Could you survive the collapse of society?

[Big!]

How many people would be able to survive if all of societies infrastructure collapsed tomorrow and people had to survive entirely on their own? It would not take long for the supplies in our homes, and even those that could be looted from the local supermarket, to begin to run out. Then what? I don't see any game in my neighborhood that I could hunt for. I do have a garden in the summer months, but that would need defending and I don't own a firearm. We've become entirely too dependent on modern society.

Big!

[c4m]

Thinking about Hubbert's Peak? I could. Just gotta kayak over to the island where the property is.

[Big!]

Anyone seen Into the Wild yet?

[Chris Kilds]

The same thing happen in New Orleans.......survival of the fits i was a minis

[shifted]

Thinking about Hubbert's Peak? I could. Just gotta kayak over to the island where the property is.

i kayak too! lol



and what you say may be true big,

but keep in mind, just cos the infrastructure collapses, that doesnt mean you still dont have farmers who keep producing (if anything, it would be good, cos then the farmers would be paid more, as they deserve, as they are being paid almost nothing, and the big markets are reaping the rewards!)

and that would be the beginning of the start of the new infrastructure system, obviously police, ambos and fire will still be around, phone services would still exist, certain growers markets too.

it would just be a matter of how well u and ur own occupation gets affected.

my opinion anywayz, i may have misunderstood the question lol peacee

[mrnicksta]

how far do you mean to go with this "collapse" of society- no electricity? no running water? no monetary system? are we talking about just modern comforts or complete collapse of society, where the world is in a paniced, anarchic state?

if the above is what you were imagine, i feel sorry for al those living in the cities, you'd have nothing to eat, probably no water to get to. thankfully i live somewhere thats in between countryside and urban area, there's plenty of urban areas but completely surrounded by green mountains so there'd be plenty of streams from which to get water, and of course living in wales, sheep by the shed load!

i think i'd make a good go at it, but it would be hard living without some things. we all consider clean running water, warmth and electricity a basic human right, when in fact they are basic human privileges - things we've built up for ourselves in our cosy society.

it'd be crazy because there would be those who just get on life, carving out their own existence and then there would be those who simply live off others by stealing and looting everything they work for.

even in sch a society though, where the hierarchical order has been reset, there would still be those who come out on top, and it'd probably be the person with the biggest reserve of ammunition..... sadly

[mrnicksta]

Anyone seen Into the Wild yet?

no, but i've heard the soundtrack (quite strange, to hear a film soundtrack before seeing the film), but that's cos eddie vedder is the man!

[Big!]

The soundtrack is great. I bought both the movie and the soundtrack.

As for collapse, I meant total collapse.

Big!

[nickh155]

no way would most of survive, i could see murders in the city through the roof! you going after the last apple sauce in grocery store, im'a blow you away. ain't nothing getting in my way of me and eatting. I could totally see 3/4 of the population diminishing especially all urban areas

[Kenshi]

it would honestly all matter on how much fire power you have, unless you have some sort of training where you can somehow find a way to get around stealthily to retrieve weapons and food.

i would like to say i could last,but i have no weapons so i couldnt. but if i had weapons or some adequate resources i think i could last i like to consider myself very capable

[silasP]

it would be very hard most likely not, my plan would be to make an alliance with a group of like 10 or 20 find and make weapons, and pretty much go to war lol because thats what would happen imo just chaos

[Kenshi]

good plan, a team would definitely be needed, unless your team is a gatling gun and sniper rifle then you should be good

yeah it definitely would be chaos, we wouldnt be smart enough to reestablish quick goverment and structure, we would destroy our selves

[shifted]

Get your family + friends together..

My mum is a great cook of foods, and cakes and shizzle, everyone loves her cooking. My dad and uncle could "hunt" for food, my mates family makes tomato sauce [they are italians] lol.. list goes on..

Each and every person could contribute. We grow some small veges at home ourselves.

[nicodagift]

I'm a city girl, and would probaly go crazy if the internet collapsed, but the world? oh, gosh. Well, think God my husband is a country boy. He's been trying to teach me farming, eic. for years. At that point I'd have to actually pay attention. lol....

[Cacteur]

If you could survive anywhere, you could survive in New Zealand I reckon. Our country is larger and more fertile than the British Isles, and our population is a little over 4 million. About 80% of our exports are food. If "society" collapsed we'd have all of that to share around, in fact, we'd probably have to drastically reduce the size of our dairy herds.

I live pretty much in the centre of our largest city in a small apartment block. We all have vege gardens around here, and I know a few of the neighbours have giant freezers they keep farm bought carcasses in. I reckon they'd want to share that around if the power went off, and even then, 80% of our power is hydro produced.

In the longer term, a large orchard area sits about 15 kms to the north, and the countries main vege crop growing areas are about 30 kms south. Although there are cattle and dairy farms close by, (including on the cities many mountains), I reckon meat and dairy would be in short supply, but, we have a huge fishing industry based in Auckland. Maybe they'd run out of diesel and we'd have to fish ourselves, but with two huge harbours and forty odd kms between both oceans I can't see that being a problem

But our best resource by far would be our people. I reckon New Zealanders are a little different from the rest of the world, anyone who's been here will tell you. Two blokes running from the Police in a stolen car a few weeks ago, slammed into a family in a van, and it burst into flames. The two "perps" leapt out of their car and were burnt severely dragging the whole family out of the burning wreck. By the time the cops arrived they were all lying on a grass verge, no fatalities.

Our neighbourhood watched what happened in New Orleans in horror and talked about what we would do here. We now all know where the old people living on their own in our neighbourhood live. We have all agreed we would share everything we had, and would run out together, and Arvind, our local store owner swears he would throw the doors of his shop wide open. That's where I live, and that's who I live with, and that's why I reckon we'd be fine. :D

I'm sure I'm wearing my rose coloured glasses at the moment, but I'd definitely rather be here than anywhere else on the planet should it all fall down. The only place better would probably be rural New Zealand. :thumbsup:

[Rudolf]

You could always revert to cannibalism and eat the old folks :)

[Cacteur]

You could always revert to cannibalism and eat the old folks :)

:lol: Ugh... no... not the oldies. We got heaps of ugly sheep to get through first... then, when we only have pretty sheep left we'll do young fresh South Islanders ... ;)

[Kenshi]

yeah cacteur sounds like you'd be sitting pretty, but what about a ZOMBIE INFESTATION!

[Cacteur]

yeah cacteur sounds like you'd be sitting pretty, but what about a ZOMBIE INFESTATION!

No worries. Cooked food. In our (Maori) culture, boogie men can't handle the smell of cooked food, so we'd kill a few dairy cattle and have a giant out door spit roast. That oughta get rid off 'em.

I've actually utilised the theory overseas. In Southern Afghanistan our little group of westerners were chased out of Khandahar and cursed by some local mullahs. That night all the 'girlies' got a bit uptight, so I suggested we break out the flour and make some sweet bread on the fire. Hot Milo and a feast of butter soaked fresh bread and people suddenly found it very hard to believe in ghosts, especially when the farting started...:D

The only thing that would really dork us are natural disasters. Volcanos, (Auckland is built on sixty odd), earthquakes and tsunamis. According to archaeologists and geologists NZ's north had a tsunami that produced 60 metre waves about 400 years ago. We have a lot of high country, and many people would survive, but I'd be kissing my arse goodbye. Wouldn't be much left of our city that's for sure...:(

[Kenshi]

yeah michigan isnt a big place for natural disasters, but zombies is close to an inevitable death so i wouldn't do so good there. rob the gun store down the street (somehow) then rob a grocery store (somehow without dying) then post up somewhere (somehow without dying)