My libinlaw was helping us move last year and saw the amount of stored food, etc that we had -
AND WAS MAD, MAD, MAAAAAAAAD.
The reason, for her, was that it was a concrete expression of lack of faith in her god, government.
The reason for your wife might be that she doesn’t want to be reminded of coming hard times.
“...doesn’t want to be reminded of coming hard times....”
Unpleasant facts tend to cause one to think - if one is CAPABLE of thinking - and it interferes with the “But...but...it’s not SUPPOSED to be like THIS - that could NEVER happen HERE” meme.
You hear that with some people when there’s a violent crime in a “Safe”, “nice”, “quiet” neighborhood. You can see it on their faces as the local TV vidiot reporter shoves the microphone in their faces. They’re SHOCKED that “something like THAT happened here... this is a quiet neighborhood” blah blah...
I’ve found that the more some people of a certain mindset face the reality of hard times ahead, the more they reject the message AND the messenger because of one simple thing: They’re just plain scared, and in the back of their minds, they KNOW it COULD indeed happen but won’t face it.
I know folks who got DIVORCED because because the man saw things spiraling out of control and started preparing for it, and the woman refused to accept it, was embarrassed by it, etc., - after all, what would the NEIGHBORS think?