The 100 to 1 Rule of Grid Down Survival

It’s truly incredible how much we take modern technology for granted. I heard a great example of this while watching The Crash Course by Chris Martenson over at Peak Prosperity.

He said (I’m paraphrasing), think about how much energy it would take you to push your car to and from work every day. Depending on how far away your workplace is, you probably couldn’t even do it. Pushing your car that far would probably take all day, and after a while, you’d simply be too tired. Or you’d get stuck on a hill.

And yet, that is how much energy you have at your disposal when you sit in the driver’s seat and put your foot on the gas pedal. When you think about it, it really is amazing! But that is just one example of how modern technology has made our lives so much easier.

In this video, Canadian Prepper talks about something he calls the 100-to-1 rule (or principle) of grid down survival. He says, “Think about it this way: One hour invested in…any activity is worth 100 hours when the power is out.” In other words, having power makes everything you do about one hundred times easier than it would be without power.

I think in a few cases this is an exaggeration, but in other cases, it’s a vast underestimation. For me, about 15 minutes of work earns me enough money to go buy a burger and fries at a drive-thru. How much work would it take me to raise the cow, slaughter it, and process and cook the meat? How much work would it take to grow the wheat, potatoes, and tomatoes, and process them into buns, fries, and ketchup? A lot.

The point is, you should never take the conveniences of the modern world for example. And you should use that as motivation to prepare for the possibility of the grid going down. Anyway, I really enjoyed this video and think it has a lot of food for thought. Check it out below: