Category: Survival Mindset

Understanding Labor, Wealth, and Real Money

Our generation in the First World is presently living in a time of unprecedented wealth, luxury, and leisure. Technology has allowed huge advances in transportation, health care, and commerce. But much of the “wealth” that has been created is transitory. Real Wealth In essence, the only real wealth in the world is extractive. Extractive wealth come from mining, oil drilling, timber cutting, farming, ranching, or fishing. Manufacturing, while important, is essentially re-arranging what was originally extracted. And all other “wealth creation” in the so-called service economy is even more abstract–it is merely shuffling around bits of paper or electronic digits …


Letter Re: Prepared Individuals and the OODA Loop

Jim- You are probably familiar with Bill Whittle’s web site. Whittle’s writings are always arresting. His latest essay has relevance for all of us SurvivalBlog readers who are going through OODA loops [“Observe, Orient, Decide, and Act”] unwittingly and therefore inefficiently. His essay observes that although OOD is far more important than Action, success after all depends on Action–done with speed. So this subject is timely for those of us watching events unfolding. Many are pretty good at Observing and Orienting. Fewer are Deciding (which is a concrete term–not ephemeral “planning”). Your site is very good at presenting the issues …


Letter Re: Strategies for Saving a House in a Foreclosure Situation?

Sir, I just read your piece on foreclosures. People who are about to get behind on their payments should contact their lender. Banks do not want the properties, they want the cash. Some lenders are willing to negotiate a modification of the loan terms rather than accept the expense of a foreclosure and resale (usually at a loss) of the property. Selling the house before the foreclosure process begins is better than waiting because the cost of the foreclosure will be added to the amount they have to repay the bank. If a person knows they’re going to get behind …


Two Letters Re: Small Town Newcomers and Home Development Covenants

Jim: In my opinion Violas’s comments are balderdash! That’s my reaction to all the ranting over “restrictive covenants”. I wouldn’t buy a piece of property in any sort of subdivision that didn’t have such rules. Let me share the experience that convinced me: About five years ago, I bought a piece of investment property in a small, rural Wyoming subdivision. Lot sizes were 3 to 10 acres and covenants were attached. Those covenants were common sense in nature. hey boiled down to simply treating your neighbor as you would be treated. Problem was, the covenants weren’t enforced. “Nobody’s gonna tell …


Sources for Free Survival and Preparedness Information on the Internet, by K.L. in Alaska

Recent comments in SurvivalBlog provided excellent advice on using the public library. You can gain lots of knowledge with no expense, then purchase only those books you want to keep on hand for personal reference. Also, many colleges and universities loan to local residents, so you can use them too, even if you aren’t a student. If your local libraries participate, a great resource is Worldcat. It lets you search for books from home, then go check them out, or get them through interlibrary loan. What will happen to the Internet when the SHTF? There’s no guarantee it will survive. …


Give Me That Old-Time Survivalism

Call me old-fashioned or whatever you’d like, but I’m feeling a bit overwhelmed by the plethora of gadgets that are now being sold under the banner of “preparedness”. The latest one mentioned by a reader was this: The Tactical Mirror Sight. Oh yes, and don’t forget the combination vertical foregrip and laser. And while you are at it, get yourself a M-203 look-alike 37mm flare launcher! It isn’t just tacti-cool, it is practically a fashion accessory! Who buys all this stuff? I’m sure that some of the more strident Armchair Commandos over at AR15.com just can’t wait to unlimber their …


Letter Re: Skills Versus Gear for Survival

Jim, After reading the Profiles you have posted. I have come to the conclusion I cannot hold a dime to these folks. Makes me wonder why should I bother. Hmmm, that thought lasts all of five seconds. A lot of the people for whom you profiled are in a much higher income bracket than the rest of us working folks. Personally, I have two jobs and work 12-14 hours a day. I was unlucky enough to be in a third rear end collision. In my life time this year, although instead of being rear ended by an illegal uninsured illegal …


Letter Re: Hardening Gates for Retreat Security

JWR: Since I had some spare time over winter break I re-read “Patriots: Surviving the Coming Collapse”. It is an awesome book, I really like the “survival manual wrapped in a fiction novel” format. It left me with a few thoughts on physical retreat security. I am talking about locks, fences, gates, and so forth –not people. When the gate lock was cut [in the novel] you mentioned the characters welding a 3 inch pipe [section to the gate post] to protect the [new] lock. That is a great idea, except many who live in timber country are aware of …


During a Disaster Event Should You Stay at Home or Leave?, by Grandpappy

Different types of disasters may require a different response if a family wishes to maximize their chances for long-term survival. Therefore each family should have several different disaster plans that they could successfully implement depending on the circumstances. These plans should include: 1. Staying at your home and being able to survive for a reasonable period of time without any outside assistance, and 2. Quickly and efficiently evacuating your home and traveling to a predetermined destination. Staying at home is probably the best overall strategy for most families in a variety of different disaster type situations. However, there are a …


Letter Re: Hunkering Down in an Urban Apartment in a Worst Case Societal Collapse

Hello, In the event of a disaster (I live in New York City) I intend to shelter in place until all the riotous mobs destroy each other or are starved out. I am preparing for up to six months. I have one liter of water stored for each day (180 liters) and about 50 pounds of rice to eat as well as various canned goods. I have not seen on your site anything about heat sources for urban dwellers who intend to shelter in place. I’m assuming that electricity would go first soon followed by [natural] gas and running water. …


Letter Re: A Twenty-Something EMT with Limited Preps Storage Space

Mr. Rawles, First off I would like to thank you for your profound impact on my life in the last four months. All of my life I grew up with a father and grandfather who were/are minor survivalist men. They believe that the end times are coming and we should prepare for them. They keep about three days of food and water at their homes and plenty of guns and ammo. For the longest time I always thought it was ridiculous and never understood it. Now my thinking has changed to the fact that they are under prepared. When I …


Two Letters Re: Wider Implications of the Credit Crunch

Sir, I read your piece on the credit crunch, and believe it or not, it gets worse. Morgan Stanley not only took a $9.4 billion dollar hit, they shored up their books by getting a $5 billion dollar infusion of capital from the Chinese! They received a 9.9% share of the company in return. The same Chinese fund has also propped up the Blackstone Group, a private equities firm. – Tim R. Mr. Rawles: I don’t understand what all this credit and financial news means to us poor folks who don’t have any investments to lose. I have a tiny …


Letter Re: Thinking Like an Infantrymen or Thinking Like a Frontiersmen

Jim: I read a post about this a while back and it sort of stuck in my head. It did make a lot of sense. What exactly does it mean to plan like a frontiersmen mean versus plan like an infantrymen? The biggest areas that stuck out were resupply, weapons, numbers, static defense, and caches. Infantrymen can almost universally depend on getting resupplied within 12-to-48 hours if they run low on ammo or anything else. Survivalists or frontiersmen do not have this luxury. Which means two things, first stock up on as much ammo as you can afford and use …


Letter Re: Preparedness on a Very Tight Budget

Mr Rawles, Having read your reply to S.’s letter “Preparedness on a Very Tight Budget” I must say you made my day! It made me realize that I am much better off than I thought and on the right track. I am one of those weird (smart?) people who was raised in the city, but for some reason, never belonged. From earliest childhood, I was always “preparing” long before I really knew what for. In other words, I was not your typical “raised in captivity” child. I learned to sew at nine, and spent a lot of time making sleeping …


Three Letters Re: The Sovereign Deed Scheme–Can Someone Just Buy Survival?

Jim, I enjoyed reading article you recently linked entitled “Is Survival Only for the Rich?” The company’s idea to provide “we’ll save you if you pay us enough” services is nothing new. Private security firms swooped down to protect the estates of their ultra-rich clients in New Orleans after [Hurricane] Katrina hit. Here is but one article covering that subject. This being said, I don’t think one should be critical of the very wealthy for making such arrangements. Who wouldn’t want the ability to have Blackwater protect your home as the Golden Horde approached? Unfortunately, this is not an option …