yuppie v. frugal

YUPPIE V. FRUGAL
Normally I resist the temptation to follow certain other unnamed blogs in giving a quote of the day, but every once in awhile I can't help myself. Today you get two.
"The difficulty here is that faith in the prospect of a better future has been so deeply ingrained in all of us that trying to argue against it is a bit like trying to tell a medieval peasant that heaven with all its saints and angels isn’t there any more. The hope that tomorrow will be, or can be, or at the very least ought to be better than today is hardwired into the collective imagination of the modern world." By the Druid Dude at http://thearchdruidreport.blogspot.com/
"Optimism is a mania for saying things are well when one is in hell." Voltaire.
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Looking back with hindsight my preparations for Y2K were a bit naive. But they were far and away better than anything accomplished prior to that. I took it seriously, and as one person wrote at the time, it isn't the probability but the consequences. I could be wrong about the severity of our oil supply contracting, but what if your rosy "soft landing" projections are wrong? Far better to be paranoid than optimistic. Today, I'll once again try to point out the problem with Yuppie preparations versus frugal preps. No, no one wishes to live like a rabid animal in a hovel in the boonies. But that could very well be preferable to the conditions of the cities very soon. I know I don't help much, being too critical and sarcastic. The natural inclination is to become defensive and tune me out. Maybe it was because no one listened when I nicely pointed out the logical imperative to immediately prepare. Or perhaps I was just bored. Whatever. I try to be logical and consistent about the perceived threats in the future. You don't want to listen, not because it isn't possible, but because you don't want it to happen. You want your lifestyle to continue without interruption, even after the mushroom clouds waft radioactive particles into your McMansion bunker.
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I could talk on and on, but let me put this into money terms. Perhaps that will work better. To achieve the Yuppie Survivalist yeoman farmer fantasy, it will cost you $100,000. One Hundred Grand. Frugal preps will run you five grand. 100 v. 5. One twentieth the cost. Frugal is realistic. Yuppie is a thirty year mortgage. In thirty years, the banks won't be around. Neither will you, because you lost your job in year three and lived out of your car until you froze to death that winter. Or, you drove down to a warmer climate and died in a drive by shooting in a border drug war.
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First things first. Let's get some food. Four hundred pounds of wheat and two hundred pounds of beans, in poly buckets, cost $440. A years freeze dried food is around two grand. And that still contains a lot of wheat as filler. To wash that down, the Yuppie spends four thousand on a well for water. Our frugal gent spends $150 on water buckets and a bike trailer to haul it. Once the food and water are digested, Mr. Yuppie flushes that expensive water into his four thousand dollar septic system. Frugal dude bought the Humanure book and a big bag of sawdust for $25. Cost so far, ten grand Yuppie. Six hundred dollars frugal.
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To fight off the motorcycle gangs of zombies, Captain Yuppie has a six grand arsenal. A semi-auto rifle is a thousand. A minimal amount of magazines are two hundred. And ten thousand rounds of ammo will be about five grand. Bushwhacker Frugal Dude buys a $200 war surplus rifle and because he isn't going to engage in any close firefights if he can help it, two thousand rounds of ammo is plenty. That will cost a grand. $6,200 versus $1,200. And that is just dollars and cents. It doesn't even address the collapse of the global factories that resupply ammunition. Post-Industrial, Post-Oil spells the end of pray and spray tactics.
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Yuppie Bitch goes looking for land. Of course, it has to have pasture and a stream and firewood. The land will be at least fifty grand. A small mobile home, at least thirty thousand. To heat that monster, he fills a small propane tank for $500. Cost of his garden, $80k. And only one winter of heat if his woodlot burns down after a lightning storm and the declining local tax revenue puts the fire fighters too far away to save the trees. The poor guy buys a piece of junk land for one grand. He parks a two grand travel trailer on it. He insulates the trailer and buys a thick pile of wool blankets for warmth. Frugal dude spend three grand for land and shelter, and he will stay alive if not comfortable every winter.
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Are you paying attention? Unemployment doubles in a year. The same year the mortgage industry and the auto industry are socialized. The same year oil imports fall eight percent ( after falling another eight percent the year before that ). The economy is in huge trouble. You don't have years to buy the perfect retreat. But you have enough time and money to get the bare minimum to survive. How much time? I would guess this fall it all seriously takes a crap. Act accordingly. If you get more time, great. More preps. Or just put off buying "primitive" equipment, wait until you can duplicate your middle class lifestyle. See how far that gets you. Panic. Prepare. Relax.
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