Also, get to know your neighbors. You can form small groups to assist with survival. Also, learn to be a good barterer and have barter material on hand.
It depends on why you are preparing. If you are only preparing for a complete TEOTWAWKI type of scenario, where every can of beans will be fought for, then maybe. Realistically, most disaster scenarios include a middle ground of some degree of civilization being intact. Hurricanes, earth quakes, tornados, flooding, local terrorist activity, economic depression, etc will all present situations where the generator could be a very useful item, and every time you fire it up mutant bikers don't automatically show up to try to take it. Knowing the situation and being aware of the risks when using the generator is important, of course. But it doesn't make it a bad idea to own one.
Sometimes I think we limit ourselves to preparing for very specific situations and when those exact situations don't appear, we may find we have outsmarted ourselves.
learn how to run a generator off of wood gassification and you wont need fuel. Oh yeah, FEMA even handed out manuals to farmers during the depression. It had step by step instructions on how to instal a wood gassifier onto the front of your tractor to use wood to power it. Dont forget hydrogen fuel cells. c'mon guys, lets think outside the box here