Hello all,

I am getting confused now...from about February I started preparing and stocking up on things I felt would be needed come next year...I am constantly storing food, water, tp, first-aid supplies and so forth. All this time I thought I was doing the right thing and I still do. Despite all the good news, I still continue to stock up. It's not that I am turning a deaf ear to all the wonderful news, it's just that no matter what good I hear, there is not so good right there beside it. So even though I don't know which way this thing is going to go, I thought it wouldn't matter much because I am prepared. Granted, I am not prepared for the worst, but I am prepared to a point to where I am starting to feel more comfortable. The problem is that now I am reading article after article that is saying that people should not be stocking up because doing so will throw us all into a recession!! So my question is: Am I still doing the right thing? Or am I contributing to the problem? I am soooooo confused now. However, I think I will still prepare. I don't think I can sleep at night if I don't. Thanks in advance for any advice...

-- shellie (shellie01@hotmail.com), May 19, 1999

Answers

How can filling a closet with canned food & bottled water be "contributing to the problem"? Surely what you stash in your own home is your own business. People collect all kinds of crap. Ever been to a garage sale?

There's nothing illegal or immoral about storing food! Go ahead & prepare. What have you got to lose...? If y2k is not a huge problem, you won't have to go food shopping for the first several months of 2000. I can certainly live with that.

-- We're in (the@same.boat), May 19, 1999.

shellie -

You are not personally responsible for the survival of our risk-laden just-in-time culture.

The stocking up you have done to date will have helped to *stimulate* the economy, not cause a recession.

Since when is personal responsibility the wrong answer!

-- Brooks (brooksbie@hotmail.com), May 19, 1999.

See the editorial "Are you prepared to be wrong on Y2K".

The link:

http://www.michaelhyatt.com/editorials/wrong.htm

The bottom line: can you face yourself in the mirror, and feel good about what you've done? What difference does it make WHAT others think? What do YOU think?

This morning, the propane guy came with an entire crew and installed a 500-gallon propane tank in my back yard. (I live in a residential community). Someone called city hall, who sent "snoopers" to check it out. Now, along with my new (rented!) tank, I have a 20kW NG/propane generator in the back yard. I have guranteed heat, guaranteed power/light, guaranteed food (3 mo's so far; another 3 to go...), and guaranteed water (Berkefeld filter & 8 55-gallon water drums).

Do my neighbors think I'm NUTZ? Probably. Do I care? HELL NO. But I'll tell you THIS, if TSHTF at rollover, whose house do you think they'll ALL show up at? The ant or the grasshopper, which one are YOU?

BTW, latest CAP Gemini survey shows that (currently) 22% of U.S. fortune 500 companies' "critical systems" WILL NOT BE COMPLIANT on 1/1/2000. That's THEIR OWN ANSWER. 72% of those companies have reported Y2K failures HAVE ALREADY OCCURRED. How many of those failures have YOU heard about? Think you're likely to?

Did you read about how at a press club meeting in D.C. a month ago (or so), government representatives "requested" that the media only report POSITIVE Y2K STORIES? This was reported in Reuters.

If I were you, I'd keep preparing.

Dennis (a fellow ant...)

226 days remain. About 5400 hours. Get ready. Prepare. Something's going to happen.

-- Dennis (djolson@pressenter.com), May 19, 1999.

I agree with all of you. Dennis you're right on! Shellie don't worry, that CRAP about a recession being caused by stocking up is DOUBLESPEAK, of the worst kind. The people who told you that are LYING, and they are SCUM!! You are doing the right thing by preparing for the worst, so keep it up!! People think I'm crazy too, but I just ignore them and continue to prepare. With all the problems in the world, SOMETHING WILL HAPPEN IN THE NEXT FEW MONTHS. Remember that. I'm sure that we will have problems, as I can feel it... That's why I'm preparing... Good luck!

-- Crono (Crono@timesend.com), May 19, 1999.

Shellie,

If retailers didn't want me to buy their goods, they wouldn't have them for sale. I just laugh when I hear the spin doctors saying not to hoard or stash cash. Like the old saying goes...... "Don't believe it until someone denies it." :)

Stay tough,

GeeGee

-- GeeGee (GeeGee@madtown.com), May 19, 1999.

Shellie : Yesterday my wife and I had kitchen table discussion with a long time friend, who's a dyed in the wool DGI. This is not surprizing with her as she see' the world through her own rose colored glasses (with a designer label) of course. She thinks nothing of sending her husband out in a snow storm to pick up one jar of ragu sauce so she can fix dinner. Being prepared has been a way of life in our home for most of my adult life. Y2K aside, we live in earthquake country , heavy winter storms and seasonal employment. I too would have a hard time sleeping if our pantry was bare and living in a cold house. Hang in there and go with your gut feeling , you usually can't go wrong if you do that.....Good Luck

-- Capt Dennis (souza@ptialaska.net), May 19, 1999.

As a citizen of the United States with all of the overwhelming

derogatory info. from Congress,analysts,programmers,cia,FEMA, U.N,warnings from the president etc. what would be considered an asset to ones community? An uninformed unprepared citizen? or an informed and prepared citizen. The only debate after answering this question is---- how informed and how much prep.

-- Ready or not (dciinc@aol.com), May 19, 1999.

shellie,

To be unprepared, is simply un-American. At least it used to be.

Trust yourself to do what is "right." (And you don't have to ask permission to think and act, either.)

You can also prepare to share.

Diane

-- Diane J. Squire (sacredspaces@yahoo.com), May 19, 1999.

Dear Shellie - "The problem is that now I am reading article after article that is saying that people should not be stocking up because doing so will throw us all into a recession!!" This is so much pure bullshit it boggles my mind, and my mind doesn't boggle easily.

If you would like to know how the economy really works, stop reading hack articles by ex-journalism majors, and start reading Hayek, Friedman, Rothbard, von Mises, etc. that base their works on the real world. The book Economics In One Lesson is a good place to start.

You are doing the right thing. Your small stockpile isn't big enough to compensate for 0.00001% of the change in inventory of retailers and wholesalers that have jumped on (due to economic necessity) the just in time bandwagon. J-I-T can easily become J-T-L just too late.

IDSD

-- Ken Seger (kenseger@earthlink.net), May 19, 1999.

STAY ON TARGET!

-- nothere (nothere@nothere.com), May 19, 1999.

Shellie--

This is one case in which there is absouletly no "Guilt" in being right or wrong. I had to fight buying in to the thought that I might want something to happen, just to make me 'right' about preparations. None of us want this, but since we're stuck with it, stay the course. Your family and community need you.

Respectfully;

-- unspun@lright (mikeymac@uswest.net), May 19, 1999.

I too am a little confused. Do I store or not. Each day I read something to change my mind. I'm not a computer wiz , a mom with three kids that just wants to be prepared. Unfortunately there is no one to talk to about this issue in my town. Any time I mention it I get crazy looks. So I dont mention it anymore! I'll continue to read your informative lists. good luck all.Thanks for letting me in and listening.

-- michelle (msj11wm@aol.com), May 19, 1999.

Michelle,

Thank you for caring enough about your family to spend valuable time researching this most mysterious happenstance to be. I hope you seek out information from a wide variety of sources. Check the archives at the bottom of the "New Questions" page where you'll find a wealth of links on an endless variety of topics relating to Y2K.

Know that besides the oft-times heated personal battles which occur daily, many kind, caring people congregate here. Don't be afraid to 'speak' up!

Best Wishes to You & Yours,

-- Bingo1 (howe9@pop.shentel.net), May 19, 1999.

STORE!

For the sake of your children, STORE!

If you need additional motivation, try imagining how you would tell your children that they have to go to bed hungry some night.

-- nothere nothere (nothere@nothere.com), May 19, 1999.

I've been away from this sight for a few months and decided to check in. I'm not surprised that the same dumb questions are still being asked. Some oldies on this forum have asked where have all the seasoned contributors gone and why? I don't need to elaborate any further because a sheeple is a sheeple and a sheeple never changes.

-- twice (twicearound@twice.com), May 19, 1999.

You must learn the difference between NEWS and SPIN. This is the middle of May, we should have been awash with good news by now. Time has run out for any GOOD NEWS that will make a big difference.

-- FLAME AWAY (BLehman202@aol.com), May 19, 1999.

Michelle -- Feel free to e-mail me if you'd like someone to "chat" with about preps...

-- Libby Alexander (libbyalex@aol.com), May 19, 1999.

Shellie- It wasn't very many years ago, that EVERY family routinely stocked up each year. the knew to have on hand enough food and supplies for the year. NOT doing so was downright iresponsible. It is only very late in our history that we have been programmed to follow the wal-Mart "Just in time" philosophy, depending on stopping at the store for an item at a time.

Believe me- You won't throw the nation into a recession if you stock up on tuna and rice and batteries. In fact, your purchase will just propel your retailer to order more so someone else can buy it. DON'T believe the spin. You don't want to be sitting there cold in the dark, with nothing to eat feeling proud that YOU didn't help throw the nation into a recession!

And if nothing happens? So what?

-- anita (hillsidefarm@drbs.com), May 19, 1999.

I have read some excellent posts on this thread. Several folks said they just have a "bad feeling" about things. I too have a bad feeling about things, Y2K is part of it, Klintoon is more of it, the now very real threat of nuclear attack on America is probably the rest of it. You are very prudent to prepare! Y2K may be a Sunday picnic compared to what's down the road. Martial law, nuclear fallout, concentration camps, forced labor and relocation, totalitarian police state, huh...I think you get the picture, now the media/government combine is out to trash the 2nd amendment. Lets see...? Disarmed peasants are much easier to control than these pesky armed citizens. Yes I too have a "bad feeling", I pray to God that America wakes up.

-- Larry D. McCoy (lom1953@aol.com), May 19, 1999.

Shellie & Michelle: DON'T let anyone make you feel bad for trying to protect your family from what you think may be a danger to them. I'm a mom too, and that is that biggest motivation in my preps...the kids.

Let me give you a personal experience of just how quickly one can go from happy the way things are to i can't believe this is happening to me!

Last summer my husband came home from work very upset. There had been an explosion in the plant and a co-worker was killed. The plant was shut down for 1 week to investigate what the cause was. Ok, 1 week was no big deal. However the following week when he returned to work 2 sister plants had declared local strikes. Now if you don't remember this one, let me refresh your memory . All the plants i am talking about are General Motors assembly plants. Within 3 days of the local strikes the JIT inventory had snowballed to other plants causing them to shut down productions. Everyday the ball got bigger,until it rolled over GM plants coast to coast and most of canada! All this took 4 days from my husbands return to work to send him right back home again. Only this time it lasted over 7 weeks with no unemployment!!! We were totally unprepared for such a long stretch without the main paycheck coming in. I usually work from my home on an as needed basis, but had found a part-time job to give me some personal motivation you don't get at home. That was the smartest thing i did last year, because we had to use my little check to eat, fill up the car (we live 7 miles from the nearest store)and pay for medications. We are blessed with a loving, extended family who pitched in with some groceries and a supportive community who took our plight to one of the local churches and they responded with evough groceries for a full week.

I tell you all of this because i never intend to be caught with my pants down again!!! Prepare...Prepare....Prepare!!! You'll never regret it and neither will your family. Blessings to both of you.

-- kitten (kitten@vcn.net), May 19, 1999.

As apiece of trivia, there exist more nerves/nerve tissue in the guts than the brain (measured by length or weight, I believe) When people "have a gut feeling" there may be something to it!

MOM's :

I TELL YOU THREE TIMES. I TELL YOU THREE TIMES. I TELL YOU THREE TIMES. Follow your gut feelings. Follow your gut feelings. Follow your gut felings.

chuck, who just left Deetee on the Gay Deceiver.

(Aplogies to RAH)

-- Chuck, a night driver (rienzoo@en.com), May 20, 1999.

Looking for a good deal on Y2K lighting, water filters, and grain mills? Check out the links below:

Cooperative Preps: Aladdin Lamps, etc.
http://www.greenspun.com/bboard/q-and-a-fetch-msg.tcl?msg_id=001p 2y

Cooperative Preps: Katadyn Water Filters, etc.
http://www.greenspun.com/bboard/q-and-a-fetch-msg.tcl?msg_id=001p IM

Cooperative Preps: Corona Victoria Grain Mill with Large Hopper, etc.
http://www.greenspun.com/bboard/q-and-a-fetch-msg.tcl?msg_id=001p JE

Sincerely,
Stan Faryna

Got 14 days of preps? If not, get started now. Click here.

Click here and check out the TB2000 preparation forum.

-- Stan Faryna (faryna@groupmail.com), November 22, 1999.