Quote:
Originally Posted by lew1
^Thank you.
The definition : "Hoarding is a general term for a behavior that leads people or animals to accumulate food or other items during periods of scarcity."
But it does not specify a quantity.
So what quantity would qualify ??
As to ammo - 100 rounds, 1000 rounds, 100,000 rounds ??
As to weapons - 10 weapons, 100 weapons, 1000 weapons ??
So am I a hoarder because I had the foresight to buy ammo before it became scarce ??
Am I a hoarder because I had the foresight to acquire 8 SKSs, 4 AKs, 3 M1As, 7 AR15s, among other items before they became scarce ??
What is the difference between someone who has foresight and one who waits until the last minute ?
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I think the operative concept is stated a little further down: "...where the perceived importance of the hoarded items far exceeds their true value..." Animals do it by instinct. The hamster I had when I was in 6th grade would stash as much food as you cared to give her; however, the excess beyond that which was actually consumed, rotted in the stash beneath the litter in the cage and would be thrown out at each routine housekeeping I performed. A specific number for US and our ammo would be hard to pick. How much ammo would be necessary to serve our purposes, if ammo production were to stop entirely? I guess one could leave the excess to friends and family in his/her will...
On this front, 5 rounds of 20 gauge rifled slugs would keep me in venison for a year. A few shotshells for rabbits and squirrels, maybe, but then again a Hav-a-hart trap might suffice. Would I choose to stand off post-apocalyptic invaders/scavengers/looters--whether they are civilian or originate in whatever "legal" authorities remain, or are created? That would depend on a lot of things.
Perhaps a good gauge of "too much" in practical terms would be related to how much suffering or deprivation must be endured under the status quo in order to prepare for a scenario which may--or may not--happen. Maybe our family members are starved to support the behavior?
I've noticed that the doomsday preppers prepare for many different scenarios--EMPs that take out the power grid and all electronic/electrical devices; Tsunamis; economic collapse and the presumed chaos and civil unrest to follow; there was even one guy who thought the earth would flip around on its axis (a TOTAL fallacy! Polar shifts have occurred many times before, but it involves the magnetic fields of the earth, NOT the planet itself.). As with different religions, they can't
all be right; but they
could all be wrong. It, in fact, may turn out to be like packing up two tons of sand--just in case it were needed--and then finding out we had to travel across a desert.
If you've seen the Hoarders show on TV, and you have the fortitude necessary to do a reality check on yourself, then you know who you are!