# Billionaire Preppers - Whoosh or Weird? **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [September 4, 2022, 9:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/billionaire-preppers-whoosh-or-weird/970952 "2022-09-04T21:14:15Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Velocity](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/velocity/32/18006_2.png) [@Velocity](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Velocity)\ **Post date:** [September 5, 2022, 7:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/billionaire-preppers-whoosh-or-weird/970952/21 "2022-09-05T19:13:52Z")
The part about “billionaires using special combination locks on the food supply that only they knew” screams ‘enhanced interrogation methods.’ Do these rich CEOs not think that the guards, or anyone, could just torture them and get the information out of them within seconds? ---
**Author:** ![iamthewalrus\_3](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/258eb7/32.png) [@iamthewalrus\_3](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/iamthewalrus_3)\ **Post date:** [September 5, 2022, 7:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/billionaire-preppers-whoosh-or-weird/970952/22 "2022-09-05T19:57:04Z")
Depends. Do you want to maximize the chances you’ll survive or maximize the chances of rebuilding? Different goals require different skills. ---
**Author:** ![Dewey\_Finn](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dewey_finn/32/4222_2.png) [@Dewey\_Finn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dewey_Finn)\ **Post date:** [September 5, 2022, 8:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/billionaire-preppers-whoosh-or-weird/970952/23 "2022-09-05T20:08:00Z")
> [@Jackmannii](#): > > Forgive my skepticism, but how many billionaires actually have or are building End Times bunkers? The article mentions exactly zero. And it’s virtually impossible to keep such luxury shelters secret, even if you’re not dumb enough to publicize them. > > [Killing at Kentucky mansion possibly motivated by home’s doomsday bunker, authorities say](https://www.kfvs12.com/2022/02/25/killing-kentucky-mansion-possibly-motivated-by-homes-doomsday-bunker-authorities-say/) I know that Peter Thiel (billionaire Silicon Valley venture capitalist) bought an estate in New Zealand, [and he’s not the only one](https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2017/01/30/doomsday-prep-for-the-super-rich) (article from The New Yorker about this sort of thing). ---
**Author:** ![Jackmannii](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jackmannii/32/311_2.png) [@Jackmannii](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jackmannii)\ **Post date:** [September 5, 2022, 8:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/billionaire-preppers-whoosh-or-weird/970952/24 "2022-09-05T20:40:45Z")
Once you include unspecified “wealthy” people who’ve bought vacation homes in New Zealand, the category of “billionaire prepper” has gotten rather diluted. ---
**Author:** ![Broomstick](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/broomstick/32/246_2.png) [@Broomstick](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Broomstick)\ **Post date:** [September 5, 2022, 8:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/billionaire-preppers-whoosh-or-weird/970952/25 "2022-09-05T20:41:53Z")
> [@Jackmannii](#): > > The real money in all this is in selling shelters and supplies to dumbasses. Natural News runs tons of stories about the impending collapse of civilization, while coincidentally selling lots of prepper foods, supplements and gear. Exactly. Profit off rich idiots. The people selling all those gear are probably equipping themselves for realistic emergencies at their local dollar store and NOT amassing a hoard in a fortified underground defensive facility (for those of you not gamers - that’s another way of describing a dungeon. You know, the sort that adventurers set out to break into and loot). > [@Dewey\_Finn](#): > > I know that Peter Thiel (billionaire Silicon Valley venture capitalist) bought an estate in New Zealand, [and he’s not the only one](https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2017/01/30/doomsday-prep-for-the-super-rich) (article from The New Yorker about this sort of thing). The irony would be if New Zealand was then hit with either cataclysmic volcanic eruptions or a direct hit from a larger meteor or both (presumably, the latter triggering the former). Not that I wish any harm on New Zealand. ---
**Author:** ![Al128](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/al128/32/16541_2.png) [@Al128](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Al128)\ **Post date:** [September 5, 2022, 10:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/billionaire-preppers-whoosh-or-weird/970952/26 "2022-09-05T22:38:37Z")
> [@Broomstick](#): > > The irony would be if New Zealand was then hit with either cataclysmic volcanic eruptions or a direct hit from a larger meteor or both (presumably, the latter triggering the former). > > Not that I wish any harm on New Zealand. redundancy, baby … redundancy … that’s why I have the very same setup both in NZ and Patagonia ---
**Author:** ![Broomstick](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/broomstick/32/246_2.png) [@Broomstick](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Broomstick)\ **Post date:** [September 5, 2022, 10:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/billionaire-preppers-whoosh-or-weird/970952/27 "2022-09-05T22:49:16Z")
Very nice. What is your contingency plan if a gamma-ray burst hits the southern hemisphere of the Earth? ---
**Author:** ![HMS\_Irruncible](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/hms_irruncible/32/7394_2.png) [@HMS\_Irruncible](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/HMS_Irruncible)\ **Post date:** [September 5, 2022, 11:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/billionaire-preppers-whoosh-or-weird/970952/28 "2022-09-05T23:36:53Z")
> [@Velocity](#): > > The part about “billionaires using special combination locks on the food supply that only they knew” screams ‘enhanced interrogation methods.’ Do these rich CEOs not think that the guards, or anyone, could just torture them and get the information out of them within seconds? What it screams is an inexorably bone-deep sense of entitlement. Sure the guards _could_ extract the information via torture, or more practically they could simply follow me around until I got hungry and then take my food as soon as I withdrew it. But that’s like, something that happens to less important people. Nobody would do that to _me_. ---
**Author:** ![JRDelirious](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jrdelirious/32/9531_2.png) [@JRDelirious](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JRDelirious)\ **Post date:** [September 5, 2022, 11:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/billionaire-preppers-whoosh-or-weird/970952/29 "2022-09-05T23:51:35Z")
> [@Alessan](#): > > Billionaires need to be taught that they’re just people holding papers that say they own stuff. Their wealth is a legal fiction, in that it requires the presence of a strong legal system in order to exist. Well, let’s pause there, I could see how _serious_ minded, thoughtful billionaires who work at building up or keeping up their business probably understand. OTOH those who raised fortunes through the Greater Fool principle over a pitch pulled out of their fundaments, or who just had it land on them, probably need a quick refresher. > [@HMS\_Irruncible](#): > > The difference between right-wing militias and billionaire techbros is that the right-wingers militia dudes at least _have_ a theory of post-apocalyptic political economy. However deluded and immoral it may be, they may survive long enough to understand its flows. Yep. Said it elsewhere: various people are sure a collapse/tribulation is inevitable and are trying to be rich enough or armed enough to make it through. Bet on the people with actual weapons in their hands. > [@Velocity](#): > > Do these rich CEOs not think that the guards, or anyone, could just torture them and get the information out of them within seconds? [And it would not require high tech (XKCD)](https://xkcd.com/538/). ---
**Author:** ![Dr\_Paprika](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dr_paprika/32/3042_2.png) [@Dr\_Paprika](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dr_Paprika)\ **Post date:** [September 6, 2022, 9:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/billionaire-preppers-whoosh-or-weird/970952/30 "2022-09-06T21:06:38Z")
My first thought is billionaires could afford to hire the best full time people if this was a serious personal concern. My second thought is most billionaires would have other things on their mind. My third thought is billionaires are so much weirder than they get credit for. I’m not saying you reach batsh\*t levels of iconoclasm achieving success. Things like The Long Now are only somewhat weird. But I do think they need to get someone else to do their representation. 😉 ---
**Author:** ![gnoitall](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/bb73d2/32.png) [@gnoitall](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gnoitall)\ **Post date:** [September 6, 2022, 10:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/billionaire-preppers-whoosh-or-weird/970952/31 "2022-09-06T22:13:28Z")
> [@Dr\_Paprika](#): > > My third thought is billionaires are so much weirder than they get credit for. “And, for an instant, she stared directly into those soft blue eyes and knew, with an instinctive mammalian certainty, that the exceedingly rich were no longer even remotely human.” – William Gibson, _Count Zero_ ---
**Author:** ![nearwildheaven](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/90db22/32.png) [@nearwildheaven](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/nearwildheaven)\ **Post date:** [September 7, 2022, 2:46am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/billionaire-preppers-whoosh-or-weird/970952/32 "2022-09-07T02:46:22Z")
I was going to say, what about the Amish? ---
**Author:** ![Al128](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/al128/32/16541_2.png) [@Al128](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Al128)\ **Post date:** [September 7, 2022, 2:54am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/billionaire-preppers-whoosh-or-weird/970952/33 "2022-09-07T02:54:25Z")
> [@Broomstick](#): > > What is your contingency plan if a gamma-ray burst hits the southern hemisphere of the Earth? well, given that the southern hemisphere is as big as the northern, a gamma-ray burst is likely to be many 1000s of miles away … I don’t see any priority targets outside of a couple of australian metropols/ports in the southern hemisphere … my uneducated guess is 80-90% of the action will happen in the northern part of the planet - where all those countries with armed forces which have “reach” are located. so I get more bang-for-my-billions out of bunkers in the south-side 😉 ---
**Author:** ![Al128](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/al128/32/16541_2.png) [@Al128](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Al128)\ **Post date:** [September 7, 2022, 2:56am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/billionaire-preppers-whoosh-or-weird/970952/34 "2022-09-07T02:56:47Z")
> [@nearwildheaven](#): > > I was going to say, what about the Amish? well, those are weird, too … but they don’t do nukes … at least not officially ---
**Author:** ![Alessan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/alessan/32/465_2.png) [@Alessan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Alessan)\ **Post date:** [September 7, 2022, 6:48am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/billionaire-preppers-whoosh-or-weird/970952/35 "2022-09-07T06:48:48Z")
> [@Velocity](#): > > The part about “billionaires using special combination locks on the food supply that only they knew” screams ‘enhanced interrogation methods.’ To me, it screams “crowbars and blowtorches”. There’s not a safe in the world that can’t be broken into given enough time. And if you can’t, well… crowbars and blowtorches have multiple uses. ---
**Author:** ![Broomstick](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/broomstick/32/246_2.png) [@Broomstick](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Broomstick)\ **Post date:** [September 7, 2022, 7:40am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/billionaire-preppers-whoosh-or-weird/970952/36 "2022-09-07T07:40:23Z")
> [@Al128](#): > > well, given that the southern hemisphere is as big as the northern, a gamma-ray burst is likely to be many 1000s of miles away … Not quite sure you know what a [gamma-ray burst actually is](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gamma-ray_burst). Or it’s [potential effects on life](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gamma-ray_burst#Effects_on_Earth) on Earth. Distances are _light years_ away, not “1000’s of miles away”… 😉 ---
**Author:** ![Aspenglow](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/aspenglow/32/76_2.png) [@Aspenglow](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Aspenglow)\ **Post date:** [September 10, 2022, 4:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/billionaire-preppers-whoosh-or-weird/970952/37 "2022-09-10T16:40:20Z")
Split this topic on September 10, 2022, 4:40pm UTC 2 posts were merged into an existing topic: [Sock Posts by NewKobladReality](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sock-posts-by-newkobladreality/971333/3) ---
**Author:** ![Crafter\_Man](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/crafter_man/32/458_2.png) [@Crafter\_Man](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Crafter_Man)\ **Post date:** [September 7, 2022, 10:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/billionaire-preppers-whoosh-or-weird/970952/39 "2022-09-07T10:27:25Z")
> [@dolphinboy](#): > > When I was a kid during the cold war, we had a neighbor, my guitar teacher’s family, who built a bomb shelter in their yard. It was fully stocked with food and water and could sustain eight people for many weeks. Since this was the only shelter in the neighborhood, everyone became friends with this neighbor in hopes of showing up on their doorstep when bombs started falling. At one point, that neighbor said only they and their relatives would be allowed in the shelter. That upset many people, but there was no way they could accommodate everyone even if they wanted to, and once the door was locked, nobody could get inside, no matter how hard they tried. Wasn’t there a Twilight Zone episode about this? ---
**Author:** ![Broomstick](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/broomstick/32/246_2.png) [@Broomstick](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Broomstick)\ **Post date:** [September 7, 2022, 10:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/billionaire-preppers-whoosh-or-weird/970952/40 "2022-09-07T10:31:52Z")
While the first US billionaire was arguably as early at 1916 (Rockefeller), until very recently they were so few and generally so low profile as to not be a focus of rules/regulations/legislation. There are still fewer than 1000 in the US. Making laws that focus on just 1000 people is a bit unusual and perhaps unprecedented. That doesn’t mean such rules are unnecessary or desirable, just that they haven’t been made yet. ---
**Author:** ![Red\_Wiggler](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/red_wiggler/32/13190_2.png) [@Red\_Wiggler](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Red_Wiggler)\ **Post date:** [September 7, 2022, 3:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/billionaire-preppers-whoosh-or-weird/970952/41 "2022-09-07T15:24:22Z")
Pity the poor billionaire preppers and the terrible conundrum they face after The Event. How to guarantee safety and power in a society where their wealth no longer has influence? (Solution: a little light slavery!) The most entertaining, yet still thought provoking, examination of post-Event societal organization came in the scify novel _Lucifer’s Hammer_ (Larry Niven? I forgot to look that up before posting). In that one, groups formulated for survival, largely governed semi-democratically but the foremost group centered around an enlightened despot who maintained the loyalty of his strongest sub-chiefs. And even that was threatened in the inevitable succession crisis. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/billionaire-preppers-whoosh-or-weird/970952.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/billionaire-preppers-whoosh-or-weird/970952.md?page=3)