Ok so my SO is not really on board with the survivalist mindset, not really. He indulges my preps and having been born and raised here, he remembers empty store shelves and so on-but he is just now wrestling with the possibilities present with current events.

To my amazement, his concern is with the Big Three oil companies. He commented that all it would take is two of them packing up and leaving, and we would have anarchy here in short order.

Oil (and federal funds) are the main drivers of our economy here, and their contributions are shrinking as we all know. Imagine a 20 plus unemployment rate and the long winters here. Rather an unnerving thought because I tend to think of Alaskans as fairly resourceful and independent-the "get by somehow" types.

The "somehow" could turn out to be very ugly. I give the comment rather more weight than I would other oil patch gossip I hear, because he does work up there....if the regular hands are getting concerned, what is happening in meetings we don't know about?

Alaska is not going to fold because the oil companies pull out. I've seen the boom and bust cycles here and all that happens is a bunch people tuck thier tails between thier legs and go back to where they came from. It gets better when they are gone.

Alaska would definitely take a hit if they left, but as Alaskan Survivalist said, I think we'll make it through.

Besides, there's still so much money on the slope, and the potential lack of off-shore development soon should keep us in business for a while. Most likely we'd lose a lot of slope workers, but there's still quite a bit of money from tourism, military funding, fishing, etc. to keep people going.

Sure, the State itself would lose a LOT of money, but they've been working on a bloated budget for a while now.

On the bright side, I might finally be able to afford that 40 acres (assuming I get all my finances in order before a bust)

Alaskans are a tough breed. I think we'll fare ok, but it may be a bit tough for a while. Until they find some other resource that they want up here again, and it'll be a boom-State all over again.

speaking of leaving I am leaving the board .. its dead and has been for months . I tried to give it time to see if it picked up , nothing ... sorry everyone

Yeah, I think that's probably the end of it. I'll leave it up for a while, but I guess we just don't have enough extra to warrant a separate board

Thanks, and take care.

Well, that was a bit of a killer wasn't it....? I have been busy busy this summer and I am sure all of you are as well. I hope the board does pick up but it's still nice to have a 'home base' to keep in touch locally. This thread, for instance is a good one and I'm sorry to have been away the past couple months. It's a very good discussion and a needed one. My family has always worked in or within the oil business -- on the blue collar side only LOL. My dad, my brothers, my late husband and my sons have all worked on the slope and/or the pipeline and one son is still working with a support company and the thought of it all going away again is unsettling to say the least. It would be terrific if it was enough to get SuValley's husband on board with preps on his own --- but having said that I do agree we have been boom/bust as long as we've been a state and even longer and I have no doubt that we could survive. But with the state the country is in, it would put us it a precarious position if anything else occurred to sort of tip us over before a recovery could happen. So I guess the message is always get ready either way.

I'll leave it for the next few months either way, see if things pick up. It's nice hearing from people around the State as to what's going on in their neck of the woods.

Who knows what the future brings...