"The Great Die Off"

[Mortblanc]

Numbers, statistics and the rambling of writers living in US suburbia must all be taken with a grain of salt.

Rural life in the eastern US is a separate culture and the numbers and the writers do not reflect that culture accurately because they are not a part of it and do not understand it.

Rural areas often show higher unemployment and lower income due to these differences in culture. That culture is the very thing a self sufficient "prepper" might consider an ideal lifestyle.

Unemployed in the US officially means anyone between 18-65 that could be working who are not "working" (having taxes with held from their paychecks). In the rural areas one can be hard at work and the government never knows it.

In rural areas the culture accepts women staying at home raising their children, growing a garden and preserving food as an acceptable life style. If that means they are considered "unemployed" they do not give a crap.

An equally large number of people earn good incomes doing seasonal labor in the tobacco fields and on those "monoculture farms", or as unlicensed contractors and they do not show up on the statistics charts.

They may put most of their meat in the freezer during hunting season, never buying a mouthful of beef or pork all year, and in the summer they eat a lot of fresh caught fish and the veggies from the back yard garden patch.

Rates of home ownership are also much higher in rural areas, where even the "poor" own a small plot that can be, and usually is, placed under cultivation even if the crop is only the seasonal favorites of the family.

Substandard living conditions also often refers to a 20 year old mobile home, heated by a wood stove, placed on land the dweller owns, rather than a newly build government subsidized flat that requires 1/3 of the paycheck each month.

and their kids can go outside and play without dodging bullets or bullies while mom and dad never fall under the watchful eye of tptb or CCTV.

There may be more people in the city "working" and making a bigger paycheck, but most are not living as well, or would not be as happy.

If those rural dwellers wanted a factory job, a flat near a buss stop and a park for their kids to play in they would pack up and move. They stay where they are because they are independent by nature and self reliant by breeding.

Those "Nonprepper" rural folks are living right in the spot you would consider the ideal long term BOL, they are already geared to the lifestyle and already have the mindset.

They just do not consider themselves "preppers".

They prefer the term "Redneck".