In a telling reflection of our times, younger Americans, especially Millennials and Gen Zers, are increasingly investing in readiness for potential disasters.
A recent survey by Finder.com reveals that 39% of American Millennials and 40% of Gen Zers have spent money on disaster prepping in the last 12 months, outpacing the general American population at 29%.
There is a clear sentiment reflecting a growing concern among the younger demographic about the unpredictability and impact of global events.
“In my work, I see younger people worried about a repeat of a COVID-type event and the types of disruption it can bring to daily life,” Chad Huddleston, an anthropology professor at Southern Illinois University, told Fox News Digital.
The surge in interest has also been a boon for the preparedness industry. Drew Miller, CEO of Fortitude Collapse Preparedness and Fortitude Ranch, commented on the heightened awareness, “Our people have known for a long time that when there’s an electric grid failure or a real pandemic… that people won’t go to work, there won’t be food, and they’ll starve if you don’t have preparations.”
Patrick McCall, president of McCall Risk Group, noted the dramatic increase in the availability of preparedness products.
“The number of sites I think that were selling these [emergency preparedness] things or the number of places that were offering this type of stuff on the Internet was very scarce [in 2017],” McCall told Fox News Digital.
“Obviously, then we got into COVID, which created its own dilemmas and own kind of prepping in a different bit of craziness, as I would call it,” he continued.
Both Miller and McCall pointed out the role of the upcoming 2024 presidential election as a motivating factor in this trend. McCall elaborated, “I think a lot of these people are belonging to these social media groups where, you know, they may be scrolling one day, somebody that they’re either following or somebody that’s related to somebody that they’re following said something about a disaster coming up, or they reference this election that’s coming up or some stuff that’s going on overseas. And they seem to say, well, this person went out and bought this. It’s kind of a jumping on the bandwagon-type deal.”
Miller also highlighted the political climate’s influence, saying, “I guess a lot of it is driven by the concern over [a] possible civil war next year if the election goes badly, as many people think it will.”
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Brekke Wagoner, a Millennial who runs the YouTube channel Sustainable Prepping, spoke to the longer-term implications of these trends.
“I think for the first time, a lot of Millennials and Gen Zers are realizing how fragile our systems are. We’ve grown up in a time in which technology has meant we’ve had grocery stores that were always stocked and you can get anything from Amazon in 24 hours,” Wagoner explained to Fox News Digital.
“Then all of a sudden the pandemic and some uncertainties in our national and international politics has made us rethink how all of these systems are not as stable as we assumed,” he continued.
Despite the common association of disaster prepping with extreme scenarios like doomsday, Huddleston emphasized a more practical perspective.
He stated, “I would not categorize this behavior as ‘prepping’ or ‘doomsday prepping’. The vast majority of people buying some extra toilet paper and canned goods while shopping are not preppers.”
“Preppers take on those activities as part of their identity based in adaptive behaviors. For the most part, this is not that and, in my work, I have not seen younger people decrying the end of society or any kind of ‘civil war,'” he explained.
This pragmatic approach is further evidenced by the statistics. While the 2023 numbers are lower than the peak during the coronavirus pandemic in 2020, they are significantly higher than previous years. In 2019, only 20% of Americans reported making disaster-related purchases, and in 2017, this figure was at 27%.
This trend indicates an increasing awareness among Americans, particularly the younger generations, of the need to be prepared for unforeseen challenges as the United States steamrolls towards a perfect storm.
This administration has the US heading for disaster: forcing electricity they cannot provide as our primary energy source, polarizing political tensions with the upcoming election, and the growing divide, especially among the youth, over the Middle East. It is going to be a bumpy ride for sure.
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