Suppose you were a multi-billionaire. Suppose you were looking for a place to flee to if/when things go Mad-Max in the US and Western Europe.
Where would you go? What is left?
Oz and New Zealand lost their luster and they are very close to Communist China.
Canada will follow the US into the ditch.
Where would you go? Belize? The Outer Hebrides? Dapp, Alberta? B.F. Nebraska? Argentina? Fiji? Moscow?
Many distant bolt-holes that look enticing will have severe fragilities if/when the U.S. craters.
There are some things cubic meter bales of $100 bills cannot buy. Loyalty is one of them. If push comes to shove, family will win.
Moral behavior is amplified when actors realize that there is no way to escape the consequences of their actions. My read of the situation is that there is no place to run to, no place to hide.
I am interested to hear if my readers have any thoughts on where they would bunker-down if they were worth many billions of dollars.
There is an ad on one of the blogs that I visit occasionally, for a community that is being carved out of the jungle in Panama. Don't know anything about it, but the pictures of the place made me think of Jim Jones's little paradise.
ReplyDeleteThe trouble with Panama is that its currency is the US dollar. Whatever happens to the states will happen to Panama. Plus you will be an outsider.
DeleteI agree with you, anywhere you move to where you’re viewed as an outsider you become a possible target. Invite security to your fortified, well stocked fortress and chances are that your further presence is deemed unnecessary by the people you hired they’re likely to turn on you.
ReplyDeleteWithout a community of likeminded people who care about us none of us has much of a chance. Someone’s money may be helpful in the preparation stages of a crises but if civilization truly craters money won’t be much of an incentive.
Good question. A better question might be, Where does a poor bastard go to survive? I quit working real jobs a few years ago, only make cash under the table now. For lack of better choices I decided on rural Oklahoma.
ReplyDeleteIf I was one of those multi-billioaires, I'd most likely be oblivious to what's really going on.
ReplyDeleteAs for us, this spindizzy has landed, and although we have a bug-out place, we'll most likely stay here.
All is not lost for the billionaire WTSHTF. These folks must have long time loyal employees they can rely on. Family, loyal employees and their families would work as a group. Get them training, promise them food and housing, take care of them. Chances are pretty good that these folks will continue to look to the billionaire for guidance and vision.
ReplyDeleteWhere to go? Dakotas, Montana, Idaho. Have a lot of land, a private air strip, and a compound with decades of supplies, etc.
Where a lot of these wealthy individuals are going is Mustique, a private island in the West Indies. I don't know enough about it to say if this is a good or bad choice.
Folks like to rub elbows with people like themselves. Even Billionaires have a tribe.
DeleteIf I was a zillionaire, I'd go to Castigo Cay! (Matt Bracken book)
ReplyDeleteIf I was a billionaire, i would hunker down where I live. Maybe in the mojave desert, where i can see you coming for miles.
ReplyDeleteI've heard that Paraguey was a stabile country in the past but do not know their present status.
ReplyDeleteNot Paraguay. You are thinking of Uruguay. Much better place and, if I was a young man and spoke Spanish fluently, that is where I would go. World wars and vast social upheavals seem to ignore South America for the most part.
DeleteThe lifeboat will not be a place.
ReplyDeleteIt will be a community of friends.
The only things we can count on are the things that have always mattered-Honor, Loyalty, Faith, Love, Trust.
No one has a ticket to live forever.
This.
DeleteAnd it cannot be purchased. It can only be developed over time.
Reagan was correct in stating that America is IT for freedom. If America falls then freedom EVERYWHERE dies.
ReplyDeleteHmmmm, as a not-billionaire, I'd have to think about that. Private island with tons of food and guns comes to mind, but that doesn't do anything for the future . . .
ReplyDeleteMaybe call it Terminus?
At Eaton Rapids?
ReplyDeleteEaton Rapids is the right place for me. But I am not a MULTI-Billionaire unless you denominate my wealth in Zim Dollars.
DeleteDepends for how long.
ReplyDeleteI think that being on a well stocked 70 foot sail boat puttering around a couple of hundred miles offshore for 5 or 6 months would be a good place to hold up during the initial craziness.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LGT7RjWmIzQ
But eventually you have to return to shore somewhere, and figure out how to make a place for yourself. And it would be like re-entering an alien landscape, having missed how it all devolved and evolved.
I don't think there is any right answer that you can come to ahead of time. Be flexible and adapt. No plan survives first contact.
1) No pre-existing "safe bolt hole" exists. Anywhere. One must be created.
ReplyDelete2) Loyalty always follows the same hierarchy: family, tribe, village, region. "Family" and "Tribe" can be defined in multiple ways (ex: Company E of the 506th can be categorized as "family," and "Tribe" and "Village" can often be classified as "extended Family."
3) Security depends on "control." Joe Average can "apply influence" over a radius of approx 400M with the proper equipment and training. A 400M circle (~ 1/4 mile r) = ~39 acres. To "control" 39 acres will require multiples of "Joe" "influencing."
4)>39 acres can be "controlled" with enough "Joes."
5)Where should this >39 acres be?
5a) Somewhere offering moderate climate (moderate demand on cooling/heating), adequate natural resources (water, fuel), arable land (grow food), defendable terrain (component of "security"), reasonable access (resupply, trade), sufficient room for enough "Joes" (housing, recreation, and enough "Janes" to satisfy the "Joes.")
5b) Islands are out because someone with more resources can blockade or shell you into submission. Enough resources allows "invasion" (not all invasions are successful, but none are cost free to defend against).
5c) Severely remote locations are out because they're unsuitable for one or more factors listed in 5a - that's why they're presently unoccupied.
I'd say "somewhere in semi-rural or rural America"; Appalachia first comes to mind but even very limited success is dependent upon pre-existing "family" and "tribe" membership in the extreme.
Lacking that, semi-rural near-West east of the Rockies, preferably in a small existing well-rounded community (= "most of what's in 5a") where one already has solid ties and possesses the skill set to be a productive member of the local economy.
Why "somewhere in America"? Because America is full of "Americans." Americans are different; we get shit done in ways and at speeds no one else can match, and we'll kill you where you stand if you fuck with us enough. Our definition of "Tribe" is flexible enough to be reasonably inclusive, and there are still enough of us to understand "Results Driven."
The population of "Americans" is being compromised (reduced birth rate, disasterous education and social media systems, negative government economic influence at all levels), and being diluted (invasion by illegal immigrants) but - for now - there are still enough to Make A Sufficient Difference.
If the US falls, no place will be "safe" in the way we understand the word now. Safety will be relative and transitory everywhere.
ReplyDeleteWe visited Maoi few years after Larry Ellison bought Lanai with his Oracle billions. I asked a few residents what they thought of him and they called him "a good steward of the land" in that he was trying to bring more agriculture to the island and diversify the economy.
ReplyDeleteNot being a billionaire my choices are limited. I would go where I have family, friends or tribe. Indiana, Tennessee, Missouri, Oklahoma then Ohio, Kansas, North Carolina, South Carolina, Idaho
ReplyDeleteThe city place would be Zurich; the country place would be Grindelwald.
ReplyDeleteSaint-Pierre and Miquelon. Watch the missiles flying in both directions and maybe some sea battles in the North Atlantic.
ReplyDelete