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I'm shaking my head at so many things. Heinlein's remark that "specialization is for insects" keeps surfacing.

I knew people ate out too often. I didn't know the number was northward of 40% of all meals. Further, the bulk of groceries in a store are on the inner aisles. This is all processed and prepared meals.

Amongst the outer circumference of shelves in any typical grocery store are unprocessed food. I learned that decades ago when I began the low carb approach to eating.

Imagine how helpless the average American has become. It is not unique to one social economic class. I knew a vet tech who did pet sitting. She would visit mostly the wealthy homes. I remember her one day having a fit. She described these amazing kitchens in the homes. The majority were never used and they did not have a single item in the pantry except of course pet food.

I try to imagine how small the percentage of Americans are who do animal husbandry, hunting, gardening, food preparation and of course food storage.

This bioweapon has exposed numerous vulnerabilities in our system. What is the price of convenience when so many intricate links can be broken to bring everything to a halt. Decentralization builds resilient communities and that begins with the individual and family. Sadly, resilient individuals have been derided as crazy preppers.

I hope more people wake up and realize the failures of their false gods and begin taking responsibility. Somehow if we survive this Great Depression (guaranteed with the shutdown of China), multi waves of this virus and government repression, we will come out the other side a stronger people.

You are correct that people have a lot to learn from this—and most of it affects how they need to become more self-reliant in all areas of life.

One of the things that concerns me most about the majority of Freeper comments is that they have chosen to blame others rather than taking personal responsibility—asking the hard questions about how they could have been better prepared.

Lockdowns could happen at a future date for any of a thousand different reasons (whether justified or not)—pointing fingers is the wrong answer, getting as independent as possible in all aspects of life is the correct answer.

I try to imagine how small the percentage of Americans are who do animal husbandry, hunting, gardening, food preparation and of course food storage.

I know what you are saying. But, for many, "time" is a big problem. Society and the gov't are continually making that worse. On the other end of it, we have a few free range chickens, and to properly care for them takes significant time. So does butchering the extras 'Roos, and so on. It doesn't always seem like a lot, but that time adds up. Ditto for the garden. Dress out that raccoon? That's a bit of work! (Well, at least the chickens don't have to worry about it any more, and, they get the scraps!) Even healthy (healthiER, anyway) meal prep using produce and such from the grocery store is, well, a significant time burden, compared to convenience foods.

Heinlein's "Manny" was always sort of an example for me. Sure wish I had his "arm" tho'...

Related - something I’d mentioned on another thread:

One thing is for sure: Most any angler who has used stinky / messy bait of some sort very often has likely acquired the “skills” needed to not touch one’s face in potential virus contamination situations...

:-)