food charity

CHARITABLE FOOD
Charitable food donations after a crash has come up recently on www.survivalblog.com and also in a book I just got done with from Bruce Clayton ( an old 80’s magazine article compilation published by Paladin Press ). That was where I got the “animals are all brown” argument in the camouflage article. In the article in the book Clayton argued the merits of giving stored food as barter. In the Survival Blog article it took more of a Christian Charity tone. While both answers have their strong points I would instead argue for the more selfish approach, if for no other reason than to be different and difficult.
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When Bruce arrived at his Super Secret small town location in California’s Sierra Nevada Mountains ( back when the state was a fit place for both man and beast to live ) his no doubt delightful mother in law blabbed to the whole place what an important survivalist writer he was. So, out go the plans to buy a few Battle Rifle Cadillac’s ( H&K 91’s for those Stone Age types that mistakenly think I’m referring to M14’s or FN-FAL’s- look, Ma, no gas fouling and near indestructible parts ) and he decides to stockpile enough to feed all his neighbors in a five mile radius. I would have bought the HK’s, shot the mother in law, her daughter too if I got any lip about it and moved to an even more remote area.
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The idea was to trade the wheat to each household on a weekly basis and get barter in exchange, such as a normally unproductive old crone knitting a wool sweater instead of popping prunes and cashing in a Social Security check. That’s how you get these old farts to pay their way. And no, they did not pay their fair share into the system. They paid far less of the 15% I’m paying and for a shorter period of time. The average recipient now gets back everything they paid into the system their entire career in under five years of Old Bugger Welfare. 78 Friggin Million people are now or shortly going to be on this generous vote buying welfare. The old bastards are going to bankrupt us a lot faster than single moms on welfare ever could. If about one in three of the population is working and 25% are on government Job Welfare, that means every holder of a private sector job is going to have to support one friggin old worthless fart. And I don’t even ( much ) blame them, the worthless old ones who won’t have the decency of walking out into a snowstorm and relieve the tribe of the burden of feeding them. My dad is on the public teat. So if I can’t hate him for bankrupting the system I can’t hate your dad either. I hate the politicians that lived off of the scam.
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The other argument is that you have a moral obligation to at least warn your neighbors of the impending doom. And then try to set a little aside for them when it all comes crashing down. A great idea when your close neighbors are three miles down the road. A really crappy idea for most of us that don’t live out in the country. I have over a hundred neighbors in my trailer park. I ain’t warning one of the bastards. One, they will form a lynch mob and kill me and steal my food. It will be enough to feed all of them one half a day. I keep two hundred pounds of wheat and two hundred rounds of ammunition in my trailer. The rest is in storage. If I can keep them at bay long enough with my .357 I can load up the rifle. But odds are one will be able to shoot back. Better they don’t know I have food.
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And, to be fair, what the Hell is this Blog, anyway? I know I’m trying to make money off of it but the majority ignore my pitiful sniveling and read it for free. I am providing a public service here, warning about the coming hard times and showing you how to cheaply prepare for them. How much more charitable am I supposed to get? Aren’t I doing enough? How many people has Jim over at Survival Blog helped out by publishing his book before Y2K? I would wager tens of thousands. He got the message out to the confused and ignorant. He is still getting mail all the time thanking him for turning them on to the danger. Why should he feel obligated to help his neighbors also? At most I would give them a copy of my book at a house warming, if I were him.
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The only good reason you should have for stockpiling food for others is so they can work it off with needed skills. And even that can backfire when they kill you, steal your food, put your wife and daughter to work in the new post-Apocalypse brothel and take over as area warlord. I don’t trust anyone past my family in that case. My dad might be old with a bad ticker but I can trust him when I go to sleep. My brother in law might agree with me on the future and still fail to prepare but I don’t mind providing for him as he is still more trustworthy than a stranger off the street, even if they are a doctor. Well, some professions are worth taking the risk. Like a chemist. They would be worth their weight in wheat.
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Be cautious with any charity. It is noble, but until civilization stabilizes after a collapse you are risking your life by trusting strangers. And risking your family. A human being can rationalize any behavior, including betrayal and cannibalism. Including killing you and your three year old child. The traditional rationalization for Native American genocide was they occupied our land. We justify holding Muslims indefinitely without a trial because there is a slender chance they might become a terrorist. I might become a child molester, since I’m male, should you kill me before I do anything? Rational thinking will go the way of the electric grid after a collapse. Be prepared for it.
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