What kind of collapse are we talking about?
Conspiracies aside, it seems to me that most of what supports our way of life stands on flimsy foundations. For instance, our power grid is exploitable by "hackers".
If today water stopped coming from the tap and no one had an idea on how long it will be until it runs again, how quickly would people rush the grocery stores and empty all the shelves of water?
To those that are not prepared, what can we expect them to do?
These government figures seem to only speak of how susceptible our way of life is to outside damage and influence. Whether it is hackers living in our power grid, or how terrorists are now strapping bombs to easily accessible drones.
I think it was during the hurricane in Texas where a rumor started, somewhere not very affected by the hurricane, that petroleum stations were running out and everyone rushed the gas stations to buy gas. They caused congestion, panic, and eventually these gas stations did run out of gas due to the influx of panicked people.
We are ripe for a false flag attack.
So what can we do to survive? Well, dehydrated survival food is a must: $100-$200 bucks for a 30 day food supply of 1400 calories a day, with a shelf life of 20 years.
Water. Need to have a source of water. Start with 4-8 gallons stored just incase but, I also have a couple life straws incase i need to get water from the stream down my house.
Commodities. In jail, 1 newport cigarette was the equivalent of $5. Instant coffee was also king. Guys would make a cup of coffee, drink half of it, fill it back up with water, drink half of that, fill it back up with water, etc..
A carton or two of cigarettes would be a good thing to have where you might trade 1 cigarette for a snickers bar or something.
I am not asking yall to be paranoid, but given how thin of a thread our civilization is running on, it makes sense to invest 300-1000 on surviving a few months of looting, right?
I mean, do people even know what edible plants are in their own backyards or will they roll over and die of starvation?