Massachusetts. The enemy of the local budget is, as is true for most of the counties on this list, falling property values. Vacationers still flock to the resort island in the summer as do seasonal workers. The county is close to deserted when the weather turns cold.

8. Sawyer County, Wis.

Number of homes: 15,975
Vacancy rate: 56%
Population: 17,117

The Sawyer County website has a link, prominently placed on the homepage, which goes to a list of foreclosed homes for sales by the sheriff's department. There are not many new homebuyers. The number of people who live in the county was flat from 2000 to 2010. The Hayward Community School District, located in Sawyer, will probably close one of its elementary schools. Sawyer is a fishing and biking destination, and has suffered from a drop in travelers from the southern part of the state.

9. Burnett County, Wis.

Number of homes: 15,278
Vacancy rate: 55%
Population: 16,196

Burnett County is at the western most part of Wisconsin near Minneapolis. The county's population fell from 2000 to 2010. County Administrator Candace Fitzgerald recently said that proposed budget cuts "could prove to be devastating and very hard to recover from." The county's attractiveness as a tourist destination has faltered. Home values have fallen for three consecutive years. Cuts in the Wisconsin State budget will lower state aid. People are more likely to default and abandon vacation homes than their primary residences. This has probably been an important reason vacancy rates in rural tourist areas in Wisconsin are so high.

10. Aitkin County, Minn.

Number of homes: 16,029
Vacancy rate: 54%
Population: 15,736

Aitkin County offers visitors two seasons for recreation. The first is in the summer when fishing is popular. The second is winter when snowmobilers come north. Aitkin is the last of the counties on the 24/7 Wall St. list demonstrating that rural regions which rely on tourists are especially exposed to economic hardship in a recession. They may take longer to recover than some industrialized cities do.

SHTF Poll: What are You Worried About

Is there anybody who knows about your surviving the collapse preparation, and whether or not they are being derisive or just plain curious, asks questions similar to ”Don’t you think you’re being just a little paranoid?”, “What do you fear?”, “What do you think is going to happen?”, etc.

Well I generally say something to the effect that while there is no shortage of things to be worried about, I am not generally focused on any one type of collapse or SHTF scenario, just getting better prepared to live and survive in a environment with degraded security and utilities infrastructure, where the ability to obtain food is greatly reduced. Well, that about covers what would happen in any type of collapse.

I recently saw a poll where common Americans, not necessarily forward thinking citizens who are planning ahead, were asked: ”What life changing, catastrophic events (list all that are applicable) do they fear the most?”

63% of the respondents said Economic Collapse was the most likely catalyst for TEOTWAWKI.

46% said that a Natural Disaster, on terms greater than Katrina, was what scared them the most.

44% of the poll takers stated that a Terrorist Attack was what the feared.

33% of the respondents believed that a Global or National Disease Outbreak was a likely catalyst for collapse.

Did the new health care law give Obama a Nazi-like "private army" of 6,000 people?

I just recently read an article on www.americannews.com contain the below heading. It appears that in the article, our President has powers to establish a civilian type Army under the Obamacare laws. But it appears that the law is being read incorrectly. Read the article below that was posted on americannews.com and then following the article, read what is really means. The clarification was provide by www.factcheck.org.

"All Armed Americans To Be Detained In FEMA Camps Starting In 2017

When President Obama was campaigning in 2008, he made a statement that seemed daunting to most. He told the American public that we were in need of a private, civilian army that was equally funded as the regular army.

“We cannot continue to rely only on our military in order to achieve the national security objectives that we’ve set,” he told the audience. “We’ve got to have a civilian national security force that’s just as powerful, just as strong, just as well-funded.”

Of course, the quote got very little coverage from the liberal media, and it wasn’t long until this sentiment was
forgotten completely.

Now, however, concerns are rising again as some are question whether Obama’s vision for a private army is
actually becoming a reality. Some believe that the loophole may have been included in the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, in section 5210, which is called “Establishing a Ready Reserve Corps.”

This is what the bill outlines:

H. R. 3590-496 (Page 496) SEC. 5210. ESTABLISHING A READY RESERVE CORPS.

Section 203 of the Public Health Service Act (42 U.S.C. 204) is amended to read as follows: “SEC. 203.

COMMISSIONED CORPS AND READY RESERVE CORPS. “(a) ESTABLISHMENT.

“(1) IN GENERAL. There shall be in the Service a commissioned Regular Corps and a Ready Reserve Corps for service in time of national emergency.

“(2) REQUIREMENT. All commissioned officers shall be citizens of the United States and shall be appointed without regard to the civil-service laws and compensated without regard to the Classification Act of 1923, as amended.

“(3) APPOINTMENT. Commissioned officers of the Ready Reserve Corps shall be appointed by the President and commissioned officers of the Regular Corps shall be appointed by the President with the advice and consent of the Senate.

“(4) ACTIVE DUTY. Commissioned officers of the Ready Reserve Corps shall at all times be subject to call to active duty by the Surgeon General, including active duty for the purpose of training.

So it appears that the President has actually signed a bill into law that gives him the power to create a standing army of soldiers that are not only being trained, but are ready for deployment at any time. And this may be the fuel to the fire when it comes to the theory of FEMA Camps.

FEMA stands for Federal Emergency Management Agency, who have a mission to “support our citizens and first responders to ensure that as a nation we work together to build, sustain, and improve our capability to prepare for, protect against, respond to, recover from, and mitigate all hazards.”

FEMA is part of the Department of Homeland Security, and has been since 2003.

While it is not a bad thing to have someone standing by to help the nation recover from natural disasters, something doesn’t sit right about a private organization that has the right to seize control of the government and suspend the Constitution if “deemed necessary.”

The last piece of the puzzle is the Readiness Exercise 1984, which is a plan by the federal government to test their ability to detain large numbers of American citizens during a state of civil unrest or emergency. The project was launched under Reagan, and has been kept somewhat of a mystery ever since.

Now it appears that FEMA camps are being built in plain sight, and some fear that the US government is just steps away from attempting to exercise a harsh level of control over the Americana people.

What do you think? Is this plan terrifying?"

Here is what factcheck.org provided in the interpretation of the law:

Q: Did the new health care law give Obama a Nazi-like "private army" of 6,000 people?

A: No. Contrary to false Internet rumors, the new Ready Reserve Corps of doctors and other health workers will report to the surgeon general and be like the "ready reserves" in other uniformed services. They will be used during health emergencies.