
Billionaire bunkers: How the 1% are preparing for the apocalypse (2019) - drenginian
https://www.cnn.com/style/article/doomsday-luxury-bunkers/index.html
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spodek
How 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?

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ASalazarMX
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.

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Gatsky
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.

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balola
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.

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mrtksn
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.

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leetcrew
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.

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imtringued
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.

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JumpCrisscross
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.

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qzw
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.

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sumo89
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.

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close04
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

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overthemoon
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?

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imtringued
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.

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astrobe_
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....](https://www.azlyrics.com/lyrics/megadeth/rustinpeacepolaris.html)

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neuronic
Good luck to the billionaires when all your slaves are dead. Power and clean
water don't just randomly exist.

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michalu
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.

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jojo2000
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 ?

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bitwize
Plenty of rich people can pilot their own boats and planes. It's a skill they
can _afford_ to acquire as a hobby.

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jojo2000
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...

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Kaze404
Good for them to save their own lives with money they stole from the
proletariat.

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m4r35n357
Send the concrete mixers round ;)

