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Why? I understand people in the big cities killing each other off for resources, but they only make up half the country. 14.4% of the country is immigrants, and most of those from countries with little infrastructure. 20% of the population lives in rural farming areas. A little less than 1% is Amish. 60,000 people live without electricity at all (Did You Know There Are 60,000 U.S. Citizens Who Lack Access to Electricity?), and 4% of Americans are choosing to live all or partially off-grid.I have talked to engineers at Los Alamos National lab and the National Radio Astronomy Observatory about EMP event. They say an EMP event would take this country back to the 1880's. Besides every solid state device destroyed all the power transformers in the country would be destroyed. Right now there is a 1 year lead time for these large sub-station transformers and these transformers can not be built with out computer controlled equipment. They are projecting a 70 to 80% loss of life. The best advice they could say is buy a horse.
That's nearly 40% of the population that would be affected very little.
You don't get a 70% to 80% loss of life during a revolution or civil war, and that's with people lacking basic infrastructure and food, and being shot at and bombed.
Consider Hurricane Katrina. 1,170 people were killed by the storm, and in the aftermath of looting, rioting, and violence. No running water, no electricity, and a lack of food and resources . Out of an estimated 100,000 thousand people who stayed behind, that still only accounts for 1.17 percent. We just lived through a year of riots and violence and even among the population directly involved with those, relatively few people died.
Even the black plague, the deadliest thing to ever happen to humanity, only killed 30% of the population.
For many people, an EMP might be a wakeup call. No distractions, no office 9-5 daily grind, no getting angry on the internet, all your debts and financial obligations erased, no taxes. No stupid laws. No traffic. Sure that also means no money, and some hard times, but humanity has survived all that before - and recently, too.