Doomsday Prep for the Super-Rich • Hacker News Board

Re: Doomsday Prep for the Super-Rich

#51

Post by scandox » Wed, Jan 25, 2017, 6:01 PM UTC

aub3bhat wrote: post #16

I think a lot of rich people underestimate the importance of law and order which allows them to benfit-from/wield their wealth. A bunch of guns, food packets or gold bars are unlikely to be of any use in case of a true catastrophe. The sense of power that wealth brings evaporates quickly, a quick litmus test is how few wealthy like Maddoff can escape law enforcement, even when having complete knowledge of their own c…

Sadly this is very true. I think that ego plays a big part. It's hard for some people to accept that their achievements rest on a wider platform - especially if someone is used to operating in a relatively autocratic domain (i.e. in their own business).

Re: Doomsday Prep for the Super-Rich

#52

Post by lngnmn » Wed, Jan 25, 2017, 6:04 PM UTC

Stopped reading after "stocking bitcoin and cryptocurrencies". For the love of god, who will maintain the internet access and enough peers for a transaction to be made? Golden coins sounds better, but a hundred thousand liters of good old diesel and high octane petrol is even better.)

Re: Doomsday Prep for the Super-Rich

#53

Post by erikpukinskis » Wed, Jan 25, 2017, 6:06 PM UTC

jessriedel wrote: post #49

bas wrote: post #35

It is my opinion that one's time is better spent preventing the collapse of civilization than preparing for it.

That's certainly the altruistic choice. But it would be foolishly arrogant for anyone, even Bill Gates, to think they had more controllable influence on the fate of the world than they do on their own safety.

The probability of you having significant controlled influence on the fate of the world is much higher than the probability of total meltdown of society necessitating a stockpile of guns and bunkers and your preparations having a significant controlled influence on your experience of it.

So no, focusing on the actual problems is actually less foolish than "doomsday prepping".

Re: Doomsday Prep for the Super-Rich

#54

Post by MaxfordAndSons » Wed, Jan 25, 2017, 6:06 PM UTC

michaelsbradley wrote: post #47

Uninformed by sound teleology, and unguided by divine revelation regarding The Last Things, it would seem many women and men feel driven to construct their own eschatology ~ largely shaped by fear and other basic instincts ~ which is then coupled to rational actions based on that foreseen/considered-probable ending.

Just to clarify, you're implying that the teleologically sound course of action is to simply await the sounding of the trumpets and then get on your knees, clasp your hands and close your eyes, right?

Re: Doomsday Prep for the Super-Rich

#55

Post by aaron-lebo » Wed, Jan 25, 2017, 6:06 PM UTC

jessriedel wrote: post #49

bas wrote: post #35

It is my opinion that one's time is better spent preventing the collapse of civilization than preparing for it.

That's certainly the altruistic choice. But it would be foolishly arrogant for anyone, even Bill Gates, to think they had more controllable influence on the fate of the world than they do on their own safety.

Everyone dies.

It's slightly foolishly arrogant to prepare for a doomsday scenario that fucks everyone else over when it's far more likely that you'll get killed by something you never saw coming - like that car coming down the street.

Re: Doomsday Prep for the Super-Rich

#56

Post by woofyman » Wed, Jan 25, 2017, 6:07 PM UTC

semi-extrinsic wrote: post #50

woofyman wrote: post #38

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The loss of the electric grid would throw us back to the 19th century but without 19th century technology. There would be mass starvation and disease.

How exactly would we lose the electric grid? Nice thing about a distributed infrastructure is that it's, well, distributed. Also, (nuclear aircraft carriers and submarines|jet aircraft engines) can be (very|relatively) quickly brought into duty producing electricity locally in every city, way before any pandemics and mass starvation. Longer term, converting from the refrigerated fresh food system of today, to a syste…

>How exactly would we lose the electric grid?

Coronal mass ejection

>Also, (nuclear aircraft carriers and submarines|jet aircraft engines) can be (very|relatively) quickly brought into duty producing electricity locally in every city, way before any pandemics and mass starvation.

That doesn't scale.

>Longer term, converting from the refrigerated fresh food system of today, to a system based on pickling/curing/canning/iceboxes/etc. is hardly black magic.

>In the short term hundreds of millions would starve or die from heat or cold. Cities only keep on hand weeks worth of food.

Re: Doomsday Prep for the Super-Rich

#57

Post by quickben » Wed, Jan 25, 2017, 6:08 PM UTC

analogmemory wrote: post #41

woofyman wrote: post #38

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The loss of the electric grid would throw us back to the 19th century but without 19th century technology. There would be mass starvation and disease.

I don't follow, are suggesting that the grid would vanish? Or that all power sources would suddenly be unavailable?

The grid would probably be there, non functional. It takes a lot of effort to maintain and you can't just exclude some capacity and hope the rest works.

Re: Doomsday Prep for the Super-Rich

#58

Post by m3rc » Wed, Jan 25, 2017, 6:10 PM UTC

zeamaize wrote: post #42

bas wrote: post #35

It is my opinion that one's time is better spent preventing the collapse of civilization than preparing for it.

That ship seems to have already sailed.

If you're seriously convinced structure has already passed the point of no-return what are you doing commenting here on some internet site?

Re: Doomsday Prep for the Super-Rich

#59

Post by m3rc » Wed, Jan 25, 2017, 6:12 PM UTC

UweSchmidt wrote: post #25

Realistically, society can make a comeback from pretty much any conceivable catastrophy. Similarly to the situation in communist countries, where important things were scarce and money was worthless, surviving would depend on cooperation and mutual trust, not on defending your bunker and playing out a Mad Max movie. While self-defense has its place I wonder which attitude would prevail.

This sort of "prepper-ism" is just masturbatory self indulgence, it's adults playing with toys while getting to play out fantasies in their head every night before bed.

Re: Doomsday Prep for the Super-Rich

#60

Post by [deleted] » Wed, Jan 25, 2017, 6:13 PM UTC

djrogers wrote: post #23

mac01021 wrote: post #7

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> the two goals are not mutually exclusive. Every dollar you spend on your bunker is a dollar you don't spend helping the world keep out of the sort of trouble that would make your bunker necessary. I'm not saying you aren't entitled to spend your time and money however you like, but there is a mathematical sense in which the goals do conflict, even if only via opportunity cost.

> Every dollar you spend on your bunker is a dollar you don't spend helping the world keep out of the sort of trouble that would make your bunker necessary. But it's also a dollar that's been spent - paying for school supplies for the daughter of the welder employed by the manufacturer, the medicine the truck driver's mom needs, and a few drinks at the bar for the retired vet who ran the backhoe for the bunker. The e…

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