Billionaire bunkers: How the 1% are preparing for the apocalypse (2019)
cnn.comHow many of the people who pay for these things were entrepreneurs who felt they could change the world with their new products and services when it would profit them, yet when it comes to changing the world to stop growing so much and steward our resources for future generations, they say, "we can't change human nature" and build bunkers and rocket ships to escape the devastation they accelerated?
Some of them. That was an easy question. Many of them, though, are not for changing the world, just for maintaining the status quo that empowers them.
Don't quite understand how a nuclear bunker is useful. MAD means you would have maybe 30 - 60 minutes to get into them? Plus, if I was attacking the country where the bunkers are located, I would make sure to blow them sky high, since I can't verify what is in them. Maybe in a pandemic they are useful, although using SARS-CoV-2 as an example, you can't be sure you aren't locking yourself up with someone carrying the virus.
Nukes don't work like that, it's not used to blow things up to the sky, it is detonated near ground to maximize it's blast zone and send the shockwave and heat as wide as possible, make an area uninhabitable.
When I watch an apocalyptic movie, it always strikes me that the help gets free refuge.
If the bunker entrance is sold with a ticket, the security personnel and the engineering gets to live as part of their jobs when the rich need to pay 1 billion euros per ticket.
However, those real-life rich peoples bunkers are much more individualistic. They don't seem to intend to keep a social structure down there.
I find the movie version of the apocalyptic survival more realistic.
I'm not sure bringing the help with you is that realistic. it would be hard to convince people they need to work to earn their keep when all the resources you have to offer them are already in the bunker. why wouldn't they just kill you and consume your (likely disproportionate) share of the provisions? your leadership skills aren't worth much in a small bunker.
the only way I see this working is if you set up the security people as a privileged class so they aren't incentivized to side with the common workers to overthrow you. there's probably a minimum scale (ie, number of people) needed for this to be stable. it would still be hard to prevent the security from realizing they could just kill you and add your share to their own.
in a weird way, an (ex)billionaire commune might be the only viable bunker society.
The type of billionaire that wants a shelter only for himself isn't the type of person that would form a bond of friendship with his security guards or treat them with respect.
These are glorified man caves. They exist to be written and talked about.
Yes, they ostensibly have a purpose. But as comments here call out, most would never function as actual shelters.
Agree completely. All of us accumulate useless junk to various degrees in our lives. The extremely wealthy just tend to have junk that looks extremely nice, but no more useful than the Bluetooth shower speaker I got for Christmas that’s never been opened.
Yeah, they are built so you can show off. If you want to impress someone just show them your luxury bunker. "Even my bunker is fancier than your house".
If it's the nuclear apocalypse then just accept your fate. A bunker will just prolong the pain. However if it's something like a global pandemic and you don't want to encounter any other people for a while, then I'd much rather own a resort on a Caribbean island or the like.
I'm not sure what's the "odds of death" tipping point where the society/world devolves into something you no longer want to be part of. If the chances of dying without a bunker are 1 in 1000(0) it may help. If they're 1 in 10 most likely not.
So the bunker could help survive the initial strikes of a nuclear war, assuming your country can quickly retaliate and end it before substantial or permanent damage is caused. Then again in a country as big as the US the chances of a nuclear warhead penetrating the defenses and landing close enough to be a real and immediate danger are relatively low.
But if we're talking about prolonged nuclear war, anything that would really upend social order, or actually endanger the survival of the species (nuclear winter), such a bunker is just a fancy coffin. They will never get the chance to get out of it. If they do there will either be scorched earth waiting for them, or some sort of society that would see the protected elites as enemies and a cache of resources
This makes me think about the bunker that was discovered by the monk at the beginning of A Canticle for Liebowitz, where rubble on the exterior blocked the door from opening and the people inside died. The moral of the story is: make sure your doors open inward?
The idea behind a bunker makes some sense as temporary shelter. However, a nuclear bunker feels completely pointless. The luxury "amenities" will cease to function once all the power plants are down. If the bunker isn't located near a farm then you're going to run out of food. You're going to abandon it in the long run. It's a much better strategy to live away from population centres and next to food production. A last minute emergency bunker is practically useless in comparison.
Every time I hear about doomsday bunkers I think of Megadeth's Polaris lyrics (1990) [1], in particular:
Bomb shelters filled to the brim
Survival such a silly whim
[1] https://www.azlyrics.com/lyrics/megadeth/rustinpeacepolaris....
Good luck to the billionaires when all your slaves are dead. Power and clean water don't just randomly exist.
Pathetic headline. Most of these projects are only concepts, some not even built and several years old now dug up for the purpose of this apparently fake article. Finally, you don't need to be a billionaire to afford those in Poland or Czech republic.
And once the apocalypse is over, they can live altogether in a devastated world where money has no meaning, and where true skills are the only riches. No one to steer the yatch, no pilot for the aircraft, no petroleum.
So much money is wasted in this world.
Wait, couldn't it be used to live in a better world altogether ?
Plenty of rich people can pilot their own boats and planes. It's a skill they can afford to acquire as a hobby.
A medium-sized yatch needs a crew of 6+ people. An airplane needs to be replenished in food and supplies, and be taken care of, and frequently inspected and repaired. We often forget how brittle technology is...
Good for them to save their own lives with money they stole from the proletariat.
Send the concrete mixers round ;)