I lived in Latin America for more than fifteen years, from 1988 to 2004, and let me tell you that this is exactly how it went down. Food was not an issue in the country where I was but everything else he says really rings true for me: I used to set a tin pie plate under the shower head when I went to bed at night and left the faucet open. That way when the water would come on for about a half hour at two o'clock in the morning the noise would wake me up and I would take a shower and fill up my 55-gallon drum, and then go back to bed. We had propane stoves, railroad lanterns, and a dual power (kerosene/electricity) refrigerator for the power outages. Neighborhoods where I used to walk freely at night within a year after the neoliberal "adjustments" became places where I wouldn't go in a tank. Every year I would get a 25-50% raise in my salary and by the end of that same year I would be dipping into my savings just to make it to the end of the month. I could go on and on but the quoted passages above pretty much sum everything up better than I could.

Getting mentally prepared for this scenario is a lot more important than being materially prepared. There are only so many cans of food and rounds of ammunition you can stock up. Sooner or later you're going to have to figure out how to deal with the situation, which means learning to do without, improvising, and discovering what real faith and trust in God is all about.

I fear that the average spoiled-brat American is not up to the task.