De, I think it comes down FUNDAMENTALLY to: Can you make *ALL* the energy and water you consume, without depleting your beginning stock? If you can't do this -- and I certainly can't -- you won't make it through a real, protracted economic collapse. And you should expect any real collapse to be quite protracted. Oil and fuel will disappear within days -- and probably will never come back to general availability (it is too specialized to produce and too too valuable to squander on keeping "useless eaters" alive.
If you CAN, then you have a chance. You will still need to navigate the other aspects of a collapse, starting with self-defense but certainly including ABILITY TO BARTER for other things you need, starting with medical and basic repair/replace of equipment, clothes, etc.
If you can't then you really are a "useless eater" in the bigger picture. It doesn't help you to deny that.
It is really easy to TEST: try going a year without BUYING ANY fuel or food, and without depleting your starting stock of food and fuel. See what happens. Reset and try again.
Many can't make it ONE day. Most can't make it a week. Few can make it three months. Next to nobody can make it a year.
Now, even a hundred years ago, most people on the planet could make it indefinitely. They bartered value for what they didn't directly have access to. They grew or hunted all their own food and got water from their own land. They did without anything more than their own firewood for heat, cooking, and lighting. So, what's the problem?
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