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Doomsday Prep for the Super-Rich

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Re: Doomsday Prep for the Super-Rich

#101

Post by ianferrel »

kilroy123 wrote: post #87
lampzzy wrote: post #77

“A group of centi-millionaires and a couple of billionaires were working through end-of-America scenarios and talking about what they’d do. Most said they’ll fire up their planes and take their families to Western ranches or homes in other countries.” One of the guests was skeptical, Dugger said. “He leaned forward and asked, ‘Are you taking your pilot’s family, too? And what about the maintenance guys? If revolution…

I too have always thought about this. If I was a billionaire, I would also have a secret home setup, and I _would_ take the pilot and his family with me. I would also have a maintenance person and his family there. I would become his apprentice and have him teach me everything he know. What else would you have to do while you're in hiding?

What makes you think that your mechanic and pilot would teach you anything, or even keep you around in that scenario? What do you have to offer that furthers their survival more than your share of the supplies you're not going to be eating?

If you really want this to work, you better learn to be a pilot and a mechanic now, or preferably have close family members that you like who have those skills.

Re: Doomsday Prep for the Super-Rich

#102

Post by grondilu »

I'm a bit surprised not to find any occurrence of "SpaceX", "mars" or "Musk" in this discussion page.

Elon Musk stated many times that he wants to colonize mars in order to prevent a collapse of human civilization. I've always found this idea ludicrous as in my opinion for this purpose it makes much more sense to prepare for the meltdown on Earth, and as far as I understand that's precisely what survivalists do, even if their motives are probably much more selfish than Musk's.

Re: Doomsday Prep for the Super-Rich

#103

Post by Diederich »

analogmemory wrote: post #27

I find it curious that people prepare for a "Doomsday" scenario. I can fathom a localized catastrophe like an earthquake, or extreme weather, or even a horrible bomb attack. But the extreme examples seem more related to our entertainment consumption than based on a real reality. I feel like we're more likely to die from old age than anything from space or zombies. Maybe I just can't do the level of paranoia that some…

I think there's a small but non-trivial chance that, in the next 3 or 4 decades, global weather will become so erratic and severe that we'll lose a good 90% of our ability to grow food, world wide.

That would end our civilization.

It would, obviously, be a long, slow, agonizing, random and exceedingly chaotic process.

Hopefully that's not what will happen.

Re: Doomsday Prep for the Super-Rich

#104

Post by Apocryphon »

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…

The concept of privilege is often bandied around by social progressives, but if you strip away the ideological elements, it really just comes down to self-awareness. What are you reliant on? What does your success depend on? Count your blessings, and reciprocate.

The libertarian inclination to portray human beings prospering on their own as Randian ubermensch is one of the worst ideas to have infected tech culture.

Re: Doomsday Prep for the Super-Rich

#105

Post by stupidcar »

0xfeba wrote: post #85
lampzzy wrote: post #77

“A group of centi-millionaires and a couple of billionaires were working through end-of-America scenarios and talking about what they’d do. Most said they’ll fire up their planes and take their families to Western ranches or homes in other countries.” One of the guests was skeptical, Dugger said. “He leaned forward and asked, ‘Are you taking your pilot’s family, too? And what about the maintenance guys? If revolution…

Well, it's lower hanging fruit but, if that anecdote is true, it sure sounds like most of those bourgeoisie don't really have a clue what "end-of-America" would really entail. That is, the infrastructure of people that normally do what you pay them to are all going to have different motives. The people in this story are still counting on quite a bit of society to exist to ferry them to their fancy secure locations. W…

Would society really collapse overnight though? Other than a few scenarios, such as a sudden, all-out nuclear war, it seems like you'd have some build-up in advance. There'd be a period when things were getting progressively worse, but there was enough social inertia to keep things going.

You don't have to look far in history to see examples of this. 3rd Reich Germany kept functioning well past the point where it should seemingly have collapsed. Even as the Red Army were shelling Berlin, there were low-level people continuing their work when the sensible thing to do would surely have been to get their family and flee.

More recently, the Greek financial crisis put a major strain on institutions that were weak to begin with, but there was no rioting or major breakdown of order.

I think modern, Western societies are surprisingly resistant to a breakdown in order, simply because most people have never experienced anything other than order. As a result, acting in an anarchic, non-system way simply isn't something that would occur to them. Even in the face of an existential crisis, they would "keep calm and carry on", because they can't imagine doing anything else.

Re: Doomsday Prep for the Super-Rich

#106

Post by rstupek »

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…

Totally this, but also it's a misnomer that money can be "stockpiled" and not benefiting the economy.

Re: Doomsday Prep for the Super-Rich

#108

Post by FabHK »

michaelsbradley wrote: post #75
MaxfordAndSons wrote: post #54

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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?

I'm suggesting that having–constructing a vision of "the end of all things" (or "practically the end..."), and then living–preparing according to that vision, seems to be something human persons are wont to do, whether they are religious or areligious. In the Christian vision, the important thing is to prepare by living a life in correspondence with the double-precept of charity, "love God, love your neighbor" ~ cf.…

Those that are well prepared, or those that belong to a particular religion/denomination?

Re: Doomsday Prep for the Super-Rich

#109

Post by Apocryphon »

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…

This sounds like a variation of the broken window fallacy

Re: Doomsday Prep for the Super-Rich

#110

Post by Apocryphon »

stupidcar wrote: post #105
0xfeba wrote: post #85

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Well, it's lower hanging fruit but, if that anecdote is true, it sure sounds like most of those bourgeoisie don't really have a clue what "end-of-America" would really entail. That is, the infrastructure of people that normally do what you pay them to are all going to have different motives. The people in this story are still counting on quite a bit of society to exist to ferry them to their fancy secure locations. W…

Would society really collapse overnight though? Other than a few scenarios, such as a sudden, all-out nuclear war, it seems like you'd have some build-up in advance. There'd be a period when things were getting progressively worse, but there was enough social inertia to keep things going. You don't have to look far in history to see examples of this. 3rd Reich Germany kept functioning well past the point where it sho…

Even in the modern day, it's pretty amazing how in the midst of the Syrian Civil War, life goes on in areas of cities that are actually experiencing fighting. Not only does regular life continue, but somehow the economy isn't completely gone.
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