How Millennials Are Reshaping the Survivalism Industry

With Donald Trump’s stunning victory, a sense of change is sweeping across nations and financial markets worldwide – change that has citizens feeling more unsettled than ever about the future. This is likely to further boost an industry with a uniquely dark outlook on America’s future. Although ‘survivalism’ (a movement defined by active disaster preparation) has been around since the 1930s, the latest wave has reached a fever pitch thanks to two distinct drivers. The first is widespread anxiety about the future. The second is generational change. Boomers and Xers have created today’s survivalist frenzy – marked by extreme individualism and institutional distrust. But as Millennials age, this version will give way to a more community-oriented one. Looking back, the ebb-and-flow of survivalism should hardly come as a surprise – it’s been years in the making.
Since the Great Depression, survivalism has gone through three waves. The first began in the late ’60s and ’70s, when rampant inflation fueled fears of economic collapse and energy shortages, and peaked in the ’80s as concerns shifted to nuclear war. The second wave peaked in 1999 – coinciding with the impeachment of Bill Clinton, the Y2K scare, and the deepening of the ‘Culture Wars.’ The third wave was triggered by 9/11 and has continued to surge with every natural disaster, national tragedy, and presidential election.
The latest wave has transformed survivalism from a hobby to a lifestyle. Survivalists (or ‘preppers’) take disaster preparation seriously. Some own bunkers located ‘off the grid’ (particularly in Idaho, Montana, and Wyoming) stockpiled with MREs, gold, weapons, and alternative power sources. Others simply keep a stash of canned goods, water, and medical supplies – usually in a ‘bug out bag’ – and take wilderness training courses.

This post was published at FinancialSense on 12/12/2016.