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Justin Kan, the technology investor who had made a halfhearted effort to stock up on food, recalled a recent phone call from a friend at a hedge fund. “He was telling me we should buy land in New Zealand as a backup. He’s, like, ‘What’s the percentage chance that Trump is actually a fascist dictator? Maybe it’s low, but the expected value of having an escape hatch is pretty high.’ ”
And it turns out Peter Thiel, after supporting Donald Trump, is buying property in NZ... you know, just in case... after all, the expected value of having an escape hatch is pretty high.
Think of Trump as an experiment: if things go okay, they get richer; if things go south, they have an escape hatch.
Makes sense, yes? Too bad escape hatches aren't available to everybody.
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The rich are our friends. That's why we cannot touch capitalism.
Asuming one can prepare for such events is just stupid.
Exactly.
The way to prepare for such eventualities is to ensure as far as possible that they don't happen and to meet them collectively when they do. Individuals can prepare through supportive social networks similar to extended families, but loners are going to be toast in anything approaching collapse.
The collapses we've seen have been fairly localized environmental disasters, natural (New Orleans) and man-made (Chernobyl) or a combination (Fukushima). Or wars, of course.
The most threatening causes of collapse now are wide-scale war, epidemics, and climate change, excepting something unforeseen like a meteor-hit.
I can remember the day when civil defense was quite active in this regard, but I have not heard about it in decades.
This prepping is textbook libertarianism 101...
Difference between "every man for himself," and "we're all in this together."
"If we don't hang together, we'll all hang separately," is attributed to Ben Franklin but it appears earlier in several places. See Wikipedia Wikipedia .
Funny, but for people at the bottom the collapse of society will be largely without effect. Nothing to lose, literally. In fact they may be better positioned to survive.
Odds are overwhelmingly in favor some of the 99% surviving to reproduce event of collapse. The 1%. Not so much, unless they congregate in the places the avoid collapse. While they are better equipped to do this, they have a lot riding on a few locations.
Asuming one can prepare for such events is just stupid.
Shows how little those people understand about how the world really works, being captured by the narrative of hyper-capitalist and individualism.
I believe the mega-rich aren't using the word "doomsday" in the sense you think.
Clearly, a luxury compound in New Zealand affords no protection against an asteroid impact, like the one that killed the dinosaurs (particularly if it impacts on one's roof).
For another example, it would be dubious a nuclear silo would be useful against a nuclear Armageddon: those silos were designed and engineered to survive a nuclear attack long enough to retaliate and launch their own missiles, not to ensure the long-term survival or well-being of its crew.
For Theil, who is a New Zealand citizen and bought a property in New Zealand, the doomsday is that things may turn out pear-shaped politically within the US: he must be thinking about political violence, rioting, repression, terrorism, maybe even civil war. That's the doomsday I believe people like Theil could be thinking about.
You see in those cases how a Kiwi retreat may come in handy, yes?
That explains the use of heavily-armed mercenaries as security guards, as shown in the photo.
I wouldnt characterize that as a civilization collapse then, it isn`t.
Neither would I. They seem to believe whatever political turmoil comes (and the probability of one coming may be small but is still greater than zero, in their opinion), they could survive it.
Maybe they are right, maybe not.
But even if they were right about political disturbances, that doesn't mean they can survive every kind of catastrophe: environmental, natural plagues, famine, nuclear/bacteriological war.
12 comments:
"We'd sooner doomsday come than share."
When society collapses the rich will be meat.
Evan Osnos was on NPR's Fresh Air today. Here's the podcast link:
http://www.npr.org/podcasts/381444908/fresh-air
The Doomsday units go for about $3M a pop -- 20 units in total, located in a government abandoned nuclear silo in Kansas.
Fascinating stuff.
Justin Kan, the technology investor who had made a halfhearted effort to stock up on food, recalled a recent phone call from a friend at a hedge fund. “He was telling me we should buy land in New Zealand as a backup. He’s, like, ‘What’s the percentage chance that Trump is actually a fascist dictator? Maybe it’s low, but the expected value of having an escape hatch is pretty high.’ ”
And it turns out Peter Thiel, after supporting Donald Trump, is buying property in NZ... you know, just in case... after all, the expected value of having an escape hatch is pretty high.
Think of Trump as an experiment: if things go okay, they get richer; if things go south, they have an escape hatch.
Makes sense, yes? Too bad escape hatches aren't available to everybody.
----------
The rich are our friends. That's why we cannot touch capitalism.
Asuming one can prepare for such events is just stupid.
Shows how little those people understand about how the world really works, being captured by the narrative of hyper-capitalist and individualism.
This prepping is textbook libertarianism 101...
Asuming one can prepare for such events is just stupid.
Exactly.
The way to prepare for such eventualities is to ensure as far as possible that they don't happen and to meet them collectively when they do. Individuals can prepare through supportive social networks similar to extended families, but loners are going to be toast in anything approaching collapse.
The collapses we've seen have been fairly localized environmental disasters, natural (New Orleans) and man-made (Chernobyl) or a combination (Fukushima). Or wars, of course.
The most threatening causes of collapse now are wide-scale war, epidemics, and climate change, excepting something unforeseen like a meteor-hit.
I can remember the day when civil defense was quite active in this regard, but I have not heard about it in decades.
This prepping is textbook libertarianism 101...
Difference between "every man for himself," and "we're all in this together."
"If we don't hang together, we'll all hang separately," is attributed to Ben Franklin but it appears earlier in several places. See Wikipedia Wikipedia .
Funny, but for people at the bottom the collapse of society will be largely without effect. Nothing to lose, literally. In fact they may be better positioned to survive.
Odds are overwhelmingly in favor some of the 99% surviving to reproduce event of collapse. The 1%. Not so much, unless they congregate in the places the avoid collapse. While they are better equipped to do this, they have a lot riding on a few locations.
Ignacio said...
Asuming one can prepare for such events is just stupid.
Shows how little those people understand about how the world really works, being captured by the narrative of hyper-capitalist and individualism.
I believe the mega-rich aren't using the word "doomsday" in the sense you think.
Clearly, a luxury compound in New Zealand affords no protection against an asteroid impact, like the one that killed the dinosaurs (particularly if it impacts on one's roof).
For another example, it would be dubious a nuclear silo would be useful against a nuclear Armageddon: those silos were designed and engineered to survive a nuclear attack long enough to retaliate and launch their own missiles, not to ensure the long-term survival or well-being of its crew.
For Theil, who is a New Zealand citizen and bought a property in New Zealand, the doomsday is that things may turn out pear-shaped politically within the US: he must be thinking about political violence, rioting, repression, terrorism, maybe even civil war. That's the doomsday I believe people like Theil could be thinking about.
You see in those cases how a Kiwi retreat may come in handy, yes?
That explains the use of heavily-armed mercenaries as security guards, as shown in the photo.
I wouldnt characterize that as a civilization collapse then, it isn`t.
Ignacio said...
I wouldnt characterize that as a civilization collapse then, it isn`t.
Neither would I. They seem to believe whatever political turmoil comes (and the probability of one coming may be small but is still greater than zero, in their opinion), they could survive it.
Maybe they are right, maybe not.
But even if they were right about political disturbances, that doesn't mean they can survive every kind of catastrophe: environmental, natural plagues, famine, nuclear/bacteriological war.
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