RE is not wrong.
QuoteDespite his years listening to me rant on about prepping, he STILL doesn't own a backup generator!
If I wire a generator to the house we won't lose heat next time, but is having a generator really prepping? I am not sure. Prepping for short term inconveniences is different than prepping for an alternate future. The alternate future will not have gasoline at less than five bucks a gallon. Keeping a generator going in collapse is going to be a problem.
Everyone who 'prepped' by buying power bricks to charge up their phone found out that solution is only good for three days without solar panels to re-charge their brick. I will be getting a small panel that can do a few watts. I'll try it out and stick it somewhere for next time. My phone drained in a day and I have no apps running that would do that. But since this website is watched 24-7 by the Central Singapore Community Development Council, it is not hart to figure out why my phone dies in a few hours with no apps running. It is the Singapore NSA keeping Asia safe from me.
The woman in Bridal Trails that was killed by the falling tree died a half mile from where I work. I was worried it was a friend for a while. I know a woman who lives in Bridal Trails. But it was not her.
Spending a few thousand on a generator so I can have hot coffee for a few days is not an idea that warms my heart. As I drove through Bellevue yesterday to and from work, homes with light were definitely 'high end'.
Note: We sell generators where I work. Noah was answering the phone:
QuoteHello, this is ---- ----- we are all out of generators gas cans and extension cords. How may I help you?Then there would be a 'thank you' from the phone and the phone would hang up. My workplace was one of the few places that did not loose power. Some people have jobs they can do without power but not many. Many people have had an unplanned vacation in the dark. The rest of us were getting to work late because using major multi-lane intersections with dead traffic lights as uncontrolled four lane stops is really interesting, and slow.
A working man can't reach 'high end' status. The only way to get that kind of money is to be involved in some sort of exploitation. Socially acceptable labor does not pay good enough for a home generator, and under capitalism it never will. My 'net worth' is in line with the max of what a working man can save. Capitalism is dedicated to keeping 'variable capital' (that be you) at a subsistence level. Prepping is beyond subsistence.
A single man, or a gay couple without kids can 'prep' but I contend it is a luxury that most people can't afford. A married couple with kids has other priorities with which to drain the paychecks. If only one half of a couple is into prepping it is not going to happen.
This experience tells me that you would have to really be 'into prepping' for it to make more than a short term difference. I am not against prepping, but it is of limited usefulness. Good for short term considerations only. Prepper only people are not into systemic change. Prepper only people are lost in the minutia of making a bad situation tolerable without any desire to stop any mofos creating the bad situation. Some of whom (the mofos) have been using generators for days.
Doomers come in different flavors. Some are all about prepping and nothing else. When I see videos about them, I think of the 'century of the self'. And the narcissism that describes the average American of our time. My perspective is more social. I am a doomer because I want to see social change which mitigates the coming clusterfuck.
Note: Re is into prepping but he is not a 'prepper only' kind of guy. 'Prepper only' people I have no time for. Life for them is all about them and nobody else.