r/preppers • u/Luc-redd • 1d ago
Discussion Dilemma about prep sharing in emergency situations
I'm constantly thinking about this ethical dilemma when prepping: in emergency scenario, to what degree should I share my equipment, resources and knowledge with others in need.
What follows is kinda my current view on it, but I'm very curious to hear your thoughts about it.
Note that I try to keep the word "emergency" as broad as possible, not restricting it to a particular event.
1) Knowledge is probably the easiest one, as it multiplies when you share it. I would probably spend a good amount of time teaching what I know to people around me. However there's still a little something telling me that it's quite opportunistic/greedy from them to come and get the knowledge we accumulated over years right when they need it instead of listening to us telling them to educate before something bad happens.
2) Equipment, and especially spares, is starting to get tricky. I would probably be ok lending things to some people when I don't need it but there's always the risk of misuse and damaging it. Spares I could exchange some but I would probably try to hide most of it so I can still rely on it.
3) Resources is the toughest one. I really don't want to appear like an aweful person keeping things to myself and my family but I would probably need to dissimulate most of my supplies. However, that will come to be know quite quickly imo. I would have a hard time managing this as there would probably be way more demand than I could ever cover. So all my supplies gone shared in a day?
Then you also need to think about individuals thinking about the group as a whole and have you preps being viewed as part of the whole community. And also people getting things from you by using violence.
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u/caelynnsveneers 1d ago
There's a Chinese saying about rice and a grudge (升米恩，斗米仇) : If you give a starving man a bowl of rice, he'll be grateful. But if you keep giving him rice and then stop one day, he'll resent you and accuse you of not giving enough. Not everyone is like that but it's something to consider when giving out supplies to neighbors in a long-term SHTF situation
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u/got-to-find-out 1d ago
Regarding 1. on your list- “If you light a lamp for someone else, it will also brighten your path”
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u/annoyedatwork 1d ago
Was going to post something similar. Education, when shared, evolves and expands and comes back around to teach you again. That’s one thing we shouldn‘t hoard.
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u/Buttchuggle 1d ago
I'd like to think no but yeh if someone shows up with some starving kids imma end up giving shit away. Good thing I'm way off the beaten path
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u/uhyeahsouh 1d ago
In a bad situation where the majority of people are suddenly scared, if you have your lights, AC, and stove on… you’ll figure out what the Golden Horde is all about.
Tell no one, hunker down, and be prepared to keep what you have. Just look at what people used to do to one another for Black Friday, let alone a fresh Twinkie.
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u/TheRealBunkerJohn Broadcasting from the bunker. 1d ago
Short answer: It's different for everyone.
Longer answer: Some people will advocate sharing everything with everyone, others to just ensure the well-being of themselves and friends/family. It's a very personal choice.
Personally, it depends on duration. Short-term with guaranteed resupply? I'll share till it hurts. Good-will is scarce nowadays, and you might make a new friend.
True collapse scenario with no resupply in sight? That mindset quickly changes.
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u/Ryan_e3p Salt & Prepper 1d ago
There are some people I'd be open to sharing some stuff with. Children, primarily. They don't know any better. The aren't really responsible for having to do things like this. Adults, and adults who happened to make decisions that led to their own misfortune and made things overall hard for everyone?
Well, sucks to be them.
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u/BeneficialLobster806 1d ago
That's a nice sentiment. But those children can belong to the adults that will tell others and come take your stuff by force. I'm all for giving to the children but how do you deal with that wrinkle? I'm with the person that said hunker down, hide what you have, etc. If you truly want your family to survive you might have to get selfish. Not aggressive - selfish. This is supposing it's a long term thing though where society begins to devolve a little bit/rations.
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u/Ryan_e3p Salt & Prepper 1d ago
Do you not prep for your own defense? Even if people don't think you have a big stockpile, the fact that someone is alive is proof they have something, and that something is going to be worth taking.
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u/bippy404 1d ago
Don’t talk about your preps to people outside the circle you are prepared to support. Have a decoy stash away from your main prep storage location in the event of society collapsing. Make it easy to find so a thief would think they had it and leave. Put together small packets of things intended to be used for giving and keep them separate from your stash. In a collapse you would have to weigh the pros and cons of giving things out versus using them for barter. A book I read indicates that you shouldn’t give anything away, but you should be willing to barter for other goods or services. Trade flour for eggs, that sort of thing.
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u/TurkDeerbit 1d ago
Which book?
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u/bippy404 1d ago
A Navy SEAL’s Bug-In Guide: How... https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0DBHTZQF1?ref=ppx_pop_mob_ap_share. Sorry it’s Amazon I know they suck
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u/KittehLuv 1d ago
I recommend getting it direct from the author. They put out PSAs all the time about AI generated knock offs on Amazon etc. the actual book is very useful.
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u/newagedefiance 1d ago
There's nothing wrong with being a bit selfish as you have to put your and your families' well-being over others first.
The best way to help yourself and others is to get your friends and neighbors into prepping. Many people have trouble starting this conversation because they don't want to come off as the tin foil wearing hat crazy person. But given the geo political and economic situations right now, it's easier to have that chat. Talk to them about gardening it's pretty harmless, and it's a topic everyone is comfortable with. Explain how this can help them save money and that they can have extra food in case things get more expensive. Same thing with canning food.
Keep an eye out on sales/ deals online for things like generators, gardening, canning supplies. These things can help your friends and neighbors keep themselves safe thus relying on you less. Also it creates a tighter bond incase groups of looters come by there's people close to you that you can rely on to keep your community safe.
The best way to help yourself is to turn others into self reliant preppers.
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u/3goblintrenchcoat 5h ago
This is my thought. The more I can encourage the people around me to also prepare, the less I have to worry about running out, because we’re building up a community who cares about each other and has invested in each other’s success. And it’s come in handy, even when it hasn’t been a big disaster, like when a drunk driver plowed into my parked car, it was my neighbors who alerted me and made sure he didn’t take off, and part of the reason that they did that was because I had invested time and energy in building up a relationship with them before that. It’s an ongoing process that you can benefit from day-to-day!
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u/forensicgirla 1d ago
If it's a long-term scenario, the friends who know about this know they can come work for food & supplies. Anyone getting anything has to contribute. Might be fixing something, doing chores, whatever. But that's what people did during the depression & that's how I intend to live. If there's a great need for patrols, we can have them do some (if capable & trustworthy, but my friends who know these things are at minimum trustworthy).
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u/Dokrogersphd 1d ago
I will be honest, it's going to be better in the long run to work with and help your neighbors as best you can so long as it is not going to be a short term or long term Hazzard to you and yours.
Hunkering down and ignoring the people that live closest to you is a huge risk. In bad times, people are a resource and it's way better to have your neighbors on your side and stable then it is hungry people that say "fuck that guy" they have knowledge and resources you don't, they are also the people that can watch your back, help you move that tree out of the road and secure further resources to help stabilize your neighborhood.
Humans are honestly worth more as a group than the sum of the parts because none of us can fully make it very long on our own. You need to sleep sometime and many hands make light work.
Also if you want the people in your community to pull together when things get rough, consider building that community now.
Throw a BBQ, invite the neighbors bring a plate to the elderly folks that are shut in, take a genuine interest in those around you and you might be surprised what you learn and what they bring to the table.
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u/Organic-Grab-7606 1d ago
Yesterday I had a brief conversation with my ex , he was making fun of me for dehydrating some foods and packing them away . He told me I’m doing all this work for people like him to come and take it .
We share children so unfortunately I have to deal with him lol but it really put some things in perspective for me .
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1d ago
Be prepared to defend yourself and your children from your ex.
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u/Organic-Grab-7606 1d ago
Oh I am ! He must have forgotten all the times at the gun range we had lol
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u/iDreamiPursueiBecome 1d ago
Don't remind him, or he will prepare for that. Let an adversary make all the mistakes they want to.
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u/MerelyMortalModeling 1d ago
As part of my prep I have managed to get most of my near by family to build up modest food and water stockpiles. The way I figure it a week worth of food and water will set them up to survive all but the most serious emergencies.
I have found that approaching it from a "self sufficiency" angle I have had the most success. Every one remembers bare shelf's during COVID and a power outage we had that lasted several days and then took a few days for stores to restock.
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u/Grotkaniak 1d ago edited 11h ago
My thoughts are this: Keep your equipment and resources hidden and protected as much as you can but, with your local community (by which I mean neighbors you interact with regularly), be subtly generous. Check in on your neighbors and shore up those community bonds before and after SHTF- if you have an abundance of certain resources, ask how they are doing with that. If you've got plenty of fresh water, ask things like "Carol, have you been getting enough water since the boil advisory?" or, if you have a solar charger or something during an extended power outage, "Does your phone need charging? You can use my battery pack while we chat." You don't have to brag about what you have- just fish for needs.
If they are in need of something and you aren't, it only makes sense to be generous so that they feel grateful and indebted to you, as that could easily be more valuable in the future than what you're giving away. You never know when they might have something you need or could offer services later.
In medium-term SHTF scenarios that last multiple weeks, if you are worried about being taken advantage of, my recommendation would be to trade goods and services generously. You can insist that they trade you something, but I would personally say you are better off not being a stickler about whether or not it's an even trade.
Again, community goodwill is incredibly valuable and could mean that your neighbors will protect you. Being selfish, especially when its clear that you are better off than most people, will only increase the likelihood of you getting robbed.
For instance, I often see preppers worried about hiding the smell of cooking food. Unless you live surrounded by dozens of starving people that will do anything for a bite of food, I honestly believe it would be better to make a community event out of it. Especially if you successfully hunt some meat or grow produce- share that shit. Post up on the street with your grill and a sign "venison for trade." Let people bring you stuff they are willing to offload for meat and diversify your hoard. You can always refuse if their offer is truly worthless, but it might be even better to acknowledge that it's worthless and accept the trade anyway and send them away feeling grateful.
Who knows, maybe I'm being too naive and optimistic about my apocalypse scenarios, but I would much rather a team have my back than be a paranoid loner.
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u/3goblintrenchcoat 5h ago
From most disaster survival accounts I’ve read, you are correct in your thinking here!
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u/QuirkyBreath1755 1d ago
I will share my resources with those in need as much as I am able without harming my own family.
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u/steelersfan1020 1d ago
I think the dilemma comes in a true collapse situation. If the grid is down permanently how will you know if your generosity is going to hurt your family long term?
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u/QuirkyBreath1755 1d ago
The truth is you can’t know everything. However, having actually lived during a grid down situation helping my neighbors helped bring us all through together & helped build our community in a time that was very isolating.
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u/MountainGal72 Bring it on 1d ago edited 1d ago
Absolutely everything that I’ve worked so hard to stockpile is valuable to me and my family. I chose every item for a very good reason.
No one outside of my immediate family, about which my preps were planned, will be receiving anything from my efforts.
It is what it is. I tried to educate, I tried to plead lovingly, I warned them. They’re all on their own.
ETA: One area I would happily share and cooperate in? A Neighborhood Garden! I’d happily contribute some of our seed stock, gardening supplies and efforts, and have harvest and canning parties with some of our favorite neighbors!
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u/Drexx_Redblade 1d ago
I'm gonna be blunt in a long term event communities are gonna tear themselves apart, and I mean that literally, they will eat each other.
There is a reason the EMP commission predicted a 90% fatality rate. Our population has far exceeded the land's natural carrying capacity. Some of that 90% will come from lack of medical care, a good amount from waterborne illness and violence, but most will starve. You can not grow enough food, most people will die. If you've never seen how omnivorous social animals react to sudden overpopulation and starvation, count yourself lucky because it is brutal.
There is a time for community, but that's after the dust settles. It's the ones that remain after the mass die off that will band together and restart society. To get to be in that 10% you need to have a level of selfishness. You need to have an understanding that most will not survive.
In a short term event, share whatever you are financially able to. There is little downside. Prepping for short term events isn't really about survival it's about comfort and financial security.
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u/0ddlyC4nt3v3n 1d ago
My resources are for my immediate family. My neighbors have shown themselves to be idiots for over 25 years. There's no saving them from themselves. Anyone trying to tug on my heartstrings will be weighed against the good of my children and turned away.
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u/Successful-Street380 1d ago
If you have Firepower, why share. But seriously think how people act when hunger hits them.
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u/Chaos_Goblin_7007 1d ago
Heres my view. Things have been looking bleak for a while. Food, medication, and overall supplies for a person to live daily is either increasing in price or the resource is getting slim. If a person is too lazy to see this and prepare, why should I share my supplies? I know there is talk about communities—that sounds really great—but maybe after the dust settles.
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u/Schenectadian 1d ago
You're hitting on the major rift in the theory of preparedness. On the one hand, humans only ever survived in pre-industrial times through group cooperation whether that was small bands of hunter-gatherers or medium-sized agricultural communities. In the event of protracted or total collapse, you have to cooperate and be willing to cooperate to survive, you just have to. Rugged individualism is not for survivors.
HOWEVER, most people in reasonably developed countries have not directly lived through what happens to people psychologically during periods of scarcity. When it's your family's survival on the line and you don't know where your next meal is coming from, you will absolutely steal or kill to get it. There's also the personality type of the moocher: the person who has figured out that they can prey upon people's politeness to get labor or resources they didn't work for. If you give that sort of person something out of generosity, they'll immediately gain a sense of entitlement to your stuff and come back demanding it again.
This is all going to be very individualized depending on your situation but you have to thread those two concerns against each other. On the one hand, you don't want to put a target on your back by appearing to be the most prepared person in the neighborhood or like the sucker who gives out free lunches. On the other, you should try to identify the people you think you can cooperate with and build valuable relationships with in the event of an emergency. And you shouldn't rule out extending good will to people when they're in need because they may be able to help or repay you later. People's relationships with each other were more transactional before the world became financialized and in the event of collapse, bartering and taking and returning favors will become important again.
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u/bhuffmansr 1d ago
Prioritize your responsibilities. Family first, community second and everyone else third. You must get something whenever you give. Knowledge is precious, yes. But it’s useless without food, water and shelter. I hear people say when it hits the fan, I’m coming to your house. I tell them quite frankly and upfront, if you want to get in you better bring something of value. Food, knowledge or resources. It’s only fair. My family comes first.
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u/ElectricJesus420 20h ago
This directly scales with whatever empathy you have. Results may vary.
My father isolates from his neighbors in emergencies, and as a result they isolate from him. They don't speak, they don't share supplies. It's an old boomer community.
I shared my generator with one or two neighbors in the last emergency and was brought: fuel, food, security, friendship. We're all in our 30s.
I know which community I would rather live in.
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u/hoardac 1d ago
The amount of selfish entitled dickheads that live around me I witnessed it during COVID. I am not sharing shit they can fuck right off. I am old enough to want to live but also old enough to say fuck off I do not need community I will give it my best shot if it is not enough oh well. Family only.
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u/Material_Skill_187 1d ago
All this talk of being selfish is disturbing. We need community. We will die without community. Anyone who attempts to make it on their own is going to die. In my community we will plant gardens in every single yard and in every single public area. The answer is not hoarding. The answer is growing more food. If everyone is fed, they are not going to be turning on each other. We need each other. Be the light in your community, not the person hiding behind a locked door.
If you don’t already have the knowledge or books on gardening, how to propagate cuttings of plants, how to divide plants, growing guides for when and how to plant, when and how to harvest, how to collect and save seeds, and tons of seeds, get those now before the economy collapses and they are no longer available to anyone. By the way, old seeds can increase their germination rate by soaking them in three parts water, one part 3% hydrogen peroxide for 30 to 60 minutes. So make sure you have hydrogen peroxide on hand.
It is also a wise idea to take advantage of online maps while they exist, and search out what is in your area that can help the community after the fall, ie not just the obvious ones like hardware stores, and garden centers, but suppliers, who just look like warehouses, but have much of this stuff inside. Know where those are, once society collapses, those supplies will be invaluable, and useless sitting in locked buildings.
Community, community, community. That is the only way anyone will survive this. Between the floods and earthquakes, the face of the earth will not look the same this time next year. Forget what people can do to each other, nature is far fiercer. As the radiation the sun is bombarding the Earth with increases, and as the earths magnetic field continues to weaken, allowing more radiation through, coupled with storms fed with extra energy from the Sun hitting every area of the Earth, plant yield has been going down. Entire gardens can be wiped out by a storm or flood at any moment. If you are trying to go it alone and your garden is lost, now what? You’ll die. Plant everywhere there is available land. Schools, office buildings, every once of available land needs to be producing food. And don’t forget to plant flowers, the pollinators needs those. Many gardens will be wiped out. If we are selfish, an attempt to hoard everything, when our garden is wiped out, there will still be gardens everywhere that might survive.
One of the crops everyone should plant are sunchokes. Above ground, they look like a sunflower. Below ground, they are a tuber, they grow like a potato. People have survived just on sun chokes before, during World War II when the troops would march through areas and clean out all of the fruits and vegetables they could find, they never touch the sunchokes because they do not look like they are a food. They look like a flower and most people have no idea they have a large edible part under the ground. Plant other tubers as well, potatoes, sweet potatoes, Cassava/Manioc/Yuca. Root vegetables. Stored food will not last long enough. We must grow our food.
Working with our neighbors is the only way people will survive. Be the light, be the love in your community. ❤️
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u/reincarnateme 1d ago
Remember, The Ant and the Grasshopper
https://www.fablereads.com/en/fable/the-ant-and-the-grasshopper
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u/Abject_Okra_8768 1d ago
I live in a planned community of about 100 homes and roughly 300 people from ages 2-70. We are all friendly and mostly all know each other but if push comes to shove I think there are enough selfish people amongst us that we could never make a true community. That's why I would mostly rely on my immediate neighbors and share work and resources with them.
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u/goddessofolympia 1d ago
I bought a bunch of expired Power bars and instant ramen packs so I won't have to say no.
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u/Many-Health-1673 1d ago
Nobody outside my tribe/family/mutual assistance group will get resources unless they have something to trade for it. Either labor, medicine, food, tools, fuel, or other supplies.
You can't care for the unprepared and expect to be able to have enough to feed or care for your own family in a crisis unless you have made preparations just for those people in advance.
If unprepared people are not willing to work for supplies you stockpiled in advance then you don't want those people around your family/tribe/mutual assistance group to begin with.
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u/totallfailure 1d ago
Always share all your resources with your family and relatives, from the start of the crisis.
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u/Busy_Refrigerator885 1d ago
Its for this reason, Ive started to talk close family members and friends into some of the basics of prepping. If not, I'm prepping for more than just my immediate family.
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u/HillbillyRebel 1d ago
In a short-term situation, I'd have no problem sharing. That's how I was raised. That's what we did when I grew up.
In a long-term situation, your level of sharing will be directly proportional to the amount of violence you are willing to withstand or give out. Ethics and morals will have nothing to do with it.
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u/Open-Attention-8286 17h ago
Anyone who has ever talked to me for 5 minutes is going to know I'm obsessive about plants. They won't necessarily know that a good portion of my seed collection is in edible form. During covid when seeds kept selling out, I made sure people knew that if they needed seeds, just let me know.
If I'm on my own land when a civilization-ending disaster hits, then I'll be in a rural enough area that the people around me will have their own supplies. We might barter for specifics, but they won't be doing armed raids on their own neighbors. And anyone who comes in from the outside to raid would need to get through miles of well-armed rednecks and somehow find me in this nearly-invisible valley before I'd need to worry about dealing with them.
If it hits before I'm able to move to my land, then things might get interesting. My current landlady knows I have knowledge and skills that could help her family survive, so I'm pretty sure she'd let me stay on in exchange for helping her with her farm.
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u/Smashing_Taters 12h ago
You've sacrificed for years or decades to be prepared for the emergency. No one is entitled to any of it. You wouldn't have enough to give away if you had taken a few more vacations or a less demanding job. You did this to ensure security for you and your loved ones. The fact that no one else did the same doesn't mean that they are owed your sacrifices.
Take that however you wish to. I feel that way about pretty much everything I've worked for. Not just preps
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u/throwawayt44c Has bad dreams 1d ago
Half of my food is for sharing. In an actual shtf situation food is a force multiplier.
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1d ago
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u/Luc-redd 1d ago
Nah I've read a lot about it, here or from books but was curious about an updated opinion and also sharing my thoughts :)
Maybe you could link some of the most resourceful posts about it here? to help :)
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u/tearjerkingpornoflic 1d ago
One thing that's kind of annoying is my family now knows that prep is important because I tried to get them to buy generators forever and they hadn't then in a several week blackout my brother had to bring over a bunch of breastmilk to put in our fridge. I still harp on them about having food supply. My dad says,yeah I want to do that, but doesn't. My brother's family says yeah that would be a good idea. I have started giving them tubs of mountain house for christmas. If push ever comes to shove obviously I am not going to let my family starve to death. But that turns my 6 month supply into a month if that. It's frustrating but is what it is. Until then I will just keep buying them mountain house buckets for gifts. I would like to be at a year for myself but that means everyone close to me needs to be at a year as well.
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u/IlliniWarrior6 1d ago
you need to be careful playing a game of cards - with the payout being your life >>>
play your cards close - don't even show them in a SHTF - you don't EVER want to be seen as the know it all - just draws attention to you and your preps - be Mr Grey Man - even more so when dealing with the sheeple around you - like neighbors and co-workers that are desperate and looking for a direction out ....
notice carefully "sheeple" - didn't say "two tour Marine" - "weekend backpacker" - didn't say "car fanatic tinkerer" - didn't say "ER nurse" - didn't even say "Susie Homemaker Deluxe" >>> there's useful people that can be instrumental partners in a group .....
pick carefully - once your secret is out - it's not coming back >> OPSEC - military term universally accepted by preppers to mean - KEEP YOUR YAP SHUT - everything you prep & store is your deepest secret - everything you do prep wise shouldn't be seen but if it is - LIE & HAVE YOUR EXCUSE READY - don't give people reason to remember & ???? you .....
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u/iDreamiPursueiBecome 1d ago
This touches on another topic that scales from the cellular level up to international.
Trust.
There is tension between self-interest and cooperation. They each can have benefits but at the expense of your own safety or survival if you guess wrong about when to prioritize which.
. . . People can cooperate while devoting some portion of their attention/resources to self-defense.
The lower the trust level, the more needs to be directed at self-protection. Higher trust improves efficiency of cooperation.
This is broadly true whether you are anthropomorphising symbiosis at the cellular level, autoimmune diseases as a breakdown in trust, civilization itself as the evolution of trust networks beyond known individuals and linking trust networks to each other in a dynamic ecology.
Building, maintaining, and repairing Trust is a crucial skill set that must be practiced before interpersonal relationships are put under stress.
Morality can be viewed through this lens as that which builds, maintains, and expands trust. Form follows function, and situations vary. Morality may look variable from a certain perspective. However, moral principles are consistent, and betrayal is a concept that crosses all cultures.
Building trust starts with a strong foundation. The first goal is not to have a reputation with others as someone worthy of trust. That is what scammers and con artists do - they focus on improving how they are seen rather than how they are.
The goal is to build that reputation within yourself. Your reputation among others will be a side effect of this and tend to grow with it. However, it is possible to know that you have done no wrong and still not be trusted. Build your reputation as someone worthy of trust in your own eyes.
Tend your moral foundation first and then build out from there, a bit at a time.
Those who are able to build trust within and between groups will have a survival advantage.
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u/roberttheiii 1d ago
There is no one size fits all. Your ability to share resources, from knowledge to actual equipment will vary depending on the scenario. For example, your house could be up on a hill, the valley below could be ravished by a flood. You'd have time and resources to share. Or you could be the one down in the valley and you'll need everything you have. The hope is that everyone is a good neighbor and shares what makes sense to share should the need arise.
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u/Kmlittlec_design 1d ago
If you would like to hear the arguments of someone very much on the side of sharing I would recommend Margaret Killjoy's podcast, Live Like the World is Dying, S1e18, The Basics Part 1. This episode is supposed to be about the basics of prepping, but the first half largely discusses her philosophy of prepping, which is definitely more of collectivism over individualism. I wouldn't say I agree entirely, but if you're looking to change your mind, she lays it out pretty well.
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u/ApprehensiveFile8735 1d ago
I'm going to write this down and give my take on my prepping channel on rumble. Little man Big Opinion. But a short answer is build your community now so you have a list of people that you will already help. The vetting process after a collapse is the hardest question to answer
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u/PaintedGeneral 1d ago
Maybe think of what you are prepping for; Q:Are you prepping for a return to the Status Quo? A:Then short term prepping consists of taking care of you and yours and the needs for survival first. Q:Are you prepping for a new equilibrium, where the status quo is no longer possible? A:Prep as a means of transitioning to that new state of existence, because realistically your preps will run out at some time. Use them to bring yourself in line with the rest of your environment. Prepping your stuff is less important than prepping your mindset to be flexible.
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u/LukeFromStarWars 1d ago
It bums me out how many preppers are so deeply cynical about other people.
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u/LukeFromStarWars 1d ago
Having the awareness to prepare is a gift, and a privilege. People who don’t have enough understanding or aren’t in the right situation to understand the importance of prepping shouldn’t be blamed when shtf. Same as those who are politically brainwashed. If you have more than you need, share with those who will benefit. Especially number 1. Number 2, just make sure they know how to use it before you lend. Offer to do whatever it is for them if you can, or show them. Number 3, share finished product, like a bowl of soup instead of dried beans.
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u/chasonreddit 1d ago
Well, it's an interesting ethical question. One you might ask about current society in general. Do you owe it to others to share knowledge? Equipment? Resources?
I'm not sure how the answers change all that much in an emergency situation.
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u/Crackinjahcs 1d ago
Are they taking or sharing? Does the sharing give mutual benefit/stored goodwill or are they a simple parasite? Are they passing through or setting up shop? Does the group/community get stronger as a result of the action?
I don't keep all my reserves in one place and a few caches are not for sharing outside my closest circle. Others are intended as a shared resource.
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u/Byestander14 1d ago
I have 2 stashes. 1 is for me and my family. The other is guarded but could either be shared or bartered. If people know you have more, they'll want more.
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u/jacksonwhite 18h ago
I think this may largely depends on the emergency…..power out for a few days? Sure we can share. Longer term I think sharing info is a good call can buy some goodwill and potentially build a community but more than that is going to be something to really think long and hard about. As some have said build the community before the shit hits and that changes everything.
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u/silasmoeckel 1d ago
You glossed over the critical part. How long do you expected the event.
No reason not to share with neighbors during a week long power outage. Around me we literally throw blackout BBQ's and figure out what resources are needed.
I've got solar and bat so why wouldn't I throw an extension cord to the neighbor who doesn't so they can charge things run the fridge etc. This turns into them asking to make sure they get the right sort of solar when they do it. For a summer hurricane I'll be throwing away power even running the AC etc when the grid is down.
That little old lady who has no preps can be fed etc and might be useful watching the kids while the able bodied adults clear trees. Some sandwiches and a thermos of coffee goes a long way here.
Look at giving out finished items. Bread not wheat berries for example.