Originally published at Notes from the bunker…. You can comment here or there.

Was straightening up the bunker the other day, which is always interesting.

Things that have been stored away for years get reviewed and in some cases replaced. Theres a lot of ‘Well, it seemed like a good idea at the time’. Examples? Canteens. When I originally started stockpiling things I was using the USGI quart canteens. Decent products, relatively cheap, familiar, etc. As the years go by a few other canteens worked their way into the bin. As a result, I pulled out the bin marked ‘canteens’ and found no less than five different types. Not really a bad thing, but standardization would make things a lot simpler (and neater to store). Because I’ve been impressed with the quality and price, I’m phasing out the USGI ones and going with the Swedish surplus ones (with cup) that I got from SG (Sportsmans Guide). I won’t go on about them since that’s covered elsewhere. Suffice to say that for the price of 4 USGI canteens with covers I got two dozen of the Swede canteens with cups and I believe them to be a superior product.

Much like how old US military gear trickles down from the ‘regular’ army to the National Guard, the USGI canteens will get demoted to ‘secondary standard’ which is a fancy word for ‘extras that I wont be terribly concerned over losing or damaging’.

The advent of the CamelBack-type systems has made the canteen-on-your-belt system a bit ‘old school’ but there is still a place for it… although 99 out of 100 times I’ll have the canteen in my bag rather than on my belt. For on-the-go drinking I stuff a hydration system into my bag. Still, a rugged, puncture- and crush-proof water container that can be thrown around and battered with impunity will always be a necessary piece of gear.

=-=-=

Although the world today is a remarkably unsettled place (or perhaps its as unsettled as it has always been and its simply more noticed these days) I still believe that for the average person the coming crises will be financial, not [nuclear/biological/etc]. Certainly the possibility is there for a ‘dirty bomb’ or the like, but I think that the thing that’s going to put people staring hard into their pantries, cringing at the news and staying close to home will be economic.

Admittedly, I have only a basic grasp of economics and familiarity with the current economic policies in play. But I do read a bit and the various news outlets all predict gloom and doom of some fashion. The housing/real estate markets are predicted to collapse dragging the economy down with them, the Chinese threaten to use their stockpile of US debt to damage the US economy if things are not done their way, jobs move overseas to keep costs down, prices of food and fuel increase at alarming rates, etc, etc, etc. Not very reassuring stuff. I’m sure the more economically savvy would say that this isn’t anything to be concerned with and these sorts of things are always going on…but to a layman like myself its hard not to feel like wanting to fill the cabinets to the bursting point with food and cash.

I am utterly amazed when I read about ‘average families’ who have mortgages that they cant afford, $30,000 in credit card debts, and have two (or more) cars. How do these people sleep at night? I’d be unable to sleep for worrying about ‘what if I lose my job’, ‘what if Im hurt and cant work’, etc, etc.

I think that when you are involved in preparedness you wind up viewing money as a resource like ammo, fuel, bandages or food. As a result you tend to be more careful in how it is used, stored and preserved. I think it would be safe to say that the debt-ridden, debt-driven people mentioned in the previous paragraph probably are not Like Minded. Or if they are, they are recent converts.

If the economy does tank, or more likey go into some sort of long, drawn out slide these people are going to be the ones selling everything they own, trying to file bankruptcy, and clamor the loudest for .gov to ‘do something’. Needless to say, these people will likely not be ‘our kind of people’. We call ‘em sheeple these days but the annoying fact is that they compromise a rather large percentage of the population. Large enough that when their recklessness catches up with them its gonna drag a bunch of us into the swirling economic whirlpool as they get sucked under.