Between about 1980 and 1983 I would count myself as a survivalist which I did to make sure my family would survive the 10% unemployment during the recession then. We were not into Guns at all. Instead we were into getting 50 gallon drums and putting non-perishable food in them and burying them so we would have food if things got any worse than they were.
At the time I believed that the government was going bankrupt from the unbelievable expense of the Viet Nam War. Though we likely would have gone bankrupt as a country instead we had made friends with countries like Great Britain and Germany and Japan had had loaned them money to rebuild. As a result we had many friends who loaned the U.S. money so we didn't go bankrupt from the Viet Nam war. Also, gasoline was 8 times as much as it had cost in 1969 at 17 cents a gallon which harmed everyone in the U.S. especially middle class and lower.
This was all a part of people trying to figure out how they were going to survive in the early 1980s with a minimum of 10% unemployment and many places 25% to 30% unemployment across the U.S. then.
Today people like this are often called: Doomsday Preppers
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