By Major Van Harl USAF Ret
Wisconsin –-(Ammoland.com)- The Colonel and I went out to dinner with a group of Air Force friends.
We spent over $100 for two of us to eat. I did enjoy the company, but as we were driving home I was complaining about the dinner bill and the fact I could have bought a number of boxes of ammo for that $100.
Ammo that could be of great benefit in the near future as our economy continues to go “south.”
The conversation went in the direction of my life long habit of hoarding things. I was born in the 1950s and therefore I did not live through the great depression of the 1930s. However my parents did. My father lived on a share cropper’s farm in Northern Missouri. If it had not been for his maternal grandparents helping out, I am not sure how my dad’s family would have made it. It was not quite Grapes of Wrath bad, but very close.
My dad told me in 1939 his mother received a $16 check that was left to her when a distant relative died. $16 does not seem like a lot of money in today’s market, but in 1939 it was real hard cash. Dad figured that money was what made his family “haves” that year and not one of the many “have-not” families in his community.
So I learned to stock up from my relatives. If you need one item, buy two and save the other for when you do not have the money. The problem is today, most people if they have the money to buy two; they buy two and consume both right away.
As we drove home from our dinner, my wife made reference to the fact that as long as she has known me “the sky was falling in.” I told her she was correct, I have been running with Chicken Little most of my life. I am the one who worked very hard prior to the alleged Y2K disaster to convince my family and friends to get ready for the “big one.”
Of course nothing happen and I got the calls and e-mails wanting to know if I was willing to buy up all the unneeded stock-piled emergency items. I offered 10 cents on the dollar with no takers, just complainers.
I would attempt to tell my complaining friends that you don’t get ready for just one projected emergency. You plan and prepare for a lifetime of uncertainty. If you never have to use all the items you stored away for a disaster related day, you’re lucky. Let your children have the pleasure of getting rid of all that “junk” at your estate sale.
For $100 I could have bought enough food to feed the family for a month. I would however need to have spent the money when food prices were normal and no one was panicking. Panic only drives the price of needed consumer goods up and creates hoarding. Our Federal Food and Drug Administration projects, that there is a one day supply of food on the store shelves in our entire US food distribution system. It will only take 24-48 hours to turn our wonderful American consumer society from “haves” to “have-nots.”
The fact that you live in a $500,000 home and have two new paid for SUVs in the driveway means nothing if you don’t have food in the house to feed yourself for more than a day. Look at the money our Federal Government is printing. We are going to get to the point that our money, if not worthless, will buy you very little on the world market.
The sky is not falling in yet, but I suggest a bit of Chicken Little in all of us could be a positive desired trait.
Statistically however I am completely wrong, and I most assuredly want to be wrong. The odds of anything of a serious nature happening to you are so slim that, why worry. I really mean this, you do not have to worry–the odds are in your favor. Actually, so are the odds are you will never need your homeowner’s or auto insurance. You might consider canceling them. Statistics say you can pass through your life without preparation or concern and many do.
Take a cruise, buy a new car and just stop worrying. According to some of my readers, I can be a bit like Chicken Little, annoying with my message of doom and gloom. With a chicken you can always ring its neck and eat it.
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About Major Van Harl USAF Ret.:
Major Van E. Harl USAF Ret. , is a career Police Officer in the U.S. Air Force was born in Burlington, Iowa, USA, in 1955. He was the Deputy Chief of police at two Air Force Bases and the Commander of Law Enforcement Operations at another. Now retired, these days he enjoys camping, traveling, volunteering with the Girl Scouts and writing. [email protected]