The richest people in the USA – in Silicon Valley, New York and beyond – are actively preparing for the collapse of civilization, because they are sure that the apocalypse is inevitable. Special groups have been created on social networks where millionaire survivalists (as they call themselves) share tips on building shelters and bunkers, gas masks, geographical preferences in the event of a global threat to humanity.
In general, the ideas of the most necessary things, what you need to provide yourself for a “rainy day” or the case of the end of the world, are different for the rich. As for the same Martinez, he bought two hectares of land on a remote island in the North Pacific Ocean. He brought generators, solar panels and thousands of cartridges there, so to speak, came to full readiness.
“WHEN THE CHAOS STARTS, IT WON’T BE UP TO GLASSES OR CONTACT LENSES, AND WITHOUT THEM I ABSOLUTELY CAN’T SEE ANYTHING”
Steve Huffman, the 33-year-old co-owner and head of the Reddit project, estimated at $ 600 million, until recently had not a weak degree of myopia and first of all, in preparation for the apocalypse, had an operation on his eyes. He sincerely hopes that surgery will help increase his chances of survival: “When the chaos starts, it won’t be up to glasses or contact lenses, and without them I absolutely can’t see anything.” Huffman also managed to stock up on several motorcycles, long-term food, a bunch of guns and ammunition, hoping that with all this he would be able to hide in his house for some time.
Tim Chang, 44-year-old manager of the Mayfield Fund venture capital company, said that a whole group of wealthy survivalists has formed in Silicon Valley, sometimes they meet for lunch and discuss all sorts of backup options for a possible rescue. These are stocks of bitcoins and cryptocurrencies, obtaining a second passport, buying a house in countries where one could escape in the event of a civil war or a giant earthquake. Chang and his wife have four boxes ready with everything they need for themselves and their four-year-old daughter. He frankly admitted that he actively buys real estate not only in order to get passive income, but also to increase the likelihood of finding refuge in an extreme situation.
Marvin Liao, a former Yahoo executive and now a partner at a major leading venture capital company, came to his senses when he estimated his reserves in case of the end of the world. He suddenly realized that simple supplies of food and water were not enough. “What if someone comes and takes it away from me?, – he said. –I must always be ready to protect my wife and daughter, I don’t have guns, but I have many other weapons, I even started taking archery lessons.”
Survivalism – from the English to survive — “to survive” – the practice of preparing for the end of civilization. If earlier it was considered the lot of forest hermits and madcaps in foil caps, carrying nonsense about magic beans, then in recent years this teaching has come close to the more prosperous segments of the population. Preparing for Armageddon, billionaires are massively buying up bunkers – “houses of the future”, worth $ 1.5 million, in order to survive during the “end of the world”. According to a representative of one of the bunker manufacturing companies in the United States, the demand for bomb-proof shelters increased by 700% compared to 2014.
One of the participants of the groups of “survivalists”-a fat man (and the head of a large investment company concurrently) always has a refueled helicopter and an underground bunker with an air purification system in the nearest accessibility to the house. How many wealthy businessmen are currently preparing for the apocalypse is not known, first of all, at least because it is not customary to talk about it. Sometimes you can find out about the plans of other millionaires completely by accident. For example, when one day the founder of the LinkedIn social network told a friend that he wanted to fly to New Zealand, the latter immediately guessed: “What, do you want to take care of a shelter in case of unforeseen circumstances?”.
It turns out that the “survivalists” have long looked at this country as a backup option. In fact, there are so many of them that the story of buying a house in New Zealand has become a kind of password, or a pass to a secret community. According to some reports, about half of the residents of Silicon Valley have taken care of “insurance” for themselves and their families – the oligarchs are preparing a variety of escape routes in case of a surge of popular anger. Someone just bought a house abroad, and among those who do not want to fly anywhere and think about the details associated with the escape, a new “survival trend” has appeared, the so-called Survival Condo Project.
Entrepreneur Larry Hall has equipped a former mine for storing nuclear missiles as a luxury complex where the rich can wait out the end of the world. The cost of a 15-storey building with 12 apartments underground reached $ 20 million, the construction took 4 years of time. 75 people can fit here, but all the apartments have been sold out for a long time, because they are able to withstand even a nuclear strike. Hall himself left one apartment for himself and his family. He claims that you can live forever in such a bunker: there are enough food and water for the first five years, and then you can grow vegetables under special lamps, there are special aquariums for breeding tilapia, renewable energy is used. Taking into account the considerable excitement around his project, the entrepreneur began to develop the transformation of the second mine.
