There's "modern society collapse" and there's "a 5 day blackout in a city", most people are not even prepared for #2, it doesn't hurt to plan for that.

Why are you calling him a fatalist? He plans to survive. You are in reality the fatalist, for saying he'll die within a month.

If society collapses that badly, I'll probably move to my brother-in-law's farm. Farms are generally the best place to be when society collapses.

Some will. Some of us already live relatively independent lives. Not a lot, to be sure. And it can hardly be done in a city.