While “vigilantes” is 180 degrees off from the people for whom one would have concern, raiders would be pretty low on the list of concerns. Low odds, high stakes, of course. No matter where you live in the world, there will always be those one or two mal-intentioned opportunists, now and in the future.

I empathize with your feelings about modern America. But if living is so tense there, and if you are indeed being watched by “van people”, why do you stay? You may think you have yourself protected, but I strongly suspect a small bank of vigilantes could easily overwhelm you, kill your livestock, poison your water etc. And life in a bunker hunkered up defending dried hash browns… well no thanks!

There are still some nice places in the world if your needs are moderate. Keep money in gold in foreign banks too with easy access.

I know what you are going to say… it’s home and the only life you want but honey, things are only going to get worse. Obama will win the next election I am sure and we will continue to sink further into the pit.

Best wishes,

Jeff
Almaty, Kazakhstan

Nobody knows all there is to know. Not me, not you, not Rawles.

No disrespect to Ferfal intended, but what he’s related as to his experiences in Argentina are not outside of discussion ideas I’ve encountered in recent decades. Nothing new; I learned a lot from cousins who were interned in Manila by the Japanese: Needles, thread, lighter flints for your Zippo, among other things. How to extend the life of canned food in a hot climate: Store on side; mark end with arrow; rotate every week or so. When the end begins to bulge, open, boil, eat.

I had enough money left over to hit WinCo while I was there as well. Maybe some of the quality has slipped, but I have not noticed it much(Perhaps it wasn’t all stores?). Then again, I actually enjoyed C-rations lol(They came before MREs for those who don’t know what I’m referring to). And with what we saved by hitting them, it more than paid for the gas for the trip, and lunch, and more. When you as poor as I is, you take what you can get. I would have liked to have hit Cash and Carry as well, but the money ran out, room in the car ran out lol, and so did my energy.

I’m like Lynne, I have to stock up on a very limited budget, canned goods or none most of the time. I figure if I can accumulate a couple years worth of cans on the shelf and rotate them, if something were to happen at least I would have that couple years to find a way to get more coming in before we starve. But mama did that poor lil ol Focus handle a bit squirrelly with all them cans weighing it down lol.

Thank you Lord!

Basically, the village is what Mel Tappan recommended back some thirty-five years ago in his writings on Survivalism. Become known and respected and needed, for your talents, skills and knowledge. The village should be reasonably near a small city with more than minimal primary care medical facilities. Call it a mutual back-scratching system…

I haven’t seen it mentioned, but radio communications are always good things. CB and the little FM radios for local. Short-wave for news from “outside”; maybe even shortwave transceivers. All that stuff is fairly cheap, nowadays, compared to the past…

Rat I ‘d like to be able to have a perfect solution. You will need a village to survive if it all comes crashing down. Not my rules just History. Villages exist because they work. What we have in the USA is not the the rest of world. Poverty here is a place of food, cars and the internet. Heck 1 of the biggest problems is obesity.
Even though I piss and moan about SSD and I want more. I am living better than 90% of the people in the world. Even on my budget i can build a food strore of 12-18 months. Is it any wonder folks around the world want some of that? All due to those “evil capitalists”.

OMR don’t think you are insulting me or calling me names. I’m a throwback. I like Mom&Pop stores, I like buying local, I want to support stores that do the same. I like the “human touch” in shopping. Actually with everything. I buy local when I can, and get get other good buys when I can. If you can tell me why I shouldn’t buy 10 razors from China at the dollar store, and no USA company can compete for that price counting shipping costs. I’ll buy US, but I’m geussing all the regs and the government makes it to expensive for US manufactures to compete on the world market.