7 ms·

SBFs brother planned to buy the nation of Nauru to build an apocalypse bunker

atlasunshrugged 3y ago
https://www.businessinsider.com/ftx-wanted-to-buy-country-nauru-for-apocalypse-bunker-lawsuit-2023-7 https://www.businessinsider.com/ftx-wanted-to-buy-country-na...
atlasunshrugged 3y ago
I know a lot of people will rip on this and it is pretty insane, but I am disappointed that it turns out that the guy was a fraud. I think living in a world where billionaires actually did things like try to buy island nations, create insane scientific experiments, and generally try to top one another for the best caricature of a Bond supervillain instead of the standard fare of buying sports teams, yachts, politicians, and art collections would be a much more interesting one to live in.
- smoldesu 3y ago
  The sort of people who see it necessary to buy an island for themselves are generally not the same ones you'd want part of society.
  - toss1 3y ago
    Yup. As much as SBF and his crowd touted "effective altruism", it was really about nothing but polishing their own image to get away with maximally selfish aims. Maybe the best solution is to compensate and relocate the people of Nauru, and build a penal colony there, with SBF & co as the first permanent residents. Let 'em eat phosphate dust
  - Animats 3y ago
    Larry Ellison owns one of the Hawaiian Islands.[1] [1] https://nypost.com/2022/06/09/life-on-larry-ellisons-hawaiian-island-is-only-for-the-super-rich/ https://nypost.com/2022/06/09/life-on-larry-ellisons-hawaiia...
    - deleted 3y ago
      [deleted]
    - marssaxman 3y ago
      That does support the grandparent's argument.
- ttepasse 3y ago
  May you live in interesting times. ( https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/May_you_live_in_interesting_times https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/May_you_live_in_interesting_ti... )
churchill 3y ago
If every inhabitant gets a decent cut of the purchase price and agrees to move (or cedes large parts of the island), I see nothing wrong with it. BTW, Nauru is that island nation that realized in the 1970s that it was covered with pure guano fertilizer (potassium, nitrogen, and phosphate) which was excreted by birds and bats over centuries. In the 1980s, they were easily the world's wealthiest nation, by per capita GDP, but by 1990, their guano reserves had dwindled, and most of the government's long-term investments were laughable at best. Wikipedia says their sovereign wealth fund dwindled to ~A$100M as of 2002, the government has run out of cash to fund itself (for decades now), and I think Australia subsidizes them.
- alephnerd 3y ago
  Taiwan also subsidizes them in return for recognition.
alephnerd 3y ago
Phosphate Mining destroyed the entire ecology of Nauru, so farming is extremely difficult, which leads me to ask the question "why the hell would you hunker in Nauru during the apocalypse".
- unstatusthequo 3y ago
  I think we’ve seen enough other decision-making from this crew to know that most of it was flippant, surface level, and bad. So this aligns with their usual modus operandi.
adwi 3y ago
This story about Nauru from the great Jack Hitt has always stuck with me: https://www.thisamericanlife.org/253/the-middle-of-nowhere https://www.thisamericanlife.org/253/the-middle-of-nowhere
archo 3y ago
https://archive.is/990Qh https://archive.is/990Qh
mikewarot 3y ago
The whole idea of an apocalypse bunker itself is just nuts. If you find yourself with a fortune, and you want to increase your odds of having a happy life, perhaps going back to the town you grew up in, or someplace you found it possible to make good friends without buying friendship, is a place to settle down and just try to help people in small but persistent ways, with no grand gestures. I wonder if it really is just a hobby (building the bunker), or if they honestly believe it would work out for them.

https://www.businessinsider.com/ftx-wanted-to-buy-country-nauru-for-apocalypse-bunker-lawsuit-2023-7 https://www.businessinsider.com/ftx-wanted-to-buy-country-na...

atlasunshrugged 3y ago

I know a lot of people will rip on this and it is pretty insane, but I am disappointed that it turns out that the guy was a fraud. I think living in a world where billionaires actually did things like try to buy island nations, create insane scientific experiments, and generally try to top one another for the best caricature of a Bond supervillain instead of the standard fare of buying sports teams, yachts, politicians, and art collections would be a much more interesting one to live in.

smoldesu 3y ago
The sort of people who see it necessary to buy an island for themselves are generally not the same ones you'd want part of society.
- toss1 3y ago
  Yup. As much as SBF and his crowd touted "effective altruism", it was really about nothing but polishing their own image to get away with maximally selfish aims. Maybe the best solution is to compensate and relocate the people of Nauru, and build a penal colony there, with SBF & co as the first permanent residents. Let 'em eat phosphate dust
- Animats 3y ago
  Larry Ellison owns one of the Hawaiian Islands.[1] [1] https://nypost.com/2022/06/09/life-on-larry-ellisons-hawaiian-island-is-only-for-the-super-rich/ https://nypost.com/2022/06/09/life-on-larry-ellisons-hawaiia...
  - deleted 3y ago
    [deleted]
  - marssaxman 3y ago
    That does support the grandparent's argument.
ttepasse 3y ago
May you live in interesting times. ( https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/May_you_live_in_interesting_times https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/May_you_live_in_interesting_ti... )

churchill 3y ago

If every inhabitant gets a decent cut of the purchase price and agrees to move (or cedes large parts of the island), I see nothing wrong with it. BTW, Nauru is that island nation that realized in the 1970s that it was covered with pure guano fertilizer (potassium, nitrogen, and phosphate) which was excreted by birds and bats over centuries. In the 1980s, they were easily the world's wealthiest nation, by per capita GDP, but by 1990, their guano reserves had dwindled, and most of the government's long-term investments were laughable at best. Wikipedia says their sovereign wealth fund dwindled to ~A$100M as of 2002, the government has run out of cash to fund itself (for decades now), and I think Australia subsidizes them.

alephnerd 3y ago
Taiwan also subsidizes them in return for recognition.

alephnerd 3y ago

Phosphate Mining destroyed the entire ecology of Nauru, so farming is extremely difficult, which leads me to ask the question "why the hell would you hunker in Nauru during the apocalypse".

unstatusthequo 3y ago
I think we’ve seen enough other decision-making from this crew to know that most of it was flippant, surface level, and bad. So this aligns with their usual modus operandi.

adwi 3y ago

This story about Nauru from the great Jack Hitt has always stuck with me: https://www.thisamericanlife.org/253/the-middle-of-nowhere https://www.thisamericanlife.org/253/the-middle-of-nowhere

archo 3y ago

https://archive.is/990Qh https://archive.is/990Qh

mikewarot 3y ago

The whole idea of an apocalypse bunker itself is just nuts. If you find yourself with a fortune, and you want to increase your odds of having a happy life, perhaps going back to the town you grew up in, or someplace you found it possible to make good friends without buying friendship, is a place to settle down and just try to help people in small but persistent ways, with no grand gestures. I wonder if it really is just a hobby (building the bunker), or if they honestly believe it would work out for them.