Ghetto people do not have the wherewithal to survive; we all know that. They have no skills and a poor work ethic, and thus cannot even support themselves with day labor.
But “country people”? They are not to be held on a pedestal. I know lots of white trash who live in rural areas, because I am related to them. They are pretty worthless too, and will pose the same threat as urban ghetto dwellers. Like the ghetto dwellers, they won’t be sitting at home quietly starving. No, they will go hunting humans and looting and raping and killing.
I propose we define it further: farmers and those who work the land will have an advantage. Even if they possess a little bit of leftover chemical fertilizer from the previous year, and the ability to put a tiny crop in the ground, that can give them and their family another year.
Folks with good organizational skills and who work well in a team will be more successful than the rebellious lone wolf who thinks he’s hot shit.
People who made the effort to learn survival skills will have a leg up on those that did not. I taught myself how to make water filters out of everyday items, and learned how to make and use activated charcoal for that purpose. It was pretty fun!
People who possess patience will be more successful than those who make rash decisions.
PS: I read that the last mass-produced non-electronic diesel is an early 1990’s Chevy Blazer, and all later models are electronically-controlled. That sucks!
I wrote an article on FR about this, with respect to Avian Flu awhile back.
The point is that in order to save money, our business world has abandoned any trace of redundancy, duplicate function, or stockpiling; all in favor of "just in time" supply chains.
And this saves money: it's just not sustainable once supply chains get interrupted.
Under those conditions, it mimics the medical condition known as "shock" in the human body, wherein ALL the blood vessels open wide at the same time, and blood pressure (and therefore the amount of blood delivering food and oxygen to the tissues) plummets catastrophically.
It gets worse, though, due to panic: at the very moment deliveries are curtailed, panic-driven demand skyrockets.
Result: no food, no supplies, and increased panic.
Urban populations forage afield for sustenance: and presumably are strenuously resisted (up to and including deadly force) by the inhabitants of the first-ring suburbs, who were also caught by surprise but at least had the dubious saving grace of not outnumbering their supply chokepoints (grocery stories, C-stores, etc). quite so outrageously.
The other issue that feeds into this would be the number of vehicles either no longer serviceable, or out of fuel: limiting the ability of the hordes to reach the outskirts of town for rapine and plunder, in at timely fashion.
bttt