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-   -   SHTF - Too many Friends & Family to help? (https://www.calguns.net/calgunforum/showthread.php?t=905126)

RobertDeniro 03-11-2014 12:47 AM

SHTF - Too many Friends & Family to help?
 
What choice would you make?

Ronin2 03-11-2014 1:26 AM

Terms and conditions for everyone in my fiefdom....the new world order done the right way.... MY WAY!

x-007 03-11-2014 1:39 AM

It would be impossible to help everyone AFTER a humongous disaster, but I do my best to help them BEFORE by giving advice, suggestions and any "expertise" that I have.

A group of my friends were worried about the Y2K hysteria, so we began making lists of things that would be necessary to buy, chores that would have to be done, checking maps for several bug-out routes, and rules that would have to be abided by. Personally, I didn't think that Y2K was going to be a major disaster, but by using it to prep and get my friends to prep went a long way toward dealing with future disasters. Fortunately, the prices back then were fairly reasonable, since our economy was much, much better, so the outcome was excellent for just about anything we would have to deal with.

Nowadays, the prices on just about everything have greatly increased, so the motto, I guess, is "Prepare TODAY, for you don't know how much it will cost tomorrow!"

jerhyn 03-11-2014 8:41 AM

You are going to need people you can trust. Friends and Family are a great place to start. I would not accept anyone who couldn't pull their weight on contribute to the group.

Really young or old people would obviously be limited in contributions. They also consume less resources. So it evens out. I know some will argue old people can have lots of knowledge, which is obviously a big contribution. They may have even lived in their younger days in much more self reliant ways.

Taidaisher 03-11-2014 8:50 AM

I'm fortunate enough to live in a neighborhood with like minded neighbors. We've become closer as friends over the past 2-3 years, so things would most likely be ok on the homefront. As far as people coming, I would accept my friends/family as people I could trust. They will have to pull their weight and help.

skilletboy 03-11-2014 11:07 AM

I don't have enough to help EVERYONE... My terms would be that those who refuse to do anything NOW, of which many of my friends are there now, will get NO HELP. Their choices = their consequences. But I have other friends and family not really capable of doing much for themselves right now.

I'd give help in terms of teaching and tangible assistance to anyone who needs it. But there is only co much food, water, ammo etc...

blkside 03-11-2014 11:12 AM

I am positive there are 3 people who will be taken care of. After them I would start laying out ground rules for those coming to use my stash. No work = no stay.

lasbrg 03-11-2014 11:24 AM

Assign everyone to work crews. The model is a restaurant customer who can't pay their bill so washes dishes instead. Since no one's money is any good, all they have to offer for your food is their labor. Make it clear that three meals equals 10-12 hours work and that quitting equals leaving.

omgwtfbbq 03-11-2014 11:47 AM

I think the problem with this question is the same huge problem with many people's SHTF plans: It's reactionary thinking, rather than proactive.

If it's important for you to see your friends and family survive in a dire situation such as a SHTF scenario, then you really shouldn't take it on yourself to be the white-hat, "new sheriff in town" after the fact. The best plan in my opinion is to help your friends and family gain the skills and knowledge to succeed independent from your intervention beforehand, and not when you are having to worry about your own survival needs.

I think a lot of people who approach the SHTF or prepping mentality do so out of a psyhological need to be needed/wanted. However, in the end, those who would ultimately be most likely to survive are those who do not need to rely on others to survive.

lasbrg 03-11-2014 11:58 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by omgwtfbbq (Post 13628896)
I think a lot of people who approach the SHTF or prepping mentality do so out of a psychological need to be needed/wanted.

You, or your base and supplies, will be wanted plenty. If you are even half on the ball, your organization will be one that many desperate people would love to be a part of.

JensenRecoil 03-13-2014 10:42 AM

I already know in my mind who I would and would not turn away if I had to. I would make it known that, above all, my family is my priority for safety and security purposes.

My girlfriends mother and stepfather. They foster dogs and stray cats currently, and I feel that when SHTF they would be the ones to be unable to say No to anyone needing help!

BCDavis 03-13-2014 1:10 PM

If it was just about giving people a gun, and adding them to your "team", it would be fine to have friends and family come join you. But the harsh reality is mainly about food. If you have enough for a month, or 6 months, adding people who did not bring their own food, means they will eat through your supplies 2x, 4x, or 10x faster than if you kept it to yourself. Each person you add, doubles the amount of food you need. My rule is that people who want to bug in or out with me, need to bring their own food supplies. I can give them weapons, and I have a lot of extra supplies and tools. But they need to bring food.

lasbrg 03-13-2014 1:44 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by BCDavis (Post 13641951)
If it was just about giving people a gun, and adding them to your "team", it would be fine to have friends and family come join you. But the harsh reality is mainly about food. If you have enough for a month, or 6 months, adding people who did not bring their own food, means they will eat through your supplies 2x, 4x, or 10x faster than if you kept it to yourself. Each person you add, doubles the amount of food you need. My rule is that people who want to bug in or out with me, need to bring their own food supplies. I can give them weapons, and I have a lot of extra supplies and tools. But they need to bring food.

Of course, food is key. Unless you are already on a working farm, one of the very first imperatives would be to get crops in the ground - weather, season and nature of the crisis permitting. Labor will be essential for the creation of new fields. After that, security needs will quickly escalate and you will need "guns" for that as well. I anticipate the following formula:

- long, grueling work days
- starvation rations

This regime will quickly weed out everyone except those who are highly motivated to be part of your crew.

bruss01 03-13-2014 2:31 PM

You are going to need people. One or two people against the world? Not good odds. The catch here is that you don't want or need people who are going to be just dead weight, nothing but an alimentary canal and a pie-hole that won't shut up about how you could have done this so much better and blah, blah, blah.

Here's my policy. People that have the right mind set, even if their circumstances haven't allowed them to be a s prepped as I am, are welcome. I'm talking about the college students who are doing their best to master shooting, who view self-sufficiency as a vital personal interest, and who are willing to endure hard work and privation to achieve some larger goal. Those are the folks I would want on my team and would welcome with open arms even if they arrived penniless, naked and bleeding on the doorstep on day one of SHTF.

Now, are we talking about people like that, or people who just happen to share a few strands of DNA with the prepper but have consistently laughed at him for the past ten years and have never lifted a finger to take the tiniest effort to prepare for "what if"? As far as I'm concerned, those fat slobs can go fend for themselves. They will just sit around and complain and make your life miserable, while consuming your supplies and expecting you to do all the work. It's a hard, sad bitter truth but so is cutting off a gangrenous limb to save the patient. There are hard choices to be made and the people who make the right ones will live (or have the better odds) and those who make wrong ones will die (or have crappy odds).

Here's a question: If they're not listening to you now (those friends and family) then what makes you think they will listen to you when they move into your home and start eating your stored food? If you get too tough with them... well, you gotta sleep sometime and you may end up being the captain who gets forced to walk the plank.

Consider including people whose judgment and integrity you trust, who can make a meaningful contribution. No dead weight just because of blood or marriage relationship. If you don't have people on the same page with you, you may end up taking someone on board who will end up jeopardizing the whole group.

bruss01 03-13-2014 2:42 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by lasbrg (Post 13642203)

- long, grueling work days
- starvation rations

This regime will quickly weed out everyone except those who are highly motivated to be part of your crew.

OR:

Some night when you're sleeping someone will bludgeon you and then they will just all sit around, eating the stored food, until the day it runs out, then they will go look for someone equally soft-headed to take them in. People don't change from lazy slobs into hard-working contributors overnight. A leopard can't change it's spots. The will continue to exploit until they can't any more and then they will die off.

Zamble 03-13-2014 5:05 PM

Turn the family and friends away that are slackers. See if they don't show up with others to try and take it.

It's a catch-22. You don't want useless sponges, but if you send them packing....

VegasND 03-13-2014 7:50 PM

Case-by-case basis.

They'll have to justify their inclusion to MY satisfaction.

9mmrevolver 03-13-2014 7:51 PM

People at work tell they are comin to my house if that happens. I tell them it's not a good idea :)

Squidward 03-14-2014 9:32 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Lone_Gunman (Post 13645313)
Terms and conditions.

You remember the old bumper stickers, "Aśs, Gas, or Grass, Nobody Rides For Free"? Yeah, sort like that.

Hmm, somebody is showing their age...

Yehosha 03-14-2014 12:23 PM

My friends and family all know I prep. I've been trying to educate and encourage them to prep for themselves. So far only my Mom and Dad and Mother-in-law have listened. Probably because they are older and have seen disasters happen. A lot of my family and friends think I'm a bit nutty, and all joke they will just come to my house if the SHTF. What they don't know is my family and all of our stuff will be gone, since we are bugging out to a friends ranch 30 minutes away if it gets really bad. So the joke will be on them when they show up to an empty house. :)

Yehosha 03-14-2014 12:26 PM

And all for you saying you'll take care of all friends and family, how long do you think you can feed 50 people for? All you are doing is making sure your immediate family dies faster.

KevinB 03-14-2014 12:42 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Yehosha (Post 13649170)
And all for you saying you'll take care of all friends and family, how long do you think you can feed 50 people for? All you are doing is making sure your immediate family dies faster.

Some of us are quite self sufficient. My family and brethren number over 50 and we can pretty much feed, shelter, and take care of ourselves indefinitely. Fuel will become a issue at about 18 months but we we will do just fine.

People in urban areas are in deep poop. No land or water for ag. Take all your hobby gardens and total up the total calories you grow and then divide again buy the number of people who need those calories. Best of luck.

Now we will hear from the marauders who are going to take what they need with their ninja skills. Better luck with that.

All this BS just makes me cringe.

lasbrg 03-14-2014 1:25 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Yehosha (Post 13649170)
And all for you saying you'll take care of all friends and family, how long do you think you can feed 50 people for? All you are doing is making sure your immediate family dies faster.

A fifty pound bag of Purina chicken feed (corn meal and soy pellets) costs about $15 or so. By itself, you could get about 200 1-cup (450 calorie) meals out of it. Cooked into a simple gruel and supplemented with fish, deer, squirrel, raccoon, possum, dog, cat or rat meat, you could feed 50 people two or three days per bag. So that comes out to about $200 to feed 50 people for a month. Of course, your own family gets the MREs. ;)

xSARSx 03-14-2014 6:47 PM

man, its time to turn the channel back to the walking dead. after i watch it i'll let you know

madoka 03-14-2014 11:34 PM

Knowing that this decision is possible, I've prepped for my immediate and extended family. All siblings, cousins, in-laws, aunts, uncles, etc. In a pinch, I can provide for my entire block as well.

wjc 03-15-2014 3:13 PM

"You have to earn your keep", as the old cowboys used to say.

mosin of nagareth 03-15-2014 10:33 PM

Eat the inlaws first. Vacuum seal the rest.

Paltik 03-16-2014 6:14 PM

For every mouth to feed, there are two hands to produce. There's no way I can support 50 people, but there are many ways 50 people working together can survive better than one person working alone.

Personally, my biggest strength after a SHTF event will be my leadership skills. With knowledge of what the needs and dangers will be, and preparations for addressing those needs, I consider it an asset to have enough people to take watches, labor, provide security, rest, etc. In any encounter with looters, I want to have the biggest force (or a smaller force with force multipliers such as knowledge, terrain advantages, good leadership, communications, intel, etc.).

It's no good the pro-help people assume their family and friends are all hard-working comrades who love each other while the go-it-alone people assume their family and friends are all a bunch of leaching opportunists. What my friends and family have going for them is a pre-existing relationship of trust and some pre-assessment of character; of course, any who don't play nice with the others can't remain. But then, this is how it already works in my family.

Who I help and the nature of that help will also depend on the nature of the emergency. If I expect things to return to normal pretty soon, I'm going to be quite helpful to many people. If the food we've stored is all there ever will be, I'll also be quite helpful; it'll only be a matter of time. But if the situation could remain bad for an indefinite time, I'll be most careful.

In the end, just because I have stockpiles now does not mean I won't wish I had the help of others tomorrow--my supplies could burn down, be stolen, be confiscated, I could be traveling far from home when stuff happens, etc. I'll want people to see me as a person who can be an asset to their group, not just a worthless consumer. So that's how I'll treat others when I'm not down-and-out.

caburian 03-17-2014 11:45 AM

damn.. im the only one that answered 4th?

sixoclockhold 03-17-2014 11:53 AM

I will help the children if they are neighbors. Parents are going to have to be pretty down before I extend too much.


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