Crime and corruption would be rampant anywhere there are lots of people I suppose. In a total breakdown the existing order of politicians as elected leaders, police, prosecutors, functioning courts with judges, etc. would be greatly reduced leaving a power vacuum. People abhor a power vacuum just like nature abhors a vacuum. I would expect to see the rise of local warlords complete with militias. Similar to gangs virtually controlling some of our more lawless city regions and social strata now.
Maine is doable and we like it well enough. We live 10 miles from a 7,000 pop. county seat town that has a small university branch, decent hospital and enough stores for basic needs. It really helps if you enjoy winter activities, or at least don't mind long winters.
I don't think Maine would be one of the easiest places to subsist due to the long winters. We have 18-24 inches of snow on the ground now. Food foraging is difficult in deep snow when everything is dormant anyways. :laughing:
If depending on pasture for meat and dairy animals; there is no pasture to speak of from mid-November to mid-May. The growing season is 90-95 days, I usually don't plant seeds in the garden with more than an 85 day maturity.
Those obstacles are surmountable at a cost of the extra labor putting up enough to get through winter for both people and livestock. The risk is a bad growing season could make people desperate pretty quickly. It wasn't uncommon for people to lose their wheat and barley crops to fungus in a wet, cool summer.
Even with Maine's sparse population I think the wildlife food sources would be decimated pretty quickly. Deer and moose would become very rare. The rivers and lakes would get fished out. Without state hatchery stocking and enforcement of limits/rules they would be fished out now.
Plenty of water. Abundant wood for fuel but that's very labor intensive without modern tools. Apples for food, vinegar and hard cider are abundant. Sugar maple for sweetener. Various wild berries. Potatoes, carrots, peas and beans do well here. We usually manage to keep salad greens going most of the summer. Tomatoes, pumpkin, squash, onion, eggplant, cabbage, broccoli--all of those can be grown here--if a person had the seeds.
All in all, my guess is if the grocery store closes a person could work themselves to death just to survive here. I think you would have to really know what you are doing to make it and a lot of that skill and knowledge is gone.
