By J. D. Heyes

It’s not just “fringe” types and end-of-the-world religious prognosticators; more and more “everyday people” are sensing that something is wrong with their country and the world, and are taking steps to prepare for turbulent times.

Yes, technically they are “preppers” in today’s lexicon, but they are far from the kind of people that that term engenders. In fact, some of these “newbies” might even be your neighbors.

As reported by Fortune/CNN:

More and more Americans are spending money to get ready for an uncertain future — gathering food, water, tools and skills to help them weather anything from a hurricane to a pandemic.

Contrary to images of deluded or gun-obsessed “lone wolves,” many preppers are average consumers reacting to concrete worries, and their way of thinking is spreading, fueling an emerging lifestyle trend. That lifestyle is generating demand for a broad spectrum of products offering survival — or even comfort — when large-scale systems go down.

‘It’s not just country people anymore’

You can see the diversification of the prepper at many of the latest expos and conferences aimed at peddling goods to this emerging and ever-changing consumer demographic.

“To get a closer look,” wrote David Z. Morris for Fortune, “I visited Life Changes, Be Ready!, or LCBR, a new expo that held its second event on the weekend of November 2nd and 3rd, in Lakeland, Fla. [emphasis added]. LCBR gave an immediate sense of one big way that the preparedness crowd isn’t marginal at all — economically. The show floor was packed with a dizzying array of small businesses and products that defied stereotypical ‘prepper’ classification — not just ammunition and crossbows and camping gear, but also seed banks, beehives, financial planning, and acupressure.”

Indeed, said many of the expo’s vendors and entrepreneurs on the showroom floor, business has been rising.

One of these entrepreneurs, John Egger of Self Reliance Strategies, has been making and selling prepackaged seed banks for about four years. His market is expanding, he says.

“It’s definitely picking up. It’s not just country people anymore. We really cater to a suburban market … We call it suburban homesteading,” he told Morris.

Much of the new gear isn’t directed at low-rent folks or cave-dwellers. Items vary in price from $5,600 for a portable solar charging station to $649 for “Stomp Supreme” field medic kits offered by a firm called Doom and Bloom, LLC.

“This is the one recommended for people expecting civil unrest,” Morris quoted company officials as saying.

More reporting from Morris:

The diversity and type of products on offer was also remarkable. Egger’s seeds, for example, were prominently labelled “Organic” and “Non-GMO” — and so were all the other seeds on sale at the show. Those are distinctions you might not think were important to the same crowd in the market for a crossbow, but according to Egger, “you don’t have to explain to people anymore” why eating organic matters.

Prepping: Not a ‘fringe’ activity anymore

In addition to new high-tech, high-end products, there were also some quirky items. Earthworm farms and beehives were for sale as well, and at least two companies were selling essential oils.

In a back corner of the showroom, Mike Mah – aka No Stress Mike – was offering $30 pain reduction sessions, employing a “Hoy Chi” energy healing technique. His flyers predominately stated that he attended every Tea Park event he possibly could. He manipulated spines of dozens of show patrons who were willing (even as he kept a handgun tucked into his beltline).

There are many things that are driving new crowds to prep shows: the unevenness of a skyrocketing stock market, even as job growth and wages stagnate; uncertainty about the nation’s spiraling debt; angst over policies enacted by President Obama; the costs and requirements of Obamacare; and political partisanship.

But there is one common denominator among all: Prepping isn’t a “fringe” activity anymore, and failure to be prepared is the worst sin of all.

By Wendy McElroy

focuses upon people whose “inability to part with their belongings is so out of control that they are on the verge of a personal crisis”; like drug addicts, they require an intervention. The vilification of hoarders as mentally ill, child-endangering animal abusers is in full swing.

What is this vile and dangerous thing called hoarding? The noun “hoard” is defined as “a store of money or valued objects, typically one that is secret or carefully guarded.” The verb means to “save up as for future use.” In common usage, anyone who stores more of a good than their neighbors do is often viewed as a “hoarder.”

A common example of hoarding is stocking up on durable grocery items — such as canned goods, rice, or pasta — when they are on sale, so that your family has a year’s supply of staples in the house. In rural areas, this is known as “keeping a good pantry.”

Historically, governments have frowned upon hoarding. Especially in bad economic times, stigmatizing the hoarder for “causing” high prices or shortages because he buys more than his “share” serves a useful political purpose. They divert attention away from government policies, such as tariffs, that are the true cause of empty shelves and high prices. By stirring up resentment toward neighbors who own one more can of peas than you do, politicians avoid the full and just brunt of public anger.

In times of economic crisis, when governments flirt with rationing and price controls, the frown can turn into a scowl; laws against hoarding are then passed and goods are sometimes confiscated. The most notorious confiscation in America came in 1933 when President Franklin D. Roosevelt signed Executive Order 6102, ostensibly as a measure to combat the Great Depression. The order commanded the American people (with a few exceptions) to relinquish all but a still-permitted $100 worth of gold coins, bullion, and certificates to the Federal Reserve in exchange for a payment of $20.67 per troy ounce. Less than a year later, the government raised the trade rate to $35 per troy ounce. Thus, the government reaped huge profits at the expense of private investors and savers — a.k.a. hoarders of gold.

Hoarding, like any other human activity, can become obsessive. But in its common form, hoarding is nothing more than preparing for the future by laying aside a store of items you and your family may need. This is an especially valuable practice during economic instability, when necessary supplies can become scarce or suddenly double in price.

The Austrian investment counselor Jack Pugsley once explained another perspective on hoarding: it is an investment. A low-income family may not be able to afford precious metals, but they can afford to invest in dry or canned consumables. Last year, with some frequency, my grocery store sold a 900-gram package of pasta for 99¢. With wheat shortages, and with the American government diverting almost 30 percent of corn crops into producing ethanol, food products dependent on grain have skyrocketed. The same package of pasta now regularly costs $2.99. If a struggling family bought 60 packages of the 99¢ pasta for a future consumption of one package a week, then their hoarding would have knocked perhaps $100 off their grocery bill. By consistently buying more than they immediately need of bargain items, the family can build a solid pantry to sustain them through unemployment, inflation or scarcity.

Unfortunately, during economic crises, the government also acquires an interest in hoarding — specifically, in punishing the hoarder as unpatriotic. A historical example is the Food and Fuel Control Act, which became law in 1917, during World War I; the acts official name was “An Act to Provide Further for the National Security and Defense by Encouraging the Production, Conserving the Supply, and Controlling the Distribution of Food Products and Fuel.” In short, the government became a food dictator, and anyone possessing more than a 30-day supply of food (which was considered reasonable by food administrator Herbert Hoover) could be arrested.

The May 30, 1918, New York Times carried the headline, “Navy Man Indicted for Food Hoarding.” It reported on a man who had invested his wife’s inheritance in a year’s food for storage; and so they were held on a $3,000 bail each. The food was confiscated.

The navy man’s fate is a cautionary tale in more than one way. The store of food for his family was discovered because a grocer and neighbors informed upon him. Thus, a sad corollary to the wisdom of hoarding food for your family is the need to do so with discretion. This is sad, because the natural impulse of people in a community is to assist those in need. Measures like the Food and Fuel Control Act mean that sharing food with a neighbor who has hungry children is no longer simply a gesture of compassion and generosity; such government acts make sharing into a danger to your safety and your own children’s well-being.

There is still time to hoard the items upon which your family depends. Prices are rising, to be sure, but the full force of inflation and shortages is probably several months in the future. Hoard now; hoard quietly.

Source: Ludwig von Mises Institute