Slashdot Mirror
The World of Luxury Bomb Shelters (vice.com)
An anonymous reader writes with this Vice profile of Robert Vicino, founder and CEO of survival prep company The Vivos Group. For a prepaid $35,000 entry fee, you may take shelter in one of his luxury bomb shelters when civilization collapses. "Those who make it their business to equip themselves for a civilization-ending mega-disaster—a.k.a. 'preppers'—are sometimes stereotyped as wild-eyed tinfoil hat wearers who live outside of society, but Robert Vicino caters to survivalists whose fears are backed up by money. The San Diego businessman is gunning to be the vanguard of a multibillion-dollar industry. If we're to follow the entrepreneur's logic, the rich don't live on the same scale as ordinary people in today's society—why should that change after the end of the world?"
The idea that you can make it to the shelter is ridiculous. If by some chance we need one, we won't have enough notice to do more than move 50 miles
Even if you could make it there -- what are the odds that the on-site maintenance people are even going to let you in, rather than their own families?
Character flaw? If civilization comes to an end, you can be damn sure that morals will as well. At least until a new set is devised. What sort of an idiot is going to let their family starve, or worse, because they'd be breaking a rule from the collapsed civilization?
Now if it's something like a massive earthquake or other temporary condition, you might be right.
I think you're mostly right about organized crime types havng some kind of advantage due to their experience with violence, But I think you underestimate the number of non-ctiminals with experience with violence.
We have at least 100,000 veterans with recent experience in a war zone, many with first-hand experience in urban combat against irregulars. Their training and experience gives them a huge advantage in terms of organization, tactics and strategy. You could expand that 100,000 number into the millions if you factor in non-combat veterans (Navy and Air Force vets, etc) who may not have specific combat experience or deep training, but have experience in military organization and general training.
The other problem with organized crime as a potential survivor is while they may be experienced with violence, their methods of organization and leadership tend to be chaotic, lacking in trust or reliability. Internal conflicts over leadership and spoils tend to be common, with members often turning on or stealing each other.