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Doomsday Prep for the Super-rich

newyorker.com

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Re: Doomsday Prep for the Super-rich

#131

Post by bootload »

bootload wrote: post #104

“I typically ask people, ‘So you’re worried about the pitchforks. How much money have you donated to your local homeless shelter?’ This connects the most, in my mind, to the realities of the income gap. All the other forms of fear that people bring up are artificial.” I like Max Levchins idea behind this statement. The underlying anxiety shown by a lot of the characters interviewed in this article display a real huma…

look another rat, Thiel this time, "Thiel's company revealed as Glendhu Bay property buyer" (2015) ~ http://www.nzherald.co.nz/business/news/article.cfm?c_id=3&o...

Re: Doomsday Prep for the Super-rich

#133

Post by bootload »

bootload wrote: post #129
Tomminn wrote: post #117

Earlier quoted context omitted.

In NZ there is free healthcare, free accident insurance and a decent welfare program. Being a capitalist country, there is still income inequality, but the situation is no way near as bad as it is in the US because of these safety nets for the bottom quartile. The homicide rate in NZ is less than 1 per 100,000 inhabitants. And almost all of those homicides are solved, because the police force is large compared to the…

"the situation is no way near as bad as it is in the US because of these safety nets for the bottom quartile." I'm not kiwi-bashing, simply pointing out that rich foreign individuals, using NZ as a bolt-hole are faced with similar situation, just in a more dispersed population. "Of all New Zealand children, 22% live in families where the major caregiver receives income from a social security benefit.[0] That is aroun…

WRT Australian Aboriginals, cf: "Kathleen Ngale is 85 years old and living in conditions I can only describe as hell" ~ https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2017/jan/24/utopia...

Re: Doomsday Prep for the Super-rich

#134

Post by jessaustin »

rabboRubble wrote: post #113
throwaway2016a wrote: post #10

> To protect his wife and daughter, he said, “I don’t have guns, but I have a lot of other weaponry. I took classes in archery.” This whole article reads like some surreal parody of what eccentric SV mil/billionaires would do. Although I suppose there is probably some truth that in a post apocalyptic / post rule of law world... the person in the big house with the expensive stuff to loot probably has a huge target on…

Yeah, all talk about emergency bags and archery, zero talk about earthquake proofing their damn houses in California. Sort of missing the point of emergency preparedness, methinks.

Fancy houses in California are all earthquake "proofed". It's the law.

Re: Doomsday Prep for the Super-rich

#135

Post by blubb-fish »

sjg007 wrote: post #114
tossaway322 wrote: post #57

Earlier quoted context omitted.

+10 on the dental floss. I've been trying to find a way to buy (the remainder of) a lifetime's supply in case of thermonuclear war. Once out of floss, I can either pull my teeth out (Well, OK, every _other_ tooth) or kill myself. Life w/o floss is unimaginable.

Floss actually isn't necessary and its benefits haven't been scientifically proven. Sugar is the enemy. Drink water.

okay, you obviously never had a piece of meat stuck between teeth ... it's going to start itching and will drive you literally crazy

Re: Doomsday Prep for the Super-rich

#136

Post by disordinary »

ucaetano wrote: post #20

I grew up in a 3rd world small farm, raising pigs, chicken, setting traps and planting a bunch of stuff, not to mention a light version of WROL (without rule of law). Reading this article I feel that I'm more prepared for the apocalypse than all the "super-rich"...

The thing about NZ is that in a post apocalyptic world people will just get on with things, society won't break down to any great extent.

You won't need to be able to set traps or do the economy will collapse but New Zealand is pretty self sufficient when it comes to food and energy. Domesticly sourced oil will be very expensive and obviously high end technology relies on supply chains from China so if the world turns as crap as that then it's the end of iPhones, etc. But life will go on.

Re: Doomsday Prep for the Super-rich

#137

Post by Apocryphon »

qball wrote: post #105
virmundi wrote: post #19

Earlier quoted context omitted.

They are an a lot quieter. But don't be fooled. Even with shitty long guns (not even riffles since they weren't riffled), the American Indians swapped bows for guns. They still used bows, but took to guns due to their power.

>They still used bows, but took to guns due to their power. Not necessarily. Early guns were inefficient; one shot every minute is nothing compared to what a good bowman can do and you couldn't place an accurate shot outside of a few yards. The reason an army switches to guns is because they require very little strength (and consequentially, training time) to use. In fact, for a musket, the limiting factor would be t…

For modern day preppers, why not use crossbows, as a compromise?

Re: Doomsday Prep for the Super-rich

#138

Post by disordinary »

bootload wrote: post #129
Tomminn wrote: post #117

Earlier quoted context omitted.

In NZ there is free healthcare, free accident insurance and a decent welfare program. Being a capitalist country, there is still income inequality, but the situation is no way near as bad as it is in the US because of these safety nets for the bottom quartile. The homicide rate in NZ is less than 1 per 100,000 inhabitants. And almost all of those homicides are solved, because the police force is large compared to the…

"the situation is no way near as bad as it is in the US because of these safety nets for the bottom quartile." I'm not kiwi-bashing, simply pointing out that rich foreign individuals, using NZ as a bolt-hole are faced with similar situation, just in a more dispersed population. "Of all New Zealand children, 22% live in families where the major caregiver receives income from a social security benefit.[0] That is aroun…

In NZ Māori could vote from the first election on. They've always been on equal footing with the white man legally (if not socially), they could vote in NZ more than one hundred years before non white suffrage was finally enforced across the US. And as you said there is a tribunal that redresses historic issues with Iwi.

Maori also get special seats in parliament, the Te Reo language and Maori culture is a big part of NZ (Aotearoa) culture and our way of life, and there is a lot of state funded help to try and bring the racial inequalities in line.

A lot of the problems are what we see all around the world, and are hard to sort out. The towns that Māori live in are often small towns where there is not a lot of employment, if they live in the cities they are often disenfranchised and have a lack of cultural support.

Re: Doomsday Prep for the Super-rich

#139

Post by disordinary »

awfgylbcxhrey wrote: post #51

we are skating on really thin cultural ice right now. Nope. Not even close. We survived the Civil Rights movement and Vietnam War protests. For all our online angst and whining, we're not even 1/10th as far toward the tipping point as we were back then.

The difference is that those protests were steps in the right direction, what we're seeing now is a step backwards.

Re: Doomsday Prep for the Super-rich

#140

Post by disordinary »

vkou wrote: post #66

It amuses me greatly that Peter Thiel is listed as one of the people who will bug out if things turn bad. I suppose that's the backup plan when his libertarian utopia doesn't work out?

It's also funny that he's holding up in NZ which sits way off to the left politically when compared to the US.

I guess no government is good, until you want a place to stay when society breaks down.

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