Categories of preparedness

The other day a few of us discussed "how should one prepare" for peak oil & related catastrophes. I was asked my opinion, and in lieu of listing a hundred different things, tried to categorize various ways to prepare.

This was an interesting exercise, because the poser anthropologist in me wants to categorize everything to make it more digestible. I think it's important as well, because doing so makes it easier to act upon (small bites are easier to swallow than big ones). However, categorizing a somewhat broad topic is difficult (for a number of reasons, as any real anthropologist would tell you).

Here's where I'm at now - would love some feedback about it:

- Psychologically (see prior post). I might include spiritually here as well, because I think a healthy spiritualism may help one cope with an eroding civilization and continued degradation of mankinds' values that might very likely become a long-term effect of peak oil et al.

- Physically - without health care and all the physical labor that will need to happen, it's critical to keep yourself in good condition. Without this you can ruin not only your own well-being but also that of your family (who has to exert resources to sustain you rather than using you as a resource to support the family).

- Financially - This includes not only trying to preserve the value of your retirement and other investments, but also making sure your general financial house is in order, you've paid off your debt, downsized your home if necessary, etc. It may be possible that the financial institutions will rapidly collapse and none of it will matter, but in the (hopefully) more likely event they don't, being in bad financial condition (such as having a gigantic home loan with no job) could be devastating.

- Educational(ly) - We'll need to have skills that might be worth something down the road. And/or, we'll need to be self-sufficient. These sorts of things require education - and not the kind that most of us have.

- Stockpiling - I think this is everyone's favorite thing to think about (myself included) but is perhaps the most difficult do in practice. First of all, how many of us can store 1000 gallons of water and 500 MRE's (Meals Ready to Eat) in their basement? Or would even want to have a couple dozen various pieces of ammunition hanging around the house? And who the hell knows what's going to be in short supply, and what you'll be able to just pick up off the ground? It's a toughie.