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The original was posted on /r/homesteading by /u/Psychological-Pie857 on 2025-08-26 13:08:26+00:00.

The New York Times recently republished its guide to building an emergency kit, complete with curated product recommendations and affiliate links. Reading through the Wirecutter’s selection of “essential” items—a $40 folding saw, solar-powered lanterns, water purification tablets—I couldn’t help but think of my granny who was 18 years old at the start of the Great Depression and living in Appalachian Virginia. She survived with little technology (like a root cellar, wood cook stoves, captured fresh spring water, garden implements), a few animals (like a few pigs, chickens and a milk cow), and knowledge (of edible plants, where to find them, how to harvest them; animal husbandry; hunting; gardening).

She’d laugh at the notion that survival could be purchased from Amazon.

The emergency preparedness industry is the monetization of anxiety about our own helplessness. These product lists prey on a fundamental truth that most Americans (consumers more broadly) have become disconnected from basic survival skills that previous generations considered elementary. Rather than addressing this skills and knowledge gap, companies and media outlets have found it more profitable to sell us gadgets.