My 80/20 Survival Rule is based on Pareto’s Principle.
The Pareto principle (also known as the 80/20 rule, the law of the vital few, or the principle of factor sparsity) states that, for many events, roughly 80% of the effects come from 20% of the causes.
The principle was developed based on the work of Italian economist Vilfredo Pareto. He noted in a thesis that 20% of the population in Italy owned 80% of the land — and conversely 80% of the Italian population owned the remaining 20% of land.
Further study of Pareto’s work revealed that 80/20 distribution appeared in many other areas of life
For instance…
Twenty percent of Americans pay 87% of the Federal Income Tax.
It has been noticed by city planners that 80% of vehicle traffic is limited to only 20% of the roads in a city.
In law enforcement: approximately 20% of the cops were responsible for 80% of the traffic tickets issued. In a long-term study of 1000 New Zealanders from birth: at 38 years of age just 22% of the group accounted for 81% of its criminal convictions and 78% of pharmaceutical prescriptions.
As you can see, the 80/20 rule is visible everywhere. However…
It Isn’t Always 80/20!
While it is named the 80/20 because of Pareto’s discovery of the uneven distribution of real estate, sometimes the distribution is not 80/20. It can be different.
Sometimes the distribution is around 70/30. For instance if you are to look at the criminal justice system in the United States: 29.5% of the US population has a criminal record — 69.5% does not.
Sometimes the distribution is 90/10…
However Pareto’s principle of 80/20 is shorthand for the idea that a large amount of the results can usually be attributed to a small a number of causes.
The 80/20 Rule Also Applies To Survival!
My 80/20 Survival Rule says that 20% of your preparations will protect you from 80% of the disasters that you are likely to face — and 80% of your preparations are needed to protect you from the 20% of disasters.
Your 80% Kit: A simple survival kit that includes a food, water, first aid kit, and shelter will protect you and your family from 80% of the disasters you are likely to experience. Disasters such as: hurricane; flooding; tornadoes; wildfires; winter storms; severe earthquakes, etc.
Your 20% Kit: Your extensive disaster kit you would be needed to survive the other 20% of disasters you are less likely to face — the SHTF (shit hits the fan) events — like nuclear attack, EMP, severe solar storms, pandemics, etc.
