The problem with the insurance analogy is that full-on prepping is too big a cost for too unlikely an event. To prepare for the full SHTF scenario requires committing to a lifestyle and certain expenses that I don’t want to commit to. I have other things I’d rather put my time and resources toward. I might feel otherwise if the odds of TSHTF weren’t so low. As it is, I can see keeping preps on hand for something like Sandy, but not TSHTF.
I save money, about 15% by buying in bulk when things that I use are on sale. It also leaves me with months and months of supplies if I need them.
You have some seriously screwed up ideas about what preppers do. Hint... It's like what our grandparents did up until about the '50s.
/johnny
OK. So does this mean that all prepping is a waste of time?
There's a whole spectrum of prepping, from buying some eggs, bread, and milk before a forecast snowstorm, all the way to "the end of the world as we know it"(TEOTWAWKI). I'm somewhere in the low-to-moderate end (enough food for a month, firewood for two weeks in winter, and enough ammo to discourage rioters for a few days). Some are prepared for a year of hard times.
Perhaps you should just decide what level of prepping makes sense to you (one week? two?), and go with that? Meanwhile let the ones with different viewpoints the luxury of going with their own opinions of what's right for them?