As we speak, Mark Zuckerberg is building a 5,000 square-foot doomsday bunker in his sprawling Hawaii compound.
But with the Doomsday Clock set 90 seconds from midnight, is it any surprise? Not really.
He’s far from the only billionaire living in fear of what they all call ‘The Event’.
Will it be global environmental breakdown? Societal collapse (probably accelerated by the technology some of them built)? Nuclear war?
All cheery thoughts, but the fact is that doomsday prepping is no longer the domain of a fringe faction storing ten years worth of baked beans in their garden sheds.
Prepping is big business, and the billionaires aren’t being stingy.
Mr Zuckerberg’s combined bunker and compound is expected to cost a cool combined $270 million.
Peter Thiel, the co-founder of PayPal and controversial libertarian, is still trying to get planning permission for his own bunker-style lodge on New Zealand’s South Island.
Elon Musk’s plans for The Event are unknown – although it’s fair to say his first choice would probably be fleeing to Mars. But with continuing Starship issues, for now he’ll be stuck on Earth with the rest of us.
In an anonymous interview with renowned writer and theorist Douglas Rushkoff, five of the world’s richest men from the worlds of tech and investing revealed their concerns for when the inevitable happens – one of which was keeping their own security staff loyal.
Problems of the 0.01%.
The rest of us will no doubt just have to suffer the consequences, whether it’s deadly heat, a nuclear winter or the complete breakdown of society, Mad Max-style.
But if you want to see where you could be spending the apocalypse (if you were a billionaire), a number of companies are already offering bunkers for sale – in the case of luxury bunker builder Terravivos, advertised as ‘away from riots, violence, targets and submersion zones’
Some are more luxurious than others (think pool versus bunk beds) but all are no doubt more than most of us can afford.
One in particular, built by Strategically Armoured & Fortified Environments (Safe) offers its customers a flaming moat to keep out the zombies. Or just other survivors who weren’t rich enough to afford their own bunker. That’s their problem, right?
You can take a sneak peek of this privileged life here – then put the apocalypse out of your mind, because it’s a lovely Bank holiday.
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