The Only Survivors - Billionaires and Cockroaches

It's not just that crazy Great American who lives next door mumbling to himself while stockpiling canned peaches and ammo into the underground shelter he’s been digging in his backyard; prepping has gone glam.

Those with millions (and more) have always had the ability to buy, well, anything, so much to the delight of survivalist gear hawkers, the sudden rush to buy a military grade backpack (thanks for the rec, Goop!), anti-radiation tablets, and 10 acres off the grid, has hit them hard. Look what sellers are offering:

• Grow your own crops! (Underground greenhouses in bunkers.)
• Power your own cabin! (Wind turbines attached to a personal power grid.)
• Suture your own wounds! (Survival classes from retired survivalist physicians and practice on pigs.)

In other words when the (fill in the blank with the devastation of your choice):

[apocalypse, EMP strike, deadly contagion, full-scale cyber attack, pandemic, mass terrorism event, crazy North Korean takeover, total economic collapse, foreign invasion, domestic invasion, California descent into the ocean, catastrophic weather event, breakdown of society, zombie epidemic, nuclear war]

occurs, Bill Gates will not be bugging out with a backpack of freeze-dried food and a shovel or sheltering under his desk, like schoolchildren of the Atomic Age. Oh, no. Word is he and his will be safely ensconced deep below one of his houses in his own (and you just know it is) high-tech security bunker.

For those with the money to spend, it’s the new trend.

It’s the ultimate insurance for those who can afford it. Though many of those who can afford it and are fueling the trend, suggest that it’s fairly unlikely that they’ll need to bug out at all. But playing the odds, the ultra rich Silicon Valley types have decided that investing a portion of their vast wealth in survival is a risk they’re willing to take. Plus it’s just plain fun to play archer on fifty acres in the middle of nowhere.

Image credit: pixabay.com

And, these activities and measures put them in exclusive company, which does NOT include your next door neighbor and his dugout.

Communities are being developed entirely with this idea in mind - see the former bomb shelters called back into service as Glam Camps for the ultra rich, such as:

• the former missile silo turned Survival Condo Project in Kansas,
• the Fort Igloo Facility in South Dakota, or
• the country of New Zealand in general, which has become a known high-end prepper’s paradise.

Image credit: sdpb.org

Some of these places in the, let’s just say, “luxury-bunker trend” (because it’s a phrase totally worth repeating) while not much to see on the outside are seriously swank on the inside. Not ‘prepper swank’ where you decide if it’s gonna be the rice OR the beans today and decide to go for it and eat both, we’re talking ‘swank swank’ where those riding out the pandemic have to decide if they’re going to swim in the pool or (I kid you not) play polo for the afternoon. Survival Condo describes their units as a “Custom High Security Luxury and Multi-Use Bunker Complex.”

These high-tech, high-security, highly organized compounds come with many features that will make doomsday a little more palatable.

Image credit: terravivos

In addition to the immense peace of mind that life will continue as it always was, here are some of the features $1,500,000 - $3,000,000+ buys you:

• Diesel generators
• Indoor shooting range
• Indoor pool
• Military grade security
• Dog park
• Movie theater

And the list goes on. But remember, if you’re buying one of these units in the event of a societal-economic collapse, you might want to shoot for the penthouse or the custom complex and not settle for just the lower class half-floor unit. (No sense in surviving the initial apocalyptic event to die in a class struggle over the indoor rock wall.)

Image credit: survivalcondo.com

What does this mean for all the average Joe WTSHTF preppers, like your neighbor? Aside from running up the price of camo jackets, canned peaches, and Cold War bunkers, mostly I think we can all breathe a sigh of relief that Gwyneth Paltrow and Bill Gates will still be around to offer style and tech support.