Gold & Silver Forum - Can the Wealthy Have a Separate Peace?

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Can the Wealthy Have a Separate Peace?

Here's an interesting look at the rich bugging out from an egalitarian perspective at "The Oil Drum"

Quote:

http://campfire.theoildrum.com/node/5702#more

Can the Wealthy Have A Separate Peace?

Posted by Nate Hagens on August 22, 2009 - 5:22pm in The Oil Drum: Campfire

I normally don�t mix with millionaires, but through �6 degrees of separation� circumstances I found myself in an extensive and personal conversation with a wealthy and highly connected person. He knew that I was �preparing� for economic decline, including skills in household self-reliance.

As the conversation evolved and took various twists and turns, he eventually proposed that a business helping the ultra rich establish �lifeboats� would be both lucrative and timely, and that I might be especially qualified. Imagine the family of an investment banker being plucked from their rooftop helipad in upper Manhattan to a prepared enclave in the country, while watching burning tires and broken glass 40 stories below. They could end up in upstate New York, or in a more exotic place like their personal island in the South Pacific.

He then named about a dozen families on the Forbes list of billionaires who have already prepared for doomsday on a spectacular scale, including multiple geographic options. These were the early adopters, I was assured, and now a second and much larger wave will be in need of professional advice and on-the-ground know how.

Of course I would need to have a well-recognized partner in the armed security business, such as Blackwater. There would be guarded walls, prime farmland, renewable energy systems, stockpiles of essentials, fallout caverns, as well as necessary amenities like tennis courts and pools. Presumably, beyond the walls would be squalor, misery and violence.

I called a friend who had a career in high finance on Wall Street to get his perspective on my encounter. He had a similar story to tell�many (not most) of his old connections were thinking about financial collapse and personal security. He said it made sense. The people who made big money have highly competitive personalities and are likely to reason that if money doesn�t work anymore they will need to directly take the resources that money used to buy. They are ambitious, bold, and often ruthless, traits that served them well in a society where success is measured in pecuniary conquests.

Obviously, a vast chasm exists between the attitudes and strategies of a �separate peace� for the wealthy and that of institutions like the Post Carbon Institute, the Transition Town Initiative, and sustainability in general. We are an extremely variable species - the spectrum between cooperation and competition varies greatly not only among individuals but among groups of individuals.

I must admit, this experience took me a bit by surprise. I was unaware (a) that these sort of �high level� retreats were being built, and (b) of the utter disregard, almost contempt for the common man and woman I witnessed. Even so, I found myself wondering if my new friend was correct about the direction of the future, and whether it might be smart of me to acquiesce, and position myself for the �inside� rather than the �outside� of the walls being built.