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Are Billionaires prepping for the apocalypse – or pioneering a new feudalism?

lifestyleguru 3y ago
The wealth is vacuumed up, then trickles down onto their private islands. Now can we all be staff on their private jets and builders of their castles?
_mlbt 3y ago
I think it's more that it's just really, really hard to spend tens of billions of dollars in a lifetime as an individual. After you've bought a couple mansions in your favorite cities, a beach house or three, ski lodge, hunting lodge, and a ranch you get bored of buying houses. Same thing with cars, yachts, charitable foundations. I think that's where all the interest in doomsday bunkers and space exploration is coming from with the mega billionaire class. They are the hobbies driven by the boredom of simply having everything and still not feeling whole and satisfied.
- qgin 3y ago
  You don’t become a billionaire if your natural state is to feel satisfied with what you have… and you don’t start being satisfied with what you have just because you’re a billionaire. Whatever drive/neurosis got them to where they are just gets redirected to other worries, like apocalypse scenarios.
  - lifestyleguru 3y ago
    > Whatever drive/neurosis got them to where they are just gets redirected to other worries I wonder whether general population would be able to resist if their drive would push the population into another WWI style meat grinder. WWI was a family quarrel after all.
    - techcode 3y ago
      Elementary school history was really long time ago. Though having been born in the Balkans - there's a lot of emphasis on history (in hopes to learn and not repeat same mistakes). IIRC WWI was continuation of things that were left unresolved from Balkan wars (big powers only jumped in at the end of Balkan wars to get their say/way into peace agreements). And Balkan wars were continuation of the fall of Ottoman empire where many Balkan countries tried to continue with how things were ~500 years earlier (before Ottomans captured Balkans).
sicisbdusia 3y ago
> In the feudal system of medieval Europe, the king owned almost everything, and everyone else’s property rights depended on their relationship with the king. Peasants lived on land granted by the king to a local lord, and workers didn’t always even own the tools they used for farming or other trades like carpentry and blacksmithing. If the government says I don’t own something, then I don’t own something. I don’t see much practical difference today. Biggest difference I see is that if the people decide they don’t like the leadership anymore, there’s no longer a single person to hold accountable. Modern democracy has created a hydra of corrupt leadership.
AniseAbyss 3y ago
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The wealth is vacuumed up, then trickles down onto their private islands. Now can we all be staff on their private jets and builders of their castles?

_mlbt 3y ago

I think it's more that it's just really, really hard to spend tens of billions of dollars in a lifetime as an individual. After you've bought a couple mansions in your favorite cities, a beach house or three, ski lodge, hunting lodge, and a ranch you get bored of buying houses. Same thing with cars, yachts, charitable foundations. I think that's where all the interest in doomsday bunkers and space exploration is coming from with the mega billionaire class. They are the hobbies driven by the boredom of simply having everything and still not feeling whole and satisfied.

qgin 3y ago
You don’t become a billionaire if your natural state is to feel satisfied with what you have… and you don’t start being satisfied with what you have just because you’re a billionaire. Whatever drive/neurosis got them to where they are just gets redirected to other worries, like apocalypse scenarios.
- lifestyleguru 3y ago
  > Whatever drive/neurosis got them to where they are just gets redirected to other worries I wonder whether general population would be able to resist if their drive would push the population into another WWI style meat grinder. WWI was a family quarrel after all.
  - techcode 3y ago
    Elementary school history was really long time ago. Though having been born in the Balkans - there's a lot of emphasis on history (in hopes to learn and not repeat same mistakes). IIRC WWI was continuation of things that were left unresolved from Balkan wars (big powers only jumped in at the end of Balkan wars to get their say/way into peace agreements). And Balkan wars were continuation of the fall of Ottoman empire where many Balkan countries tried to continue with how things were ~500 years earlier (before Ottomans captured Balkans).

sicisbdusia 3y ago

> In the feudal system of medieval Europe, the king owned almost everything, and everyone else’s property rights depended on their relationship with the king. Peasants lived on land granted by the king to a local lord, and workers didn’t always even own the tools they used for farming or other trades like carpentry and blacksmithing. If the government says I don’t own something, then I don’t own something. I don’t see much practical difference today. Biggest difference I see is that if the people decide they don’t like the leadership anymore, there’s no longer a single person to hold accountable. Modern democracy has created a hydra of corrupt leadership.

AniseAbyss 3y ago

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