This article has been generously contributed by Adam Taggart and was originally published at Peak Prosperity.

Take a moment to reflect on all the people you care about who aren't reading this article. Or sites like this, which wrestle with the implications of limits to growth and the concerning unsustainability of the economic and natural systems our society depends upon.

How many of your family members, good friends, and neighbors simply choose to ignore the messages from those of us alarmists on the "doomer" side, and live life trusting that tomorrow will always look and feel pretty much like today? Most of them? All of them?

Look, it's understandable. Humans aren't wired well to respond to future risk that isn't visible as an immediate threat. And temperamentally, we prefer good news over bad, so we seek to overweight the former and discount the latter. Who wants to stress out about what "might" happen tomorrow, anyways — can't we just enjoy life today?

The rift between the preparedness-minded and those not is age-old, as fables like Aesop's The Ant & The Grasshopper date at least as far back as the 5th century BCE.

We spend our focus on this website engaging the "ants", the empirically-minded folks who look at the data and concur that there is sufficient possibility of one or several crises (economic, energy-related, environmental — or a combination of such) occurring in the next several years. And that taking advance action is prudent.

But the ants are the minority.

Forget about planning for the more esoteric risks posed by faulty monetary policy or energy economics — 72% of Americans don't even have a basic emergency response kit in place should an ordinary kind of disaster strike (power outage, hurricane, tornado, earthquake, etc).

The simple reality is that, if you're investing your energies towards building resilience against potential hardship, most of those around you likely aren't.

In the midst of your efforts, are you planning for their lack of preparedness?

Grasshopper Nation

The data shows us that the vast majority of Americans are not ready to deal with even minor setbacks.

In January of this year, Bankrate.com released survey findings that revealed that only 37% of Americanswould be able to cover an unexpected expense (e.g., auto repair, medical bill) of $1,000 with savings. The remaining 67% would have to borrow from friends and family, cut spending elsewhere, or use credit cards to come up with the funds.