But don't be surprised when the Ingles family surrounds you, beats you to a pulp and takes off with everything you own.

There are no explosions, fires, natural disasters nor even firing one shot is needed to make the dollar go to zero. Which is becoming a very real possibility.

Fives and tens will be fire-starting material, i.e., 'almost' worthless. A gallon of gas, if you can find one will probably cost north of a Benjamin.

Old school CB radios will work when the cell towers are down.
I'm 10-7 till the then.
After the big one here in SoCal; the USMC depots will have massive tent cities in Yermo & Nebo(by Barstow)
Walking up I-15 Cajon Pass will be an adventure for sure.

It really was not supposed to be funny. I have known many mormons over the years and they all had large stores of food and other supplies.

https://www.churchofjesuschrist.org/study/manual/gospel-topics/food-storage?lang=eng

In a real long term disaster bullets and guns will be the currency. Not pieces of paper.

Alcohol is one I have always thought to be important as currency. Being able to distill for fuel and drink could be a nice skill to have.

I agree that paper currency would quickly become useless in any long term civil unrest. Barter would quickly take over. Bottles of whiskey could be like gold in that scenario. Same with guns and ammo, but I’m not giving that up.

Not totally true, food will always be the most valuable commodity ... the weapons are needed to protect it.

Right now the two most major threats are currency failure and an attack on our electrical grid...

In a scenario of a terrorist attack to the power grid its estimated over 90% of our population will be dead in just one year.

The monetary collapse will make it almost impossible to buy food and will no doubt cause significant civil unrest.

Those two scenarios are serious legitimate very possible scenarios.

Others include solar events, crop failure, earthquake (which can seriously happen anywhere), more pandemic... (bubonic plague is actually making a comeback right now)... Probably shouldn’t forget to mention the Yellowstone caldera. While none of this list is absolutely likely they are possibilities.

Food + fuel + shelter = survival.

Thing is, nobody knows what is gonna happen so there's no way to prepare beyond short-term supplies of food, fuel and shelter.

My guess is the military has run countless doomsday scenarios so no matter what happens, the military will quickly step up to restore order and set up some kind of distribution system.

The big unknown is how millions of hungry, angry people with millions of guns of all shapes and sizes will behave.

Probably with a total collapse things will get sorted out pretty quickly and recovery to more than basic survival will not be far behind. Psychological peparation may reduce panic. It will be different, that's for sure.

To me, one of the most serious threats is the possibility of a domestic outbreak of the plague... it’s currently spreading in the Sierras and even made the jump to humans last year. While it is not initially aerosolized it can become so and spread rapidly. In addition to this who knows what mutations of current disease or possible viral attacks can happen, my personal belief is that c19 was only a warning shot across the bow.

May the universe help you if you didn’t get a clue from the last year.

One of the simplest of reasons to have self reliant habits and preparedness as a goal is our personal economies. If you loose your job or become disabled these skills can be a lifesaver even if the the world is not coming to an end. Many that experience these personal trials can experience severe depression that can easily lead to other crises... Prep can help stave off depression

My sister is some kind of big shot on the civilian side of procurement for the military so she interacts with all kinds of retired military types who know procurement.

She is not optimistic for a rosy future.

To her, the biggest threats to a quick recovery to something recognizable to us are the country's vast resource of stupid and the increasingly inviolable bond between the military and the giant corporations. The mom and pops, small farmers and small business, for example, will be gone.

Lots of serious reasons to be prepared... it’s not hoarding it’s doing your grocery shopping in advance. The supply chain is extremely fragile, this past year should have taught everyone that.

Living on the Oregon coast for 16 years and going through several tsunami warnings I came up with this.

Plastic tote, not to heavy (think kids/wife/partner)

1. MRE entree's...not the whole packages, just get entree's. You can pack bunch, I'm talking months worth in a few totes for just a couple hundred bucks. 3$ to 4$ a meal.
2. Water purification
3. Tarps and wool blankets
4. Road flares (light in any conditions, you could shove one in a tree stump and your golden for fire)

I kept two totes in my garage just sitting there. One warning in 5min my family was gone and headed to high ground. I'm talking 5 kids and two dogs. 5mins and bugging out. Was a huge relief for me as I was headed to the Station to drive the boat off shore. I had over a month of entree's for each family member in one tote. And my wife loaded it all in two tosses.

https://theepicenter.com/ I used these guys as they were local, and got the entree's next day. Fastest I have ever got anything off the Net. Granted I was only 100 miles away but wow.-WW

ps. This for for tomorrow..simple right you'd have all this in a week for a couple of hundred bucks. If you want to delve in prepping or serious end of society survival there's lots of fine websites out there. If you are running tomorrow you'll need cash not large bill's either or you'll leave huge tips every where. I stash at least $100 cash in all my vehicles and nobody not even family know's where.

Wetwork's post brings up another point, steeling yourself mentally to say no, and preparing to physically defend your point of view.

What kind of assistance will you be able to offer to the great majority of people who are woefully unprepared?

If the great toilet paper crisis of 2020 is any indication, the vast percentage of the population has a funny idea of what's important when it comes to being prepared, and when it's discovered that there's food enough for seven people in the green Cherokee that's parked over the ridge, a lot of unprepared campers will suddenly be asking, then begging, then demanding that you help out.

Hence, the added benefit from Amendment II. Though A2 was conceived and ratified specifically to defend against a tyrannical government, it certainly would be useful in your scenario.

foil heat blanket
sleeping bag in car
powerbars

With the possibility of power grid failures, a freezer isn't going to be of much value unless you plan on burning massive amounts of fuel for your generator. Of course if you have solar, than that is a moot point.
I have gotten most of my supplies from "TheSportsmans Guide". Excellent pricing and pretty much everything you would need

My wife, and I are in the initial stages of planning to build our own underground root cellar on our farm, to be able to store supplies long term. It would keep things at a constant 53* during the Summer, or Winter. This would pair well with the 16x10 greenhouse that I built during the Covid 19 shutdown last Spring.

https://www.instructables.com/DIY-GreenHouse-Build-Solid-Structure/