Survivalism 101: Panic Before It’s Too Late

As Coronavirus cases surge around the U.S., big box stores are running low on toilet paper and basic food products like milk, bread, eggs, rice, and pasta. Not only that, with non-essential businesses shuttering in many jurisdictions, guns and ammo are hard to come by.

But you can still buy gold, right? Well, not exactly. While gold prices are quickly recovering from their recent drop, something very strange is going on in the physical gold market. Prices over spot have soared, meaning that your total costs will be much greater than they would have otherwise been. Why are they up? Demand for physical gold and silver is greatly outpacing supply—and most online retailers are backordered for weeks.

Then there are the drugs, medical equipment, and other essentials, such as masks, that are difficult to find most anywhere, and may completely disappear if our supply chains break down and the U.S. cannot manufacture enough to meet local demand.

All of these examples show that the most essential survival skill is to be prepared before the crowd. You need to “panic”—that is, be stocking up on essentials—long before there is a major meltdown. You need at minimum a few months’ supply of everything that you need to survive to weather whatever disaster may come your way.

So, it’s too late to prepare for the Coronavirus pandemic. It is already here, and the stores are already sold out. That’s not to say that you shouldn’t go out and pick up your necessities if you can find them, but the real lesson to take away is to be prepared for the next big one.

In all likelihood, Coronavirus will not be with us forever, and if you are relatively young and healthy, it’s unlikely to kill or permanently maim you. As for the economy, it could be shut down and be damaged for much longer than we imagine. Confidence in the American economy has been lost forever. We will never have the same faith in government and in corporations to respond to disaster situations swiftly and effectively.

What is to be done? Now it’s time to draw up plans for when the dust settles, and it will. This means taking a careful inventory of what you need to survive, making sure you are in good financial shape, and making preparations to weather an economic downturn. You probably can’t move right now, but you can re-evaluate the pros and cons of you live and decide whether it is worth it to stay during a prolonged SHTF scenario.

Now is also the time to take up important survival skills. If you are under “shelter-in-place” restrictions or laid off, you have abundant time to learn things. Reading the headlines, all day moping, and letting your body languish are terrible things to do. As Canadian Prepper says, the most important aspect of prepping—and most overlooked—is your physical fitness and mental toughness. Don’t become one of those survivalists who owns gear that they can’t carry five miles on their back into the woods. Likewise, don’t give into despair and self-destructive behaviors. Pick up important skills, read extensively, and train your body and mind.