Article by Michael Snyder from The Economic Collapse Blog cross-posted with permission.

(The Economic Collapse Blog)—As our society descends into chaos, vast numbers of people are choosing to pull the plug and walk away.  Of course it is nearly impossible to completely escape the ubiquitous madness that is seemingly all around us, but many are finding that an “off grid” lifestyle gives them the best opportunity to insulate themselves as much as possible.

When you become less dependent on the system, what happens to the system has less of an impact on you.  Unfortunately, it appears that our system is heading into a full-blown meltdown, and a significant portion of the population is feverishly making preparations in anticipation of what is coming.

According to Reuters, it has been estimated that there are now approximately 20 million “preppers” in the United States…

Brook Morgan surveyed booths at the “Survival & Prepper Show” in Colorado that were stocked with boxes of ammunition, mounds of trauma medical kits, and every type of knife imaginable.

A self-described “30-year-old lesbian from Indiana,” Morgan is one of a new breed of Americans getting ready to survive political upheaval and natural catastrophes, a pursuit that until recently was largely associated with far-right movements such as white nationalists since the 1980s.

Researchers say the number of preppers has doubled in size to about 20 million since 2017.

There is a subset of that group that has decided that the best way to prepare is to go “off grid”.

It is being reported that “more than 250,000 people in the U.S.” have chosen to adopt such a lifestyle…

As energy costs and home prices continue to rise, more Americans are choosing to live off-grid. According to one estimate, more than 250,000 people in the U.S. have an off-grid lifestyle. While the potential cost savings are certainly attractive, technology and interest in tiny homes, shipping container homes and other energy-efficient housing alternatives are allowing families interested in sustainable lifestyles to move to off-grid living.

If you are thinking of making a similar move, you need to do your research.

Most of us are extremely dependent on the grid, and many find that making a switch to a radically different lifestyle is quite challenging…

Living off the grid means committing to sourcing everything you need to survive and thrive independently: food, shelter, energy and most importantly: water. It’s empowering, until the moment things don’t work. Like when you’re halfway through a delightful hot shower at the end of a January day and the water pump suddenly stops working, sending you into the frozen darkness with a wet headful of shampoo and some tools to address the problem.

For a lot of people, joining a community of others that have adopted an “off grid” lifestyle is very helpful. For example, about 55 miles south of Salt Lake City hundreds of survivalists are living in a very large community that is completely off the grid…

A community of society-shunning Americans launched a survivalist haven in the Utah desert after finding themselves alienated from the modern world.

Hundreds of people have set themselves up to live off the land under ‘Operation Self-Reliance,’ feeling that getting off-the-grid is the solution to a crumbling culture.

This particular community was originally founded by a 74-year-old man named Philip Gleason, and he is warning that “a variety of apocalyptic scenarios could play out in the coming years”…

Gleason said he fears a variety of apocalyptic scenarios could play out in the coming years, from a power grid failure taking down America’s electricity, to nuclear war and cyber attacks.

‘This is just history repeating itself,’ he cautioned. ‘At the start of any cultural revolution, the people that control their food are the ones that come out on top.’

As Americans consistently share that they are losing faith in the nation’s institutions, those that have made a new life on Riverbed Ranch have essentially set up their own self-surviving nation state.

Of course it probably wasn’t a great idea for them to share what they are doing with such a large audience, because when things do get really bad large numbers of desperate people may start heading that direction.

Most of the time, families that choose to live an “off grid” lifestyle just do it on their own.

Heather Graesser and her husband once owned a large home near Denver, but now they are much happier living an “off grid” lifestyle…

Ten years ago I was living a typical suburban life on the outskirts of Denver. My husband, Casey, and I were both teachers. We lived in a four-bedroom house with a small yard where our two kids liked to play.

Today our life looks radically different. We live entirely off the grid in a 300-square-foot home that we built from straw bales and cob, a natural building material made from soil, water, and other organic matter. We rely on solar power for electricity and rain collection for water, and we use a drop toilet to create “humanure” — compost made from human waste.

We’ve left the conventional world behind. But along the way we’ve created a much more luxurious and free lifestyle than the one we were living in suburbia.

Good for them.

These days, it is becoming increasingly difficult to live a “normal” middle class lifestyle because the cost of housing has become so painful.

In fact, an entirely new category known as “impossibly unaffordable” has been created because home prices have become so expensive in certain cities…

Anyone with half an eye on the housing market over the last two decades will know that in many countries, not least the United States, it’s become much more difficult to buy a home.

But a new report sums up the feeling of many potential home buyers by creating a category that labels some major cities as “impossibly unaffordable.”

The report compared average incomes with average home prices. It found that pandemic-driven demand for homes with outside space, land use policies aimed at limiting urban sprawl, and investors piling into markets had sent prices soaring.

Living “off grid” is often much cheaper than living a conventional lifestyle. And living “off grid” will also give you a much better chance of shielding yourself from the endless violence that we see all around us.

Recently, I was deeply shocked to read about a 42-year-old man that fired 28 shots at women and children at a family splash pad in Rochester Hills, Michigan…

An eight-year-old boy is fighting for his life after being shot in the head by a rampaging gunman at a family splash pad as seven others were also gunned down.

The violent attack took place in Rochester Hills, Michigan, around 5pm Saturday after the shooter fired 28 rounds from a handgun in a seemingly random attack, peppering women and children at the Brooklands Plaza Splash Pad outside Detroit.

The gunman fled the scene to a nearby home within half a mile of the splash pad, leading to a tense hours-long standoff that ended when the shooter – described as a 42-year-old white male who lived with his mother – died by suicide.

You would have to be completely and utterly evil to do something like that.

Sadly, our entire society is saturated with evil at this point.

So I can definitely understand why so many people just want to get away from it all.

Things are really bad now, but they are going to get a whole lot worse during the chaotic years that are in front of us.

Ultimately, I think that large numbers of people are going to regret not adopting an “off grid” lifestyle while they still had the opportunity to do so.

Our society is already in the process of collapsing all around us, and those that understand what is happening are getting prepared for what is coming.

Michael’s new book entitled “Chaos” is available in paperback and for the Kindle on Amazon.com, and you can subscribe to his Substack newsletter at michaeltsnyder.substack.com.