What are we prepping for

  Many of the tinfoil hat club would have you believe that the world as we know it is coming to a end so we must be ready.  I personally find this to be far to simplistic in it's reasoning.  Not one of us has any clue what the future holds, and when some form of hardship will descend upon us.  Personally I have not and will not ever worry about the world coming to a end, really what good does this line of thinking do any of us.  I will live each day as best as I can trying to leave this world better for me having been in it.
  We are preparing for the unknown really that is all that can be said about it.  It does not really matter if this unknown is civil unrest  like much of the Arab world is going through right now, natural disasters like Japan just experience or something far closer to home like the ever increasing price at the store for continually lower quality food items.  To many people just the rising fuel prices are reason to panic so what if something actually devastating was to happen.   Much of the world saw drastic increases in the prices of food this year caused by a horrible wet growing season and greed.  This has sparked problems all around the globe this year and may continue for years to come.
  I myself and thousand more like me are not prepping for disaster but for the love of our families.  My parents, grandparents so on and so forth laid away provisions in the times of bounty for leaner days thus providing stability for their family.  This is really all that we are doing now, but because of all the years of living in excess many of us have lost the knowledge of how to do this.  Many people in times of disaster expect someone else to come to their aid well what if there is nobody coming or real help is days from coming.  If you are like many in North America that buy groceries one meal at a time and totally expect good clean water to flow ever time you turn the tap you have just subjected your family to real hardship far outside of their norm, or you have to venture out into the aftermath of said disaster to obtain provisions for your family putting yourself in harms way.
  Both the US and Canadian government recommend that EVERYONE has a minimum 72 hours of emergency food, water, heat and light in case something happens.  Personally this amount is a good place to start but for those with the space to do it far more than 3 days of clean save water should be stored in the home.  For anybody living outside a major center the need for these supplies goes up dramatically.  In times of disaster aid will come first to the areas with the largest population because of the largest number of voters.
  After all of this my answer is that I am prepping for the health and well being of my family and no other reason.  Regardless of what or any disaster that comes our way we will be as ready to face it and help those around us as possible.  This is no different than why you have a savings account or buy insurance.