How Being Prepared Can Protect You From the Ills of Modern Society

We knew that survivalist/preparedness-types were well ahead of the curve in many ways, however did you know that being prepared can save you from much of the drama making the nightly news? Some examples...

• Good: having a small emergency fund to cover the refrigerator when it goes toes up. Bad: having no emergency fund and relying on payday lenders.
• Good: having a nice income, a decent credit score, and a huge down payment for a home that costs no more than 25% of your income. Bad: having a sketchy income, lousy credit score, no down payment, and buying more house than you can afford which puts you at the mercy of sub-prime lenders.
• Good: having a prolific garden. Bad: paying astronomical prices for fresh produce due to flooding/shortages/supply and demand problems.
• Good: having a year's worth of food and supplies stored in your garage. Bad: having very little food and supplies in your home which causes you to run (frequently) to the store and pay top dollar for the things your family needs.
• Good: having a well-diversified investment portfolio. Bad: having all of your stock invested in one company (can you say World Com? Enron?).
• Good: taking the kids camping where you teach them to fish then tell ghost stories around the campfire. Bad: giving your kid the latest video game to keep them quiet while you focus your attention on more important things.
• Good: setting strict rules for your teens such as no drinking, no drugs, no letting their girlfriends/boyfriends sleep over, and making it mandatory, not optional, that they pass all of their classes. Bad: letting kids drink and do drugs because the parents want to be "cool", pregnancy pacts, and drop-outs without a future.
• Good: having a nice collection of firearms with everyone in the family trained in their use. Bad: waiting for the police to come and protect you.
• Good: having enough money to cover six to twelve months worth of bills so you can chill for a while if you get the dreaded pink slip. Bad: having no money saved for an emergency and desperately taking any minimum wage job you can find when your current company goes under.
• Good: doing all you can to protect and maintain your health. Bad: funding drug companies for the rest of your natural life because you can't stay away from bad health habits.
• Good: making personal responsibility mandatory for everyone in your family. Bad: making excuses for family members (meaning adults or kids) who are ethically, morally, or responsibility-challenged.
• Good: Instituting family dinner time every night whether you are eating at home or bringing a picnic to the soccer field. Bad: everyone eating at a separate fast food restaurant every night of the week.
• Good: giving back to your community by volunteering, making donations, or doing other supportive work. Bad: the entitlement mindset, chronic welfare families, scamming people/organizations/institutions just to get more than the other guy.
• Good: learning how to do as much as possible for yourself even if it takes longer or costs a little more (education usually does cost money). Bad: relying on others for everything.
• Good: buying something because it will make you more efficient, effective, or educated. Bad: buying something so others will think you are "da bomb".
• Good: doing the math in order to figure out when a deal is good or not. Bad: relying on salesmen to tell you if they are providing you a good deal or not (think time shares, extended warranties, marketing scams, etc).

I could go on and on but you get the idea. Being prepared is the only way to protect you and your loved ones from threats that continually bombard us.