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1800 miles is a long way to project power if the US military is tied up with other duties.
For what it is worth, having a half-dozen titans of the silicon and financial industries and their most loyal minions penned up on two square-miles and then have the poop-hit-the-propeller would make a dandy story. Lord of the Flies but with megalomaniacs and soulless henchmen instead of school kids.
Geopolitics is destiny.
Having spent many years living in an isolated community, served only by ship and aircraft, I can say that there's a highly significant level of risk associated with living in a "lifeboat" location. If the SHTF, that location will suddenly be very low on the list of places receiving regular shipments of fuel, food, supplies, etc. It will literally become life in a lifeboat - and what you have will be ALL you have.
ReplyDeleteThat's not nearly far enough from Venezuela.
ReplyDeleteI agree with the previous 2 comments... too isolated and too close to current, let alone future, problems!
ReplyDeleteIf I were a billionaire, I'd have several bolt holes/ retreats set up around the world. I'd establish a beneficial presence in those areas to gt a good rapport from the locals, and I'd have worked out different methods of getting to those locations for different scenarios.
I'd try to choose places that are net food producers and distant from urban areas, and then I'd stockpile not only food but paraphernalia to make more - tractors, fuel, tools, water handling, medical training (if possible on site doctor/ nurse who volunteers in local towns part time), etc.
I'd probaby have a sheep station in Australia, a farm/ ranch in Texas, one in Nebraska, something in the inland Northwest, something further east in West Virginia or western PA that I could get to on foot from the northeast if I were up there.
Assuming I had houses in cities i had to do business in, I'd make sure there was fuel, hiking equipment, and a good vehicle in each of them in case I had to get out. An airplane would be nice, but of questionable use when the balloon (I'd still have one, preferably with a pilot who had experience on the wild side).
If the concept of the 'great and good' being equalized appeals to you, try the John Ringo 'Black Tide Rising' series.
ReplyDeleteAnd one of the books in that universe does utilize this island ... I believe the author is Charles Gannon?
DeletePeople tend to equate the escape from tyranny with the escape from the collapse in commerce. These are mutually exclusive and the lifeboat for one has very different characteristics than the lifeboat for the other. You may move to West Texas (for instance) to escape (or at least minimize) government intrusion but it would be a very poor choice for subsistence living. There was a very good reason why the original occupants were nomadic peoples subsisting on Bison.
ReplyDeleteIf one tours the mansions of the industrial magnates of yore - there are quite a few still around, and I'm not speaking of the robber barons, just the filthy rich - one discovers that many of them were to some extent self-contained, growing their own vegetables, raising their own livestock, brooding chickens, ducks, etc. It would not be that hard to do with a reasonably small staff and a few hundred acres, depending on location. That's well short of billionaire territory, even if you took a more plantation approach and provided housing for your staff and their families. Something on a much smaller scale than the 'Company Town' approach, let's say a staff of about 25. You could do that living off the dividend wealth of $100 million, easy.
ReplyDeleteMeant to add, Mustique is very exclusive. Rock stars, Arab royalty, billionaires have homes there - it's difficult to even get on the island if you don't belong, or at least it was when I sailed by it years ago. I don't think security is going to be an issue for the inhabitants there - they already prefer to handle it without government support.
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