Prepping is about preparing for the worst when times are the best.  Those who are taking their own survival and family’s well being into consideration before the SHTF are often looked at as a little crazy. But some lessons should be learned from Venezuela’s collapse and a culture of preparedness and self-sufficiency should elevate in the United States even today.

TIP #1: Don’t Wait To Start

Start preparing for any situation that might possibly arise. A societal collapse over political strife, an economic crash, a totalitarian takeover, are just a few examples of instances that could occur.  These situations happen all the time and if history has taught us anything, it’s that those crazy preppers are the ones who survive. Don’t wait for the worst to happen, prepare now.  Give yourself ample time to get things in place before it all goes wrong and hits the fan.

TIP #2: Prepare For Medical Emergencies

There was a report in 2017 that in one of Venezuela’s biggest public hospitals in Ciudad Bolivar, that the mortality rate for newborns had reached 40%. Hospitals won’t be well equipped to help anyone if there’s no money for people to pay, no doctors willing to work for free, and no medicines to treat anyone. And if this country somehow manages to get socialized medicine, things could get ugly and very quickly.  Lack of funding for government-run hospitals would mean much higher mortality rates, dirty hospitals, and horrifying tales of pain and misery.  So take the time to at least learn some basic medical tips. Keep upgrading your first aid and trauma kits and keep reading medical survival books such as The Survival Medicine Handbook: THE essential guide for when medical help is NOT on the way.

TIP #3: DO NOT Trust The Government To Save You

Put your survival in your own hands. Once upon a time, Venezuelans, like Americans today, had weight issues from eating too much enjoyable food. Fast forward to anywhere past 2015 and Venezuelans have been lining up for food rations every day. The government has been unwilling to help in even the smallest way to feed the people it starved. Eventually, food rations will run out too, and you’ll be relying on what you can grow or hunt on your own. If you’ve prepared early and stored enough of your own food, no amount of empty grocery store shelves or government food rationing will be a big burden to you or your family.

These lessons should be heard and understood by all preppers. Even though there’s much more we can learn from Venezuela’s socialist rulers who turned totalitarian rather quickly destroying a once-great nation, these three lessons are necessary to understand. It is vital that prepping begins before the bad times strike and that prepping should be taken on with a balanced and mindful approach.