Disturbing actions: prepper billionaires

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prfesser

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Complete story: https://www.theguardian.com/news/20...-bunkers-apocalypse-survival-richest-rushkoff

Summary: Tech expert is flown out to the middle of nowhere (desert) to meet with five of the super-rich. They are prepping in a huge way--facilities costing hundreds of millions, possibly billions. Stocking them, hiring guards (Navy Seals and the like), all in an effort to survive "the event": environmental collapse, social unrest, nuclear war, solar storm, unstoppable bio- or computer virus. They want to know how to best deal with the event.

My comments:
Some people think** that global warming is a hoax or way overblown. That nuclear war is all but impossible today. These billionaires apparently...don't. They're attempting to prepare for the worst. And I seriously doubt that the five referenced ultra-rich are the only ones going for broke in this fashion.

What I find very disturbing is that the tech expert tried to get them to consider using their wealth to help solve society's problems. "Don’t just invest in ammo and electric fences, invest in people and relationships. They rolled their eyes at what must have sounded to them like hippy philosophy." Even more disturbing is that their concern is, apparently, entirely for themselves. I don't think that an ecosystem can be constructed to maintain survival for children and later descendants. Doesn't matter; THEY'LL survive. They hope.

One of their most pressing questions the billionaires had is stated above: maintaining authority after the event. Personally, I don't think it would be possible. Especially if anything at all goes wrong. Some guard might well reason that if there are supplies for fifty people for twenty years, that means supplies for twenty people for fifty years...

**Please do not use the word "believe" when referring to science. It isn't a belief system. It's a preponderance-of-objective-evidence system; imperfect but much better than the alternatives. Astrology is a belief system; astronomy is not. Theraputic touch is a belief system; biology is not. Crystal emanation/energy/whatnot is a belief system; chemistry is not.
 
Whenever a billionnaire does anything, someone gets a salary.
So as long they don't do permanent damage, it's all good.
That's my debatable premise.
 
The writer of this opinion piece lost me with..
More than anything, they have succumbed to a mindset where “winning” means earning enough money to insulate themselves from the damage they are creating by earning money in that way.
 
The more people involved in your "survival plan" the more likely it will fail. And by failure, I'm referring to divulging your hiding spot, stealing your supplies, backstabbing you, etc.

If the world ended like these billioniares fear, how many people will know not just the existence of this "fortifications," but also their weaknesses?
 
I believe some humans will survive beyond the well off. You had the Bubonic Plague, the Ice Age, flooding, hurricanes, tornadoes, volcanic eruptions, pestilence, starvation, war and Planet Of The Apes. 🙈🙉🙊
 
mh9162013 said:
The more people involved in your "survival plan" the more likely it will fail. And by failure, I'm referring to divulging your hiding spot, stealing your supplies, backstabbing you, etc.

If the world ended like these billioniares fear, how many people will know not just the existence of this "fortifications," but also their weaknesses?
Click to expand...
First, I wouldn't think they would divulge the locations for obvious reasons and second, who's to say has the greater weakness. Them or the outsiders roaming around in an apocalyptic world.
 
Some of these billionaires are the cause of the problems they are trying to escape — automation of jobs, environmental destruction, social unrest, the spread of lies and misinformation, rise of extremism, etc. Some people have made a LOT of money as “disrupters” without caring much about the consequences of that disruption on the rest of society. Now they fear the end is coming, and they are hoping to personally escape the destruction they’ve brought on us all.
 
Steven said:
Yup.
Click to expand...
They may or may not divulge the secrets concerning the bunkers. I'm not saying it's a certaintly they will. All I'm saying is that if you're going to invest that much time and money into some prepping plan, you've got A LOT of loose ends to worry about...
 
It's all a matter of self preservation. If the world's governments are any indication, keeping a zippered mouth won't be a challenge. I believe the US government has such places for the high ranking officials.
 
ThirstyBarbarian said:
Some of these billionaires are the cause of the problems they are trying to escape — automation of jobs, environmental destruction, social unrest, the spread of lies and misinformation, rise of extremism, etc. Some people have made a LOT of money as “disrupters” without caring much about the consequences of that disruption on the rest of society. Now they fear the end is coming, and they are hoping to personally escape the destruction they’ve brought on us all.
Click to expand...
"Bang, zoom to the moon you go Alice!"
 
My wife sent me a link to this article yesterday evening. I started reading it before bed and decided it wasn’t great bedtime fare. I’ll get back to it at some point. It’s fairly long, and I only got through the first part. But one of the points I took from the part I read is how many of these guys started off with some good innovative ideas with the potential to be pretty beneficial to humankind, and that’s how they positioned themselves and their products. But as soon as they saw how much money they could make, they abandoned any kinds of ideals they had and went all in on exploiting their customers and users and society in general. This whole bunker thing is the ultimate expression of that — screw society and everyone in it and just look out for yourself.

Sorry tech billionaires, a bunker isn’t going to do you much good. If a bunker can save you, then the disaster is something you could have probably survived without a bunker. If you need the bunker to survive, then the disaster is probably big enough there is little point in surviving. You guys are in the same boat and just don’t understand how if it sinks, we all go down. The first class cabins sink along with the steerage.
 
My belief system tells me that the notion of somehow surviving the disaster in your bunker, you're going to emerge up in the mountains eating your granola bar while looking down on the world while everyone else just DIES is a fantasy...
 
I believe that Anthem by Ayn Rand, and Island of the Blue Dolphins by Scott O'Dell, should be required reading by all.

Let the Billionaires build, that is what they do. Don't hate or envy them for it. For in the end, money is merely cotton paper, nothing more, nothing less. If you cannot eat it, drink, it, protect with it, or use it for fire, then it has little worth in the end. Cotton does burn, so they do have that.

I leave you with my most favorite quote for those who choose to read, to chew on.

“Nothing in this world can take the place of persistence. Talent will not; nothing is more common than unsuccessful men with talent. Genius will not; unrewarded genius is almost a proverb. Education will not; the world is full of educated derelicts. Persistence and determination alone are omnipotent. The slogan 'Press On!' has solved and always will solve the problems of the human race.”​


― Calvin Coolidge
 
StreuB1 said:
I believe that Anthem by Ayn Rand, and Island of the Blue Dolphins by Scott O'Dell, should be required reading by all.
Click to expand...

Oh yuck. Rand? Gag me. only as a negative example, how to be a sociopath.

Blue Dolphins? What about Lord of the Flies? Catcher in the Rye? 1984?
 
StreuB1 said:
I believe that Anthem by Ayn Rand, and Island of the Blue Dolphins by Scott O'Dell, should be required reading by all.

Let the Billionaires build, that is what they do. Don't hate or envy them for it. For in the end, money is merely cotton paper, nothing more, nothing less. If you cannot eat it, drink, it, protect with it, or use it for fire, then it has little worth in the end. Cotton does burn, so they do have that.

I leave you with my most favorite quote for those who choose to read, to chew on.

“Nothing in this world can take the place of persistence. Talent will not; nothing is more common than unsuccessful men with talent. Genius will not; unrewarded genius is almost a proverb. Education will not; the world is full of educated derelicts. Persistence and determination alone are omnipotent. The slogan 'Press On!' has solved and always will solve the problems of the human race.”​


― Calvin Coolidge
Click to expand...

Money, or cotton paper, actually does have value within the context of a functioning society. These guys made billions, and that’s real money with real value and real power in our society. Their mistake is thinking it will help them if that functioning society falls. The bunker is temporary. You have to come out eventually, and if the society that gives your money value has disappeared when you come out, then yes, all you have is cotton paper. Save it for TP. The fact that it is washable is going to come in handy.
 
cls said:
Oh yuck. Rand? Gag me. only as a negative example, how to be a sociopath.

Blue Dolphins? What about Lord of the Flies? Catcher in the Rye? 1984?
Click to expand...

Very few people have read Anthem, its what I would call one of her more obscure works. It is none the less spectacular, in my opinion, her best work ever. Nothing like Atlas Shrugged or The Fountainhead. Hopefully you are not judging based on those works.

Have you read Island of the Blue Dolphins? Its a children's book, but spectacular. I absolutely love it; arguably my favorite book of all time.

There is a common theme that is very subtle in both of these books that is pretty key here.
 
ThirstyBarbarian said:
Money, or cotton paper, actually does have value within the context of a functioning society. These guys made billions, and that’s real money with real value and real power in our society. Their mistake is thinking it will help them if that functioning society falls. The bunker is temporary. You have to come out eventually, and if the society that gives your money value has disappeared when you come out, then yes, all you have is cotton paper. Save it for TP. The fact that it is washable is going to come in handy.
Click to expand...

We are waxing philosophical about the fall of society and/or EOROL. So money = cotton paper, nothing more, nothing less.

My point is that in that case, what you have [physically] matters far less than what you have mentally and emotionally, and how long you can sustain that.

Once you mentally and emotionally dissolve, no amount of physical objects can bring you back.
 
StreuB1 said:
We are waxing philosophical about the fall of society and/or EOROL. So money = cotton paper, nothing more, nothing less.

My point is that in that case, what you have [physically] matters far less than what you have mentally and emotionally, and how long you can sustain that.

Once you mentally and emotionally dissolve, no amount of physical objects can bring you back.
Click to expand...

What do you think? Do these tech billionaires have what it takes
mentally and emotionally? And how long can they sustain that? Are they going to mentally and emotionally dissolve? Have they already?
 

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