Growin up we used to drink it all the time,lol.... Its good stuff.

Yeh, once you get used to it, it's pretty good, though it still cost about the same at the grocery store, but I always kept it around for cooking as well.

I share the interest in preparation, but maybe not for the same reasons / scenarios.

I don't think the economic and societal collapse is a 4 year or even a 10 year horizon.  Look at how long Greece, Spain, California, Detroit, et al have been limping along.  I think it's possibly a 15-20 year event, but I still hold out hope for American ingenuity, dedication, and aversion to BS after accepting it for a long time.

I'm most worried about natural disasters that close down supply channels and law enforcement.  Especially those that are unprecedented and result in massive, long term confusion......like Katrina, Sandy, or the huge earthquake that's possible in most regions of the US.  With changing weather and the emergence of new surprises like Sandy, I wonder if there could be bigger, unimagined tornado systems.

Here in TN there's not much to worry about in the way of hurricanes or tsunamis or coastal phenomena like that.  But tornados and the New Madrid fault are big.  The New Madrid could knock out utilities, supplies, and law enforcement massively.

And I'm a huge fan of Walking Dead, George Romero, etc.  I'm just not prepping for zombies, lol.

I tend to agree, I don't see a collapse overnight, I'm more concerned with inflation and the cost of basics, or an actual volcano.
We are way overdue out West, based on millions of years of data, many on the West coast are long past when they should have erupted.
Then as you pointed out, fault lines, we have some that go every 10,000 years and many are 1000 years over due as well, not to mention Ca is still moving and the valley is slowly slipping under the Sierra Nevada mt range.
Natural disaster come in all sizes including plague, and if one of those breaks out, I won't have to run to the grocery store at least.

Same here, we have 6, but if any go off on the west coast, everyone is effected.
If Rainier or Shasta ever goes, all of North America will come to a halt.

And don't forget the knives.....if you have nothing else.  Good quality knives can give you spears, bows, old style clubs and hatchets a la the native Americans.  If we end up way back at the basics, well there you go.  Not just for defense, but hunting and fishing too.

There's a lot of other fun little stuff out there too.  Inexpensive bows and arrows (crossbows tend to get expensive like guns).  Inexpensive stun guns that run on batteries, pepper spray (the bear spray things are crazy, pretty good for getting away from a whole mob), staffs and martial arts bo's are good if you take the time to learn their use and techniques (very effective and efficient defense for smaller / older people).

Hi quality slingshots are good weapons, if you can master them.  Some good ways to avoid the registered / tracked guns is pellet guns, and creative ideas like flare guns.

Camping, hiking, hunting, fishing gear is gold.

Hope this doesn't all sound too survivalist, but I'm a staunch proponent of having enough weaponry to protect yourself and family.  A real food / water / security breakdown turns to to anarchy and savagery in a minute, and guns and ammo won't last indefinitely, unless you're one of those hard core guys with a million rounds and years of food.

That's awesome, lol.  For 160 bucks, you're set up for the big one !  Two great buys that would be huge in the disaster / anarchy scenario.  They've got big cans of Russian ammo at Academy Sports now.  The salesmen say it's OK, apparently it dirties up your weapon more than the high-end stuff.  But that's a lot of security and peace of mind for not much money.