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by jjmarr·2y ago·view on hn ↗
If you're ultra-wealthy and want to survive the apocalypse while keeping your status, it's probably better to stockpile loyalty rather than gas-guzzling SUVs in a world where the oil refineries are blown up.

I wonder if the ideal compound would be one that can shelter thousands of people and a massive soup kitchen. When the bombs drop, you're the only person bothering to help others and so you amass followers that you can now use to raid other billionaires that instead spent their money on pools or saunas.

Every litre of water you put into a pool is a litre of water you could be using to supply a soldier to steal some other guy's pool to hydrate more soldiers within a drought-stricken wasteland. Every 500k you spent on a luxury bulletproof SUV is enough to buy 10x the Toyota Hiluxes that can outflank the SUV and pin it in. And the 6x6 luxury SUV is a prime target since anyone riding in one of those has a lot of stuff to steal.

If the rule of law disappears and society collapses, I doubt anybody is going to maintain a pre-war standard of living because the competitive pressures are going to push people to spend a lot more on weapons/violence. The best you can hope for is to become a charismatic warlord, but now you personally have to spend your wealth on providing protection and welfare for the people, plus you have to win against every other person with the same idea.

It'd be cheaper to just pool your wealth together with everyone else in a given area to create a government that enforces certain basic rules, provides for certain basic needs, and allows everyone to stop worrying about killing each other.

1 comments
Yeah. Anyone building a bunker just for themselves and a few other people is planning for a very boring and lonely future that will exist only so long as they can access/produce sufficient food and water. It should basically go without saying that a "real" plan is for provisioning an army.
the real plan is provisioning a farming plantation, because that army is going to starve in a few months.

it doesn't matter if you have a 1000 guns and plan on stealing what you need -- if no one can farm you're not going to last.

It goes without saying that provisioning an army includes feeding them.
Well what'll end up happening is you will use the army to control territory and extort regular tribute from farmers in exchange for you protecting them from other raiders + you not taking their stuff. You can also provide your army with stolen farms, and call them up to service when needed. Congrats, you are now a feudal lord.

This is what the current government does but in the post-apocalyptic world it'll be less fair and more expensive.

The reason why government exists is because it solves very real problems. If there is state failure, we're not going to devolve into a libertarian utopia. What is more likely to happen is what has already happened in countries such as Somalia or the Democratic Republic of the Congo or Western Europe after the fall of the Roman Empire.